I picked two pints of raspberries yesterday, bringing us to 60 pints for the season, and while we will get a few more berries, it will likely be a half pint at a time for a couple more weeks.

Nancy made both jam and jelly, and we gave away some and ate a lot fresh.

We have picked about three quarts of high-bush blueberries so far, and they will produce for another month. We have an early variety that produces in late July, and others that go late. All of those were eaten fresh.

My big fruit question now is peaches. Both peach trees, a Reliance and a Red Haven, are loaded with peaches that look perfect, but they are as hard as billiard balls. Our previous peach tree was in our fenced-in backyard, and we let the peaches drop to the lawn and picked them up.

The new location is a more open garden, and anything that drops will be eaten. I have to figure out the perfect point of ripeness to pick – so they will continue to ripen and taste good but not be attractive to tree-climbing pests such as squirrels, chipmunks and raccons.

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