I really, really love the smell of
basil. But after two hours of standing in the kitchen and plucking,
washing and pureeing basil leaves, it gets old. Eva was my
cheerleader, demanding over and over again that we do more. She
rather liked picking off leaves and spinning them in the salad
spinner. I am so glad for her help and the female bonding that
ensued over the kitchen sink. We now have many nights worth of
dinner in the freezer, thanks to this little girl. When I'm ready to
make a frozen green patty into a meal, I will take it out of the
freezer, put it into a pan of hot water (still in the bag til it's
soft enough), then put it into the Cuisinart with fresh garlic, more
olive oil, and a handful of walnuts (I am too cheap to spring for
pine nuts). Voila! Heaven!
I love fall and harvest time. All
the work of planting seeds, fussing over seedlings in the greenhouse,
transplanting them in the garden, and watering and weeding them for months finally pays off. The garden cranks out a lot of food. I made
my famous bread and butter pickles, after the boys harvested
cucumbers. While they were out there, I made them help with garden
clean up, weeding, cover cropping and all that. They didn't complain
too much, and I was glad for the help.
There is also (surprise, surprise) lots
of zucchini to be had, which I make into zucchini bread and stir
frys. Kai and Eva helped me harvest a couple, and I thought the
apple tree looked so inviting, I promptly took their picture under
it.
Fall also brings Humpies. I wrote
about them in last week's blog entry. They are such fascinating,
magical creatures, these salmon. By the time they reach our creek,
they are beaten up, eager to spawn, and ready to die soon after. We
are careful not to disturb the ancient rituals of these fish, but the
kids love to watch them, and sometimes they try to touch them. I
make sure the kids don't get overly zealous, but every now and then,
I let them try to catch one with their bare hands. They have never
succeeded, since the salmon are too fast and skiddish, but just the
other day, Lukas grabbed one for a split second, and I even got it on
camera!
The above is a salmon egg that one of the kids picked up, and I immediately had them put it back in the water where they found it. Pretty, though, ey?
I leave you with an image of the sky last week. We've lived through some intense thunderstorms lately, one of which fried our phones.
May you feel as abundant as we are right now.
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