The truth about Zumpkins

Family reunion - a selection of pepos and crosses. 

Here's a question you hear a lot:

"My zucchini looks funky. Did it cross with my melon?"

"Will my pumpkins and cucumbers cross if I grow them together?"

"Are my melons not sweet because I grew them with cucumbers?"

"Could my butternut have crossed with my pumpkin and that's why it is ripening/growing/looking weird?"

Okay, I admit that I am paraphrasing somewhat but these are all inspired by real life questions I have read or seen or answered on countless occasions. So to set the record straight, I give you the truth about the zumpkin.


Immature pumpkin scarred by design and by that I mean that we etched this face into it when it was green on the vine not that we intended on hurting it emotionally... 

Not all vines are created equal

I'm not suggesting that they fall into a heirarchy; what I'm referring to is how closely related they are. Cucumbers, melons, squash, zucchinis, pumpkins and more might look similar in that they are all leafy vines that produce (mostly) yellow flowers of which the female flowers swell into fruits but this does not mean that they can all cross.

In fact, crossing is usually only restricted to members of the same species. Just like how a rabbit must mate with another rabbit not a monkey to produce fertile offspring even though both rabbits and monkeys are mammals. (No jumping ahead, we'll talk about interspecies crossing in a minute.)

Plant: Genus species

Cucumbers: Cucumis sativa
Melon: Cucumis melo
Armenian cucumber: Cucumis melo (see it's tricky sometimes)
Watermelon: Citrullus lantana
Many (but not all) zucchini: Cucurbita pepo
Most halloween pumpkins: Cucurbita pepo (hence zumpkins)
Squash: Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita maxima, etc...*

That's not to mention gourds (some decorative gourds are actually pumpkins), other things called melons and some more unusual cucumber like things such as mouse melon, aka Melothria scabra.

The more closely related something is, the more likely it can cross assuming that the reproductive mechanisms are conducive to such a union and there no other barriers. Peas, for example, don't tend to cross because they self pollinate even before the flower opens giving the bees no chance to create mayhem**! The vining crops mentioned above, on the other hand, are busy with pollen dusted buzzers moving between plants so cross pollination most certainly can happen if it is possible.

If they have the same Genus and species such as a pattypan and spaghetti squash and zucchini, they can easily create cross cultivar hybrids***. Some people let same species cross on purpose or just because they don't care but if you want to keep your seed pure, you have to isolate your varieties.

Sometimes you even get an wide-cross which is a cross between two different species. This is more likely between closely related species such as two types of Cucurbits rather than between a cuke and a watermelon. To go back to our mammal examples, sometimes you see a zonky (zebra + donkey) but no elephantice (elephant + mice)****. This species hopping hanky-panky is actually quite infrequent and apparently highly cultivar dependent according to what I've read (see link below).


Romanpan f1 = Romanesco x Patty Pan

Naughty neighbours?

What this does NOT mean is that if you are growing an Armenian cucumber beside your pickling cucumber that the fruit that forms will be some crazy mix between the two. It won't. Instead you will get just what you expect EVEN though you are growing two varieties.

The first year you grow two potentially cross pollinating plants will give you no pumpkin surprise. Honest. Growing pumpkin beside your zucchini will give you pumpkins on your pumpkin plant and zucchinis on your zucchini plant. Yup. Boring.


Patty Pan x Halloween Pumpkin = warty dumpling and ribbed white or Hallopans collectively

Hiding in the Seed

Actually not so boring. Those plants might be hiding a secret in the seed. You see, the next year when you grow out your pumpkin seeds, you may get fruit that doesn't look anything like you were expecting. It is year two that you get the Zumpkin.

Busy Bees pepo cross:


All together now: Romanpan f1 -> Romanesco -> patty pan -> halloween pumpkin -> Hallopan f1

To illustrate, in 2012, I grew white pattypans, romanesco and halloween pumpkins: all Cucurbita pepo. Some of my white pattypans were tossed to the chickens. The next year 2013, I moved their chicken run and out of it grew a great mound of volunteer pumpkin vines. Off the vines sprouted mainly what looks like pattypan x romanesco but there were also a few pattypan x pumpkin. I love the white pattypans not as immature little roasters but because they store exceptionally well mature holding their texture. We keep them in the cellar, peel and use as winter zucchini.  However, the shape is annoying as you have cut off a lot of the flesh. The chance cross of romapan-pattyesco gave me a better shape. We'll see if it stores and tastes as good.

From further a field, some pumpkin pollen made it to a pattypan flower creating a couple other variations which I'm less interested in but they look neat. Here's one below with a very thick hard rind but decent texture. Flavour is average zuke.

Now, I didn't isolate as I didn't realize what I had until later but I intend on saving seeds, growing out and doing some selection in years to come.


Inside one of the hallopans that we ate for supper. It's flesh was very pale but cooked up a bit darker. It held its texture well and tasted just fine.

A whole lot about Cucurbita seed production

* You are likely to grow these kinds but there are others as squash is a moniker given to a lot of fruit.
** That's not to say that crossing never happens and I seem to remember a reference to nectar stealing insects in beans that can trip up self pollination at the source which might also happen in peas. If you really, really want pure varieties of peas, there are suggested isolation distances.
*** Did you say hybrid?
Yes I did.
Aren't hybrids bad?
Depends on what you mean. A hybrid is just the crossing of two varieties. Anytime you don't isolate two cultivars of the same species, you might get a hybrid.
But?
Yes, agricultural hybrids that don't breed true and force people to buy their seed again so they become dependent on the system have drawbacks. That's the hybrid that people rally against in favour of what they call OP - open pollinated. The kind of hybrid above is just kooky. You are welcome to save seeds from it but no guarantees about what offspring you'll get. That's true of most commercial hybrids by the way too. Which is not to say that you can't try to select and stabilize a new OP variety from your crazy mix. That's fun too.
**** Yeah, yeah. I know. There are several reasons for that.

Collecting Hablitzia Seed

Hablitzia plant on the north side of a shed.

Have you heard? My Hablitzias have set seed and they look good! You haven't heard? That surprises me considering how loud I shouted when I discovered it but maybe you were listening to music or something or mistook me for an angry raven. Anyhow, on the off chance, you haven't heard:

"My Hablitzia tamnoides gave me seed!!"


Closeup of seedpods and seed.

You don't know what I'm talking about? Spinach from the Caucasus? Perennial, shade tolerant green? Our friend Habby. Stephen Barstow is always going on about it.

Stephen? Extreme salad man? Okay so now you're intrigued.

Let's go back to the Habby seeds.

Aren't they lovely?


Before I winnow, I'm going to let it dry down a bit more but looks promising.

Next year, all going well, Habby plants will be exiting my greenhouse (still under construction and by under construction I mean shovel yet to hit the dirt but I have days marked off on my calendar so soon) in the spring for sale. Woohoo!

***

Friends of Hablitzia

Edible Landscaping Community - Condo Complex

A big rock that was dug out when putting in the path. Also visible left to right: temporary planting of peppers, gold leaf anise hyssop, lovage, kale. 

The condo board agreed that their landscaping - which consisted of some rough lawn, a few shrubs teetering on piles of dirt and perennials crowded in front of their entrance sign - needed a bit of freshening up. Resident Patricia suggested they try edible landscaping.

Now, it is my suspicion that though everyone was more or less fine with the concept that they let Patricia go ahead with her unorthodox plan because she has an infectious enthusiasm. Sonia figured this meant some nasturtiums but was happy that it ended up being "more than I imagined."

The core team: Krystal, Sonia and Patricia standing in a path designed with an inverted mirror image pattern.

I met with them for the first time on a cool morning just after the snow pack had melted to be confronted with a patch of barely lawn covered in gravel from snow clearing that I was assured would be vacuumed up shortly. It was perfect: full sun, lots of access and lots of space. We discussed some possibilities then I went to work.

It needed to be neat, attractive and contain edibles that were not too far off what people would recognize as edible. A mixture of common cooking herbs like oregano, thyme and sage, perennial edibles like monarda, anise hyssop, sorrel and lovage and some complementary temporary plantings like nasturtium (just as Sonia thought), kale and chard found their place on a flowing framework.


Some perennials, such as Echinacea, that were rearranged in front of the sign spilling over to create bee habitat foraging on the other side too, and some low growing herbs. 

I suggested that we use sheet composting as a method to build the garden bed as they didn't have any serious weeds. It requires less work, less materials and doesn't remove the existing fertility or overly stir the soil's weed-seed bank. I think they were okay with the 'less work' plan. Soil and mulch was ordered and plants were sourced. Some came from Aster Lane Edibles - the biz - and some from local nurseries.


Krystal with a purple carrot from one of the resident's gardens.

Dig day was a beautiful day in late spring. The shape of the garden was cut a week or so beforehand. Though I provided drawings, I like to finalize the shape on the ground. Subtle (and not so) changes in elevation and other idiosyncracies can be better incorporated this way. I find it helps to remain flexible during the installation phase. For example, the perennials in front of the condo sign were very crowded, including a clump of iris that had been infested with borer. These had not been included in the original design but were easily incorporated in pleasing geometrical patterns, that enhanced the design, on the day. Also digging out the paths revealed a huge rock which became a focal ornament.

The core team of Crystal, Ashley, Patricia and Sonia worked tirelessly throughout the day removing half dead junipers with roots that seemed twisted to the centre of the earth, lugging endless wheelbarrow loads of soil and mulch and finally planting. I love it when clients work with me. This was truly a community effort!


Delicious empanadas made by Patricia from fresh kale and chard from the entrance garden.

Those little starts grew quickly in the plentiful rain and good soil. When I returned, even I was impressed by how wonderful the garden looked. There was a lot of love being dug into this garden. I asked them what the rest of the residents thought of their new garden. "Appreciation is high but participation is more of a challenge but people are slowly getting on board with lending tools and planting their own gardens," said Sonia.

"Communication is key. People don't know what to pick and when. I didn't know what everything was," said Crystal, who refers to the Anise Hyssop as Bee Palace - this must be my favourite nickname for the plant because the bees really do love it.


The kids know where the strawberries are.

"People are interested in food," said Patricia referring to the many new gardens that are popping up all over the complex. "They are putting in their own gardens." The remaining mulch and soil was offered to the rest of the residents. Many of whom were making good use of it.


Mint in another garden that has sprung up in the condo complex taking over a place that other plants found difficult.

Sonia took me around to show me some rain barrels that were being attached to the sides of the housing units at the end of redirected downspouts. They also showed me some more garden spaces that were filling in with flowers and food. We spoke about plans for expansion next year.


Patricia's raised bed garden in another part of the common ground growing some onions.

That first garden was a seed that was planted and grew into a community effort to make beautiful use of their common ground. I am honoured to be part of it.

Business Update!

Once upon a time there was a blog. It was new and fun and the creator was updating regularly - like twice week. People would comment and she would comment on their blogs. It was great. The world was good and then something happened. The blogger did not post a single post in the whole month of August. What! Why? Didn't the blogger still love her blog? Wasn't the blog still fun? Still exciting? What did the blog do to deserve this kind of treatment?

"It's not you blog. It's me. You see, I've been busy volunteering at the Canadian Organic Growers - OSO Chapter Demonstration Garden, chatting with friends on my new group Edible Ottawa Gardens Group and then there is my business."

"What business?" Asks the blog. "Aren't I your business?"

"Not that kind of business. The professional kind."

"You'd like it. It's called Aster Lane Edibles and I'm going to link to you and everything. Oh and there's  the greenhouse I need to put up once my formerly NGS (non gardening spouse)* moves his woodpile."



"So you've just been busy?"

"Yes, with the business and the groups and the children; The baby just turned one. Just busy. It's not that I don't love you anymore. I figured our relationship was strong enough to withstand a momentary absence. Twitter on the other hand has something to complain about..."

* Non Garden Spouse has earned the title Will Garden Occasionally Spouse but that's a clumsier title so I'm just going to call him FNGS

Garden to StomachA holistic approach with the Higgs

Plums plumping up in the holistic orchard.

It’s always great when people who you meet on the internet live close enough that you can pop by for a visit. This is the case for the Higgs that live a little over three hours South-west of me. I can’t remember our first conversation, whether it was about rare fruits, mycorrhizal associations, raised beds, reskilling or fruit tree propagation or perhaps it was some happy union of all those things. Mike is one of those rare growers who stares tradition in the face and decides whether or not it’s being honest. He’s a researcher and an experimenter reading about past and present gardening trends, then trying them out in his garden to see if they accomplish the goals of feeding his family without unnecessary work. 

They draw inspiration from a variety of sources including John Jeavons (growing fertility and nutrition), Emilia Hazelip (low soil disturbance), Massanobu Fukuoka (work with nature and do as little as possible) and Mel Batholemew (intensive planting in raised beds).

Tell us about your farm:


There orchards and other tree plantings include many unusual fruits and nuts.

North of the Saint Lawrence, in South-Eastern Ontario’s rolling hills is the Higgs farm: a diverse planting of fruits, nuts, perennials and vegetables. Planted in mulched circles are an abundance of crops from perennial ground cherry to young heartnuts surrounded by tumbling squash. Laid out in staggered rows is the formal orchard, now inspired by Michael Phillips’ The Holistic Orchard, that includes rare fruits for these parts such as quince, medlar, persimmon and beach plum. Just beyond is a row of willow and poplar, propagated by softwood cuttings, that is being grown to produce ramial woodchips for the orchard and craft material. It is banked by a mulched and Dutch while clover covered berm to capture the water and direct it to the willow roots instead of it draining away downhill. Just in front of the big bay window of their home are a series of raised beds with fruit crops like haskaps and raspberries and traditional vegetables like potatoes, beets, carrots, and parsnips. There are also more rare items such as perennial wheat and rye from Tim Peters.

In the beginning:

Cutting trails in their back forest shortly after they moved to their new country home in 2008, they found a beautiful, unblemished yellow apple. “It was a potentially superior apple from one of the wild trees.” Mike wanted to propagate it but knew that he would need rootstock. "Getting some was a problem because there's little available in Canada for the small grower. Learning how to graft and produce more rootstock wasn't as big a problem although few bother with these skills anymore." He begin to research and One Thing Lead to Another. This is the title of his blog where he details experiments on how to propagate plants by techniques such as trench layering and root cuttings among other things.


Raised beds with veggies, some small fruit and a propagation bed for root stock.

Joyce’s early attempts at vegetable growing were also frustrating. Turning up the soil in what had been an old grazing field for llifestock awoke every thistle imaginable from slumber. It took hours to weed around a few strawberries. “This was not what I had signed up for,” said Joyce. Then they learned about square foot gardening  and mulching. They consider mulching an extremely essential and often overlooked part of gardening “Look at this soil,” Mike says as he pulled back the weed excluding mulch to show moist workable soil. Joyce now shares what she has learned in a column in The Link, a magazine ‘celebrating a creative lifestyle’ in the area. She also sells some plants and preserves at the farmer’s market.

The Orchard:


Concentric mulch circles of pea gravel for drainage and to prevent critter nests and mulch to encourage beneficial fungal associations. 

Though they have planted trees throughout their ten acres including butternuts and red maples in the back bush and fruit and nut trees such as mulberry, sea buckthorn, University of Saskatchewan cherries, hazelnuts, heartnuts, hardy kiwi, Virburnums, rosehips along the embankment in front of their house, up the driveway and in the fields, their holistic orchard catches the eye right away. With the help of a WWOOFer, the conventional orchard of staggered rows of young trees was modified this year based on the holistic ideas of Michael Phillips. It was mulched with an inner ring of pea gravel for drainage and to give rodents no nesting material and an outer ringof ramial woodchips to foster mutualistic fungal relationships important to tree health. The mycorrhizae get food in the form of carbohydrates from the plant’s photosynthesis and the plant gets access to water and nutrients from an expanded root system. Plants may then be healthier and more resistant to drought.


Willow cuttings beside white clover planted berm.

When I asked why he liked holistic orchardist Phillips’ approach, Mike said, “When I read the word balance, I said, ah-hah. That’s what it’s about. If I get rid of all the aphids, the ladybugs have no food and they disappear as well. If I want ladybugs to keep the aphids under control naturally, I need some aphids." Around the concentric circle plots of trees is a wildflower meadow to increase biodiversity in order to attract a permanent population of pollinators and predatory of pollinators and predatory insects. Along with Coreopsis and Echinacea, the so-called weeds such as mullein, oxeye daisy, bladder campion and Queen Anne's lace flourish in this unmown area. They have also included nutrient accumulators such as nettle and comfrey to act as a source for chop-and-drop mulch, compost teas and soil drenches. 


Squash growing near a heartnut in the open field. Note the mulch under plants.

Away from the orchard, in the uncut areas of the field, he is even experimenting with planting unruly vegetables such as squash and tomatoes in ways that minimally disturb the soil.  For example, squash is planted by laying down a thick layer of wetted and compressed grass clippings followed by a layer of partially finished compost and then a 3 inch layer of mature, plant-based compost for seeds to germinate in. As soon as the seeds are upping and growing, more mulch is added. The squash vines wander where they want beyond their mulched cradle.

This technique aligns well with the Organic Creed of feeding the soil. In order to avoid too much importing of materials, Mike is looking into plants that produce high biomass such as sterile Miscanthus giganteus, and fast growing woodies to coppice like poplar and willow.

Plans to expand: 

Lining the wrap around porch are pots of all shapes and sizes with plants and cuttings growing until they are big enough to join the lush gardens below.

One detail that I was particularly interested in was the trenching bed where he produces more rootstock to graft on rare scion wood. In a raised bed (constructed of pressure treated wood lined on the inside with vapour barrier to keep the wood and soil from being in contact)* he lays the bare root stock tree on its side, coaxing the branches upwards. Hopefully these branches will root enough that they can be detached as whole trees. "The beds are filled with pure plant compost which is very rich. It's also very friable which allows trees to be dug up easily and without damage." 


Propagation bed for root stock and more.

You can tell he is developing a feel for when a plant part will sprout roots. He speaks of dormancy and the energy burst that occurs when plants emerge.. He points out suckers coming from the rootstock of various trees with obvious glee.

Food Forests


Nice thornless blackberry being prolific

I asked him what he thought about food forests. “I’m interested in getting what’s out there in here,” he said as he points to the garden then pats his stomach. “Food forests have some problems in cold climates. It is different from warm regions where food can be grown all year round, even parts of Europe. Here, we have to store nutrition to take us through the winter. Perennial vegetables are heavy on greens that don't store well, and those that do may be difficult to harvest. The vegetables that store well are mostly annuals - root vegetables, squash, beans and corn. These are the vegetables grown by Carol Deppe, author of The Resilent Gardener."

He also talks about the importance of finding ways to incorporate staple annual vegetables into permaculture designs in our climate. Another part of the Higgs equation is that they are really interested in using what they grow and growing what they need.  Using the square foot gardening techniques advanced by Mel Bartholomew, Joyce intensively plants exactly the quantities of carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnip that she thinks they will need through the winter.

They own several canners, an oil press and a hand grain mill. The basement has a couple good-sized cellars for storing vegetables – Joyce showed me some nice looking daikon radishes in sand from last year – and canned goods.


A precocious seedling hazelnut producing very early.

Though Mike’s fruit and nut tree collection continues to grow, he is scaling back the vegetable varieties he uses to those that he thinks are most useful for winter and store well. 

I asked him about grains and he gave me an interesting answer. “I had discarded the idea as I didn’t want to till the soil and unleash the thistles as well as being dependent on fossil fuel or having to learn about horses but then I read about perennial grains. If they can produce a useful crop without soil disturbance, they could be useful for the home grower.”

One thing leads to another really does sum up their gardening journey to date. To quote Mike, “It’s a process of discovery, of finding ways to do conventional things in unconventional ways that are regenerative, tread lightly on the land and are minimally disturbing to Nature”


Mike examining some of his sprouts.

More Links (and some I've repeated because they are so good):

http://www.groworganicapples.com/
Ramial Woodchips
Mycorrhizal Fungi
One Thing Leads to Another (Mike Higgs blog)

* Here is a pinterest on raised beds but I'm sure you can find numerous designs. I’ve begun to make a propagation bed myself, lined with harvested softwood trunks infilled with leaf mould and other organic matter.

Starting summer carrots

In descending order, here is when my sown carrot seeds work best:

1. First thing in the spring when the soil is wet and moist

2. In the fall (yeah some of mine wait until spring)

3. Second thing in the spring before the seedling eaters are out in force

4. Fall when the ground cools slightly and the rain falls. 

5. Summer - sporadically.

So yes, summer is not a no-fail time for me. Partly it is due to way I culture.* I don't irrigate because we are on a well and my gardens are not all at house distance anyhow. Soil in most of the garden plots is sandy too which is great for root crops generally but crummy for germination when it is dry like in the height of summer. As well, earwigs are in their prime right now patrolling the ground for any juicy seedling foolish enough to break dormancy. 

I have considered pre-sprouting carrot (parsley and other umbillifer) seeds before but the oft' talked about germination board just sounds like an earwig B&B. As my spring sprinkling of carrots is showing weakly, I figured I'd try and grow more using some new techniques:

They can be broken down into ways to a) speed germination and b) pre sprout.

Speed Germination

a. Shock seeds into growth: freeze or boil. One assumes that this breaks the seed coat to allow in water and therefore germination rather than apocalyptic temperature changes being enticing.

b. Imbibition (or soaking in plain speech)


Hot water and regular water. The hot water is coloured like tea. Cool!

Pre-spouting

a. Baggie Method followed by The starch bowl: pre sprout on paper towels then make seed pudding for planting. Yes, seriously. Go check it out.

b. Fluid seeding (similar to starch bowl)

c. The cardboard tray - 'stiff' baggie method.

d. Carrot sprout or jar technique - More imbibing.

Easy Planting:

a. Seed Tape - toilet roll sized: I've not had luck with this but I haven't tried it very much either and I'm a shallow planter.
b. Seed Tape - Newspaper sized: This guy uses sheets of newspaper
c. Plant Deeper: After I thought of this all on my little lonesome, I've read several references to it. Dig until the soil is damp. I'm planning on making a trench, watering and covering with vermiculite.
d. Pelleting. This is done commercially to aid in machine sowing. The seed is also partially germinated so that it will sprout quickly. Perhaps something akin to a seed bomb would work.
e. The paper seeder: An origami seeder just for fun

Two jars and two cardboard backed paper towel.

***

What I tried

I split my seeds into two groups. The first was shocked with hot water. The second was placed in regular tap water. Next, these were split into two groups. As I decided to try the cardboard tray technique, I put two lots of seeds on them, one with seeds from the hot water shocked lot (HC) and one from regular tap water (RC). The other half were placed into two jars for sprouting (HJ and RJ).

Results?

RC: First to show roots after three days.
HC: Followed the day after

I tried to lay them carefully in the garden. The promptly fell off their paper towel and cardboard so I sprinkled them carefully in rows. Seedling rate in garden: poor.

Long pause

HJ and RJ: After another week, they started to sprout at about the same time. I try to make pudding with them to gel seed. It turns out unevenly gloopy. Seedling rate in garden: unsure still.

Additional row: I also put a long row of seedling tape down with deeper spacing. Just checked and outside of the area that the chicken scratched up, germination has commenced.... better than the other methods. I did plant a bit deeper then sprinkle with a bit of straw.

Conclusion?

Questionable methodology aside, I'd say that I still haven't found the formula for summer carrots though most promising is deeper planting and a sprinkling of mulch overtop.

Further Investigations:

Next I'm going to try deeper planting, sprinkling with a green mulch like cut grass to seep moisture and chicken exclusion.

* And by culture, I don't mean my knowledge of fancy paintings or where my parents came from. Instead, I"m referring to how one gardens, often called variations of cultural methods, cultural techniques or cultural controls. I'm sure there's an interesting historical reason but I'm insufficiently cultured to know. Okay, I just don't have time to research. Feel free to do so and leave it in the comments. Thanks.

Currant Hell

Journal of the currant pickers


Currant bushes. Yes there is a lot of fungal disease this year with the wet weather but it didn't affect yield much! This picture was taken after at least one picking.

Day 1:

OG (that's me): Oh look, the currants are almost ready.
Younger Child: Yay, currant muffins, currant juice. I love currants.
Older Child: Will you tell stories?
OG: Fine, stories, but you have to tell some too. 
Younger Child: I'm going to eat some right now.



Day 2:

OG: We should really go pick some currants (for hours and hours and hours and...)
Older Child: Maybe the birds will eat them.
OG: They didn't last year. Why don't you get a bowl.
Older Child: But I'm reading.
Younger Child: Mommy's going to tell harvest stories.
OG: Do I have to?

Half an hour later

Older Child: I'm hot.
Younger Child says nothing because she has run off to play
Baby wants a nap.


Bowl of currants slowly filling up.

Day 3:

Older Child: Do you think the birds will get them?
OG: Birds? Hungry? Hey you, waxwings. Get out of the serviceberries and delight in this feast of red deliciousness.
Younger Child: You promised to tell stories!!
OG: Fine.

A stirring rendition of the Pied Piper complete with musical scores follows. Children half heartedly pick.

Older Child: I'm hot and there are spider webs. Do I pick the spider webs?
OG: They are fruitworm webs not spiders. How many times do I have to answer that?
Older Child: Are these spider webs? Are these spider webs? Are these spider webs?
Younger Child says nothing because she has ran off to bring the chicks to eat earwigs under the currants bushes.

An hour later we bring in a large bowl.



Day 4:

OG: Time to ... kids?

An hour later, I freeze a bunch of white currants.

Day 5:

Older Child: Do you think the birds will eat them.
OG: We've been over this.
Younger child darts in and out of bushes to bring back one or two currants at a time. Eats half.
Baby crawls over and starts to pluck them off. We pause for photo moment.
Younger child gets bored and gets the chicks and starts placing them on people's shoulders.
Older Child: Is that a deer fly?
OG: Sounds like it.
Older child: Ah, the chick ate one off your head!

We start wearing chicks.

One hour later we are almost done.

Older Child asks for the fifteenth time: What are you currently doing mommy?
OG: Picking currants.
Peels of laughter.
Older Child: Pass me a chicken.

One hour later, the bushes are almost empty.



Day 6:

No one mentions currants

Day 7:

Younger Child: Guess what I found in the woods?
OG: What?
Younger Child: More currants!!!
OG: I didn't hear that.

We now affectionately call this currant hell. P.S. There are more currants.

***

Currants, and other Ribes, are super easy to grow here in my experience. They are versatile too, the red replacing cranberries in many recipes at our place. You can pick them stems and all and squish then strain them to make a juice or a base for jelly. Or you can clean and freeze.

They are forgiving of growing conditions, often found as an understory bush but will be heavier producers in the sun.

Around here, several types are commonly grown:

Red currant - Ribes rubrum. Heavy producing and often found wild though they may or may not be as tasty as some of the commercial cultivars.
White currants - also Ribes rubrum just a white form. These are delectable.
Black currants/cassis - Ribes nigrum. A special delicious flavour. Sometimes the leaves are used but as I have not tried this, I suggest you do your own research.
Golden flowering currant - Ribes aureum. Grown as an ornamental for its early yellow flowers but also edible. I find them quite tasty
Alpine Currant - Ribes alpinum is a common hedge plant with bland fruit

Not to mention the gooseberries and jostaberry. In the woods, you might find a prickly gooseberry which is just begging to be part of a bet. Traditionally the spines were singed off.