Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Fruit

Fall Garden Maintenance

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For the past few weeks we have been concentrating on getting all plants ready for the winter.  Each weekend, we get a little more done and the farm looks a bit more cleaned up.

The blackberry rows are an arduous task, we can only work a few hours on this at a time, so it is taking a while.  We not only trim the stems, but control how many stems per bush we want to keep – selecting the strongest and making sure none of the branches shade out other stems.  Then we manually pull the weeds around the bush, just within weed-whip range.  All the trimmings are dropped between the rows.  Eventually, Jeff will run the bush hog through each row, which pretty much destroys even the thickest bramble branch.  Then we will run the weed-whip along the rows to clean up the final weeds.



BEFORE
AFTER

This weekend, Tina finished the final weeding and rototilling on the “Jam Garden”, and planted a few more red raspberries (they were on super clearance at Lowes).  This garden now has 3 rows of blueberries, 2 rows of strawberries, and one mixed row of black and red raspberries, plus one gooseberry bush and two black currant bushes.

Making Apple Cider

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There are just a few simple steps to making apple cider:

1.  Start with 50 bushels of mixed apples from a local orchard – second grade/juice grade (meaning they are smaller, not very uniform, but clean and worm free)

2.  Invite your entire family for a weekend of “fun”

3.  Clean and sterilize the cider press and connect it to the motor

4.  Clean all food grade buckets and barrels (our assortment ranges from 1 gallon jugs, to 5, 10 and 20 gallon buckets)

5.  Clean all saved plastic jugs – juice containers, soda bottles and even carboys…as long as they have lids, for keeping cider.

6.  Set up an “assembly-line” for efficient work flow, including the following stations:

  • Getting apples off wagon into 5 gallon buckets (removing leaves if necessary or sorting out the occasional rotten apple) – this involves eventual crawling into the large bin to reach the bottom apples
  • Carrying the 5 gallon buckets of apples over to the press
  • Dumping apples into the hopper for shredding (requires a tall person)
  • Supervisor to ensure that shredded apples don’t overflow the baskets and moving baskets toward the press mechanism
  • Running the (manual) press after apples have been shredded (can be same person who also dumps the apples)
  • Catching the pressed cider into suitable containers and then dumping those into larger storage containers
  • Water hose, pressure washer and final cleanup station is also a good idea.

Fresh cider only keeps about a week in the refrigerator, at least we never tried to keep it longer. What we can’t drink or give away, we can, using 2 quart jars.  The sediment will settle to the bottom, and when we drink it later in the winter, we just carefully pour out the clear juice.  This also works great for making mulled cider all winter long!  We also use some of the cider for making apple wine.

 
With everything set up, 50 bushels of apples can be pressed
 into cider – using a 100 year old cider press rigged with
an electric motor – in a day.
 

More Strawberries Planted

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Finished transplanting young strawberries from the herb garden into the “jam” garden, which pretty much filled all the beds up.  Above is a view of the finished garden with the elderberries blooming in the background (they are doing awesome)  and the Vidal Blanc grapes barely visible across the street.

Berry Update

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Our blueberries are beginning to ripen, and we actually picked a few this evening.  The blackberries are still blossoming, but berries are starting to form – and the sheer amount of these is slightly daunting!

Jam and Smoothie Garden

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Making nice progress on our newest patch:  the “Jam and Smoothie” garden.  We started a second blueberry patch last fall, on the house side, between the newest Triple Crown blackberry patch and the existing elderberry patch.  Earlier in the spring, we added a row for raspberries, black and red ones,  with one lonely gooseberry bush at the end.  This week, we added two more rows:  one for Honeyoye strawberries, (we planted 50) with currant bushes at the end, and another one for “unknown, but really good” strawberries.  We plan to use the “runners” of existing strawberry plants, which are growing happily in the herb garden.  The patch is finished off with a row of lavender – some of these were left over wedding favors, which we supplemented.  Hoping the lavender bushes grow up nicely and attract plenty of pollinators!   The fruit trees then border the lavender on the other side.