The First Surprise Harvest

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Now that Summer is here, we actually were able to start harvesting some berries. I call it a surprise since only a few weeks ago, we were not even aware these existed.

The berries that were ready for picking turned out to be Mulberries.I had been keeping an eye out on these fruits since discovering the tree which we had originally considered weed. The berries were small since the tree had never been pruned, but to my surprise they were already falling to the ground. It was also a surprise because they were white....implying this was not an indigenous variety.

The White Mulberry

In China, the white Mulberry is used to grow silkworm and in Chine medicine, they are believed to prevent the onset of early grey hair (of interest to Chef since he just found his first grey hair :)...

The taste of these berries is not at all exciting. They are mildly sweet with no tartness whatsoever. However, we do have some ideas on how to use them....so it was time to harvest.

The first step was to free the tree from the brush surrounding it, primarily old and wild raspberry and blackberry canes. We needed to at least approach the tree.

The Bush Hog and the Weed Whacker helped us get closer to the tree

Of course, being novices we really tackled the picking of these berries the wrong way. We started by hand on the low branches....only to find out that for every berry picked a few would drop to the ground.

The hard way to pick ripe Mulberries

It took a while, but eventually we realized that the best approach would simply be to shake the berries out. We laid out a tarp and Tristan braved the climb up this tree to shake the berries loose. This was a much more efficient process.

The easier way to pick Mulberries (Tristan is actually in these branches!)

Returning with our first little harvest, I was again surprised to find something else...another Mulberry tree. This one however showed multiple berries turning red to black. These are the tasty ones....so on to more harvesting. Now instead of climbing these difficult trees, we've been using our trusted pole pruner to shake the berries loose.

A newly discovered Black Mulberry tree

Discussing our newly discovered crop with Chef, we decided to eventually process these small berries. We now intend to dehydrate (or dry) them. We will then use them in a white and red Mulberry Biscotti.

We now know there are quite a few of these trees on the property. In the Fall, we now intend to properly prune those that have produced for us this year in the hope of getting a better crop next Spring.

The surprise harvesting this week extended to the vegetable patch. I had been following our Di Ciccio Broccoli for a few days and it was definitely time to at least cut one. What was a real surprise though (and something totally unexpected) were the heirloom yellow string beans. This rare variety of Beurre de Rocquencourt was also producing.

This was a really proud moment, our first ever harvest of real food!

From seed to food...a very proud moment for novices

Not having a kitchen in the house ...due to our ongoing renovations, we now have to rely on Chef to make use of our produce. So one special this week at the Tea Room was a Nettle Tagliolini with a Prosciutto cream sauce and our Broccoli....quite yummy!

Chef's Nettle Tagliolini was really appreciated this week.

Now aside from keeping a close eye on our crops, we are also taking the time to do some serious weeding. With School out, we have been able to get the help of some courageous and hard working students. Not only are we tackling our old raspberry rows, but we've also had the opportunity to get back into the old Kiwi vines to again remove some of the Wild Rose.

Weeding: a never-ending process.

It was also time this week to carry out experiment #3 in the cattail series. The pods are evolving and it was time to try them. We simply picked them as they were coming out of their green sheath.  We boiled them and ate them around the hard stem (as you would corn on the cob). The results: very good. They tasted a bit like corn, without the sweetness. I am actually thinking that with a bit of butter and salt, we might be able to create a very tasty "grit". I have to say, it is really surprising how good cattails have been so far.

The Cattail pods are ready to harvest

On the home renovation front, things are progressing quite well. the (wine) cellar is looking superb...particularly now that the racking has been installed. The Tucker team has done a fabulous job customizing this beautiful piece of wood working.

The cellar is really looking "sharp"

I finally leave you this week with the photo of a small visitor.

This young innocent bunny was kind enough to let me pat him!