AND HERE THEY ARE!!

Central Ridge from on top of Plank's Pitch

The farmer is harvesting June’s field. They came by the western edge last night – two combines, but as of this writing, that’s as close as they’ve come. They are working over the rise and out of sight, but of course, that will change. They seem to be working quite slowly.

Not close -- but scary anyway

Fall is in the air. A coolish breeze wafts through the trees. The sun is dimmed by smoke and dust. It just feels like harvest, back to school, and football.

Thursday morning, Mike and I carried our picker pails and hooked pole to the black hawthorn tree at the bottom of the lane. Initially, Bess was interested, but when she noticed the pails, she returned to the house without so much as a “by your leave.” Nellie would have enjoyed exploring while we picked, but Bess doesn’t entertain herself.

Harvest begins

We picked a half gallon of haw berries. Back at the house, I cooked the berries for juice. Since making jelly with wild berries isn’t widely practiced, it’s difficult to find advice on how much water to add to the berries. One writer says the berries are juicy so add two to three cups to a half gallon of berries. Another says the berries are mostly seed, so add six cups. Initially, I worked up to four cups of water, which yielded less than two cups of juice. I recooked the pulp with two more cups of water and still barely reached two cups of juice. I think that berries differ from place to place depending upon variety and growing conditions. It’s dry here, so the berries are dry.

It’s also difficult to know how much pectin to use, if any at all. Haws have a lot of pectin, so maybe I shouldn’t add extra. Or, if I don’t add pectin and it doesn’t set up, it’s another dilemma. KW

Little Canyon