The most delicious raspberries ever known to man.  I put them in two years ago.  Got about a dozen last year about 2 quarts.  I also have tons of wild black raspberries all over the place, made lots of jam, pies, etc.  And just this year I discovered the Mother Lode of blackberries, these wild berries have been left to their own devices who knows HOW long and are huge.

Here’s my lima beans, and a shot of the expensive solar-powered electric fence that doesn’t keep anything out.  That equipment to the left is the solar panel that keeps it charged, and it sure shocks ME if I touch it. Not so much the groundhogs or deer.  I have gotten out the Havaheart trap for the groundhogs.  The deer will just have to wait until hunting season to die!

And here boys & girls, are the branches from actual trees that I cut while trimming the property last fall.  However we try to save EVERYTHING and now they’re the trellis for the King of the Garden limas.   Just my way of keepin’ it green!..and saving dough.

My tomatoes from the “Back forty”.  This is a piece of ground right by the creek, so I always risk flooding…nothing this year, though. The soil is a lot less clay-y, and the tomatoes are doing…OK.  About 50 plants, there are lots of the paste kind for sauce, 8 or 10 beefsteak just for lunches during the summer, and I’m trying a new variety, Brandywine Red.  The first tomato was one of those, and it tasted pretty darn good.

I started these pumpkins, squashes and melons pretty early but they didn’t do well once they outgrew their pots…anyway they also didn’t take well at all to being transplanted.  Next year I’m using those jiffy pots.  Hope to get SOMETHING, the large plant is a Big Max pumpkin (or Dill’s Atlantic Giant, I can’t remember which), the smaller one to the left is butternut squash.  I also have some melons…

Look closely boys and girls, that may be the only melon I get.  it’s a varitey called Minnesota Midget, developed for far nothern climes (which we seem to be in) and they are supposed to mature very rapidly.  Started these early, too.  Actually that particular melon isn’t even big enough for me to determine whether it was fertilized.

More pics next week!

Just wondering if you wanted to share your thoughts on a couple of questions:

1. What do you like about the Mountain?

     2.What don’t you like about the Mountain? 

     3.  What songs or artists would you like to hear more or less of on the Mountain?

While you enjoy the Prime  Cuts weekend you will undoubtedly be cued or encouraged to contemplate what it means to be an American.  This isn’t a politicle essay.  2 wars and a bad economy that is too slow in recovery for anyone’s comfort has produced an angry environment.  We’re not tolerant of opinions that differ from our own no matter what that opinon may be.  So I’ll let the Nicholas Brothers speak for me.

The Nicholas Brother were grew up in early 20th century Philadelphia.  Sons of a musician father i suspect they were neither poor nor wealthy.  Like most in the middle class their comfort level and standard of living ebbed and flowed.  The Nicholas Brothers could dance.  They were part of the jazz revolution in New York and were mainstays at the Cotton Club.  If you saw David Lee Roth in his prime his stage presence was an outgrowth of the Nicholas Brothers.  Roth borrowed heavily from Peter Wolf,  who borrowed heavily from James Brown, who was the Nicholas Brothers incarnate. 

I don’t know if either Fayard or Harold harbored a secret ambition to be a doctor, lawyer or teacher.  When you see them dance I am sure you will agree  that no one could possiblybe that good at anything if they didn’t really love it.  They had to love it in order to put the time and sweat into achieving the level of greatness they reached.  They also had to live in a place where they were free to pursue their passion.   The clip bellow is from the movie Stormy Weather.   This is what freedom looks like.  Enjoy!

Happy 4th,

LF