It's a fall gold raspberry I grow in my garden, and yes the mason jar has a taste in it.   I only got three bottles out of it last year.  Hope to have more time to harvest this year so I can make more.   Also hoping to get my first crop of apples for cider and enough cherries for some wine.   

 

14 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

Is that a metric thunk or imperial?

Post-imperial.

Not sure how big your orchard is and you probably already know, but having bees makes all the difference in the world in a fruit crop.

I have my backyard.  Not much of an orchard.   2 apple trees, 2 cherry trees, raspberries along the fence, 12 4 x 8 raised bed gardens, a vining garden,  then several perrenial beds.

Yeah, we're at five fruit trees too, I think plus the neighbor lets us hit theirs. If you keep a hive or two you'll have a new hobby to obsess about and it normally increase fruit yield about half to twice as much, and you'll usually get better quality fruit earlier. Plus, you know, mead.

That's what got me into beekeeping. I'm waiting about another month for it to warm up a little and starting 10 or 15 gallons myself. (My house is too small to do it indoors, so my brewing season is weather dependent).

I got 2 apple trees and wild grape growing along the fence line. The grapes are sour but they make good wine and jelly with. I had a raspberry growing that was just starting to produce when a transformer blew and the route the electric company had to take was through it. A bucket truck parked on it and it was done for. So this year i will replace it with blackberry. I also cut out a bunch of honeysuckle last year and i am planning on goji berry and jostaberry. 

While researching different berries i was surprised to see that people actually plant mulberry. We call them weeds here.  

I also have some hazelnut trees. Anyone know a good way to keep the squirrels out? I have tried netting, fake owls and snakes, short of sitting guard with a BB gun i am kind of at a loss. I dont mind sharing but only getting a handful if lucky bites. The bright side though, in a few years there should be loads of hazelnut growing around here.

You call mulberries weeds and you're intentionally planting blackberries?!

Also, you shouldn't have to sit on guard with a bb gun for too long if you leave the first victim near the tree for the rest to see.

Not much smitting this year. Only a bit during saturdays at my lessions. And it is going slow work on table and a rack and things 

All my hobby time gets in my car at the moment. It must ride in august and still lots to do.

 

Blackberries dont really grow around here much. You occasionally run into what i have always called black raspberry, smaller and rounder than a blackberry. We have mulberry growing in every little nook and cranny there is. I cut four out of the yard last year. They were growing next to the foundation. 

I would have to get at least 2. I eaten squirrel in a long time. 

 

I love black raspberries. We had them growing up and I’ve planted several in my garden this year. They can’t spread faster than the deer eat the shoots, so I am fairly confident that I will not have an infestation.

the berries are sweeter than raspberries and tangier than blackberries. Wine berries are similar, but are hybridized and are fairly tart. Those grow wild here, and I love collecting them.

11 hours ago, Hefty said:

You call mulberries weeds and you're intentionally planting blackberries?!

my thoughts exactly....

Good Morning,

Would you like some Blackberries?  We can't kill them!! Their roots travel under the soil and pop up with another shoot anywhere it wants!!  LOL

Neil

Pacific NW. We're drowning in blackberries, razzberries, and thanks to a former farm about 10 miles away, loganberries. Also, scotch broom and bloody hemlock trees but I can't make wine from them. Or maybe I could, but I won't. We had a big mulberry at the last place I was at and the berries were small but pretty good. They used to draw web worms on them in Texas so badly that you didn't want them around. 

Our county seat, Canton, was named after Canton China. "The silk capital of the world".  The town was founded on planting Mulberry trees, to attract the web worms. The idea was to harvest the silk.  It didn't pan out.  So, cotton mills took over. But the name stayed. 

I finally got around to painting the doors I made for the Lull 844TT34. 

1 more coat of paint tomorrow and its only been 1yr since starting this project. 

Are they white or black mulberries? I don't think that white mulberries really produce a crop but black ones pump out loads of berries, and wher either am none of them have seeds since no one has a male mulberry tree in this country. 

Ive made wine from my own mulberries as a gift for my dad and it was quite good. Only thing is you need to freeze the fruit over the harvest to because they'll go off if in only couple days

Mulberry wood is also decent for smoking meat too

Finished a set hammer today, and I can’t help feeling that it looks like a durpy hunk of steel. I was battling the problems of A: Not having the right tongs for the job, B: I did it in the brake rotor forge, so it was weird fire management because the piece was quite large. I think it will do its job fine but if y’all have any recommendations, I’d love to hear.

Asa

 

Asa, the visual thing you’re missing is deeper chamfers on the struck end.

but otherwise a set hammer is as advertised. It looks good, and well done with your set up- scaling up to larger stock without power hammers of friends with hammers is difficult. I’ve worked alone for a long time and had to make do. Next time, invest the time for proper tongs. That’s what I’ve learned through years of forging. Spending the time to make the tool to make the tool is time well spent.

What he said. Also, I don't know what your rotor set up is like, but if you're using coal and it's the typical one, for bigger items I did better hybridizing it with a box of dirt (clean sand and clay) to make a duck's nest forge - a bowl with shallow walls and the middle part of the rotor exposed for the base.

It takes a little tweaking to make it useful for different size items, but it's easily adjusted in a hurry, and I found that a wide shallow concavity served me better by a million than a brake drum, and somewhat better than a rotor for most things. If you're on charcoal, forget I said anything.

Ridgeway, we have black raspberries around the property. Always love going around and eating them. Sometimes some make it back to the house. Blackberries grow around here but it's rare that the weather is right for them to grow good berries. As far as the deer you could fence them over. 

The deer destroyed a bunch of grap vines I started last year. 

Asa, a tool that works is a beautiful tool.  I agree that taking the time to make a set of tons to handle hammers is a great idea. 

Jennifer, how much longer until you get around you putting the door on now that it's made?

My yard is a work in purges to get rid of all grass.  I was out for a bit today claiming up the raspberry canes and pulling some that have gone beyond their boundry.  One thing Imminent for sure to get a gray harvest of this year's is Rhubarb.  I have 7 plants that are now on their second year.  Going mix it with a bunch of fruits. 

 

I have asparagus plants that keep producing well. 

I forgot to cover my strawberry plants that usually do well. 

 

Finished the initial welding of the base for a live-edge table. 

(The plywood is temporary; the actual table top is being made by the customer from a crosscut slab of an olive tree.)

That's a wild shape for a table.  How big is it across?   

It is looking good. What will the table be used for and the height? Is there a reason why you added so many legs? I personally would off made a metal base a couple inches short of the perimeter to support the slab with only four legs.  That wood is going to move a mile and in 6 months I won't be surprised if half the legs won't even touch the floor.