Far be it from me to criticise the Management’s grasp of logistics but REALLY…! As I have understood it there are some elementary rules that should be followed: for example if you want the traffic to move smoothly you don’t start all the vehicles at the same time, and, similarly, if you want to have three successful meetings in one meeting room during a day you have them after each other, not simultaneously.
It doesn’t seem to work that way with our wild harvest this year. We had the first glimpse of the situation almost two weeks ago when we visited a bog to see whether there would be any cloudberries to pick at some later date. There were quite a few already – and as a ripe cloudberry is almost like an omelette in being just a passing moment at its best we picked the berries – fortunately we had a small bucket with us. On the way home we had a look at a wild strawberry site that had had no berries at the proper time (just after Midsummer). Now quite a few were ripe and we picked them as we had a second small bucket with us. So far so good but nearby was a usually early (before Midsummer) chanterelle site that had had no mushrooms at that time; now there were quite a few so we – well, we DIDN’T have a third bucket and had to gather them in my scarf – leaving my unprotected head prey for the twin-lobed deerflies.
By and large the situation remains like that – the only changes have been that a) a week ago the ceps made an unusually early mass appearance, and b) the raspberries are ripening fast.
Mind you, by no means am I complaining of the harvest per se; we are very happy there are things to harvest – but some kind of successive order in ripening would be very welcome. We are only two and there are four different things to gather at exactly the same period and with the same frequency, i.e. every day (no, I didn’t make a mistake in counting; the chanterelles have to wait as they are not so short-lived as the others).
Maybe it would be possible to visit several sites in a day? Let’s see, you dash in the morning to the bog; and the summer bog is lovely with its moorland clouded yellows,
its sundews
– and its cloudberries….
… but after picking that lot on a hot day – and the days have been hot – you just want to go home, eat something, clean the berries and store them (well, you don’t actually want to do this but you have to), take a painkiller for your back and crawl to bed.
Next morning you have to decide again where to go. If it happens during the week it’s really a problem but if you have luck, it’s weekend and the decision is easy: to the ceps because all the world and his wife will be driving along even the most obscure forest roads looking for cloudberries and it’s somehow depressing to queue for a parking place on a usually empty road in the middle of nowhere. And, anyway, we all know what a-day-too-old cep looks like and we want to avoid that sight. – But all the day you yearn for the bog…
Admittedly, ceps are quicker to gather than cloudberries but if you clean them on the spot as is advisable they still take their time
The strawberries? I’d love to pick them as for me they spell “summer” both when picking them and during the winter – but up to now there has been spare energy for just an occasional dessert…
Unfortunately, I’m not the only one keen on even strawberries: last time I surprised a brood of hazel hens feasting at my best site.
And the raspberries? We need a lot of them so need to adjust the timetable again. Maybe just one last visit to the bog and after that it will be raspberry thorns everywhere.
Having got all this off my chest I have to admit that the Management has arranged a few pleasant surprises, too: our cotton is flowering
and one evening at sunset…
Northbynorth 
Wow, good luck with all that dashing about and harvesting . . . it will be worth it. 🙂 🙂 Great job with the cotton, I’ve been wondering how it was doing. What a beautiful plant. Amazing sunset, too. Happy foraging!
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The okra is flowering, too, so we have a good few hibiscus-like flowers around us. Lovely but short-lived, both of them – okra flower lasts a day (if it opens at all), cotton flower turns pink and then wilts on its second day
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I thought you must be busy but didn’t realise you were harvesting everything at once! Those cloud berries look so delicious. I’m still on blackcurrant duty but am only doing 4L a day and 1L if it’s raining (I.e. most days). The first squash fruits are setting but we need some heat and sun. New greenhouse is great, love self ventilation!
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A much needed rainy day here so we are freezing garden harvest and making preserves. Aren’t the birds interested in your blackcurrants – here they are! Our squashes seem to be doing better than last year – it’s to be hoped they continue to do so.
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The birds have pretty much eaten all the red currants and white currants and a lot of josta berries and gooseberries, especially the red ones, but they leave the blackcurrants alone. Long may it last. Especially since we have more blackcurrant bushes (three varieties, early, mid season and late) than any other berry and they are my favourite for preserving. Interestingly it’s only young blackbirds thieving the berries, you never see an adult.
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Want to borrow from our bushes a few addicted adult blackbirds for a change – or fieldfares of any age? Actually, the latter ones are the worst ones – they can clean a bush in a couple of hours.
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No, please keep those. Luckily the field fares tend to stay in the fields here. The thrushes can be a nuisance with the strawberries. But I am opposed to netting. After all, the birds also eat caterpillars and aphids. We try to plant enough so that we can share some.
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Well, after one trial we don’t use netting, either. We don’t exactly love fieldfares but to have dead fieldfare fledglings in the nets is not something we want to experience again. we might or might not have any currants – but we do have a lot of cloudberries (got 10 litres today) and there apparently will be wild raspberries and bilberries enough for both them and us.
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