Chocolate Box Cottage, Volume 2

Week 27: July 9, 2022

I love this time of year when the garden grows lush, before the full press of harvest and preserving. Summer crops are coming along at last. I am hand pollinating summer squash in an effort to maximize the harvest.

We are eating our way through the freezers, making room for fresh deposits of meat, broth made from the bones, berries, pesto, and whatever else God blesses us with.

Don’t laugh, but Sam and I have I “his” and “hers” freezers. Mine is upright, frost-free, and filled with broth, pre-cooked beans, homemade bread, freezer meals, and fun things like pesto and lemon curd. Foods are segregated by zones to make things easy to find.

His freezer holds the “important stuff” – meat. It is a chest freezer, manual defrost, and only he knows where to find things. I keep an inventory sheet to track quantity between both freezers.

Do you have tips or a system to ensure that you eat the food you freeze?

The garden is very late, but finally catching its stride. To ensure zucchini, I began hand pollinating the female blossoms. Otherwise, if the bees do not find and pollinate the blossom in time, it naturally aborts instead of developing a zucchini.

The simple beauty of potato flowers (yes, they bloom!) charms me every time I pass by the potato patch.

The Clementine Orange tree Sam gave me for Mother’s Day is putting on fruit.

I’d like to say this is a first, but it happens occasionally. We rely on the Nye ditch for our garden. Hoses and sprinklers plug up regularly due to moss, twigs, pine needles, and the occasional fish. Yes, fish.

My sister Marti and I spent the day with our lovely Mom, including a doctor’s appointment and lunch at a new Mexican restaurant.

Homemade veggie pizza made with my Freezer Bread Dough, baked on a hot baking stone, plus the first jar of sun tea of the season, Tropical Tulsi from Farmhouse Teas. (And here is a link to my Freezer Bread Dough made with the Ankarsrum Assistent mixer)

We enjoyed a summer-style Thanksgiving meal using a turkey from the freezer, stuffed with fresh herbs. Mashed potatoes, salad of garden lettuce, and a forkful of fermented veggies accompanied. Leftover turkey will provide 6 more meals. (I packaged the meat in sandwich baggies and then put them together in a gallon Ziploc freezer bag for better protection from freezer burn.)

Sam and I stopped by the local growers market before going on a picnic where we enjoyed spectacular views, fresh air, and an overly friendly visitor. if it sounds a lot like home, it’s because we weren’t far from home!

Tall pines and fir trees and huckleberry bushes still wearing spring color.

We couldn’t ask for a better view for our picnic, a quick affair of open-face egg salad sandwiches on homemade wheat bread and watermelon.

A friendly pregnant doe paid us a visit while we ate! She insisted on sharing our picnic. Sam gave her most of the sliced watermelon.

Noticing a few perfect dandelions, we couldn’t help but pick them and make wishes! Silly kids!

Sometimes eating through the freezer looks like homemade blackberry ice cream made from berries picked and frozen last summer.

Bzzzzz the honeybees are busy in the warm weather!

New books for the herbal library! I am thrilled to learn from Herbalist and friend, Suzanne Shires‘ death of herbal wisdom shared in Wild Herb Gardening. Lots of recipes for food and medicine. The Herbal Word Search books are a fun way to learn herbal actions and properties! Shop for her books on her website.

Between rain showers on July 4, we were able to watch fireworks. Happy birthday, America, we love you!

Blessings,

Michele