My favorite season is upon us. Hours upon hours spent in my happy place. There’s lots of “work” to be done. Isn’t it interesting how work doesn’t really feel like work at all when it’s something you really love doing. This is the life we are stewarding at The Fourteen Acres. Dirty hands and full hearts……long days spent in the garden.
I always start with gloves on……”Today will be the day that I don’t end up with dirt under my fingernails!” Within moments, the gloves are tossed to the wayside. I love the feeling of my hands in the earth. I’m more gentle with my bare hands. Young seedlings are fragile and delicate. There are tomatoes to be pruned, cucumber to be trellised, flowers to be picked…….and blackberries to be eaten. They call to me during my work. See, when I pick them, I always leave some ripe ones on the vine. These are my reward for all my hard “work”. I eat a few every time I walk past the patch. Juicy, ripe, sweet…..the taste of the beginning of summer on the farm.
This is Prime Ark Freedom! Developed by the University of Arkansas. It grows like a weed here in Zone 8a. It thrives on neglect. It doesn’t really care what type of soil it’s in. It laughs at our hot dry summers (me, not so much). It’s a thornless hybrid that puts out tons of the biggest juiciest blackberries I’ve ever tasted. I planted two 6-inch bare root canes several years ago. Within a years time, I was picking a gallon of berries. Now we get 4-6 gallons from our 6×10 patch every year. So, stop what you’re doing right now and order yourself some! You’ll be thanking me next year at this time.
Blessings, Leslie
the taste of summer
The Fourteen Acres 