Hello Friends! I’m still here! I did not intend to take any time away but the garden has been demanding and so has life in general. You may have heard Minneapolis is once again in mourning after a mass shooting of children attending a back-to-school mass . And of course the hate-filled people in the Trump administration, instead of focusing on gun control, are blaming antidepressants and trans people. My heart is broken in so many pieces for so many reasons.
I have no words, and too many words. So today I’m going for mostly photos.
Anyone who says life is a bowl full of cherries hasn’t spent hours and hours pitting them!
But then there was cherry pie and banana-strawberry ice cream. There are still lots and lots of cherries in the freezer.
There were also lots and lots of aronia berries, more than we’ve ever had. Tomorrow James will be making rhubarb-aronia jam.
So we finally got around to making a solar dehydrator from an old window, parts of an old pallet, and leftover corrugated stainless steel from re-roofing the chicken coop. We did a test making a small batch of aronia raisins and it works great! And then the weather turned cool and cloudy and we haven’t been able to use it since.
There are also our first ever plums from the tree an invader rabbit almost killed two years ago. James made some compote for our Sunday waffles. Then I foraged some wild plums to supplement the ones from our tree and yesterday James made plum-elderberry jam. So many elderberries this year too! Haven’t tried the jam yet. Will let you know!
The lemon cucumbers turned out to not agree with my tummy when raw. We made several batches of fermented pickles–add several grape leaves to keep them crunchy! But the best pickles turned out to be some refrigerator pickles in red wine vinegar that we will be making more of. Of course the cucumbers are almost done now, so there won’t be that much more of the fridge pickles, but we will know for next year.
In my sourdough baking adventures, I made bialys. They came out so good, and James was in heaven.
The garden parsley played host to several swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. They were kind enough to still leave plenty of parsley for me.
The butternut squash and scarlet runner bean vines have completely covered the 10-foot-tall wooden ladder. There are three huge squashes in there and probably some smaller ones hiding. Also, lots of runner beans. It’s a ladder of yum!
The “eff you” amaranth tells us to fuck off all day every day, much to our delight.
It took awhile for the Mexican sunflower to start blooming, probably because it was putting all its energy into becoming a gigantic shrub. Now that it is blooming the butterflies and bees have one more place in the garden to stop and eat.
There are four bees, possibly five, crammed in this squash blossom. And as I was taking the photo, another bee tried to get in on the fun but got squeezed out.
The hyssop has been blooming for a couple weeks and it is covered in bees. The hyssop is giant white and purple anise, both very tall and growing all around the deck. I’ve had to tie it up to keep it mostly out of the paths, but it still droops. James very carefully lifts up stalks and creeps under. Me? James says, “you just barrel right through and then pat your hair to make sure there are no bees stuck in it.” Yup. So far my curly mop has not caught any bees but I am regularly pulling out flower petals and little pieces of stems and leaves.
That is all for today. Take care of yourselves. Joy is resistance and so is kindness and love. The more my heart breaks, the more love I find it has room for.
I absolutely loved this post and all the close-up photos of the fruits of your labors. They’re gorgeous. I actually expected you to be off the blog for a hot minute because we are in harvest time! Naturally, you choose the garden over the Internet. 🥰
My blackberries are all done for the year. I wasn’t as diligent about picking them this year, so I didn’t get nearly as many as 2024. I always call missed berries The Bird Tax.
I was shocked by that news from Minnesota, but I hadn’t heard about the Trump administration’s reaction, which just makes it so much worse. I know that feeling of “no words, and too many words”—I think it sums up how I’ve been feeling lately too.
On a happier note, those are beautiful photos of your garden, and I love all your projects. Two things: first, I only discovered the existence of aronia berries yesterday when I saw them on a restaurant menu as part of a healthy juice mix, so it’s quite a coincidence that you’ve been growing them. Secondly, I now need to dig through your archives to see how a rabbit almost killed a plum tree!
So much colour, life and wonderful food in your beautiful garden, Stefanie ~ definitely the things of joy and love to focus on in these terrible times. 💕
I’ve been thinking of you while reading about that news; it’s been heartening to see photographs of so many people gathering together to find strength in such a time of sorrow. It’s been interesting to compare news coverage from different venues, and I usually find myself shaking my head at something in all of them.
Your dehydrator is so cool! We haven’t tried anything like that (and, really, don’t have the kind of quantity of ANYthing that would make it as useful as it is for you) but did recently discover the miracle of spritzing old cloth (especially bedding) with lemon juice and water and hanging it in the sun to clean it and, then, it got cloudy and cool here too. Why won’t the sun just keep shining so we can practice our new tricks? hee hee
I’m so sad because school shootings in the US are so common that we no longer hear about them much outside of the US. I understand you want to stay in your garden with all these wonderful and bountiful plants!
yes to “I have no words, and too many words.” Your pics were just right, and I agree with you. Joy is resistance. Sometimes I wish Mr Gums would see that. The world gets him down too much – not good for him, and it doesn’t achieve much for anyone else either. So, I agree, find joy, and be kind. We did a road trip on the weekend, and went into a little gallery where the owner-artist was working. She basically said the same thing. There’s not a lot we can do about the suffering of others but we can be kind and generous to those we do come across.
Aren’t some caterpillars just the most beautiful things?
“There’s not a lot we can do about the suffering of others but we can be kind and generous to those we do come across.” Such wonderful words! A friend last night was talking about kindness and she said we need to lavish kindness on everyone and I said, yes! Yes! And then imagined sprinkling it around on everyone like fairy dust 🙂
And caterpillars, so much beauty to be found amongst them.
I absolutely loved this post and all the close-up photos of the fruits of your labors. They’re gorgeous. I actually expected you to be off the blog for a hot minute because we are in harvest time! Naturally, you choose the garden over the Internet. 🥰
My blackberries are all done for the year. I wasn’t as diligent about picking them this year, so I didn’t get nearly as many as 2024. I always call missed berries The Bird Tax.
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I was shocked by that news from Minnesota, but I hadn’t heard about the Trump administration’s reaction, which just makes it so much worse. I know that feeling of “no words, and too many words”—I think it sums up how I’ve been feeling lately too.
On a happier note, those are beautiful photos of your garden, and I love all your projects. Two things: first, I only discovered the existence of aronia berries yesterday when I saw them on a restaurant menu as part of a healthy juice mix, so it’s quite a coincidence that you’ve been growing them. Secondly, I now need to dig through your archives to see how a rabbit almost killed a plum tree!
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So much colour, life and wonderful food in your beautiful garden, Stefanie ~ definitely the things of joy and love to focus on in these terrible times. 💕
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I’ve been thinking of you while reading about that news; it’s been heartening to see photographs of so many people gathering together to find strength in such a time of sorrow. It’s been interesting to compare news coverage from different venues, and I usually find myself shaking my head at something in all of them.
Your dehydrator is so cool! We haven’t tried anything like that (and, really, don’t have the kind of quantity of ANYthing that would make it as useful as it is for you) but did recently discover the miracle of spritzing old cloth (especially bedding) with lemon juice and water and hanging it in the sun to clean it and, then, it got cloudy and cool here too. Why won’t the sun just keep shining so we can practice our new tricks? hee hee
Love, love, love your bee pics!
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I love your pictures!!! The bees, Monarch, caterpillar! So awesome. The amaranth made me laugh.
it’s absolutely gut wrenching. Living in this country is gut wrenching. I send my love to your fair city and to you!
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I’m so sad because school shootings in the US are so common that we no longer hear about them much outside of the US. I understand you want to stay in your garden with all these wonderful and bountiful plants!
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yes to “I have no words, and too many words.” Your pics were just right, and I agree with you. Joy is resistance. Sometimes I wish Mr Gums would see that. The world gets him down too much – not good for him, and it doesn’t achieve much for anyone else either. So, I agree, find joy, and be kind. We did a road trip on the weekend, and went into a little gallery where the owner-artist was working. She basically said the same thing. There’s not a lot we can do about the suffering of others but we can be kind and generous to those we do come across.
Aren’t some caterpillars just the most beautiful things?
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“There’s not a lot we can do about the suffering of others but we can be kind and generous to those we do come across.” Such wonderful words! A friend last night was talking about kindness and she said we need to lavish kindness on everyone and I said, yes! Yes! And then imagined sprinkling it around on everyone like fairy dust 🙂
And caterpillars, so much beauty to be found amongst them.
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