Good Morning! Here's a little sunshine for your day. Hope it's a lovely one.
It's been a wonderful week with a lot of work that's kept me off the computer. I've been working out here. The Sunflowers are utterly insane and taking over the universe. I've been harvesting beans and cucumbers and now tomatoes. So exciting for this city girl!
We went to the farm twice. We picked raspberries and I made jam while the boys napped.
I brought some of those lovely flowers inside. Aren't they wonderful in the morning light?
In other big news, Dumpling turned this many:
Here he is opening presents and receiving birthday calls. It was a fun celebration with Grandma over and calls from the rest of the family. Chocolate cake and ice cream and presents helped, too.
Today I am in the kitchen making (more) pickles. The garden has really taken off and I've been collecting produce right and left. It's amazing. We had our first sweet pea bloom and the first morning glories. Better late than never!We are hoping the good weather will hold as the watermelons, cantaloupe and other melons are trying so hard to ripen. Not to mention the ears of corn which have appeared. We had the first of the grapes the other evening. They are a small, first year crop, but wonderful! The herbs are everywhere and tucked into everything. It's truly a delight.
Look at what I collected yesterday afternoon!
The beans are cleaned, cut, blanched and nestled into the freezer. My, that takes awhile to do! But I read while I worked which makes everything better. I also hauled in the biggest zucchinis yet. Fifteen inches long and four and a half pounders they are. More grating and freezing and bread coming up!The pickles are just about done. This afternoon will be spent with my peaches. I love peaches. I'm planning on peaches slices and some peach jam. If I have enough peaches and time I'll tackle some peach butter. Everyone loved that last year.
In between, I've been sewing and pulling weeds and playing a lot. Besides our two trips to the farm, we spent a wonderful morning at the zoo. Our weather is quite fine out and so we all long to be out as much as possible.
My, but this is a random post! Maybe it's the time of year. The timer just went off. The six and a half quarts of pickles are ready now. Gotta go!
On another important note: PLEASE consider signing up for this. September 11th is this Friday and I know there are a lot of names left.
4 comments:
Wow! I must say I am quite impressed with all your goodies!
I am planning to study up this fall and winter on how to make our garden more productive, I don't want to rely quite so much on the flea market.
You must take a picture of all your bounty lined up once your canning is don, I'm planning to with mine, some time in October, once I've done apples.
Have a blessed week!
Bonnie
Kimberly, you are amazing! I love your photos and am so impressed that you garner such bounty from your garden!! It is very cleverly arranged (so much grassy area) and your sunflowers are so pretty. Here's a question for you... how do you manage to read while you can?? I put on old movies (like "Rebecca" and "Little Women") but reading (barring audio books) is beyond me. Please share your secret!!
Warmly,
Tracey xox
Wow, it sounds like you are busy busy busy around the house and garden. I'll definitely have to check out some of your other posts on canning as I've never done it before and for some reason, it has always seemed intimidating. (I have this irrational fear of dying from unknown mushrooms and botulism. :)
Also, your blog layout is beautiful! Nice job!
Kimberly, thank you so much for the great advice! You've definitely gotten me motivated! I think I'll start off with something easy, like jam or jelly (if in fact, they are easy). I read in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that she always adds a tablespoon of lemon juice to her tomato sauce...something about he acidity level being important when you can...I don't know about you but the last thing I want to do is make my tomato more acidic!
I'll have to experiment and climb the learning curve. Again, thanks for the great advice! I'll have to add a link to your site on mine so I remember to check in with you! :)
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