feeling figgy

A tall, verdant fig tree abides in the very far corner of my backyard. I glance at the three-lobed leaves outside my bathroom window as I draw the blinds every morning. Alas, this tree is "figless". I have read that it might take six years for a tree to produce fruit, if this is true this tree has one more year to prove itself.

 On the farm we had a fig tree that sat in front of my little white spinning house. Every summer it produced a most outstanding fig crop. What a delicious treat to pick one of those luscious sun-warmed figs off the tree and bit into its fleshy sweetness.

               

             This is the only photograph I could put my hands on quickly to show our fig tree there in the background.

                   That's four year old  Rose with Tar in front.

A fig tree grows on the side of the road where I have walked  for many years. I've watched figs bud, mature, and grow ripe year after year. Memories of eating fresh figs tantalized my taste buds every August. No one has ever gathered these figs, they were simply food for the birds, or they just sadly rotted on the branches. This year I decided I would try to find the owner of this tree. One day she was in her yard and told me to help myself. And I did! I believe fresh figs might perhaps be an adult taste, but if you enjoy the taste there is nothing quite like them.

And today I made a very easy fig preserve. I do wish you could taste them. I wiped the pan out with a bit of bread and I had to close my eyes as I slowly chewed its figgy sweetness. These jars of fig preserves will be a taste of late summer this cold winter.

And there are more figs still waiting for me to pluck and bring home to make even more sweet goodness.

fermenting cucumbers...

...to become the best pickles in the whole wide world!

Deliciously salty, garlicky, dilly...oh, my mouth is bouncing alive just typing these words. You would not believe how amazingly simple these pickles are to make and have as your very own to eat.

And I have found the absolute best way to keep them crisp...oak leaves! Yes, something that is readily available to most of us. All I have to do is go to the garage, carry the green step ladder out to the cement driveway, hold my breath and pray as I step up several steps on the ladder gingerly reaching up to the lowest branches of the overhanging boughs, pinch a few of the sturdy green leaves, bring them inside to wash before layering them between the cucumbers, tucking two on top beneath the smooth river stone weight.

I make a brine of one quart water per 1 1/2 -2 Tablespoons of salt, truly its to your taste, but I prefer to have the pickles more on the salty side and I have found it will make a better ferment in the long run. I like to add  black peppercorns, cayenne pepper flakes, fresh garlic cloves, fresh dill, and bay leaves. After a few days I taste my pickles and if they are the right taste to my liking I will store them in the refrigerator, but usually I will give them one or two days more....a total of about five days usually does it for me.

My few cucumbers plants have produced a good crop of cucumbers  for me this year. I have been able to eat them raw almost daily plus fermenting several batches as well as pickling a few jars of bread and butter pickles for the pantry shelf.

castles in the sky... part one

"Dreams, hopes, or plans that are impossible, unrealistic, or have very little chance of succeeding."

                                                          EARLY JUNE

 I do believe it is a rather fitting name, Castle in the Sky, for one of my newer laid gardens, the one my husband helped me create back in the spring. 

There lays a certain shadier area in our backyard lining up on the backside of the house. A row of holly trees and a small spinney face out behind it. Every summer we have struggled with growing grass on the sloping area and for years it was to me, a place of waste and neglect. 

But I had dreams, hopes, and plans for this particular space. I could visualize it in my mind, what could be.

The day we tackled this particular garden space began by us cutting out some of the thick holly trees and planting ligustrum which we hope will provide a privacy wall as it grows. Ligustrum is one of my most favorite hedges smelling perfumy sweet in the early summer and attracting busy bees.                                                            

LATE JUNE

EARLY JULY

Since I've always envisioned a pretty bench at the end of the path, we decided that the purchase of this bench would hail a wonderful anniversary remembrance.

  This garden certainly has plenty of room for continual growth, the addition of plants and even get down and get dirty toil...I am still visualizing what it will become in future years. But this I can say, it is well on its way and I am loving it!  Hydrangea bushes will be bowing their heady blooms and blushing Lenten Roses will be nodding gracefully as I meander down the stone path. To the right of the bench are the beginnings of oak-leaf hydrangeas, to the left a bed of bright red bee balm and 

along the back mounds of sweet- smelling lemon balm. 

                                                               
                                                                   EARLY AUGUST

The bench provided a moment of conversation for Charlotte and Breanna one afternoon.

cultivating appreciation

"Cultivate a sense of appreciation. Love your work, trust your work, keep in touch with today. Teach yourself to be practical, up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail"

-Henry van Dyke

The chorus of the cicadas is loud and intensifying, rising up and dipping down, reminding me somewhat of labor pains...the rising and falling that is. I hear the breeze in the gentle tingling of the chimes and I see it in the movement of the cucumbers plant leaves. The wind stirring the ninety-three degree heat,

 I sat on the back porch, the porch I swept and straightened up after lunch, shaking the debris sprinkled cushions and fluffing the saggy pillows. I love summer afternoons when I am able to sit a spell outside, to read or perhaps sew a hem, such as the binding I am sewing on this 1920 apron, a pattern made from directions found in this book. I had finished my daily chore of ironing and thought a spell of rest and sewing before the preparations of supper began could be done outside. I brewed a teabag of Yorkshire Gold and laced it with unfiltered apple cider. 
The addition of a slice of chocolate-chip banana bread seemed sensible to me too!

Including beets in your diet and drinking unfiltered apple cider make an excellent tonic for gall bladder and liver health. It is good to treat these organs to a tonic from time to time and this is a simple and easy way to do so.

The finished apron being modeled by Theodora.

Yarn Along in August

Calm knitting sometimes in the evenings, but for the most part knitting seems to be on furlough these summer days.  I knitted a pair of these mitts  with the enticing name of  "Fetching" several years ago.  They are a favorite hand mitt of mine to wear in the winter, hence I decided to make a pair as a Christmas gift for someone in my Smocking/Sewing Guild. (We are to make a gift this year for an exchange.)

My daily reading habit never stops, but it sometimes takes longer than I intended to finish a book. I find myself nodding off many a night when I had hoped to get an hour or so of reading done before bedtime.

I am almost finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. After seeing the BBC movie adaption, I was planning no ill affects leading to a less enjoyable read. While the movies are usually wonderful to watch, the books are just better and worth reading above all.

 How Should We Then Live? by Frances Schaeffer, a book on my bookshelf I felt destined to read some time during my lifetime. This book gives a broad overview of Western Civilization beginning with the Roman Empire including areas such as art, history, music, science, and philosophy, written with Schaeffer's strong  Biblical worldview. I am greatly looking forward to getting to the chapters of the modern age, understanding it to have significant impact.

The third book on my stack arrived in the mail last week because "I could not help myself" and ordered it one afternoon on a whim. I loved reading Marta McDowell's book, The Gardening Life of Emily Dickinson immensely.  A book of this nature adds beauty and calmness to a soul. And who does not need more of that these days?

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn along...

Fried Green Tomatoes...appetizer or meal

 As summertime gets rolling along many southerners look forward to a certain delicacy that expresses a taste of summer perfectly.  Therefore,it was a wonderfully pleasing and good thing to have plenty of firm green tomatoes on my vines to pluck and bring in to flour, dip and coat before frying those green jewels in a cast iron skillet of hot coconut oil.

 I  personally think you should at least try them once in your lifetime if you have not. You can fry them in whatever oil you prefer, any type of oil works just fine, I happen to prefer healthier oils such as coconut or avocado.  Fried green tomatoes may be served as a tasty side dish to any meal and they will add wonderfulness as a fixin' to a hamburger. But I believe I have settled the question of what is the absolute best way to eat them. Go into the kitchen a bit earlier than your normal supper time, fry up a batch, drain them on paper towels, sprinkle liberally with salt and enjoy them while hot, even while standing at the kitchen counter, a delicious appetizer. In this way there is absolutely no competition with other foods and usually it is when you are your hungriest so the enjoyment of eating them is even greater. And you might just decide it is enough to make them a meal in themselves.