On Monday, June 8, I took home another big pile of apricots. Those Chico Bags work great for hauling fruit, as long as you're careful.
As threatened, I set about drying these. Apricots get oxidized, so I used almost a whole jar of lemon juice to rinse them in before drying.
I finshed prepping them and put them in the dryer at about 3:30. I cut each one in half and pitted them. My recipe said to cut them in quarters or turn them inside out, but they came out better when left in halves. The ones that were really icky went in the chicken feed. Other ones were just super ripe and squished, and those I put in the blender. I have a whole jar full of puree to make fruit leather out of.
But by then it was drinking time, so I went to the farm. The recipe said to dry the apricots for 12 to 18 hours, but I didn't get up at 3:30 am, so I just turned it off when I got up the next morning. The apricots still oxidized a bit, which turned them brown, but they taste just fine (according to reports; I don't eat apricots, icky!)
RickC replaced a dead pepper with a Fresno at the end of row 6.
And the plums are almost ripe.
Tuesday was Art Day, so I didn't get any farming in, and on Wed., I took the day off and played The Sims 3 all day.
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Weather Note
The weather has been amazingly cool all week, with some days barely getting to the 70s, and in the high 50s at night. There's a lot of moisture moving thru the air, making it feel very coastal. We even had a little rain last night. The sky has been very dramatic.
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So yesterday, Thurs. June 11, I got back over to the farm.
Bill had gone out and retrieved the big fruit ladder (yay!) and RickC was already picking plums. They are just barely ripe, but that means they aren't squishy yet. They still taste delicious (per reports).
Look at how many there are! Yikes. We're handing them out at our respective work places.
I brought the dried apricots to share around. We ate a bunch right then and there, which is best anyway. I also made some ribs, using an apricot barbecue sauce, which was pretty good.
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What We're Eating
Any bottled barbeque sauce
Equal amount fresh apricot jam
Ribs
Toss the ribs on the barbecue on indirect heat, under 300 degrees.
Cook for about 3 hours, turning occasionally.
Meanwhile, mix the barbecue sauce with the jam.
Turn ribs "right side up" and slather with barbecue jam sauce.
Cook for another half hour or so.
Slice and share in the beer garden!
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The corn RickC planted is up already.
And I didn't think we'd had enough Cantelope/Galia melons sprout up, so I planted some more, and they are up now. Both these pics have my foot in the picture for scale.
The "Big Mama" roma-style tomatoes had been looking poorly: curled up leaves and sparce, leggy growth, but that may just be their habit, because they're setting tomatoes like crazy.
I love how the tomatillos are looking. Pretty soon we'll have more than we do with.
The Rose of Sharons are starting to bloom. Catherine models a blossom.
And I couldn't resist taking a big double shot of the garden in its entirety.
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