Gooseberry Bonanza

Take a gander at my goose...berries! I think this is going to be a record harvest! And a good thing, because not only is gooseberry jam my personal favourite, I've addicted my weaving partner to it. But he should be having his own gooseberries to harvest in a few years. I soil-layered a couple of starts for him last fall. Although you can't see the spines in this photo, picking gooseberries is hazardous and must be done with great care. And then there's the matter of topping-and-tailing each individual berry (i.e., cutting off the flower end and the stem) before you can make jam. There are no shortcuts, believe me! I harvest them as they ripen (a subjective matter, that...I pick when they first start to "give" a little when squeezed), and after I've topped-and-tailed them, I cut each one in two and freeze them. Then when the cooler fall weather sets in, I make jam.

In other garden news, I will also have a record crop of figs if all goes well. They're as big as the end of my thumb now, and there must be at least 40 on a six-foot tall tree. The kiwi vines are setting flowers, and I'm hoping the weather doesn't get too hot or too cold before they set fruit. On the other hand, I was terribly disappointed that my purple akebia did not produce a single female flower this year, so there will be no fruit there. The male purple flowers do not pollinate the white females.