Quick and dirty recap of the farming season so far

Oh goodness, blogging has taken a backseat this year!  But we have been busy, busy farmers.  We got very lucky in June and had a friend visit for a weekend to help us weed, which was just outstanding.  Unfortunately for us, those damn weeds grew back, but we've been making (minimal) attempts to keep up our weeding efforts.  The garden actually looks pretty good despite the re-encroaching weeds, and we've had great harvests so far:

Asparagus - so good!  Our first "real" year of harvesting asparagus, and we enjoyed every spear.  I'm very glad that we planted a second bed, and we're already looking forward to next year.

We're currently inundated with peas, and I have to say that I'm a little disapointed in the purple podded peas.  I had thought that they were snap peas, and planted a full bed's worth of them.  But after several tastings, I'm becoming convinced that they are actually soup peas, which I don't really have much of an interest in.  I'm wishing I had planted many more actual snap peas and shelling peas, because the ones that we do have are just amazing.  And since we're getting about 2 pounds of peas in total a day, it would be nice if I was a little more excited about the varieties I'd planted!  Oh well, I guess 2014 is the gardening season in which I finally learn that planting the purple variety of a vegetable doesn't always result in the best taste.

We did a good job of using our rhubarb this year, and I'm looking forward to booting it out of the garden next year to make more space for strawberries.  Toddlers are outstanding strawberry consumers, and so the vast majority of this year's berries never made it into the house.

We've been having great beets, carrots, chard, lettuce, and herbs, and I harvested a huge batch of garlic scapes which we've been able to (mostly) use.  I also made some outstanding garlic scape pickles, marking the official start to the 2014 canning season.

It's almost time to harvest potatoes, which we've been sneaking for the past few weeks and thoroughly enjoying.  Spraying the plants with bT once we first started to see emerging potato bug larvae has helped tremendously.

I had significant issues with cut worms, but only in my cold frames.  Those bugs are such jerks, and continued to take down my cauliflower and eggplants even up to last week - and those are not puny little seedlings any more!  So frustrating.

We're starting to get raspberries from last year's plants in good quantities.  We have lots of Japanese beetles, which are doing a number on the plants and even on the fruit, so we're researching the best ways to combat them.

I've been experimenting with letting our older flock of chickens free range on the days when the dogs go to daycare.  The chickens love it, and I think it's helping with bugs, but unfortunately one particularly hectic day we forgot to get the chickens back into their coop before letting the boy dogs out, and now we're down to 11 chickens.  Oops.  The new flock looks great, though.  We have an accidental rooster in there, so will be getting rid of him before the fall, because although it may seem like we don't have limits on animals, I draw the line at a rooster.

I love, love, love having flower gardens.  I feel like I'm still in the beginner stage in terms of learning about different plant varieties and what they like, but I do love seeing the blooms in front of the garden, and am getting at least a basic working knowledge of flower versus weed.

The 2014 farming season is off to a good start

Oh, the farming we did this weekend.  So much planting, and I think we ought to earn extra tough-farmer credit due to the fact that much of it was done in the cold rain, with the very hands-on "assistance" of a two year old and three dogs.  But I should back up, because we are such diligent farmers that this weekend wasn't even our first farming weekend.  Amazing.

As soon as the ground thawed, we went out to finish the remainder of the garden cleanup.  Even though we did better last fall at putting the garden to bed than ever before, we still had a lot of work to do.  Luckily, we had a task master to remind us that we needed to get started.

Guys, let's go!

So we headed out with the toddler and the dogs, and it was all hands on deck.  Please note that my dogs are disgusting, and you should never let them kiss you.  Ever.  Seriously.  Below, see exhibit 1.

Casper:  "Gonna just water this here overwintered kale plant a bit"

Literally seconds later.  Lily:  "Yum!"
Bullet:  "Hey that looks tasty, can I have some?"

 Deciding to view this in a positive light, we let the dogs continue to clean out the former kale bed, since apparently overwintered, rotten, very soggy kale plants (some of which have been freshly urinated upon) are a delicacy for bad dogs.  The toddler figured it was time to enlist the tractor, so he recruited his trusty sidekick "Otis."  Otis required quite the pep talk to get into the garden bed (there was much "come on Otis!  You can do it Otis!  How you doin', Otis?", but he made it).

 I was hard at work weeding the beds, but the toddler decided it was time to move on to inspecting the cold frames, so off we went.  The far left cold frame tipped quite a bit after the ground thawed, spilling a very exciting amount of dirt.  Landon was ON IT.  As to how they functioned over the winter, well, the parsnips did great.  The kale/chard/mache that I planted in the fall got stuck in seedling phase, but now they are growing so I guess I'm getting a head start on the spring crop?  I planted the beets and carrots too late and they all died.  And my herbs overwintered better in the completely unprotected herb bed in the garden than they did in the cold frames.  So, a mixed bag.  But the dirt spillage was awesome.

"I doin the dirt!"

 Outside of the garden, Mike started preparing for the epic berry expansion of 2014 by first marking out, and then digging, five very long rows of holes for blueberries, raspberries, and elderberries.  Landon assisted with much of the tractoring, and then got busy trying to fill in the holes again.

 Because the boys were already in tractor heaven, they took a quick detour to pull out some of the old trees and brush up against the house, which is the first part of our multi-year landscaping plan.  It was awesome.

"Daddy's helping me tractor!"

We've already had our first harvest of a handful of asparagus - delicious!

Gratuitous photo of the toddler summitting the rock pile

Mike hard at work planting raspberries

Sometimes, while planting, you need a hug.

Boys planting potatoes

Mike has also started three hives of bees, and I've got a bunch of seeds started in the mud room.  This year, Taperman is growing all of the squash and tomatoes in his garden, since we've had such terrible luck with blight and pests.  Taperman also has a new flock of chickens going, but doesn't remember how to blog, so I'll have to give him a tutorial so that we can get some reports on how they're doing!  I think we're done with frosts for the year, but it's still pretty chilly so I'm holding off on planting warm weather crops until around Memorial Day.  We've got potatoes, carrots, peas, lettuce, shallots, scallions, and beets in the ground - I planted all of them the last weekend in April.  The toddler has also been busy planting his toy cars in various beds, but so far, none have germinated.

Farming season begins

Winter has been desperately hanging on here this year, but finally, my beds are starting to poke out from the snow.  The cold frames are thawed (and no, my attempts to grow food in them through the winter were not successful at all - I think it may be more realistic to see them as season extenders rather than as a possibility for year-round fresh veggies).  It seems like we're going to have a cool spring, so I'm not in a huge rush to get the garden started.  We still have a good amount of cleanup to do, and I would so love it if this was the year I stayed somewhat on top of the weeds.

I have sorted out the seeds by planting date, and started the first batch of seedlings this past weekend (eggplant and brussels sprouts).  The brussels sprouts have sprouted, eggplants haven't.  I was planning on starting peppers last weekend but didn't get to it, so hopefully that will happen this weekend.  As I mentioned, not in a hurry this year!

Our big plans for this season revolve around planting more fruit trees and berries.  We're adding rows of raspberries, blueberries, and elderberries behind the vegetable garden, and need to replace a few of the apple trees that were terminally damaged by Mike's mortal enemy, the fearless deer.  I also found a variety of fig that's supposed to be able to withstand cold winters, and we'll be planting a couple of paw paw trees as well.  We may also put in a few ornamental trees to follow the landscape design that we had drawn up last summer - since we're going to pick up our tree order at the FedCo tree sale this year I have a strong hunch that there will be quite a few tree impulse buys.

Our landscape design includes some gorgeous ideas for perennial gardens, which we'll be holding off on for another year or so to focus on getting the trees and berries established.  We will, though, be ripping out the mess of existing plants that we have surrounding the house (tractor!), which I'm very excited about.  I'm also day-dreaming about putting in a perennial shade garden underneath some existing fir trees that we have in a corner of the yard.  We're lucky to have full sun in so many places, but I'm wanting to have some shade-loving favorites somewhere near the house.  And doesn't a sprawling shade garden tucked in a corner under fir trees sound a bit magical?  I've got to let this idea marinate a bit but I think I'd definitely like to include lily of the valley (I know it spreads, I don't really care.  We have a lot of space and it smells so lovely), bleeding hearts, and helleborus, and maybe this lovely silver lace black primrose (http://www.gurneys.com/product/silver_lace_black_primrose/shade-plants).

Seeds in the ground

We had an amazingly productive weekend, in large part due to a very helpful visit from my parents, and Mike's passion for all things tractor-related.  On Sunday, Mike put in the black and red raspberries, and my mom helped me weed the garden and plant our first set of cool weather crops.  Taperman assisted by entertaining Landon - a crucial job.

In the garden, we now have shelling peas, snap peas, spinach, radishes, arugula, chioggia and golden beets, harukei turnips, kale, shallots, and scallions all tucked into their beds.  This is by far the earliest I've managed to do any direct seeding, and I hope that means that I'll start getting some good harvests by early summer.

In total for the orchard, we planted 15 fruit trees, 9 hills of blackberries, and 20 red raspberry canes and three four-cane hills of black raspberries.  Next weekend I'll plant carrots, parsnips, and potatoes.

Hello garlic!

Prepping for red raspberries

Yes, Gramps - it's much better to see the chickens up close!

I'll take that, thank you very much

Farming buddies

Is there a 12 step program for people who buy too many fruit trees?

If there is, then you should sign us up.  Immediately.  Today Mike put his new tractor, with its fancy post hole digger, to good use, and we planted 15 fruit trees, and 9 blackberry bushes.  Tomorrow we do raspberries.  It may be excessive, but it was also very exciting (if we're being honest, I think that Mike and Landon were mostly excited about all of the tractoring, but still, excitement was there).  Mike has done so much work getting the land for the expanded orchard yesterday, and it's wonderful to see the plan starting to take shape.

Mike putting in the first tree of the day

Adding pea stone to act as mulch

Soaking the bare roots in agri-gel

Mom multi-tasking!  While he looks very still in this picture, Landon spent most of the time trying to jump out and play with the water.

Bare-root trees in the box

Meanwhile, inside the seedlings are looking good.  The eggplant finally germinated and seems happy, and the fennel, basil, tomatoes, and flowers are all growing as well.  None of my chinese lantern flowers have sprouted yet, but I'm not giving up hope on them yet.  As Mike pointed out today I don't have a spot in the garden picked out for them yet, so if they don't grow, it's not a huge loss.

Tomorrow will be our first outdoor planting day in the garden!  It's been cold here for the past few weeks, and we've been dealing with some sad personal events, so I postponed my original planting plans.  Tomorrow, though, my parents are going to come to help wrangle Landon, and I'm planning on planting my peas, radishes, scallions, shallots, kale, turnips, carrots, beets, and endive.  We're also going to put in the raspberry bushes.  Well, some of the raspberry bushes.  Since I had that whole golden raspberry impulse buy situation we'll have another round once those arrive.  I'd say "and then we'll stop," but even I don't believe that.  Maybe after next year (with the blueberries, elderberries, and kiwi), then we'll stop.

We've got germination

(This video only seems to want to go to the top of the post, but you know what, that's fine.  It's adorable and tangentially farming related).

All signs are pointing to this being the year that we actually come up with a thoughtful plan for the garden, and then follow it.  The seedlings are germinating beautifully in the mudroom, Mike has been working hard to clear out more land to expand the orchard, and even the baby has helped in the efforts.  Tomorrow we're hitting up Skillins to look at floating row covers, and we may even start to do some planting outside.  When I checked the beds this morning the soil temperature was only 40-45, so I'm not feeling behind despite the fact that I haven't gotten anything in the ground out there.

Our 13 new trees, plus raspberry and blackberry plants, arrived earlier this week, and they're all hanging out in the barn, to be planted hopefully this weekend.  Mike upgraded from a lawn tractor to a real (small) tractor, but the post-hole digger attachment hasn't arrived yet so the orchard plans are on hold for a few more days.  In the end, this is good, as we realized today that we need to take down two more trees where the orchard is going, and were able to better plot out where the fruit trees will be.  Plus, we used a sledgehammer to drive in the stakes to mark the future tree locations, and the baby thought this was absolutely hilarious.

I missed one tree in our Fedco order, and we found one last apple variety that we'd like to try, too, so next year in addition to starting the blueberries and elderberries, we'll also be getting a Frostbite apple and Cox's Orange Pippin apple.  And then we'll be done with apple trees.

Eggplant seedling tray - not much was happening this morning, but when I just checked, it looked like they have started germinating.  Phew!

Fennel and basil

Broccoli and cauliflower

The flower tray - marigolds, zinnias and nasturtiums

Second eggplant tray.  Again, not much happening yet.

Land that we've been clearing for the orchard.  That big tree in the middle comes down this week.

Bearcubs eating one of the little trees that Mike knocked down

Clearing out space for the blackberries.  He got stuck.  But then he got to use his truck to pull his tractor out, and it was awesome.

Planning the orchard

Another list oriented post.  We have big dreams for the orchard, and would like to cultivate as many of the more rare New England apple varieties as possible.  We'd also like to add plums, and perhaps some more peaches, pears, and cherries.  I also have visions of some sort of small structure to support vining kiwi plants.  Wouldn't that be pretty?  And, at the border on the fence, blueberry and elderberry bushes, along with some other beneficial plants to help our organic orcharding endeavor.  For next year, we're going to focus on clearing out the scraggly pine trees that are currently occupying the land that we'd like to devote to the orchard, and will plant four new apple trees.  In a separate part of the property, we'll also start our raspberry and blackberry stands.  Of course, we planned out the varieties that we'd like, complete with a long range plan, several months ago, and I've now lost it.  Or the baby ate it.  Or something.  I hope it turns up again, as it was quite thorough and I've forgotten nearly all of the details (like, how many raspberry bushes did I want?).

We made a new list!  And got a bit overexcited in the tree clearing process, so we're going to order more fruit trees than I originally planned.  I suspect that this is all because Mike wants to have another tractor weekend, but that's fine with me.  We have room now for a total of 15 more trees, and could expand further.  But that would probably be excessive.  Probably.

Apple trees:

Black Oxford Apple Winter. Unknown parentage. Paris, Oxford County, ME, about 1790. This outstanding apple, a favorite long ago around much of Maine, has been making a huge comeback in the last 20 years. Our best seller until Honeycrisp came along. Medium-sized round fruit, deep purple with a blackish bloom. From a distance you might think you’d discovered a huge plum tree. Last summer I revisited the Hallowell, Maine, tree planted by Benjamin Vaughan in 1799. Still hanging in there! Excellent pies, superb late cider. Leave the skins on for a delightful pink sauce. Best eating late December to March. They get sweeter and sweeter as the months go by. Good cooking until early summer. Some insect and disease resistance. Unusual light pink blooms, early midseason. Z4-5. Both are ME Grown

Northern Spy Apple Winter. Chance seedling. East Bloomfield, NY, about 1800. One of the most famous of all heirloom apples. Very large delectable all-purpose pink fruit has yellow background covered all over with pink and light red stripes. Very juicy and tender. Even when the soft skin bruises, the fruit keeps extremely well. Cooks up quickly into a loose mild sauce. No need to remove the skins. Its reputation as a pie apple is more than well deserved: makes a very good single-variety pie! Its one drawback is being slow to come into bearing, although for us it’s been worth the wait. Medium-to-large moderately vigorous long-lived tree. Prefers fertile well-drained soil. Good scab resistance. Leafs out late and blooms late season. Z4-6. Both are ME Grown.

Sweet Sixteen Apple Fall. MN 1630 (MN447 x Northern Spy) U Minn, 1979. Whenever anyone eats a Sweet 16 for the first time, you know they will be surprised. Fine-textured crisp flesh contains an astounding unusually complex combination of sweet, nutty and spicy flavors with slight anise essence, sometimes described as cherry, vanilla or even bourbon. I always love Sweet 16 season. Truly excellent fresh eating, although it is too sweet for some palates. Round-conic bronze-red medium-sized fruit, striped and washed with rose-red. Annual bearer if thinned. Very hardy moderate-sized vigorous vase-shaped tree grows upright with willowy branches that get loaded with fruit but do not break. Grower-friendly. Reaches its best flavor and texture in northern districts. Some resistance to scab. Keeps till midwinter. One of the wonderful progeny of (#118) Frostbite. We hope to introduce more of them! Blooms mid to late season. Z3-6. ME Grown.

Chestnut Apple Early Fall. MN 240 (Malinda x open-pollinated) U Minn, 1946. A lot of people love this apple. Small golf-ball-sized fruit with truly excellent fresh-eating qualities. Yellow and bronze-red skin with some russeting. Firm crisp juicy fine-grained very sweet yellowish flesh. The apple version of Sun Gold tomato—fabulous complex flavor in a small package. For a growing number of people in central Maine, late September is Chestnut apple time. Every year we put out a bushel a day at Fedco’s booth at the Common Ground Fair and watch them disappear. Neophytes often look at the fruit with disdain. Most however take one bite and their frowns turn to smiles. (For some, despite its crispness and depth of flavor, it is too sweet.) Chestnut needs no sugar to make a sweet and subtle sauce. Not a keeper, but can be stored for a month or so. Vigorous, somewhat weeping, medium-sized productive tree. Disease resistant. Also beautiful in bloom, midseason. Z3-5. ME Grown.

Calville Blanc d’Hiver Apple Winter. Unknown parentage. France or Germany, 16th century. Also called White Winter Calville. Famous as a dessert and cooking apple for over 400 years. Steve Wood of Poverty Lane orchards in Lebanon, NH, called it “the best culinary apple in the world.” Large flattish pale green-yellow fruit with uneven lumpy ribs and a dotted orange-red blush. Creamy-white aromatic fine-grained juicy flesh with a sweet distinctive effervescent flavor. Smooth when baked. Recommended for vinegar, fresh cider and as a sharp (acid) component in fermented cider. Should be stored a month to reach peak flavor. Will keep until midwinter. Very vigorous strongly upright vase-shaped tree with good branch angles. Head the tree if necessary to force it down. Not for coldest areas though certainly hardy to Zone 4. Blooms midseason. Z4-7.

Winekist Apple Summer. Unknown parentage. Morris Towle introduction, Winthrop, ME, 20th c. A very high-quality red-fleshed all-purpose fruit. Skin is wine red with areas and stripes of darker red and very small white dots; the overall effect is dark red by mid July. Very juicy coarse firm flesh is almost solid beet red: a real eye popper! Ripens about September 10 in central Maine. Medium-small fruit is quite good for fresh eating and a great addition to cider or sauce. Leaves are tomentose (soft and woolly) and have a dark reddish cast to them. Blossoms are light pink. Wood, when you cut into it, is pink. Tree is a natural semi-dwarf. Developed by the orchardist and variety collector Morris Towle (1911-1993). Saved for posterity by orchardist and collector Earland Goodhue of Sidney. Bears young and annually. Blooms early to midseason. Z4-6. ME Grown.

Enterprise Apple Fall-Winter. Coop 30 [PRI 2693-1=(PRI 1661-2 x PRI 1661-1)] PRI introduction, 1993. From the well-known Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois apple breeding program—one of the most highly recommended new dessert varieties in years. Medium-large roundish red-orange fruit is crisp, firm, juicy with a rich spicy flavor. Stores for 6 months or more. Flavor improves in storage, with best eating about a month into winter. Longtime readers of the Fedco Trees catalog know that I remain a bit of a sceptic when it comes to new varieties. “Show me the beef!” I say. I was reluctant to pay much attention to Enterprise for years, but now have added it to my list of varieties worth planting. Two of my favorite Maine growers, Steve Meyerhans of Fairfield and Joe Vachon of Stetson, are among those who have raved about this fruit. Annual bearing, scab immune, resistant to powdery mildew, cider-apple rust and fireblight. Blooms late-season. Z4-7.

Cox’s Orange Pippin Apple Fall. Possibly a seedling of Ribston Pippin. Near Slough, Bucks, England, around 1825. Deservedly one of the three or four most famous of all apples. Not only one of the best eating apples ever but also one of the most sought-after varieties in modern apple breeding; parent or grandparent of many other varieties. Revered in the U.K. Medium-sized all-purpose aromatic fruit is red-orange to red with orange russet striping and wash. Perfectly balanced slightly subacid flavor and crisp juicy tender flesh improve with storage. Moderately vigorous moderately productive tree bears young and annually. Prefers cooler climates and higher pH (6.5-7.5+). The oldest Maine Cox’s I know is about 40 years old, thriving in Mercer, Zone 4. Scab resistant. Blooms midseason. Z4-6.

Pear Trees:

Seckel Pear Late Summer. Seedling near Philadelphia, PA, early 1800s. Sometimes called Sugar Pear. Often considered the best-flavored of all pears; even the skin is delicious. Small obovate fruit is yellowish-brown russeted with slight red blush. Juicy, spicy, distinctive and aromatic. Eat ripe off the tree or pick firm and ripen later. We use Seckels to make our baked “applesauce.” It’s wonderful. Very productive annual-bearing large tree, easy to grow. The most reliably bearing fruit tree we have. Scab- and fireblight-resistant. Will not pollinate Bartlett. Z4. ME Grown.

Sweet Cherries:

Gold Cherry Summer. Chance seedling. Stark Bros Nursery introduction, Louisiana, MO, about 1932. Also called Stark Gold for Stark Gold Sweet Cherry. Medium-sized crack-resistant fruit has translucent golden-yellow skin and firm flesh of exceptionally good quality. Originally selected for maraschino cherry processing, but its hardiness and good taste made it an excellent choice for northern sweet-cherry growers. Very productive large tree. Ripens late. Developed or selected by CJ Thomas in Rulo, Nebraska, and subsequently released by Stark Bros. Grown commercially in some areas. Z4/5.

Kristin Cherry Summer. NY1599 (Emperor Francis x Gil Peck) Geneva, NY, 1982. Large very dark red or purplish-black fruit. Firm juicy red flesh is rich, sweet and delicious. Good resistance to fruit cracking. Tested in Montana, Norway (the country, not Maine) and New York and considered to be relatively hardy for a sweet cherry, possibly including protected areas of Zone 4. Ripens in mid-July. Z4/5.

Peaches:

Polly Peach Mid. SA Beach and TJ Maney intro, University of IA, 1932. Medium-sized white-fleshed freestone fruit. Whitish skin with a reddish blush. Reliable cropper. Blooms later in the season. Considered the hardiest white-fleshed peach. Probably a cross of Bailey and Prunus davidiana. Perhaps the name was inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s infamous Polly Peachum, wife of the even more infamous Macheath—Mack the Knife. Zone 5 or maybe Zone 4.

Plums:

Black Ice Plum Midsummer. Prunus Lydecker [Prunus besseyi x (Prunus salicina Oka x Prunus salicina Z’s Blue Giant)] U of Wisc, River Falls, 2006. Large 2" round early-ripening high-quality hardy blue-black dessert plum. Very sweet juicy reddish-purple semi-freestone flesh. Precocious and productive tree with a naturally compact growth habit. Bred by Brian Smith who I visited a few years ago on a fruit exploration trip in the Upper Midwest. He graciously showed us all through his amazing nursery in River Falls. He was growing many of his plums in huge tubs, manipulating bloom time using greenhouses and coolers. This enabled him to cross species or varieties that would never normally flower together. Though we’re not fans of plant patenting, we have been eager to offer his first major introduction. PVP 16621. The literature recommends Toka or La Crescent as a pollinator. Now on trial at our farm. Z3.

La Crescent Plum Late Summer. (Prunus salicina Shiro x Prunus americana Howard Yellow) U Minn, 1923. Also known as Golden La Crescent or Golden Minnesota. Most of the hybrid plum varieties are colored with some variation of red and orange with a little purple tossed in. Yellow-skinned La Crescent is one notable exception. The beautiful roundish tender thin-skinned yellow fruit is sometimes blushed with a little pink. Tender yellow juicy flesh of excellent quality is sweet, aromatic and suggestive of apricots. Freestone. Upright spreading vigorous tree. Z3/4.ME Grown.

Blueberries:

Bluejay Highbush Blueberry Early-Mid. HBS400 [Berkeley x Michigan 241 (Pioneer x Taylor)] Michigan State U, 1978. Medium-large firm mild-flavored light blue berries with high sugar content. One of the best blueberries for eating, freezing, canning, and preserving. Loose clusters easily harvested by hand or machine. Productive bush is vigorous and upright, slightly spreading. Grows fast, 5–7’ tall. Disease resistant. Z4. ME Grown.

Jersey Highbush Blueberry Mid-Late. (Rubel x Grover) USDA, 1928. The beloved old standard of blueberry introductions to which new varieties are compared. Medium-to-large dark blue berries in large loose clusters. Vigorous erect hardy bush, 5-7' tall. Productive, widely grown, adapted to a wide range of soils, highly praised, easy to grow and suited to the New England climate. Z4. ME Grown.

Northland Highbush Blueberry Early. (Berkeley x 19-H) Mich St U, 1967. Early highbush x lowbush type bears long loose clusters of medium-small dark blue berries with excellent wild flavor. Very vigorous and productive, 3' moderately spreading bush has limber branches which tolerate snow well. Good for landscaping, bird forage and dessert. Hardy. Z3. ME Grown.

Raspberries and black raspberries:

For 2013!

Latham Summer-bearing Raspberry Mid. MN4 (King x Loudon) U. Minn 1920. A standard raspberry for almost a century, extremely popular and widely grown. Large bright red 1" fruit is roundish, firm, a little crumbly and sprightly sweet, full-flavored and aromatic. Great for fresh eating, canning, freezing, jam, juice, or pie. Ripens over an extended season making it an ideal candidate for the home garden. Canes are 4–5' tall and highly productive. Widely adaptable and very winter hardy, not as spiny as most raspberries, disease resistant. Z3.

Prelude Summer-bearing Raspberry Early. NY 1009 (NY 817 x Hilton) NY Stn 1998. Ripens very early and produces a second small crop in the fall, just when you are starting to miss raspberries. Very large red conic fruit is firm and high-quality. Flavor is mild with little acidity but very tasty. Vigorous winter-hardy canes. After several years of trial at John and Pat Meader’s Hardy Maine Nursery in Buckfield, John wrote, “I’d strongly recommend Prelude. It showed hardiness equal to Boyne last winter and fruits the earliest of all varieties I’ve observed (over 30)…Prelude would preceed Boyne nicely; it has good fruit (taste, firmness, size) and seems quite productive; it fruits well over two full weeks.” Suckers freely. Z4.

Royalty Purple Summer-bearing Raspberry Mid. (Cumberland x Newburgh) x (Newburgh x Indian Summer) NY Stn, 1982. Cohesive fairly firm large berries make outstanding jam and jelly and even better fresh eating. Their distinctive flavor is different from the red raspberries, with a hint of black raspberry. Extremely robust minimally suckering plants are very productive and open-formed; the berries are right in your face and easy to pick. Ready to harvest when they are deep purple, somewhat later than the reds. Plant in hills (see sidebar). Usually considered Zone 4 but is proving itself into Zone 3 with occasional slight tip dieback. Does not like wet soil. Disease resistant. Z3-4.

Jewel Black Raspberry Midseason. Bristol x Dundee. Cornell, Geneva, NY. High-yielding variety boasts superb quality and flavor. Glossy large firm juicy fruit melts in your mouth with rich, sweet, lingering flavor. Larger than Bristol. Excellent choice for fresh eating, jams and jellies. Keeps its shape for several days with refrigeration. Black raspberries have been called the “King of Fruits” because of their high levels of antioxidants and anthocyanins which give the berries their dark color. A cure-all for many health conditions; strengthens immune system if eaten regularly. Freeze excess berries and eat them through the winter months to help prevent colds and flus. Vigorous disease-resistant canes. Z4.

Blackberries:

One of my first foods, and something I'm looking forward to introducing to Landon!

Nelson Blackberry Midsummer. Virtually all commercial blackberry varieties are notoriously vigorous but tender up north. You wind up with an annual mess of thorny fruitless groundcover. Nelson has been surviving Maine winters for at least a century. Introduced to us by the descendants of Nelson Fronk whose 1928 family photograph taken on their farm northeast of Farmington shows the blackberry growing next to the barn. John Meader, who grows it for Fedco, calls it “exceptionally hardy,” in fact, one of the most enduring blackberries he has ever grown. The inch-thick canes are tall, sturdy and upright. They can be grown on posts but also do well free standing. Fruit is moderately large, quite juicy and, when ripe, it has a sweet, true blackberry taste. What really makes this blackberry a standout is its high productivity: 16–18 blossoms on the central blossom stalk is the highest John has ever seen on a blackberry. He gets four good pickings from his patch over two weeks in mid-August. Nelson makes excellent jelly and is good to eat right from the bush. Disease resistant and, like all blackberries, spreads quickly so give it room to move. We recommend planting in Zone 4 or maybe Zone 3. ME Grown. (well-rooted bare-root canes)

Elderberries:

Sambucus canadensis ‘Adams No. 1’ Elderberry NY State Ag Experiment Station introduction, 1926. Large berries and fruit clusters make for easy and fast picking. If you’re heading to a potluck and need to make a pie in a pinch, Adams is the shrub you want. Excellent for preserving and not bad fresh-eating. Very large vigorous strong productive bush. In one of our Maine nurseries, this variety was the mother of all elderberries, reaching 12' in height and the same across. It lived for many years as the centerpiece in the garden and provided a year’s worth of berries every season. Selected in 1915 from the wild by William Adams in Union Springs and sent to Geneva where it was introduced 11 years later. ME Grown.

Sambucus canadensis ‘Fryeburg Intervale’ Elderberry Fedco introduction, 2013. Not a distinct variety, but an ecotype. Selected and propagated by Ryan Bushell of Burnt Meadow Nursery, Brownfield, ME, using cuttings he collected from multiple Saco River flood plain plants located in the hedgerows and uncultivated areas of the Fryeburg Intervale. Plants produce large clusters of berries causing branches to arch under their weight. Somewhat compact habit, often being wider than tall. Expect variability as cuttings were selected from multiple plants. Much cold air drains down the Saco River valley, and temperatures have gone as low as –35° recent years. These plants should be very hardy. Jen reports that they are prolifically setting fruit in their second year in the nursery. ME Grown