Soft fruit galore

Other things got in the way of this blog post, but we are having a great year with our soft fruit

Sunday 3rd July - Soft fruit galore

Sue started the job yesterday picking out the one cherry tree that we net. It was a bumper crop, which meant hours of removing cherry stones in the evening.

The picking continued all through Sunday as we methodically worked along the branches of first the gooseberries (thinning earlier in the year really worked as we had giant gooseberries), then the blackcurrants and the whitecurrants. The redcurrants need another week, but my efforts on the raspberry front are now being handsomely rewarded. There were strawberries too, though not the same bumper crop as the other fruits. Every year the strawberries disappoint. One year we'll hit the jackpot.

Overall though we picked and processed 29kg of soft fruit in a weekend. Not bad!

Blackcurrants ready to be bagged up in the freezer

ed Now ten days later and we are still picking raspberries. The summer fruiting canes will be finished soon and the plants are throwing up some very healthy looking shoots which will bear next year's bounty. It won't be long until the autumn fruiting canes are fruiting. It looks like I'll get some fruit from the two new varieties I planted this year - Joan J and All Gold.

The blackberries are, for the first time ever, dripping with fruit, though it will be a while before any are ripe. There are wineberries on the way too and the mulberry bush looks like it will produce enough berries for me to get some before Sue grabs the lot!