Berries, Berries, Berries

We love our berries here at the veg household. Naturally we decided to plant some blueberry bushes and raspberry canes in our yard. By far these have been the most popular and fruitful endeavor in our gardening (bad pun intended).

The kids absolutely love to pick them, no mind that a large portion never make it inside. There are a few things I've noticed after tending to these berries, which I hope help you in your gardening.

First is that raspberries love water. It doesn't have to be a lot, but a frequent, shallow watering led to much larger berries this year. Second, don't make the same mistake I did and skip pruning at the end of the season. They are the shoots which produce berries should be cut back to the ground, otherwise they are prone to pest issues.

Blueberries love an acidic environment, and also did much better with more frequent shallow watering. We are still getting berries off of the bushes, and it has been producing for about a month. Another tip, is to plant more than one variety for cross-pollination, which will yield larger berries. If you are planting highbush blueberries, two varieties are not necessary, but still recommended. It also helps to have native flowers to attract pollinators to your yard.

If you are looking for some delicious recipes for berries, try lemon blueberry muffins or chia raspberry muffins. We also love to add raspberries or blueberries to our pancakes, but go the lazy route with Healthy Smart Heart Bisquick. I've heard at Food Snobbery is my Hobbery there is a nice vegan pancake recipe in   Vegan with a Vengeance, which I'd love to try out.

Wild Black Raspberry Picking

The past couple weeks I've been harvesting a lot of raspberries from the canes we planted in our yard. It got me to thinking about wild raspberry patches I've seen on some of our walks. We decided to go check it out.

As you can see we lucked out! I'd brought a pint carton along and had no trouble filling it up. The kids were so excited to help us find them along the trail. Repeatedly their little faces would light up each time they found more.

It was a bit hot and buggy, so I paid for these babies in sweat and blood (mosquitoes). Once we got home and had a taste though, it was worth it! We polished off half of the container and the rest we plan to use for muffins or pancakes tomorrow.

Yummy wild berry treat and recipe soon to follow.

Fresh from the Yard

This summer is the first we've been able to start thinking about gardening. We planted some raspberry and blueberry bushes, and we're so excited to see how much we were able to harvest in the first year. It was a great opportunity to teach the kids about where food come from and learn some basic plant biology. Here are some of the blueberries we picked.

The kids loved to pick and sample them. We also started a garden this summer, and hope it will help to foster an appreciation for the work required to grow food. Maybe it will help the kids to venture out and become fans of other types of vegetables they have shied away from in the past. It did work with some crookneck squash we grew. Elliott was so excited to pick it and normally wouldn't eat that (he prefers butternut squash), but he specifically asked from some on his plate. Still working on fresh greens. So far all they'll eat is kale and spinach chips.