Roses, Peaches, and Elderberries

When I was in California I had a friend who shared my geeky excitement for growing roses.  We used to take little drives down to Petaluma to wander the Garden Valley Ranch rose fields when the flowers were in bloom so we could find new roses to get excited about.  We discussed them by name as though they were living dynamic creatures...wait, they kind of are...!  We would write down roses we found in the fields and when the bare root season came we would sip PG Tips and discuss which roses we might add to our collections.  I cannot tell you how much I valued that shared enthusiasm with my friend Sharon.  I miss her a lot.  I miss our outings and garden talk a whole lot.

I am very fortunate to have a local friend who loves roses and gardening as much as Sharon and I do.  It's taken us a long time to do it but we finally went to Heirloom Roses together for a rose growing seminar and a long wander on their incredible grounds.  They have acres of roses!  On Saturday Angela and I spent a few hours sniffing at roses and trying to discover the names of our favorites (and taking notes!).  Plus I ran into a couple of old rose friends there (Frederick Mistral, Double Delight, and Abraham Darby).


Although it got uncomfortably hot it was a much needed whirl through a vast spread of gorgeous flowers and bees doing their late season work.  The lady who taught the seminar suggested doing one last big deadheading to get one more big bloom before fall really sets in.  I must find time to do that.  I like deadheading quite a lot I just don't make it a priority with so many things vying for the work of my hands.

Although  there isn't going to be the usual production in my canning kitchen this year I did manage to freeze one box of peaches and to can the other.  Seeing those frozen packages in my freezer and the fresh jars on my shelf is so exciting! 

Better than the peaches were the elderberries I foraged!  I tried to find out who owned them but the house closest to the tree didn't know anything about it (and seemed really put off to have someone at her door asking about trees she apparently hadn't even noticed existed right next to her house).  So I took my snippers and got myself a bag.  I had already done my research on elderberries to determine what kind they were.  There is only one kind of poisonous elderberry and those are red.  All the blue and blue-ish black ones are edible (but not when raw).  This kind had a thick white bloom on the skin so I could tell it was one of the North American native varieties, rather than the classic European.  These made me so happy.  I couldn't believe my luck in finding them!  The berries are tiny and some think they're a pain in the ass to process but I like that kind of fussy work.  I plucked the tiny berries off of the stems while watching videos.  You have to remove all the stems because they have an alkaloid in them that can make you sick.

Two days ago I made elderberry syrup for colds.  I'm super excited to have that on hand this year!  I have frozen the elderberries I didn't use so I can make more syrup later, as needed.