A trip to Bountiful - via the garden

In my last post I mentioned a busy life, there is always something that needs doing and I think we have that in common. We all have our own busy and pressing matters, to-doing, running hither and yon, etc. Part of my busy this Summer was the garden, not bad as pressing matters go really. Ultimately satisfying and very delicious, still sometimes you just can't figure out how to get it all done. You see, when a garden comes on, it often comes on all at once!

This Summer we had record breaking heat, which resulted in our first bumper crop of tomatoes in years. So far we have harvested about 50 pounds of heirloom tomatoes from 3 plants. Amazing and so tasty, yet a bit overwhelming. Oh but look at those beauties! Nothing like a fresh tomato from the garden. Oh, and the chilies, good gravy we have roasted a lot of chilies this summer!

We also grew tomatillos, An experiment really - that ended up combining nicely with the chilies to make some tomatillo salsa. Oh Summer in the garden...

And now we have figs. So many figs! Our tree is drooping under the weight of their sweet soft goodness. I have been inviting passers-by to help themselves as I still have fig preserves in the larder from last year. Figs coming out of my ears I tell you!

Lastly, our new brood of backyard chickens have at last laid an egg! A teeny tiny egg sure, but no less exciting. I haven't sussed out which one is the layer of said egg yet. So looking forward to having fresh eggs again. Hooray!

So concludes this episode of "In The Garden." Are you growing anything?

In my next post you might actually get to see a spot of sewing, will wonders never cease?

For the love of Jam

Yes, it's that time of year again. The annual making of The Jam took place this weekend. Fortunately we have a well seasoned team that makes it all the more enjoyable.  Just open the windows to release the steam, crank up the tunes, and get to work!The 3 of us all did our jobs with great efficiency and mostly joy. Notice I said mostly, near the end I admit to getting just a wee bit cranky due to overheating and low blood sugar.

We ended up with 37 jars of jam in total. Nice work team! This morning I baked a batch of biscuits. I then cracked open a fresh jar of strawberry jam and slathered a biscuit with it. I devoured it in less than a minute. So good!

The yearly making of the jam together began way back when The Engineer and I first moved into The Little Green cottage. Now the whole family is part of the tradition. Here's to 11 years of sweetness and kickin' out the jams!

The last jar of jam

What a beautiful morning it is here in my little patch of the Pacific Northwest! Had my morning coffee and toast out in the garden and watched the crazy starlings splash in the fountain. The only cloud over this sunny scene is that we are on the very final jar of strawberry jam from last year. Oh, still so delicious. It wont be long though, well not too  terribly long, until this year's strawberries come on and we make the 2015 batch. Still, any length of time without homemade jam seems hard to bear. 

We shall have to find some way to carry on.

Where in the world is Lola?

Here I am!

As it turns out, I was not abducted by Aliens, I did not join the witness protection program, nor did the zombie apocalypse begin in the Northwest United States. I've been here all along. You know, just relishing in the abundance of life! That's just one way of saying, "Oh good gravy, life is non-stop action!" 

I'll just do the highlights:

The fruit must be obeyed:

When the "Hoods" come on (Mt. Hood, Oregon Strawberry variety), you have no choice but to drop everything and scoop them up. This old fashioned variety is small in size, quite perishable, and the best tasting strawberry you will ever have! To not immediately run out and make a quadruple batch of low sugar jam, would be tantamount to blasphemy and lead to painful regret and despair. We also ate them fresh and I had enough to try out my new dehydrator making fruit leather.

I really wish this was a scratch-n-sniff picture. So good!

Then came the raspberries. These from our own small patch. It seems my worry over my pruning job this winter was unfounded. They have come on like gangbusters! Fresh handfuls of just picked raspberries are the preferred method of consumption. Still,we had enough to make a small batch of jam, freeze a few pints and they are still going strong.

And there were the cherries! Having never grown cherries and having inherited one sweet and one sour variety when we bought this house; I did some research. I was a bit surprised that the trees were already dropping fruit (a sunnier spring than normal?). So we picked the first go-round. Being a bit canned out, I dried this first batch to use later. The second picking may see some canning of chutney and possibly a cherry Brandy.

There's this kid:

She ended 3rd grade and is moving on to a bigger school next year. We had a week of celebratory classroom community fun. She had a great teacher this year,a lot of challenges, and was ever unflinchingly herself. I am so proud and madly in love with this girl!

And this:

Go on! Get a kitten, you know you want to! Pure joy. No trouble, no trouble at all.

xo

Greetings and Salutations!

Well hello, long time no see! It was a long and arduous journey this last month or so, and busy, busy, busy!
Once we got the bulk of our lives moved to the new place, then the heavy work began to get The little Green Cottage into shape for market. Scrubbing, painting, landscaping, replacing windows, etc. We worked long and hard and finally said our last goodbye to the old place. So long old friend, it was a good run!

Meanwhile, over at the new house...
There hasn't been much unpacking or making our own just yet, there just hasn't been time. We have spent everyday and evening in the back yard though. The new garden is a gift that keeps giving, and while I am a bit nervous about the amount of maintenance my new "park" is going to require, we are in love!

We discovered that our apple tree is a Gravenstein, an old fashioned variety that I have loved from my childhood. It is an early apple with a very short season and shelf life, but the flavor is amazing.  When we got the keys to the new place, most of the apples were already on the ground, but I couldn't let them go to waste. So I salvaged what I could and made applesauce, delicious! So, first week in the new place and I was already canning!

We also have been snacking daily on the raspberries that just started coming on when we moved in. I do love a bowl full of fresh berries with my afternoon tea!

Pasta and Caprese salad have been devoured made from the abundant basil and some gorgeous tomatoes from the new garden too.

The latest food source comes from a giant old tree and since we haven't yet purchased a fruit picker thinger, we have to wait for them to fall to the ground. Yummy Bartlett Pears!

In the front garden, we have figs coming on as well as a bumper crop of Delicata squash. Next year we shall have 2 varieties of cherries and blueberries to pick as well, plus whatever we decide to plant in the well appointed vegetable beds. So you can see, that though we may have no living room nor dining room furniture, we will not go hungry!

We (by we, I mean the engineer and a friend) did manage to put up a new coop for the girls. Lots of re-use, reclaimed materials were put to good work and the new place is very fine indeed.

Oh, and lest I forget, we also have a fancy pants fountain in the new garden!

As for getting my crafty on, it will have to wait. I have some walls I need to bash down and a whole heck of a lot of painting before my studio is ready for business.

So nice to visit with you all again. Things may be a bit spotty in this space until school starts, but I am back!

Have a wonderful weekend all!
xo

Harvest

Today I had intended to share a story about a long lost wandering soul who has recently returned to the bosom of the the family here in the little green cottage. It seems though, that I am still ferreting out the details of this epic tale and will have to save it for another time.

So today you get tomatoes. A great big heaping helping of tomatoes!

Did I say BIG?

2011 turned out to be a pretty good year for the tomatoes, the best we've had in about 3 - 4 years. That last little burst of hot weather kicked it into full gear. Of course even with sharing some with neighbors and eating plenty ourselves, we still had a small mountain of them.

So...on one of the hottest days of the year, in a very steamy and also very tiny kitchen, I began to blanch and peel and prep.

Normally I would can the whole toms, or turn them into a basic sauce, but this year I decided on Salsa!
In the pot went: onions, garlic, sweet peppers from the garden, jalapeños, cilantro, cumin, pickling salt, sugar (just a pinch), and a combo of red wine vinegar and cider vinegar.
It cooked down just gorgeous! Now we are set with salsa for many months to come. I love putting up food (ok I didn't love how hot it was, or how my fingers were made raw with all the prep, but it's totally satisfying and worth it!)



I'll be back on Friday with a happy how-to! See you then.