Wrapping up August in three words: HOT, DRY and FIGS.
Our watering game was constant to keep our plants and orchard alive. In the garden we are still picking peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers. We've planted a second round of bush beans and climbing beans.
Outside of the garden we are grazing and picking figs daily. We've been busy sun drying a few rounds of figs. It takes about three to four days to dry. We bag and freeze for 24 hours and then sit out to get to room temperature before we place them in the jars to store for winter.
Harvested our apples from a few trees and have a few more we are waiting to collect. Reddish are honey crisp like variety and the granny smiths.
Three plum varieties are nearly ready to pick. Not enough for jam but we may dry a few for the winter.
Speaking of jam we made a few rounds of fig jam and it is amazing.
Art and I walked the garden and found a few surprises. A few pomegranates inside the garden have popped and cracked. The tree is not one we water often, thankful we don't see this in the orchard. We also found a few new chestnut buds that are flowering and the a few walnuts didn't survive the heat.
My sister-in-law and Art collected some thana (cornelius cherries). In previous years we collected thana to ferment for raki but we are still stocked with said raki so this was for pure snacking purposes. Not my (Kim's) favorite but it adds variety.
The grape vines may have suffered the most during this hot summer. Our grapes got hit with a bit of hail in late June and then brutal long days of heat throughout July and August. The results are sad but we will still hand pick for a bit of wine.
Our pomegranate orchard has been watered weekly and the results are in. We've got big robust pomegranates and some baby pom's just starting. Hoping we can start the pick and squeeze season by the end of September.
We've also been enjoying a few new birds that have been hanging around the homestead. Here are a few of our favorite shots from the month.
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