July Harvest Totals

Asterisk denotes foraged items.

• Beets (mixed): 970g
• Calendula: 7g
• Carrots (rainbow): 339g
• Chamomile: 28g
• Garlic Scapes: 12g
• Hyssop: 39g
• Kale (Red Russian): 54g
• Pansies: 10g
• Peas (Amish Snap): 131g
• Peas (Green Arrow): 118g
• Raspberries: 587g
• Rhubarb: 128g
• Strawberries: 19g
• Tomato (Italian Golden Love Apple): 11g
• Tomato (Uptown Funk): 57g
• Zucchini: 84g

Total: 2.6kg

At first I was disappointed to see my harvest totals were so low for this month, but then when I looked back I found I actually did about the same - if not slightly better - than this month last year. We tend to do a lot of travelling in July, so there isn't a lot of time around the house to garden or forage. It's also been rather smoky out with the wildfire conditions, so we haven't been making a whole lot of trips out to gather anything wild. 

Normally my peas do better than this, but I messed up on trellising the Green Arrow ones that normally do quite well for me, and the Amish Snap I was growing out mainly to replenish my seed for upcoming seasons, so I was leaving the best looking pods on the vines to fully mature. It was a good year for berries (although Little Forager gets to the few strawberry plants I have before I can get most of them to the scale) and I am sure this was the most raspberries I've ever picked. We even missed out on the last few due to the timing of our vacations. It was also a sad year for the rhubarb. I'm not sure why but if it does this poorly next year I'm going to try it in a new location and see what happens.

Grow Write Guild No. 8 - The Essence of Summer

To me the plant that best encapsulates summer is one I recently had to say goodbye to - tomatoes.  Each year I am getting better at growing them, but I seem to make some pretty big mistakes every time I try to grow them.  This year I started my seeds about a month later than I should have, and it really showed in the final product.

These four tiny yellow tomatoes were some of the five that actually ripened on the vine.  (If you look closely you can see the tiny bite mark from where Little Forager taste tested one.)  The rest I picked early since every night threatens to frost and I don't have enough blankets or sheets to cover the tender summer vines.  

I was pretty sad while I pulled up the plants since they were looking like some of the best I had ever grown.  If I had started them on time I would have had so much fruit!  Next year I am determined that I will get a better start on my tomato plants.  This year as it is I managed to get just over 3 kilograms of unripe fruit that thankfully I had an interesting pie recipe to try them in.  I love everything about growing tomatoes.  Their flowers are adorable, and their fruit is delicious.  One of my favourite things to do in the garden is to brush the foliage and enjoy the entrancing smell wafting through the summer air. 

I was surprised to find this tiny volunteer tomato (pictured below) that came up from my compost pile and actually started to form some tomatoes!  None of them ripened in time, but I was still surprised to see them.  This area is so perfect for growing tomatoes that you don't even have to actually plant them yourself for them to grow.  My friend even had one volunteer in a crack in her driveway!

Summer Recap

We really love ice cream.  This is a roundup of some of the places we tried this summer!

Of course we had to take Little Forager to his first Stampede!

This year marked our third Ribfest in Riverside Park.  This was one of the first things we went out to do when we moved to Kamloops, and now we always make a point of going.  It's become almost like a little Kamloops-iversary celebration for us.  Misty Mountain is our personal favourite of all the ribbers, since we really like beef ribs, and they have the best sauce.

Little Forager has grown up so much already.  It is hard to believe that his first birthday is coming up in a few months.  This summer we discovered that the absolutely loves swings.

He's already so big, but still looks small in this huge room in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Later that summer we got a chance to visit Mr. Forager's family on their ranch in Saskatchewan.  Little Forager absolutely loved meeting the horses.

It was great to have some time with them since we are not able to make the long trip out there as much as we would like.

Stretching our legs during the ride home.

This year I actually had some success with growing beets!  This has been a goal of mine that for some reason has never been realized.  This mix of different types of beets from Westcoast Seeds was a huge hit for me this year!

We made our first (and last) visit to the Golden Ears Fruit Stand.  We were sorry to learn that it was closing down due to the highway expansion.

This summer was the most incredible year for fruit.  Many people were blessed with overabundance and felt the need to share with us.  We did not turn it down!  I also picked up a steam juicer from the fruit stand that was closing down and made a whole lot of grape juice from free grapes!  I am now excited to try to juice many other types of fruit.  It has become one of my favourite ways to process fruit!

We are now ready to welcome fall and all it entails!

Foraging With Friends - Apricots

This is not exactly foraging, but it is something like it!  During July in Kamloops there are so many people who have trees in their yards that are loaded with apricots.  We live in close proximity with bears here so it is very important to keep your fruit trees picked to discourage the local wildlife.  Since we have no land to plant trees of our own I feel very lucky to be here when people are trying to get rid of all their excess fruit!

In this case I was also happy to have a chance to spend some time with a good friend and introduce her to my baby.  Hopefully this year we can see each other more than once during apricot season!

Little Forager really enjoyed his first taste of apricots!  They are the perfect size for his little hands and the fruit is a great choice for babies since the skin is virtually nonexistent and it all turns into mush pretty quickly anyway.  He gets this really thoughtful expression when he tries new foods that makes it seem like maybe he doesn't like it, but I guess he is just processing it all.  We know he likes it when he goes back in for more!