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| Matt waters the garden in the background while Ginger helps me model my new long vest in the foreground. 6/16/2024 |
It has been 100 degrees outside every day this week. Summer is
here. Yesterday Matt was singing the praises of mulching our garden beds. That cover layer helps with moisture retention on these especially dry, hot days. Since we travel a lot, leaving the garden to fend for itself for days at a time, this is even more beneficial. We use compost until the compost pile is depleted, but this week Matt used leaves we had bagged up in the fall.
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| Matt loves the "freak" berries. He swears they taste better. 6/22/2024 |
On Tuesday I polished off the last of the June strawberry crop. We harvested more than 25 pounds! It was fabulous. I'm so grateful that putting in a strawberry bed was one of the first improvements we made at our place. We enjoyed many batches of salsa! And some pies! And strawberries ala Curly Locks! And even some berries smothered in whipped cream! We should get a smaller crop later this summer, but we are already pleased as punch with the productivity of this first crop.
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| A morning's work of berry picking! 6/22/2024 |
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| Matt made a pie and his mom made ice cream to celebrate Father's Day with Roger. 6/16/2024 |
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| Matt smiling down on his Father's Day pie. I thought the reflection of the pie in his glasses was really cool. That was just a happy accident, as Bob Ross would say. 6/16/2024 |
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| We got a can of coconut-based at the Asian market. It was pretty good stuff. 6/19/2024 |
Matt pulled the pea vines this week as they were done, too. We scarfed down copious amounts of pea fritters. Matt had to make some creamy peas and potatoes, of course. He passed along some of the pea wealth to his parents since they don't have a vegetable garden this year. Matt loves sharing his garden bounty! I blanched and froze six cups of peas for later. We ate the last of the fresh in a potato vindaloo dish for dinner last night.
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| This dinner was a fresh pea double feature. Pea fritters (from America's Test Kitchen) and Green Mac N' Cheese (from Hot for Food All Day). 7/3/2024 |
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| The pea patch. 6/13/2024 |
Ginger still wants to go outside despite the heat. She basks in it, stretched out napping. She's been on grasshopper patrol, chasing and pouncing on them despite their erratic attempts at escape. We love that from a garden point of view, but the grasshopper legs don't always go down smoothly. She's been sick on the rug a few times this week which we could do without. Oh well. I wish I could turn her loose on the domestic bunnies that are taking over the neighborhood! They are wrecking the front yard. I don't really care about the lawn, but they destroyed my lillies and eat down the sprouts in Matt's Wildflower Walk as fast as they appear. It sucks.
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| The rabbits sure were busy on the lilies. I was so mad when I saw it. For comparison, there is a photo of their orange and fuschia beauty in past years here and here. 6/29/2024 |
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| Ginger napping in the sun. 6/15/2024 |
On Wednesday, we had a sesame ginger tofu stir-fried with the last of our bok choy. It really doesn't like the heat. On Tuesday I ate the ONE serviceberry our bush produced. The first bush, planted in 2021 during a drought and heatwave did eventually die. Matt replaced it for my birthday last year. So far so good with serviceberry bush number 2! The first one didn't live long enough to produce even one berry so.... Serviceberries make me think of my Grandma Nina--though she called them Juneberries. We made a juneberry pie together once in my youth. My dad likes blueberry pie a lot and Grandma said he'd like it, since blueberries and serviceberries are so similar. They're sentimental fruit for me, like me Grandma (Fran) Grapes.
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| My first serviceberry harvest. Hahahaha! 7/9/2024 |
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| We moved the hammock chairs to the pine trees out front. It is a relaxing place to "hang." 6/2/2024 |
I love this time of year!
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| One of my bluejay pals having a snack. 6/7/2024 |
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| A squirrel neighbor who also enjoys peanuts. I put them out for the bluejays, but I think the squirrels are pretty cute, too. Look at those little hands! 6/21/2024 |
What an awesome strawberry harvest! That's something I haven't had much luck with here. I did, however, have the best pea year yet, and was happily able to can some of the bounty. Sorry about those rabbits. It's the squirrels that eat most of our fruit here. Ditto on the serviceberry. I think we got two berries last year, and won't get any this year. Here's hoping we both have better harvests next year. The optimism of a gardener!
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