Farmhouse Berries...

Porch Berries

When the vines first appeared this spring, I thought we had roses (wild or otherwise) popping through the boards on our porch. (I learned of the thorns when I tried to pull one last fall, so I assumed they were roses.)

I patiently waited for the buds to appear, and figured there would be beautiful wild roses growing all over our porch this summer. As we plan to pull the porch and rebuild it, I just let them grow as they wanted.

Porch Berries

When our granddaughters were here with their folks over the weekend, our daughter-in-law and I walked the yard and talked about some of the beneficial plants that grow freely in our lawn. There's the medicinal plantain, wild chamomile (which smells heavenly after the yard is mowed), and another wild ground cover that we think might be wild thyme. I'm still working on that one.

Then, we looked at the plants that Handsome and I added near the house. Some of the hollyhocks are already in bloom, and the lavender, chamomile, cilantro, basil and rosemary are all getting big. The hostas are going to make a beautiful border as they get bigger, too. As we looked at the foxglove plant, I noticed color on the vines next to the porch. There are berries!!

Porch Berries

 

As I began to write this post, I looked up the difference between raspberries and blackberries. I have to pull one to be sure, but I think these will ripen to become blackberries. A few of the berries are already darker than in this picture, and one of the surefire ways to differentiate between the two plants is to pull a fruit. 

 

From what I read, the raspberry is hollow when pulled, leaving the rasp (which holds the fruit to the vine) behind. Blackberries take the rasp with them when pulled, and have a soft, white core inside. That's the first way to tell the difference. 

There are other ways, according to THIS link, but I'll go pull a fruit later this morning to see if I can tell. Right now, my money is on wild blackberry, but I'll edit my post later to let you know what I find out.

I can tell you one thing's for sure, they're tasty! I noticed more of these bushes in the rock wall in front of our house, as well as near the big boulder where I photographed our granddaughters last weekend. I wonder which critters I'll have to compete with to harvest these this summer? 

Pineapples from Pineapples...

Living in subtropical southern Florida makes it possible to watch things grow that you never thought of before. You can practically toss a rock into the soil and it will root! No green thumb here, as you well know, but I even surprised myself with this one.

I had purchased a pineapple at the grocery store. It was one of those with a green, leafy top. I've loved pineapples since I was little, so they're real treats for me! Well, I cut the top off and, on a lark, stuck in in a bowl of water. (I was treating it like a potato that we got to root when I was a kid.) It didn't grow roots as I expected. It kind of rotted sitting in the water. (yuk!)

I didn't toss it, but I did try something different. I pulled all the rotten pulp off the leafy part, which was still green and viable, pressed the core into some root powder and placed the whole thing into some nice potting soil in a favorite pot. It worked! The core formed roots and the leafy part started to grow...and grow...and grow!

I finally planted it in the ground outside our front door. It actually got huge! I was so excited that my plant was growing that really, that was enough for me. Then, one day about two years later, I walked out the front door to find a tiny growth in the center. Weeks went by and I realized that my pineapple plant was actually growing a pineapple! The fruit only grew to be about eight inches tall, but when it became obvious that it wasn't going to get any larger, I cut the fruit away from the plant and cut it open to taste the sweetest little pineapple you could imagine. Two years later, it flowered and produced fruit again and then the plant died.

The photo above is one of our actual little pineapples. I'm thinking it's time to head to Publix and get another pineapple (or two) with the leaves attached. It would be fun to watch the tops grow into plants and then produce fruit again. I love that even a brown thumb can do this in Florida!

Have a great day wherever you are. Try something new this week. Your results may just produce something thoroughly unexpected.