Thursday, May 24, 2018

Chokecherry Blooms

It was warm yesterday. 75F or 23 C eh! The Chokecherries came into bloom.

chokecherries May 23

As you can see the flowers are cylindrical flower clusters. They are mildly fragrant.  I have made Chokecherry jelly…you cook up the berries and put them in a old dish towel to drain off the juice. I used to hang the towel up on a hanger and suspend it over a pan so it could drip, there is probably some fancy smancy way to get the juice but not the seeds or the pulp. I measure out so many cups of juice and add sugar and pectin and you get a runny jelly…or syrup once it is cooked up…it tastes great on toast!

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Chance was following me around the yard looking for blooms.  We had to leave him home alone yesterday( Doctors appts) for the afternoon and he was very demanding after we got back.  He didn’t want to eat his supper, he just wanted his treats.  SPOILED.  It was just too warm to take him along.

I did some watering of some patches where we have grass seed planted and since Far Guy was at a meeting I hosed down everything on the patio…the pollen is horrid…everything was yellow…including Chance’s feet.  I cleaned out all the bird baths too.  We need rain to settle the pollen.

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17 comments:

Val Ewing said...

I use that method only an old pillow case !! Cook, mash, and let the magic of gravity work!
I should have washed our porch before I had Rich pile dirt all around it. Now if I do it I will have simmering mud all around the concrete. Duh.
Does the pollen drive you crazy?

Cynthia said...

I made grape jelly that way, too, in a pillowcase. My grandma had a cone-shaped colander -- she was fancy. Chance with yellow feet -- ha ha!

linda m said...

I bet the jelly tastes real good. Sounds funny to think of Chance with yellow feet. I would be happy to send you some of our rain. We don't have pollen we have mold from all the rain.

DJan said...

It hasn't rained here for a week or two and everything is covered with pollen here, too. And the cottonwood trees are sending out lot of "snow" to aggravate allergies. It's definitely warmer and sunnier than I remember other Memorial Day weeks in the past.

Leah said...

Darn pollen - it is troublesome here too and our pine trees haven't even started. Relax Chance and enjoy those quiet days :)

Rita said...

We got a little rain yesterday so I hope it went your way. Was around 90 here and sticky humid--just awful--and we went to the nursery and potted plants. Supposed to me around 90+ for days. Ugh!

Terry and Linda said...

We are dry here also...and in a Red Flag warning. But, for us...getting ready to cut hay...dry is a good thing.

Shirley said...

My husband is very allergic to pollen. He gets a very itchy rash every spring.
I love chockecherry jelly!

Karen said...

Lots of pollen here too, and cottonwood 'snow' as DJan mentioned above. I may do the odd sneeze, but otherwise am not bothered. Larry said he feels just slightly stuffed up. Our dogs get yellow feet when the dandelions are in full bloom in the field, but they are long gone now. We need rain too, and none in sight for the next week, which may be a good thing as our neighbour started the haying process on our fields yesterday. I want it for the vegetables though, I hate having to water.

Red said...

Hey, I beat you on the blooms Chokecherries here out last weekend.

Patsy said...

We are getting some hard rain ever day this week,
for about 30 min then it stops and the sun comes out.

Linda Reeder said...

We are finally done with tree pollen but it was very heavy here too.

Granny Marigold said...

As Karen pointed out, it is very dry here. We have water barrels every possible corner of the house and workshop but by now we've used all that and I'm using "city water" for which we get charged. Oh well, I'm not going to let my flowers and vegetables die of thirst.

Lady Fi said...

Never heard of chokeberries! Hope they taste good! And Chance is looking gorgeous. (Due to go up to 30 C here - far too hot for long walks with dogs.)

Betsy said...

I enjoyed seeing the chokecherries. We used to have them near our house when I was growing up but don't see them out here much.
Blessings,
Betsy

Anonymous said...

I've never had chokeberry jelly but I bet it's good. Sweet photo of Chance. Our pollen is much better. We've had about 7 inches of rain in the past couple of weeks.
Wishing you guys a good weekend.

L. D. said...

We had company the other day of an old classmate and his wife. Haven’t seen them for over a year and Barney just went bonkers when he saw them both. He never settled down until they left to go home. He has always liked these two but I had forgotten how he likes company. I hear stories from people every spring from people wishing that they could go get pin cherries in Minnesota.