On Thu, 01 May 2014 15:23:10 -0500, George Shirley >
wrote:

>On 5/1/2014 11:00 AM, bluechick wrote:
>> Hello, everyone!
>>
>> I have been a long-time lurker but haven't posted on usenet in ages. I
>> feel like I know many of you, having read your helpful posts for such
>> a long time.
>Welcome, always glad to see a lurker come out of the shadows and post.

Thanks, George!

>We were luckier than you, of course we're probably a lot older too. We
>both started canning at about 8 years of age, that would be the late
>forties and have kept it up through nearly 54 years of marriage. Alas,
>our children are to busy with careers to do any preserving other than
>freezing a few things. We are now teaching one of our grandsons how to
>grow and preserve his own food. Was by there yesterday and he has a
>grand idea to quadruple his raised bed gardens and to start more gardens
>along his back fence. With two active boys I hope he is lucky with that.

We're in our early 60s. Still young yet. You've been canning and
preserving a lot longer than I have. I probably would have stopped
canning long ago if it hadn't been for my mother-in-law. She was an
old hand at it and encouraged me. I still miss our combined canning
sessions but we made such a mess it looked like we'd used every spoon
and pot. We could sure destroy a kitchen between the two of us. Ha!
I am glad to hear that you're teaching your grandson about growing and
preserving.

>It will be two years in December that we have been in this new house,
>your property got bigger, ours got much smaller. Our previous place was
>a large house on nearly 14,000 square feet; this one is a large house on
>6500 square feet. I reckon it is enough to keep two people in their
>mid-seventies busy though. I do miss all our fruit trees we had in
>Louisiana. Here we have a small Celeste, planted last year, has baby
>figs on it now; a Meiwa kumquat tree that is about four feet tall and
>gave us probably a quart of kumquats last fall. This spring it got frost
>bit so will be awhile before fruit shows up. Same thing happened to the
>Tennousi pear tree in the front yard, bloomed, got a late frost, no fruit.

I grew up with fruit trees all over the place and it's so nice to be
able to grow them again. Sorry to hear about your frost damage. I
hope your Celeste, Meiwa and Tennousi produce for you soon. If not
this year, maybe next. Mother Nature needs to stop sending those late
frosts, though.

>We have raised beds that equal four feet wide by 32 feet long. I'm
>hoping to add another four by sixteen this fall, makes the mowing turn
>into a weed eater job. In addition we have 66 feet by two feet running
>along two fence lines with a mix of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in
>those two. We also have colorful veggies growing in a flower bed out
>front, mostly Swiss chard and bright colored kale and four Barbados
>dwarf cherry plants. If the Homeowners Assn would allow it I would plant
>fruit trees all in the front of the house.

Turn the whole yard into a raised-bed garden and orchard. No mower or
weedeater needed! I guess the HOA might not like it, though you could
try bribing 'em with homemade jams and jellies.

>> We are fortunate to have hundreds of blackberry and dewberry plants

>Alas, both types are small and seedy this spring, not enough rain.
>Stopped along a local road this morning on the way to the library and
>scanned about four acres of mixed dewberry and blackberry, to small, to
>seedy. Two ladies with a small boy were picking some and told us they
>had to hunt to find good berries. No rain in sight now for at least
>another week. I just checked the canning pantry and we only have eleven
>pints of blackberry jam and jelly left. It's off to the berry farm soon.

Our blackberries and dewberries were fat and good at the beginning of
last season but it turned very hot and dry suddenly and they all
turned into hard, seedy little nuggets, just like you describe. We
still managed to get several quarts of juice out of them but it was a
lot of work. The jelly was worth it. I hope all this rain we have
had so far will pay off with fat, juicy berries. I know the canes are
loaded with more blooms than I saw last year so I'm keeping my fingers
crossed. I hope y'all get some rain soon. The southeast and east
coast has had too much rain while the southwest and west coast hasn't
had nearly enough.

>Huh, would swap our clay for your rocks, the clay is impenetrable, water
>runs off the grass, which has about an inch of sand on top of the clay.
>We have to dig holes four feet deep and across to set out fruit trees
>and then amend the soil with vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. During
>a heavy rain we worry about the trees floating out. There is five feet
>of compacted clay and sand under our property. It does get us out of
>paying the gubmint for flood insurance.

Oh, I'll ship you a load of rocks. You can keep the clay, though.
Don't mention digging holes. If I have to dig another hole, pounding
out all the rocks, I will scream. We dug so many holes last year for
the berries, figs and bamboo that my wrists still hurt. We borrowed
the neighbor's tractor and auger for some of them but most of them
were in areas too steep or narrow for the tractor to get to.

>> Sorry to have written a book but I thought it best to get the intros
>> and background out of the way. I hope traffic picks up in this
>> newsgroup now that the growing and preserving season is at hand for
>> some of us, just starting for others and is on the horizon for the
>> rest. Let's hope wintery weather is TRULY out of the forecast for
>> awhile.
>>
>It certainly is here although last night it got down to 48F and hasn't
>risen about 70 yet this afternoon. Writing a book is a good intro. I
>don't expect the newsgroup to grow much, not many young people are
>interested in doing the things we enjoy. I'm getting ready to post a
>note on the HOA website offering to teach home gardening and preserving,
>in hopes of getting more converts. Keep letting us know what is
>happening. I think I've been on this newsgroup since about 1990 and have
>watched it lose people all that time.

It was cool today here, too. It's going to get hot next week. The
tomatoes ought to love it.

Agreed. I doubt there will be much "new blood" here in the group but
I hope that some of the regular posters will pop in now and then as
the season progresses. I know there have been such wonderful posters
here in the past who've taught me so much and I haven't seen them in
ages. I remember people like Edrena and I miss them. But usenet, as
a whole, isn't as active as it once was. I wish I had been able to
post here before now. Such is life...

I'm so glad you replied, George. Your posts are a treat to read and
you are a treasure. Take care and don't work too hard. I will post
back as I can when the berries and tomatoes come in.