Raspberry Crop - 2020

This will be the fourth season for my large raspberry patch (4 2x34 ft raised beds).  See the previous posts about the 2017, 2018, and 2019 crops.  I have 4 raspberry varieties (Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova) which fruit at different times of the year and have unique flavor profiles.

Much of last year was spent on a project to make the raspberries more easy to manage.  They were planted on the lawn and I found that the grass between the beds became very difficult to mow later in the year as the raspberries became increasingly disorderly.  To attempt to correct this I have dug all the dirt out down 6 inches between the beds and put in a lawn border of concrete and paving stones.  My 2019 post details this effort.  I hope to complete this project over the next month by filling the spaces between the beds with rock.  I'll also be putting in the plumbing for sprinklers which will come in handy during the summer periods where there is little rain.  Will be tracking both of these in this post.

Given how busy I was with the excavation and concrete pouring over the last month I haven't had a chance to cut out old grown and truss up all the plants.  Will plan to make time for that before growth really starts to kick in.

I ended up with 104 lbs of fruit last year.  I haven't managed to use all of it yet.  I'm expecting a similarly sized crop this year.  I'll track day by day like last year.

I'll provide picture updates every couple weeks to show progress.  We've had a pretty mild winder and an early start of spring.  The plants started to show growth a bit earlier than expected during the week of 3/16.

10/31/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

9/18/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

8/9/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

7/5/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

6/21/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

6/6/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

5/23/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

5/9/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

4/26/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

4/11/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

3/28/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova

Raspberry Picking Tracker:

• 6/8 - 4 oz
• 6/9 - 8 oz
• 6/10 - 13 oz
• 6/11 - 1 lb 5 oz
• 6/12 - 1 lb 9 oz
• 6/13 - 1 lb 9 oz
• 6/14 - 3 lb 5 oz
• 6/15 - 2 lb 4 oz
• 6/16 - 2 lb 9 oz
• 6/17 - 2 lb 9 oz
• 6/18 - 4 lb 1 oz
• 6/19 - 2 lb
• 6/20 - 4 lb 2 oz
• 6/21 - 4 lb 5 oz
• 6/22 - 4 lb 9 oz
• 6/23 - 4 lb 7 oz
• 6/24 - 4 lb 13 oz
• 6/25 - 3 lb 10 oz
• 6/26 - 5 lb 2 oz
• 6/27 - 3 lb 15 oz
• 6/28 - 3 lb
• 6/29 - 2 lb 13 oz
• 6/30 - 2 lb 6 oz
• 7/1 - 3 lb 15 oz
• 7/2 - 2 lb 15 oz
• 7/3 - 4 lb 14 oz
• 7/4 - 4 lb
• 7/5 - 2 lb 7 oz
• 7/6 - 3 lb 4 oz
• 7/7 - 2 lb 11 oz
• 7/8 - 2 lb 4 oz
• 7/9 - 3 lb 6 oz
• 7/10 - 1 lb 8 oz
• 7/11 - 1 lb 10 oz
• 7/12 - Did not pick
• 7/13 - 15 oz

• Total - 99 lb 11 oz

Raspberry Growing Log:

• 3/28/20 - Quite a bit of growth started on both last year's canes as well as from the ground. Started to see it a couple weeks ago but it's been accelerating with the warmer weather and sunlight we've been getting.  Very excited that all beds seem happy as I was worried I might have caused too much damage by digging out the roots that had escaped the bounds of the beds.  Raspberries are very hardy it turns out.

New Growth + Weeds

• 4/5/20 - Finished installing water faucets next to each bed.  Filled in the trenches I dug after checking the plumbing for leaks.

Valve at the end of the line to allow for draining the system

• 4/11/20 - Graded the dirt around the bed and spread gravel which I packed down.  This is my first layer to prevent weeds from growing.

• 4/26/20 - I had 5 yards of sand delivered this week and I've been putting a layer onto the gravel.  The primary purpose of the sand is to protect the landscape fabric that comes next from sharp pointy rocks that could tear it.  I also hope that the sand goes between the gravel and locks it into place a bit better which would prevent dirt from flowing through and prevent weeds from growing through.

• 5/9/20 - Put down almost 1200 sqft of landscape fabric in the last couple weeks.  It is a heavy duty weaved fabric which is supposed to let water and air through.  I've stapled and glued this onto the planter beds and glued and nailed it into the concrete.  Will cover this with sand next.  The plants are putting out a lot of flower buds at this point which is fun to watch.  Need to do quite a bit of work on the beds themselves still (weeding, putting down compost, and tying up the plants).

Stapled and Glued to the bottom of the raised bed - will deal with the slack as I fill up the hole

Nail gun

• 5/15/20 - Put the leftover sand on the top of the landscape fabric to protect it from puncture by the gravel which will come next.  Have about a 1 inch layer  Received the delivery for 14 cubic yards of this rock shortly after completing

• 5/16/20 - Initial layer of rock and brick border around valve access installed.  This brick will keep gravel out of the valve box.  I'll be putting a piece of flag stone on top of this to provide easy access for draining the water line at the end of the year.

• 5/23/20 - Slow but steady progress this week.  I moved a lot of gravel into the bed area and stapled up the remaining flaps of landscape fabric.  All the plants are forming flowers and the fruit are starting to come along on the Prelude and Joan J.  It's been very dry the last week so I actually had to water.  I used a garden hose to do it this time - the new pluming made the job so much easier.  Really happy I did this!  I've been so busy with the landscaping I haven't gotten around to adding compost to all the bed.  Fed them all with some blood meal to help with next years growth (although no real sign of trouble in that department as there is a lot of healthy looking new growth).

• 5/29/20 - Ordered 1.8 tons of Flag Stone to build steeping stones through the gravel bed.  Started laying it out.  Cut them with an angle grinder and diamond blade

• 6/6/20 - Getting close to wrapping up the flag stone layout and gravel which will mark the end of this landscaping project.  Starting to get ripe fruit on the Prelude and Joan J raspberry plants.  Have eaten my first few 2020 raspberries

• 6/7/20 - Finished with the flagstone and gravel
• 6/27/20 - I finished putting compost on all my beds finally.  The ones I weeded first now have a bunch more weeds unfortunately - a lot of work.  Getting a lot of fruit - taking an hr+ to pick every evening.  Seems like Prelude and Joan J are just about done.  Nova has produced a lot so far and has a lot left to ripen.  TulaMagic are doing really good this year - half way done for those I would say
• 7/5/20 - Status items of note:
• Prelude are done with the Summer crop - I've cut out almost all last year's canes.  Have fruit starting to form at the tips of this year's growth already
• Joan J are mostly done - have started to cut out spent canes here
• TulaMagic are still productive.  I've had a lot more fruit from these plants this year than last.  I suspect that my pruning approach this year made a difference.  Last year I had trimmed the canes down to about 4 feet in the late fall - many of the old canes didn't come back the next season.  This year, I waited to prune until spring and, at that point, only cut off the very tip which had fruited and weren't putting out leaves.
• Nova are still very productive.
• Spotted Lanternfly have arrived in my neighborhood this year.  I started finding them on the raspberries in the last couple days.  They are small still with black and white spots.  I've been able to kill them fairly consistently using spray bottle with soapy water (no damage to the plants I can see from this so far.  This spray is also working nicely with the japanese beetles.
• 9/18/20 - Prelude and Joan J have been ripening fall crop fruit for weeks.  Between my wife and I we've been eating any ripe fruit that appears.  The TulaMagic and Nova are getting fairly close to having ripe fruit but nights are already starting to get down into the 40s so we may hit a freeze before it all fully ripens
• 10/31/20 - There has been a pretty good fall crop but we've ended up just picking and eating.  Still have a bit of fruit left but it's starting to get close to freezing so I expect that will be coming to an end soon.  We've been having deer hit the prelude raspberries fairly hard - biting off the tips of the canes.  It will be interesting to see if this hinders them next year

• 4/19/21 - Read about the 2021 crop here.
• 5/1/22 - Read about the 2022 crop here

Cherry Flanders Red - 2018 Blend - Tasting Notes

This is my third attempt at a Cherry Flanders Red Ale Blend.  It was blended in December 2018 using five beers that I'd been aging for 1-3 years.  My aim with the blend was to have only mild sourness as fruit will add acidity.  I chose the more mildly flavored beers for the blend as the Cherry would be the start of the show.

I used 14 lbs of Montmorency sour cherries that I picked myself along with 2 quarts of Black Cherry Juice.  This was a bit more than I'd used in my previous blends.  I let the beer age on the fruit for almost 9 months (longer than planned as I'd been very busy).

These beers are very dry after the long aging and the acidity can tend to become too agressive for easy drinking.  I backsweetened the beer with 2 lbs of invert sugar #2 that I'd made myself to carbonate and add some sweetness.  I monitored for a month or so and pasteurized the bottles in a hot water bath once a good level of carbonation had been achieved.

I've been drinking these beers for several months now and they're tasting very nice.  Time to log some tasting notes for historical purposes.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma: 
• Candy-like cherry aroma up front.  A bit of leathery and earthy Brett character comes through as well.  Maybe a bit of vinegar mixed in as well (comes through stronger as the beer warms from cellar temps)
• Appearance:
• Pours with a 2 finger head that fades down to a think layer of foam - this lingers for quite a while.  The beer is clear and a dark red color.
• Flavor:
• Rich fruit flavor dominates.  The finish is a balance of acidity (medium level sourness) and a slight sweetness.  The fruit flavor lingers in the finish.  It has a very nice balance.  Brett is in the background but it does come through in the finish with an earthy character.  The beer also has a mild chocolate-like flavor in the background which is quite nice
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Slight stickiness on the palate.  Very light prickliness from the acidity.  Pretty easy drinking and refreshing beer.
• Overall:
• A really nicely flavored and pretty complex beer.  I think the balance of the finish between the acidity and slight sweetness is quite nice - really easy to drink.  Cherries are definitely the star of the show (as expected) but the base beer comes through enough to have a meaningful contribution.

Sour Cherry Crop - 2020

We have a nice large side yard.  It seems like a real waste to use it for nothing but growing a lawn.  With that in mind I've decided to try to grow some fruit trees.  This year I'll be trying to grow Sour Cherries which is a fruit I use quite a bit in my Flanders Red and Sour Blonde Beers.

For the last few years I've picked sour cherries from a local orchard.  I've been getting something on the order of 40-50 lbs each year.  These are still pretty expensive per lb even though you do all the picking yourself (1-2 dollars per lb maybe).  I look forward to not having to pay that every year.

There are many types of sour cherry.  The pick your own orchard has the Montmorency type which has a light flesh and a flavor quite different than a sweet cherry (this is a Amarelle variety of sour cherry).  The traditional Belgian Lambic Sour Cherry is a Dark Red fleshed fruit called Schaerbeek - these are of a variety called Morello and have more of a traditional cherry flavor.  You can't really find Schaerbeek cherries here in the US so I have opted to plant a different species of the Morello variety:  North Star Cherries.

I bought 4 bare root plants that are about 3 feet tall now.  I should get fruit from them in 3 years.  North Start is a dwarf variety that will top out at 8-10 feet tall and wide.  I'm planting them about 11 feet apart in a nice sunny spot

I will post updated stats every month for this first year:

10/31/20

9/18/20

8/9/20

7/5/20

6/6/20

5/23/20

5/9/20

3/21/20

Growing Log:

• 3/20/20 - Planting Day
• The plants arrived the day before with root surrounded by wet paper.  They already had emerging green branch nubs starting to come out which was good sign of life

• Soaked the bare root plants in water for about an hr

• Dug holes about 18 inches wide and 2 feet deep for the plants

• Added compost to the bottom from my large compost pile and more compost in with the dirt

• Filled in the hole with the plants in a vertical position.  Needed to take care when filling in the hole to ensure that the graft point was above ground level as the roots are what ensures this is a dwarf variety

• Made a ring of dirt around the plant to help gather water
• Was scheduled to rain overnight so I didn't water.  Rain didn't arrive so I watered the next day
• 4/4/20 - Leaves Starting to emerge (all 4 plants are doing this)

• 4/11/20 - More growth in the last week:

• 04/26/20 - The plant have put out quite a few flowers - maybe 20 or so across the 4 trees.  Will be really neat to get a small sample of what the fruit are like in this first year

• 5/9/20 - Flowers have mostly dropped their peddles.  The trees are starting to form new branches

• 5/16/20 - Fruit is starting to form on a few of the trees

• 5/6/20 - Trees are putting branches out further and further.  3 Cherries are forming - getting bigger and starting to get a bit red

• 6/20/20 - The two fruit have gotten pretty red.  I came out this morning (which was pretty humid) and found that both had split.  I picked and ate them.  They were fairly light fleshed and pretty tart.  I wonder if they would have gotten a bit more red with additional ripening time.  I've had some missing leaves in the last week - some branches completely stripped.  I suspect deer as the plant closest to the edge of the property is the worst.

• 7/5/20 - The plants are doing well for the most part.  Branches are getting longer and thicker.  The tree closest to the road got damaged a bit more by deer.  I found a deer replant spray at home depot that has been successful at keeping them away for the last couple weeks - it smells a lot like road kill.  The plant has had a chance to recover as a result.  I've dosed all the trees with blood meal and bone meal to help promote growth.

Putting out some new leaves on branches picked clean by the deer

• 4/29/21 - Read about the 2021 crop here
• 4/30/22 - Read about the 2022 growing season here