There are four very long rows of berries in this field. We always begin our first pickings on the lower limbs, but by the end of the season we will be toting along our ladders to reach those berries high on the top branches of the bushes..
Some are already in the freezer, many being kept in the refrigerator for eating, and six cups will go into this Rustic Blueberry Tart dessert I will serve tomorrow night when company comes for dinner.
*And, as many of you know John MacArthur went home to be with the Lord this week. I've enjoyed listening to all the tributes online given to this Faithful Servant of the Lord as I go about pickling and canning in my kitchen. Mrs. White wrote a beautiful post you may read on her blog.
So many posts, so little time...perhaps your "song" too? I have missed being here posting, reading and commenting on all your posts. Alas, there is a formulated plan to record the rewards of my lovely July. So stay tune if you would like...
"A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world". - -Wendell Berry
Monday morning and the garden has yielded baskets of fresh produce. It is happening all over again, the same rewarding story every summer. Back in the spring we sowed all those little seeds into the soil anticipating a harvest. The harvest is just getting strong.
The final harvest for the lettuce and beets. I pulled all the lettuce because it becomes too bitter in the mid summer's heat and all the beets just needed to be pulled out of the ground for storage. They will store in the refrigerator for quite some time.
Tomatoes are coming in strong now, we even had our first BLT this weekend. The little cherry ones are ripening too.
Potatoes, most of them dug; they did so much better in the raised beds on the side of the house this year. What a satisfying chore is digging potatoes if done early enough in the day!
Peppers, though the heat will affect them for a spell, I have been trying to pull the large ones.
And the blackberries... are as jewels on the vine, our first year!
This past Saturday, my daughter stopped by for afternoon tea. She called saying that is what she wanted to do. I was honored. I brewed a pitcher of hibiscus tea, added mint syrup and a slice of lime, served iced. Very Refreshing.I had whipped up a batch of banana chocolate-chip muffins to serve alongside pieces of fresh cut-up peach.
Meet Knox, her dog.
"Come to the summer, to the summer we will come"
~John Clare
A storm is brewing, and I am here on a semi-dark storm infused afternoon with one ear listening to the hot water bath canner, jars of peaches I am preserving for the pantry. Quarts...25 minutes.
It has begun raining hard now, the raindrops splattering my windows creating designs on the glass. I hear it falling despite the steady sound of the canner. A summer's day storm...it will pass as quickly as it has arrived.
My Potager:
The garlic harvest was successful this year. I love the names of the hard-necked garlic I grew as much anything...Majestic, Music, and Burgundy.
"Who knows what may lie around the next corner? There may be a window somewhere ahead. It may look out on a field of sunflowers.”
– Joe Hill
Or Not!
Still remembering the morning in late April that I sowed the seeds dreaming big of a small field of sunflowers I hoped to enjoy this year, as I have in previous years. The first photo is the deer's first visit, the second their next visit and it has continued to nary a thriving sunflower left now. I was not to be daunted I replanted between the rows...we will see. Not hopeful at the moment. Yet, we do have some tall straight reaching to the sky sunflowers planted around the vegetable fence...
Thank you all for reading and commenting when you are able! Blessings!
As some of you might remember I enjoy the art of food fermentation. I regularly ferment cabbage, but during the summer months I usually have several ferments going on at one time.
I am no expert by any means, but I am always up to learning new things in regards to fermenting foods.
This little local store carries products from K Culture Ferments. Since the store offers free tastings I was gladly enticed to bring home a couple of their ferments recently. Wow are they delicious! Of course, I checked the ingredients list and today I decided I would try my hand at making a ferment using cabbage, carrots and beets. I will never be able to create the exact same ferment, but at the least I can experiment and learn to make a good one.
While I was happily fermenting in my kitchen, I listened to this very interesting conversation at Thinking in Public between Al Mohler and Clare Morell about her book, The Tech Exit:A Practical Guide for Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones.
It is extremely interesting to listen to her research that clearly shows how the use of smartphones affects the development of kids and teens, in all aspects. Most of us would agree that society as a whole has dramatically changed especially due to the progressively insidious use of smartphones. I am aware of how many parents today struggle with this, even as my own children share with me how hard it is to say no to my grandchildren with any such devices. They are the wise ones, and I do pray for them. When my boys were growing up, there were no smartphones, they did not even have cell phones. But with my girls iPods, cell phones, and even smart phones were beginning to take off. At sixteen, when my girls began to drive they were allowed a cellphone, and eventually a smartphone edged in, but still I did not trust anything called a "smartphone". I do not now either.
There have been wonderful declarations, quotes, and comments about the month of June written by others . And I truly give my own hearty affirmation to the beautiful month of June as it is still my most favorite month of the year.
June bursts serenely forth, it sheds its array of glories, and declares special wonder without any hesitation whatsoever.
But despite all the other things that June represents, it continues to hold favor for me as the month of brides, weddings, and marriage. Being a June bride still holds merit to me because on this third day of June forty-seven years ago I was wed.
The garden... vegetable, herb, and flower... overall has been planted, though the garlic will be harvested soon and we plan to put in more tomato plants and sow more green bean seeds after tilling that soil. I cut the scapes of the garlic plants on Saturday. Here is a delicious and easy way to use your garlic scapes.
Into a skillet of olive oil add unpeeled russet potatoes chunks about the size of a nickel alongside the garlic scapes chopped into 1/4" pieces. Cook until the potatoes are crispy brown and tender.
We could comprehend that we are having a "mini holiday" today since the majority of the garden is planted for now and the days of preserving have not yet begun. Since the day is rainy and cool, we took a "holiday" opportunity and opted to go to the cottage and tackle the much needed job of painting the sun porch. This turned into a most enjoyable day with my husband doing something typically "different" from the usual holiday activity. May I state how pleased I am with my choice of using the same color paint as what is on the kitchen walls? It is by Glidden and called Silk Star; I am always fascinated with the names given to paint colors, but I also like to rename them. "Sliver of Butter" is what I named this paint color
Notably, I forgot to take an after paint photo 🙄.
Take my word for it, it looked great, just what I was hoping to accomplish by extending the color outside the back kitchen door. We hope to return tomorrow evening and add another coat. ( I will get a photo then).
The sun porch is a long narrow room that was added on at some point in time, it includes the stairway that leads to the basement. The wood boards on the stairs were added recently and now need some paint too. Gray? Or perhaps another color for the steps? We are pulling up the old tiles on the floor and will be adding a floor similar in color to that "oaky" color on the subfloor
After we finished painting the first coat around half-past four, we sat down at the dining table in the cottage and savored afternoon tea.
The cilantro in my garden seeded itself and has become ostentatious in its pursuit to come up everywhere in the garden. I have already dried a jars worth and I decided I must cut the plants back to prevent them from going to seed with the hopes of retaining fresh cilantro in my garden for most of the summer. The smell was intoxicating, and I found sophisticated simplicity in placing them in a jar of water to set on the porch table.
These little notecards came from this store, Charlotte gifted them to me so I have been writing notes this afternoon.The Tufted Titmouse is one of my favorite backyard birds and we are fortunate to have quite a few of them at our feeders. When they decide to sing...it is as a choir has booked a special flight to come and delight.
Years ago, I remember brewing a delicious summer tea using rosemary. Today after pruning my rosemary bushes I took a handful of the crushed rosemary branches (approximately 1-2 cups) brought them to a boil and simmered this brew for about 10 minutes. I added the strained rosemary tea to an equal portion of sweet tea also adding the juice of one-half lemon. Very refreshing, and the taste of rosemary was keen yet subtle.I realize that sounds like an oxymoron, but to me it describes the taste well.
Another way would be to make a rosemary syrup which basically means adding dissolved sugar to the simmering rosemary tea and pouring it into unsweetened tea, and even yet another way to make a good rosemary drink is to simply add the brewed rosemary tea into lemonade.How has sophisticated simplicity shaped your May thus far?
Figs season has arrived. T he very first year we moved here we planted a fig tree. It was purchased at the Farmers' Market and plante...
