Huckleberries Grow Locally

We were excited to learn last Saturday, during our visit to Hobbs State Park Visitor's Center, that huckleberries do grow locally. No wonder they were selling huckleberry taffy, suckers, and pretzels.

Darned I was so surprized that I forgot to take a picture of what a huckleberry plant looks like! I promise to post at a later date a picture.

On a road trip last summer to Idaho, my husband's uncle introduced us to wild huckleberries that he and others picked off the side of a mountain. A new love was formed, as he served us pound cake drizzled with huckleberries and topped with whipped cream and then my favorite a huckleberry shake!

Luckily for us the 'Huckleberry King' aka Uncle Pat sent us home with two jars of huckleberry jam!

Latter in the year we made a stop over to War Eagle and discovered they carried wild huckleberry preserves and huckleberry flavored hard candy. To my daughters disappointment we sent off the hard candy off to Uncle Pat.

Follow the links to read two articles the Visitors Center share with me:
http://wildhuckleberry.com/category/growing-wild-huckleberries/
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_vame.pdf

Blueberry-Lime Jam

I found this recipe in todays newspaper!

My children love homemade strawberry freezer jam! My daughter, who is a blueberry lover, recently asked that we expand her jam options. My sister has suggested we look at exchanging homemade gifts again this Christmas. It looks like my daughter and I will be spending some time together soon to make some jam!

4 1/2 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon grated lime peel
1/3 cup lime juice
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 pouches liquid pectin

Place blueberries in large pot, add lime peel, juice and sugar, and mix well.

Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin, bring back up to a rolling boil for one minute.

Pour into sterile jars, leaving 1/4-inch of headspace.

Adjust caps and process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Yields five 12-ounce jars.

Source: "Preserving Perfection," Mary Loftus, Benton County Daily Record, Aug 4, 2o1o

Since Sure Jell is easy to find and I try to keep it on hand I searched the Internet for a recipe using it. I was pleasantly surprized to find out my Ball Blue Book of Preserving had one. This was my first canning jam on my own! I ended up giving one jar away as a birthday present and several others as family Christmas presents.

Bagworm Outbreak

2010 Garden Visitors

1st Place Cabbage

My daughter brought home a Bonnie Plant giant cabbage starter plant from school to grow. This photo was taken 14 days before it was picked. Can you imagine how much more it grew in those last 2 weeks?! Pictured next to it is a normal cabbage plant started from seed. She was so excited to come home and announce her cabbage will be representing her grade in the statewide contest. The final weight without the outer leaves and the roots were 4lbs and 2ozs.

I did use dusting powered a little too late to control the bugs, from eating the cabbage, as I am afraid of poisioning my family. I am learning by trial and error.

Elementary School Gardens

Strawberry Picking at McGarrah's Farm

Strawberry Patch address: 14804 Miser Rd, Pea Ridge, AR 72751

From 4 way stop in Pea Ridge (highways 94 & 72) go east on Leetown Rd 3 miles. Turn left on Miser Road. Turn on the only road to the right (~.5 mi) and follow it to the end. Patch is on the left.

http://www.mcgarrahfarms.com/

There #1 strawberry is Darselect and picking season starts around Mother's Day and last for approximately 3 weeks give or take a few days. They recommend you start checking their website around the 1st of May for updates.

Knowing what type of plant a local grower has the most success with in taste and productivity gives me an indication of what type of plant I would like to have in my own garden.

I made the mistake of leaving the strawberries on the counter overnight. In the morning, I found that about half of the strawberries have gone bad. We quickly went through them and salvaged what we could. Freezing smashed berries in quart size freezer bags. We have enjoyed pulling out the frozen berries and making freezer jam as needed. My preferred pectin is Sure Jell (in powdered form like Jell-0) enclosed with simple instructions.