Gooseberries

For those of you who aren't familiar with gooseberries, you're missing out! I had forgotten about this yummy little berry until I was looking for plants online and remembered eating these at my great aunts when I was very young. They're really like no other berry you've ever tried. Tart but unusual. So, I had to order a couple plants for my garden. And, too my delight I already have 3 berries on one plant. Hopefully the birds won't eat them before I can.

Gooseberries have high nutritional value. They contain vitamins A and C and potassium, and are a good source of fibre.

Now, it doesn' t look like I'll get a big crop of berries this year, but next year look out! I'll be making this chutney:

Gooseberry Chutney

3 lb gooseberries

1/2 lb onions

1 lb sugar

1/2 pint water

1/2 oz salt

1 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 pint vinegar

Top and tail the berries, and chop roughly. Chop the onions finely and cook with the berries in the water until they are well softened. Add the other ingredients, and simmer until the chutney becomes thick, stirring occasionally. Bottle while hot and cover immediately.

This chutney, yielding about 4.5 lbs becomes more mellow in flavor the longer it is kept.

SOURCE: http://www.gingerich.com/recipes/gooseberry.html

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Blueberries, Indoor Tomato Plants & Garden Pics

Got some long awaited plants in last week: Hotel Giant Blueberries, Indoor Tomato Plants and Scarlet Bee Balm. They came from Gardener's Choice and though it took a while to get my order I am very pleased with the plants. They are taking off nicely. They do offer a free wildflower seed packet with every order and if you go to samples you can get more free seeds. Shipping was a little slow but I expect that when ordering live plants because they really do have to wait until the plants are mature enough to ship.

I ordered the indoor tomato plants hoping to get tomatos all year but I'm not sure if it will work. Right now I have them outside in hanging baskets so they will grow bigger but with any luck this winter they will produce in my sunroom. I got another product called a fruit salad tree. It came dormant. I planted it but I'm not sure when it will get leafy. It's supposed to produce 5 different kinds of fruits. How exciting is that? I'm sure it will be years before I see any fruit but it'll be well worth the wait to see what happens.

Indoor Tomato Plants (got 3)

Blueberries

Scarlet Bee Balm- Butterflies and bees love this stuff and it's so pretty!

My red rose bush. You can see the recycled rubber mulch in the background. This stuff looks so good. It's a little more expensive than regular mulch but is earth friendly and should last for about 12 years.

When catnip goes wrong!

I had to post this picture. I grew my own catnip this year from seed and the cats are loving it. They were just rolling around having a blast and then it got ugly!

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