J is for July and Jam

I just canned two gallons of wild raspberries, mostly as jam (9 cups raspberry sludge to 6 cups sugar). I canned three jars of just the crushed berries, but they look frothy and may have leaked because I didn't soak the lids first. The jar filler I got yesterday has been a big help - it reduces spillage and helps fill the jars up the right amount.


The season seems to be over for the wild berries, although I'm still getting a few stragglers that I'm throwing in with the "tame" berries and Loganberries. The two-year-old stalks, the ones with the berries on them, are dying off so that the one-year-olds can grow faster. Unfortunately, the berries on them are shriveling up before they can ripen. I wish they'd knock it off.

I discovered too late that the white stuff all over a few of the red raspberry bushes was not bird poop, but rather a substances that the branches produce. It explodes with a crack when disturbed, spreading sticky white powder. This makes a nice hiding place for tiny white moths and very very teeny white grasshoppers. At least they flee the scene, unlike inchworms. But the less said about that the better.

I'll have two gallons of the red raspberry mix soon. Not sure if I want to make more jam, as we still have a few jars left over from last year.

A week or two ago I was out picking berries with Katie when a rabbit ran at us full-tilt, just turning at the last second. I looked at where it had come from just in time to see a gorgeous mink running into a brush pile, which in turn coughed up another bunny. Jerry just discovered that this was all the product of some bizarre mink liberation army:

http://www.nocompromise.org/news/990810a.html

Thanks, folks.

I checked on my apple trees a few days ago, and learned the hard way about web worms. They killed a branch on one tree, and when I pulled off a leaf full of them, one of the little bastards bit me. Or tried to. Its mouth wasn't really big enough to make much of an impression. I did end up cutting the top off of the fireside tree because if was drooping over even when tied to a stake. The apples look bad, but at least they're organic.