Luscious berries & chomper the apple helper

I had a little "me" time which I utilized for picking blueberries at The Blueberry shack. They are at $1.40 per pound this year. In about 1 hour, I had 7 1/2 lbs picked. The annoying flies and rising heat put a stop to my goal of 10 lbs.

Once home, they went right in the freezer and I went right to the Blackberry canes with Frog & The Captain in tow. We picked about 3/4 of a gallon in 1/2 hour. The trees which line the property perimeter helped shade us from the sun, making the picking much more enjoyable.

I grabbed my much inspired colander berry picking set up, inspired by the very much missed & loved Matty from Dog fight cove. I thought of them all as I picked those berries. Despite the sadness & loss I feel for all who Love & miss him, I smiled thinking of how he inspired me from so far away with his blueberry picking set up- minus the Mt. dew. It is one of my favorite "antic" pictures of him. I am ever so thankful for their blog. In so many ways they have shared & given inspiration. smiles. tears. gains & losses.

without sounding too stalkish here....I love you Dog Fight Cove!

Beside the canes which are in a "must wear pants & shoes" area, we gleaned every ripe blackberry in sight. The Captain was amazed, as was I, over the amount we have here. Looks like I will be making some Blackberry wine this year.

I must update you on one of the projects I have been working on with Chris, over at the 1 acre homestead. Well, he has done most of the work. I just kinda keep him company and get to play with a few tools when I can grab them away.

Can you guess what this is for?

Yep. It is the half way done apple grinder. That would be a very old hard wood rolling pin, picked up from the thrift store to use for the main smasher head. Of course it all looks rather naked at moment. We still have the stainless steel screws to put on the rolling pin, add the hopper head and of a few other things.

We are almost completely done with the apple cider press. We brainstormed together and I do believe have come up with not only a hardy press but one of low expensive. Once it has gone through the trial run, I will report back our findings and how to make one yourself. It really is not as hard as I thought it would be. but of course, he does most of the work which may be why I feel that way.

Apple's are abundant on these tree's. Seeing them everyday makes the anticipation to play with the press even harder. I do believe I will use it with the pears for making pear juice. Makes for a great thickening agent additive for soups & stews.

Now to dust off the old water bath canner so I can make Blackberry jam as the rain pours this week.

Sweet dreams,

~Tammie