Beautiful Cumberland Valley

We "spent a summer day" at University Park, to check out various majors at Penn State.  On the way back from State Cellege, we stopped at the Hawk Watch, on top of North Mountain - right "behind" our farm, and looked down into the beautiful Cumberland Valley:

Blackberry Season

We are in the middle of a drought - at least on our farm.  There have been downpours just a few miles away, several times, but our grass is brown and our garden is in a sad stage.  We've been irrigating the blackberries as much as possible, since harvest time is starting.

Nonetheless, there are berries.  In the last week, we picked over 850 lbs and about 1/3 of them are beautiful.  The others were cleaned and frozen and will be used/sold for making jams, shrubs, or wine. We will still be picking for a while - and hoping for rain!

We do have fun picking them, even in the heat...and they are delicious.

Rachel is picking in the summer heat

Elena loves her berries

Delicious

We'll still be picking for a while - and hoping for rain!

Jam Label Design

Berry season has been "in" for a while now, with strawberries starting the cycle, followed by blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries and currants - and soon our major berry crop: blackberries.

We've been using the berries for jam as they ripened and this year we splurged on the glossy round labels that "Avery" makes.  Their online design software is completely flexible and lets you design your own label from scratch, or you can modify existing templates.

We also had a lot of fun looking for fancy label ideas on Pinterest and added a new "Glammy Jam" album.