jam

Days of Summer #6

Its been a busy few days and there hasn’t been much time for blogging, so here’s a synopsis of what I’ve been up to…

Friday  I started off my day by visiting two of my (many) favorite places, Harmony Farm Supply and Nursery in Sebastopol and the strawberry stand on the way out to Sebastopol on Highway 12. Irrigation supplies for neighbor-friend-co-worker-Lindsay (tis a complex relationship), sent us out to Harmony. Here we bought all manner of small tiny plastic thing-a-ma-bobs to irrigate her vegetables boxes, newly constructed by my dad out of recycled lumber from Lindsay’s old deck. Then it was back to the neighborhood for irrigation 101, and Lindsay’s baby veggies were set to go in no time. We Aspinall’s don’t mess around. But this isn’t really news to anyone, now is it….

Saturday  was the day to deal with the six pints of strawberries I had  procured the day before. It was jam making time- strawberry rhubarb to be precise. The first canning project of the season!  I used my friend Karen’s recipe from her blog, My Pantry Shelf  (seriously, check her blog out, don’t know what to make for dinner? Karen does and it’ll be tasty). I tried out this same recipe last year, and I particularly like it is low in sugar and that the slow roasting of the fruit intensifies the flavors. So, using my lovely berries, and rhubarb grown in my parents’ garden, I made eight pints of this gorgeous stuff.

Sunday  was devoted to garden foraging and putting the finishing touches on my TOP SECRET project. For my mom and sister in law’s birthdays I’ve been nurturing teeny tiny  gardens, or terrariums. I have now made four of these miniature biospheres, and am dreaming of a few more…

And they went over quite well, I must say! And finally, here are a few picture of the latest things happening in the garden. A list of firsts: first of my Maine Dahlias, a birthday gift from dear Lisa Jean last year, first cherry tomatoes of the season, and first peaches on our tree ever!