There's hope

After the incident with the squirrels and the nectarines, we covered as much fruit as possible with bird netting. We hope that a little deterrent will send the critters to other yards for food (and there's plenty in this neighborhood).

I'm happy to report that we haven't experienced the losses we would have without the netting, and the fruit is ripening on the trees. Thanks to everyone who suggested netting. I'm sorry we didn't take action earlier, but we'll be ready next year.

Here's a photo of a few of the orbs from the garden.


From our garden

See that little orange tomato in the front? It's our first tomato of the season. I have 10 plants in the garden so this is just a teaser before the avalanche.

The apricots are coming along nicely and we've sampled a few. They're really good.

The Independence nectarines are almost ready. They really do ripen around the 4th of July, how about that? We've eaten a few of those too and they're really juicy and sweet. No wonder the birds and squirrels are enjoy them so much.

And finally, I thought I'd share a photo of a pie I made. The recipe is from a King Arthur Flour handout that I received at a traveling baking demo last year. It was after that demo that I conquered my fear of making pie crusts. This pie was frozen, then a week later it was thawed and baked. The crust wasn't soggy at all and the pie was (if I do say so myself) perfect! There's one more in the freezer. :)


Apple-Cranberry Pie