Fruits of our labors

A busy day. First thing in the morning, I harvested at Veggilelution, to the detriment of my now-scratched-by-zucchini-vines arms. Here are the perps:

Amie got some cool old wooden crates from an orchard, and so we picked into those. We also picked lots of pretty tomatoes.

All in all, about 90 lbs of veggies that went to Martha’s Kitchen. However, our farmstand will open on 4 September, so Friday harvests will soon be available to all and sundry.

Then I harvested again, this time white nectarines from a house that Village Harvest was scheduled for on Tuesday, but which got cancelled at the last minute for the pear harvest. There were many, many small white nectarines, and me, myself and I had a stepstool and a pole picker, plus some plastic milk crates. I got about 100 lbs of fruit, and was then faced with the question of what to do with them. Martha’s Kitchen was locked up and dark by the time I arrived, but the Mountain View Community Services Agency came to my rescue, saying they were happy to take them in.

Unfortunately, the little fruits almost all had strange white spots that look almost exactly like mold. It wasn’t mold (the fruit is fine to eat) and the homeowner told me that no one has been able to identify the problem (too much water? too little water? who knows?) But I hope the clients at the MVCSA can look past it; I’d hate to see the fruit end up going to waste after all that. While I was dropping off the nectarines, I saw a client eating one of the Italian prune plums we picked yesterday. Very satisfying.

And then I took my own bag of nectarines and made a batch of jam. I still have the prune plums to preserve; I’ll do that tonight.