Haskaps, Part 1

The haskap harvest has begun. We'll top last year, but still will not have enough for Haskap Wine. Likewise, we won't have enough Jostaberries.  So I'm thinking this year we'll do an Estate Quadberry Wine...blackberries, elderberries, haskaps, and jostaberries.

Stained fingers are a good thing.

Gymnocladus dioicus

Many years ago, a friend of mine tried to create an arboretum on his property.  With enthusiasm he bought 800 whip seedlings from the DNR and set out to plant them around his property.  He selected good trees, but he ran out of steam after planting about 700 and gave me the remainder.  It was late in the year, too late to plant them out, so I heeled them in out by the Dawn Redwoods, in a huge pile of mulch.
By the time spring rolled around again, all of my friends trees had succumbed to the lawn mower. But my trees were still kicking.  Some of those trees never left the site of the mulch pile, and now are competing for space with M. glyptostroboides.  But I planted out half a dozen of the Kentucky Coffee Trees.  Most have grown 2 feet per year to 30-35 feet, only one has flowered (sparsely, last year), and they are grand specimens.

But one little tree insists on doing her own thing.

This tree I'm estimating at 14 feet, less than half the growth rate of the others. The other thing that is special about her is that she has bloomed.  Not just a little, but a lot, and for years.

I have no idea whether we have anything special here or not.  I found one picture on flickr of a dwarf Kentucky Coffee Tree at the Minnesota Arboretum, but the shape of that tree is nothing like mine. I've emailed a horticulturist friend to see if he can help.

Spring Pizza

Today was cool and rainy.  We worked in the greenhouse.  Cherimoyas have started blooming, but I cut them back severely, as they get so long and lanky.  Sprayed everything with Neem, as we have a bit of scale here and there.  We may have our first Brewster lychees, but too early to jinx it with a pic. The first round of jaboticabas is starting to ripen.

For supper we made cauliflower crust pizzas.  One was an adaptation of "spinoccoli" and the other a traditional vegetarian.

As usual, first the cauliflower is pulverized into "rice," then cooked.  Afterwards, the water is pressed out by squeezing it in towels.  The new twist on this version is ground almonds.  We mixed it up and pressed it into crusts.

Then the toppings.  The spinoccoli used a garlic white sauce we made.

8 minutes at 400 degrees.  The tomato sauce pizza was a little soupy.

The pizzas tasted great with our 2014 Elderberry Rosé. We were surprised at how good this wine was, fruity and dry.

Summer Wines

I have particularly high hopes for the Lychee Wine

One week each year...

Outside it may be the best week of the year.  Haskaps continue to bloom, as do the Hellebores. Today nothing is prettier than the Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Toyo-Nishiki.’ The viburnum in front of the house is doing its thing, filling the air with a beautiful scent in spite of the 30pmh winds.  Not sure of the species, but I suspect V. carlesii.

We pruned up the Seven Sons Flower, Heptacodium miconioides.  We've grown this one to about 10 feet. It had some ugly water sprouts which we let go too big.  We cleaned it up and it looks great.

We spread several carts of mulch. Lisa puts in on thicker than I do, and I'm grateful for that. However, she has determined that the crabapples must go. I disagree. For one week each year they make a deposit and then they live off of that deposit until this time next year.

Lisa next to one of the trees she wants to remove

RIP Kari

It is a good day for some greenhouse work, rainy and cold.  For the most part, the greenhouse is coming alive.  There is mostly good news.

It looks like we may have our first Psidium myrtoides, purple guava.  Grown from seed given to me by Sadhu at Govardhan Gardens, these plants are probably 4 years old.  They have proven extremely difficult to manage in containers, with a pendulous habit and a stubborn refusal to grow as a tree.  The first one bloomed a few weeks back and it looks like we got fruit set.  Too early to jinx it with pictures.

I've found the key to T.R.Hovey papaya, and that is heat...aimed directly at the pot.

 

Lychees are blooming, and for the first time, some overlap between Sweetheart and Brewster.  I'm not convinced I'll have any fruit set yet.

One little limeberry is pumping out fruit like crazy.  A few ounces last year went into the Tutti Fruiti wine.  We should have a bit more this year.

And finally, RIP Kari.

Spring Cleaning

Last weekend we bottled 3 gallons each of lychee, starfruit, and lemongrass mint wine.  The starfruit and lemongrass are sound, but the lychee is potentially really good.  We'll hold these for summer - the pool opening is just 3 weeks away.

Lisa is thrilled to be bottling

We have been busier in the yard than in the cellar.  Beautyberries and grasses are cut back, amsonia cleaned up, we've gotten through the first round of weeding.  I realized that for the last couple of years I've been spraying my agastache 'Honey Bee Blue' thinking it was a weed. It seems pretty widespread, so I suspect it'll be back one place or another.

Mulch started going down yesterday.  The pearlbushes made it through their first winter.  They look a little lonely but with a final height of 10' I'm not going to be too impatient.

Three little pearlbushes (two shown)

We've discovered that the self-seeded asparagus wakes up a little earlier than the original behind the chicken coop.  The first shoots of the season have been eaten, looking forward to more.

I hacked paths into the blackberries so hopefully the harvest will be easier.

Haskaps are blooming.  I ordered 5 more plants to fill in the little bed east of the garage.  I can already taste the 2018 haskap wine.