Do you need to blanche the grated zucchini before you freeze it? Some veggies have enzymes that cause them to deteriorate, even when frozen, don’t they? Or is grated zucchini OK?

[Karen - I'm not sure biennial is the right term, but some raspberries, along with quite a few other fruit trees/bushes, fruit on the previous year's growth, so it's important not to prune off the new growth. Except for shaping, etc., when you are prepared to accept some loss of fruit for a longer term strategy. Note that this depends to some extent on your type of raspberries as some late croppers fruit on the growth from earlier in the current year.]

We’re going to try a garden next year. I fear our brown thumb abilities (rather than green thumb).

I’m envious of all the berries.

The suggestion (#20) to forgo our own garden and go into the garden-care business for other people sends shivers down my spine! That would make it work! At the moment, gardening is not a chore, it’s a labor of love, and the delicious food is all the payment I desire.

Here’s the recipe for my pickled beans. They usually get rave reviews (alas, not from Jd, who won’t eat green beans– isn’t he picky!) If you like them spicy, you can put a small red chile in each jar.

Pickled Green Beans

2 pounds fresh thin green beans, trimmed
4 large cloves garlic, peeled & smashed
4 tsp. dill seed, or 8 heads fresh dill blossom
4 inch-long pieces of peeled fresh ginger root
4 tsp salt
2 ½ cups white vinegar
2 ½ cups water
Cut green beans to fit inside pint canning jars. This recipe makes 4 pint jars.

Steam the green beans for about 3-5 minutes, until tender but still firm. Plunge into ice water and drain well. (this makes them a bit pliable so they’re easier to work with and also stops enzymatic action so they stay crispier)

Place 1 clove garlic, 1 piece of ginger, 1 tsp salt and dill into each hot, sterilized jar. Pack beans in, trimming any that are a bit too tall.

Heat together vinegar and water until boiling. Pour over beans, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe rims, add lids and bands. Discard any extra vinegar/water or save up to a week in the refrigerator for your next batch.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Allow at least 3 months for the flavor to develop.

I couldn’t help but notice, though, that you don’t seem to be getting much financial renumeration for your time. In fact, based on the numbers you posted, if you take just your gross harvest amount of $349 and divide by total hours spent, 78, this amounts to about $4.47 per hour. If you account for your costs, so far you are losing money for every hour worked. That may change over the next couple months as you continue to harvest.

I know that this wasn’t the point of the original post. But I susupect ultimately you may find you wind up in the hole.

Obviously you enjoy gardening and that plays a role too. But I’d like to pose the question…what if, say instead of working on your own garden, started a business tending other people’s gardens? If you charged $10/hour and spent the same amount of time you’d have gross income of $780 doing something you enjoy anyway….and the expenses would be paid by your clients also.

Just a thought!

For those craving currants, I’d suggest contacting local u-pick places — that’s where we found ours last year. Great for freezer jam. I make it in the bread machine – soooo easy and nothing to heat up the kitchen.

I think one of the great satisfactions is growing food you wouldn’t buy. Would you pay $6 a pound for snow peas? Yikes! But with your own garden, you can snack on them to your heart’s content …

My wife and I don’t have space for a garden so we tend to visit farmer’s markets on the weekends. I much prefer to buy local.

i think what they usually do in the fall is to wait for the plants to dry up a bit, and then cut down to the point just before they see ‘life’ or green… then let them be until spring.
they do the same with their clematis as well – and it sprung back this year with a vengeance.

Interesting book!

I used to drive for 2 hours to a farm to pick up sour cherries, red currant and gooseberries, but passed on it this year – given the prices at the farm and the cost of gas, they might as well be golden.

So does anybody has an explanation why there is such a deficit of these berries in the US?

Where do you live? I know some areas have problems with a virus called “white pine blister rust”, which causes minor problems for currants but is lethal for 5-needle pines. Currants are banned where these pines are grown for lumber. I thought it was only black currants that were banned, but some sources say all currants are forbidden. I got my plants from “One Green World” nursery. I wonder if you could grow a currant bush in a half-barrel….

Having an acre to play with is wonderful. I’m so happy for your bounty and the fresh air and back-to-nature lifestyle it offers you! And all the BERRIES! Yay!

Two reasons, both of them silly:

1. Rosings Park is a location in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, a book that Kris and I (as lit geeks) both love. it’s the home of the pompous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and treated with great reverence by the obsequious Mr. Collins.

2. When we moved in, the property had over 125 rose bushes. (We’ve since given away about half of these plants.)

I’m not sure who suggested it first, but “Rosings Park” seemed like the perfect name, and it’s stuck!

I’m not sure how to best transport them, but if Kris were to make a red currant jam I’d pay handsomely for a jar!

Late, late Fall/early winter: Cut back all canes to knee height…. all of them.

Early Spring, before new growth: Pull out the two year old canes, leaving last year’s new growth. You’ll see what is old, because it will be very dead, brown and easy to remove. Thin as needed (maybe I’m lucky in this regard.

Dave @1: I would assume Rosings Park is in reference to “Pride and Prejudice”.