Tag Archives: blackberries

Granddaughter Visit – Around the Farm

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The weeks between Convergence and State Fair were super busy, but I tried to do as many things with Kirby as we could fit it. She learned to spin. As with most beginners the biggest challenge is understanding the relationship between amount of twist necessary to create a stable yarn and the diameter of the yarn. It helps to use fiber that is easy to spin. Carded Jacob fiber fits that criteria.

Of course we spent time with sheep. Jade is always the favorite. We spent every morning that Kirby was here working with the lambs that would be going to the fair. Maybe I didn’t get photos of that.

I wanted to do some dye projects for my fair display. Kirby learned something about preparing indigo for the dye pot.

I do the cold fresh leaf method.

State Fair time is when the blackberries are ripe.

We picked blackberries together.

It is a challenge when we have irrigated because the blackberries are on the other side of the ditch. Its a good thing that I had an extra pair of rubber boots to share.

Kirby and I spent time in the barn sorting and cleaning the horns and skulls to use for our touching table at the fair.

Kirby likes to catch chickens as well as sheep.

Harvest

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I thought I wrote about my mulberry harvest but I can’t find that post so I’ll include it here. I was going to tell the story about harvesting mulberries and dropping the bowl after touching the electric fence and then trying again only to have a sheep tip the bowl over. I’m sure I wrote this post–maybe its the one that as I as writing I ran out of room in my 15 year old free WordPress account and had to figure out what to do. Here’s that story.

The mulberry tree.

I have learned that mulberries ripen over time and you can continue to harvest for quite awhile. The berries fall off very easily when ripe, but that also means that a lot fall simply because it’s windy. Also, this tree is very tall. If I wanted to be serious about the harvest I’d need to put down a clean sheet or tarp and then try hitting the branches with a long tool of some kind. This is not in a convenient spot for that since the branches hang over either side of a fence and the irrigation ditch is under part of it. And don’t forget the electric fence.

I did end up with a couple of pies after two different harvest times.

The idea for this post started because of thinking ahead to the blackberry harvest. I know that the blackberries are usually ripe during State Fair. It looks like we’re right on track for that because they aren’t ready yet. State Fair is at the end of the month.

Look at the harvest that we’ll have–although I can’t reach a lot of those. There happens to be an irrigation ditch in front of this too. It’s dry most of the time, but it still makes it more difficult to reach the top half of these. We’ll be gone for up to a week after the fair so my farm sitters may benefit most from this harvest.

Here’s an unusual harvest. I list puncture vine seedpods on the website for use in craft projects.

There was an order today so I had to go find some more outside the pasture fence.

Dye plant harvest is beginning. I don’t have time to do any trying right now so I’m weighing the fresh flowers and drying them. This is Cosmos. Some of this is for sale here on the website. That is from last fall, but the dried flowers dye just as well as the fresh ones.

Dahlia flowers are also ready to harvest. They will continue to bloom if I can keep up with watering during this heat wave.