I got outside and was able to take a few pictures

 

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry continues to amaze. This photo was taken above Zeus's pen. The tree is still producing ripe fruit. It started in mid-June.

Most of the local wild plums are "spitters". I walked a drain that was lined with American plums and some were worse than others. The biggest problem is that the fruit falls off before it has a chance to lose it bitterness. Selections from other places are better.

Deer have been hammering the aspen suckers coming up in the pasture.

An example of a Basswood that was growing in a fence-row. It was cut and a ring off shoots came up from the stump.

A different tree. I tried to take a picture down the length of the clone to give a sense for how big and sprawling it is.

It seems as if a fellow could plant Basswood (or Linden if you prefer the Euro name) to form the posts for the wall of a living house. Say 4' apart, five along the length and four across the ends for a 12' X 16' hut. Flexible withes could be woven between the trunks and replaced as needed.

It would make a heck of a cool ground-blind for deer hunting!

About 240 hazelnuts. The variety is "Gene" which has Eastern Filbert Blight resistance from an American Hazelnut grandparent. It was growing between a "Jefferson" and "Yamhill" which have partial resistance from "Gassoway"

I am starting to plant hazelnuts into the food-hedge. I am planting nuts from "Gene", "Jefferson" and an un-named seedling. I am digging holes about 30" apart and putting three seednuts in each hole. I am planting them 3" deep.

Small-lot canning update

All tomatoes are Carmelo except the ones in the jar second from left. Those are Orange Icicle. The jars are cloudy due to hard-water deposits.

We abandoned removing tomato skins before canning. Our reasoning is that we eat cherry tomatoes and slicing tomatoes skin-and-all. Removing skins seems like "make-work", digging holes and filling them in.

It doesn't get much easier than this. Remove green cores and the ugliest spots on the skin. Cut the tomatoes in chunks. Add a tablespoon of vinegar. Cold-pack into pints with an inch of head-space. Put them in the "kettle" and process for the appropriate amount of time.

I think I have about three-minutes per jar of my time invested in them. Maybe five minutes if you count the picking.