Raccoon Invasion!

Every year we have some invasion by the raccoons.  Usually it's the grapes and we have a race to see who gets them first.  If I'm not quick off the mark, I get none at all.  Greedy little raccoons!

One year it was the hazelnuts.  I usually harvest them when they start turning colour just to beat out the raccoons.  A few years ago I was a bit slow and there were none to be had.  Plus broken branches.

Devastation in the corn bed!

This year it's the corn, which is the first time they've ventured into this crop.  One morning I went out to find 4 stalks brought down and cobs ripped off.  The next morning, many more plants were brought low.

Downed corn stalks

I decided to leave the plants on the ground in the hopes that they'd leave the rest of the crop and just work on the cobs that were easy to get.

Fortex beans growing in the corn

This morning there are no new plants on the ground, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  If I lose the corn, I'll also lose the Fortex beans that I have growing on them.  I'm growing these beans in the corn because they tie the plants together and provide strength from the wind.  One year I grew the heritage Italian beans in the corn, but it's so vigorous that they broke the stalks!  Fortex beans are much more courteous!

Heritage Italian beans striking out on ropes strung to the fence

I didn't want to give up on the delicious heritage Italian beans though.  We've built a special sturdy frame for them.  These beans don't like to be confined, however, and I've even strung rope to the fence.  The beans have taken over 2 of the 3 ropes and are heading into the grapevines - which are set to meet them halfway.  This will certainly make picking the beans easier!

Swiss Chard growing beside the beans

Elsewhere in the garden, things are coming along nicely.  We've had quite a few meals of Swiss Chard which is such an attractive plant.

Gypsy peppers

And the Gypsy sweet peppers will soon be turning colour.  Growing them in a proper bed has resulted in a much better crop.  They share this bed with Sweet Million and Indigo Rose cherry tomatoes.  The hot peppers are growing in a bed with the Health Kick tomatoes.  You don't grow sweets and hots together or the sweets get hotter and the hots get sweeter!

Grapes to Raisins

We have a very nice Candice grape vine off the back of the garage.  It grows over an arbour which also shades the dog's yard.  And no, when grapes are ripe and in danger of falling in the run, the dog is not put in there because grapes are very bad for dogs!

We never seem to get many grapes because just when they reach ripeness, the raccoons arrive and clean us out.  The first we realize that we've been robbed again is when we hear thumping on the roof and many rapid little footsteps - and by then, of course, it's much too late.  Grapes are ripe enough when they feel soft to the touch, taste sweet and have a bloom on them.

Only once have we ever gotten grapes for ourselves.  About 4 years ago we had a bumper harvest and beat out the raccoons.  I had enough grapes to give lots to friends and to make raisins!  And this year we seem to have another good harvest, so hubby and I were out last night picking bunches which had ripened. Since there was no time to process the grapes last night and today was a busy day, the processing took place tonight.

Candice grapes washed and ready for stripping

I washed the bunches carefully and picked off wizened grapes.  I think these were exposed to the birds who were trying to get in ahead of the raccoons.  My dehydrator trays were nice and clean from last year, so all I had to do was strip off the grapes and fill the trays.  I know I should have taken more care in placing them so they didn't touch, but too bad!  If some stick together it's no big deal.  After reading up on the Internet, the dehydrator was set for 12 hours at 135 degrees F.

Stripping grapes

I still have a few of the raisins I processed last time.  Perhaps I may have dried them a bit too long, but I understand now that this makes them last longer.  I also read that if you add a wee bit of water to the raisins and give them a few seconds in the microwave, it softens them up.  I've always done it by soaking them for a few minutes in hot water and then using the hot water in whatever I'm baking.

The raisins I've gotten in the past have been superb.  Candice grapes make a really grapey-tasting raisin. Hopefully there'll be more grapes to harvest as there are still quite a few bunches up in the arbour getting riper.  It would be very nice if the raccoons gave me another raisin year!

2 Days Later:  The grapes took much longer to dehydrate than I'd expected - probably 36 hours in all.  At the end of it, though, I have a nice little container of delicious raisins to tuck away.  Here's what they look like.