In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen

Two of the fruit harvests finished last week. The Dorsett Golden espaliered apple tree provided 25 pounds of fruit. There will likely be a second smaller crop in the fall. About two-thirds has been processed but the apples hold well in the fridge.

The apricot tree yielded 50 pounds this year compared with 120 pounds last year. One tree died over the winter and another is waning. We did plant a replacement early low-chill apricot in January.

Apricot jam was a morning’s project last week. Only one batch this year with the smaller harvest.

Rhubarb is a great extender. My best example is a triple berry jam which also includes some rhubarb. The berries dominate but I don’t need as many. This week it extended various fruit sauces frozen for the next three seasons.

Fruit sauces for the freezer: apricot-applesauce, rhubarb-applesauce and rhubarb-guava-applesauce.

We gather enough strawberries for breakfast or a mixed fruit salad most days. The first marionberry ripened last week. It was perfect. We’re now hoping for sunny weather to decrease the chances of botrytis, a fungal disease which has taken the crop some years under cool, humid conditions. Predictions suggest sun and 70 degrees this week.

I pulled a few of the January planted Bolero carrots. The seed was pelletized and the rains plentiful. Some of the nicer carrots I’ve grown in recent years.

Coming attractions—nectaplums

The last of the delphiniums for a Fourth of July bouquet.

Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I transition to summer in the garden. Then head to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres Blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.

To leave a comment, click on “Leave a comment/Show comments,” enter the comment, then insert your name. Finally, click on “Comment as Guest” to post comment.