This is wild.

I dragged the family around the property today to help assess the things we have growing. They went somewhat grudgingly, but soon got into the spirit of it. Me? I'm like the guy who thought he was going to starve on the island and suddenly found an orchard. This is really exciting stuff!

We found another new, seemingly edible thing growing. No clue what it is (as usual) - look for a photo and a plea for help identifying it tomorrow! It kind of grows like cherries, but the tree shoots straight up and it's a good 50' high. It's also shading the smaller apple tree, so if it doesn't pony up with something edible, then it's going to get some serious pruning this winter.

The soil in the salad bed desperately needs more compost for next year. Even after two years of amending it, it's hard as a rock. Poor John's carrots never have grown longer than 1cm, tops. We've increased our composting contributions, now that we have the tractor mower. Hopefully, we'll have plenty of compost for next season.

We got three gypsy peppers from the armadillo-torn upper meadow beds. (The one w/ the snake.) Weird. We gave up on those beds back in July.

The apples are ripe, and they're *fantastic*. They have a complex flavor, starting out slightly tart, but turning sweet pretty quickly. They're psychotically juicy, and have a delicate crisp flesh. Ohhh, they're really good. It's exciting to be receiving from all these plants, now.

The Black Walnut trees are laden with big green balls right now. We gathered some and tossed them into the driveway to help crack the outer hulls. I'll go down in the morning to rake away the debris from around the tree so we can collect the nuts as they fall. Zorak's not sure there's enough meat in any of them to make it worth the work. I just want to try. It's part of the adventure. And, if it doesn't work, well, we've learned something along the way, right?

The persimmons are ripening unevenly, and between the height of the fruit and the birds, I don't think we'll get anything salvageable from them this year. Never did hear back from the County Extension Office, so I'll give them a call or swing by this week, sometime. I hate to give up on the persimmons, since there are three of them - if they can be saved and restored, I want to do it.

We enjoyed okra and cukes from the barn garden with supper tonight, and a late season watermelon this afternoon. That's always kinda fun. Perhaps the novelty wears off when you're an accomplished gardener. If so, we have decades of enjoyable side dishes ahead of us. ;-)

The kids finally decided pear jelly would be preferable to pearsauce for this year. If the trees stay healthy, though, we can do more next year. Tomorrow is canning day. (Someone hold me to that!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy