August Recap

Growing up August was my least favorite month. It was hot, dry, and school and fall were moving in too fast. While I was raising my sons, August was the month of last vacations, hot weather, and getting ready for school. August now is a month of happenings. The garden is in full swing, and the weather is good enough for friends to start outside entertaining. August now is also a FAST month, flying by too fast.

Just last weekend alone, we had an event going on each evening, getting together with friends and family to celebrate love, kitchens, and good fortunes, and to eat really good food. It's taken me a week to become "unfull."

I feel overwhelmed and blessed with such a fruitful harvest, not just in the produce we have been growing, but in friendship and family, and the accompanying love.

We've been picking and freezing marionberries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Several weeks ago I did my marionberry freezer jam, which for me is the primary reason we planted the marionberries. Last weekend David and I shucked and froze 33 ears of Yakima corn. Shucking this corn is definitely an outside project as we had cornsilk everywhere.
I did the shucking and David did the cleaning of cornsilk, so it went pretty quickly.

Then in to the kitchen to blanch and prep for freezing. I love the way the yellow brightens up when the corn is blanched.

After blanching, the corn has to go immediately in ice water to cool down, and to close up the cells on the kernels so they will keep in the flavor while frozen.

After the chilling, a good air drying is needed to keep frost to a minimum.

All bagged up and ready for the deep freeze. This will make for good eating this winter.

All of the onions have been harvested and cleaned up for winter storage. This year we planted the all time favorite Cobra, a wonderful yellow storage onion.

Red Mars onion, which also stores quite nicely.

And then the Cippolini onions which are pretty funky looking, but store well, and have a great flavor when cooked.

The onions were set out to cure for two weeks, and this weekend I cleaned then all and they are now ready for storage, together with the garlic.

This weekend I picked the first of the Blue Lake bush beans (yum), more zucchini and yellow squash, dug up some potatoes for eating for a couple of weeks, froze strawberries and blueberries, and am off to pick broccoli for tonight's dinner.

Next up, tomatoes. In this part of the country tomatoes are a fall crop, and they are starting to ripen.

I'll be canning and freezing tomatoes and tomato sauce over Labor Day weekend, and loving every minute of it.

Yes, August is a good month. A month of many blessings.

On a final note, however, we say good bye to a dear friend, a kind man, and a treasured neighbor. Rest in peace dear Charlie, we will miss you and we thank you for wonderful memories of a wonderful man.

TTFN

Sue

YUM!!!

I garden for many reasons. I love being outside, the fresh air, working in the dirt, watching things grow, and knowing the food we eat is completely organic.

Then, there is this ...

... strawberries, marionberries, raspberries, and blueberries. All of these berries equal this,

which equals this.

Fresh berries on French Vanilla ice cream. Now this is the reason we garden. Yum!

TTFN

Sue

Big Silk Flower

Rowan describes tiny floral bobbles in the ribbing. All I can see is the flower on the shoulder that's bigger than this model's head. Why the big silk flower? She looks like it's pulling her right shoulder down. This does look like a very nice sweather.

Oh well. Maybe my real problem is I HATE silk flowers. No, that's not it.

TTFN

Sue

All Good Things Must Come to an End

This has been a wonderful vacation. I feel rested, relaxed and recharged. We've been to Taco Night Tuesday at the Elks, we've gardened, been to garage sales, gardened some more, had excellent meals, good sleep, happy dogs, and good laughs.

We finished the weekend off with a reunion of sorts of good friends. First the Tazioli Sisters came up and stayed with us while they went to their annual seafood festa in Shine, Washington. Yesterday, Jim and Pat came up to stay and "do" the Lavender Festival.

After lunch, we struck out to visit a couple of lavender farms, and we kept coming across the most interesting characters.

First the honey bees specializing in lavendar honey. We gave them plenty of space.
A couple of llamas enjoying their favorite past time, people watching. I would love to know what they are thinking.
Then at another lavendar farm, we came across the Lavendar Gals. They dress up like this every year, and have been doing it for 14 years now (as long as the festival has been happening). They literally sparkled.

Then in one of the lavendar fields, Pat and I came across this guy.

Meanwhile, back at Edgar's Acres, Edgar and Louie were taking their afternoon nap. They truly are the best of buddies.

This morning it was time to say our good byes and make plans for the same time next year.

Which included the dogs saying good bye to Pam.

The garden has been weeded, harvested, planted, thinned, and all set to grow, grow and grow some more.Among all of the other things we did, I got a bunch of stockings knit for Operation Holiday Stockings. These little stockings have been a fun project to work on while I was vacationing, they are also great summer weather knitting because they are small.

All in all, it's been a lovely time, but all good things must come to an end, including vacations. Tomorrow it's back to work, and the usual routine. Thank you vacation, for being so nice to me.

TTFN

Sue

Peas and Green Manure

Last March when we put in the new raised beds, we decided to plant peas to occupy the soil, and to fix nitrogen into the beds. At the time, we decided we would harvest what we could when we pulled the pea plants up for the compost pile. In the meantime, the pea plants would keep the soil viable and the plants themselves would fix nitrogen. As with out usual planning, the peas bloomed and fruited out sooner than later, and all of a sudden they had to be harvested. The heat last week just about did them in so I spent three days harvesting, shelling, and freezing peas.

We planted Canoe Peas, Green Arrow Bush Peas, Little Marvel Bush Peas, and Snap Peas (above). I made some observations and took notes. Those who garden may find this of interest, those who don't read this anyway, it might come up some day for Trival Pursuit.

Canoe Peas - We planted two beds, I harvested 5 gallons of peas, which amounted to 1 gallon of frozen peas.

Green Arrow Bush Peas - Out of 2.5 beds planted, I harvested 7.5 gallons of peas, which amounted to 3 gallons of frozen peas.

Little Marvel Bush Peas - We planted a quarter bed of these peas and got 3 gallons of peas, which equaled almost 1 gallon of frozen peas.

Snap Peas - I harvested 2 gallons of peas from a half bed, which amounted to 1 gallon of frozen peas.

The Little Marvel Peas were the easiest to shell. The Canoe were the least productive and hardest to shell. The Green Arrow were the most productive, and easy to shell.

Slugs love peas, but our loss to the appetite of slugs was minimal. I also figured out why slugs don't both the peas as seedlings. They want the peas to grow and produce, so they can eat the peas themselves. Yum, yum.

All of the "bush" peas were out of control, and definitely need to be trellised. These plants were literally hanging over the beds and covering the next rows.

Next year I'll plant Little Marvel and Green Arrow. They both did very well for our region.

The reward for all of this work? Green Manure, 280 gallons of it! If you are an organic gardener, you get excited about things like green manure.

You also get to eat organic garden peas in the winter, that touch of green to make the meal pretty!

TTFN

Sue

Greetings from Edgar's Acres

We've been busy here at Edgar's Acres, but we've also had some wonderful down time. You know, time to smell the sweet peas. The weather for the most part has been perfect, except for last Thursday when it got up to 90 degrees (which is horrible on the prairie), when all I could do was sit under the tree and knit.

In the morning I've been drinking my coffee and enjoying the view of the Olympic Mountain Range (and my neighbor's house). Tough duty.

I got the bed for the acorn squash cleaned and built up. This picture was taken last week, and those plants have doubled in size. I think they are happy to have their roots free of crab grass.

It took three mornings, but the asparagus patch is clean and level. Tomorrow I'll be topping the bed with a layer of compost. The little plants are very happy and growing.

Little asparagus sprouts continue to come up. Yum. Next year we will get to have a small harvest, and it will be just reward for the work we've put into this project.

The garlic had been in the drying shed for two weeks curing, and I got those trimmed and cleaned. They are now finishing up the curing process on the dryer. Strangely enough, the house is not reeking of garlic.

I've also been knitting. The nice thing about these OHS stockings, they are an easy project to be working on throughout the day when I need a break from gardening.

I've been harvesting peas for three days now (another blog to be coming), have potatoes and onions to thin, and of course, there continues to be the garden to be weeded and replanted.

It's been a wonderful vacation. Edgar sends his love.

TTFN

Sue

I Think Not!

Every once in a while I come across a pattern that I think the designers are way off. This sweather is described as a "curve flattering garment." For who? Considering how the eye is immediately drawn to the tummy area, I think not. Anyone who has had children, is up in years, or a bit heavier than this model will tell you the last thing they want the world to focus on is the tummy area. It makes this model look full of tummy. It even makes her look busty. This pattern is sized up to a 52" bust, which is considerate, however, the seams right over the bust scream out as well. Berroco, this time you've misstated the garment. This garment is not flattering in any way. Maybe it's time to find some additional designers.

TTFN

Sue