It's Strawberry Harvest Time!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam (on the left ) & Strawberry Jam
 

 

True to form our June bearing strawberry plants are bearing in grand style, due to very timely rains this spring and some winter moisture. We started picking on Sunday evening and have picked for three evenings straight, my knees and thighs can vouch for that! I've froze most of the harvest along with making these jams. We will probably have several more days, (I'm guessing 4) of productive picking until the harvest is exhausted. We didn't pick yesterday evening, because we received 2.25 inches of rain early (about 3AM) Wednesday morning, a timely break for my hips and knees. We will probably pick again on Friday and over the weekend. I want to make one more batch, or may two of plain strawberry jam. It seems the later in the harvest the smaller the berries so they make better jam. Strawberry jam along with grape are our favorites and the grape harvest shows promise to also be a good one this year. TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart is hoping for a banner mulberry harvest, he loves mulberry jam and mulberry syrup. I'm so-so on mulberries as the seeds are always stuck in my teeth.

This year's garden (knock on wood) is shaping up to be one of our best, all due to getting rain at proper intervals!!! We've had plenty of asparagus, lovely rhubarb, great salad greens of spinach & lettuce,  and spring onions. So can tasty tomatoes be far behind???? We shall see! Oh and my perennial herb plants, especially the lavender (it's blooming), look great! We've been eating the garlic chives and parsley for about a month now! The annuals of basil and rosemary, planted in the last week,  are flourishing and will yield pickings in a few more weeks.

This has been a cooler at times to near normal temps for spring so I know that has helped immensely. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the real heat holds off for another few weeks and the rains keep coming.

 

 



What I did this morning!!

 

 

I finished my obsession with Sookie Stackhouse this morning! While Sookie didn't end up with the Vampire/Shapeshifter/Were (I'm not telling which one) I wanted I guess I'm good with the conclusion. My addiction to the "Dead" novels began in the summer of 2009 and I've been a fan ever since. I've also watched the True Blood series from HBO, but my viewing has been on DVD from the library or Netflix.  The TV series takes a different road and veers away from the novel storyline early in the book series, but I've still enjoyed their direction.

When I needed a fix between waiting for the next Charlaine Harris novel I found another vampire series "Undead/Queen Betsy" by MaryJanice Davidson! Satisfied my need for....blood! LOL

I've read all the series through book #11 and book #12 comes out in August!

Need a new photo...Aww much better :*)

It's about time I get rid of that snow picture!!! BLAH

 

It's been more spring like and along with that more weather watches and welcome rain! We have been lucky so far to have had only small pea size hail, and some winds accompany the rain. Over the weekend we attended two graduation open house parties about 50 miles west of our prairie home. On Saturday afternoon skies began to cloud and when the heat and dreadful humidity of the day met up with the cooler air of the front we had all kinds of thunderstorm and tornado watches go up. I was driving between affairs once when my phone went off for an actual tornado warning in the county, scared the bajebers out of me! My phone had never before made that alarm sound! The warning applied to the northern part of the county so for our location it was already north of us and on it's way out of the county!  Great cloud watching as my sister, mom and I stood out in the driveway looking up and keeping an eye out for ominous formations. What we got was temperature changes as winds would blow cool one moment and then warm the next, then stop blowing completely! Scary!!
When we got home later in the evening it appeared we had had some winds come through as a chair was blown over down by the shed along with 1.15 in the rain gauge!
 Woohoo we needed that precipitation on the strawberries, they're full of blooms, with promise of a bountiful harvest come June! The asparagus has been plentiful and we have been eating and sharing the harvest with others. The rhubarb harvest has been good, I made a pie and some rhubarb sauce, but not the usual overwhelming amount that allows me to put up cartons in the freezer. It went to seed so early that we picked the seed heads off in hopes of prolonging the grow time to get more for jelly and the freezer, we shall see if that works. We've had two pickings of spinach and lettuce for salads, YUM good stuff! So much better than iceberg lettuce salad!

This is Spring! NOT!

AAgghhh! Can you believe it!

For four consecutive weeks now we have been experiencing the last gasp of winter! It warms then a freak cold front comes through, and we experience a hard freeze.

 Warms~freeze    Warms~freeze  Warms~freeze  

Snow today 2 inches accumulation then another hard freeze, down to 22 tonight, this is number four! Our poor flowering trees, peonies, and garden!

So today I am baking, Pumpkin Streusel Muffins and Gingerbread Biscotti. My sewing machine is at the shop getting a tune-up, much needed as I have neglected this annual clean up. The place I usually take it too closed over a year ago and I had tried another about 70 miles away last fall but they were not able to get my machine in for months and I needed it for Christmas sewing. So I decided to part with it (temporarily) last Friday. It's hard--- I just love knowing it's waiting for me in the sewing room. Now a large dusty empty hole in the sewing table looks so forlorn {big pouty lip here}! I could get out the serger I inherited from my grandmother and see if I can teach myself how to use it. That's a strong possibility as I really want the use of this machine, I'm just a bit cowardly!

 So... more coffee a warm pumpkin muffin and then...and then........

Meet my granddaughter!

Katelyn Marie
Born 4/3/2013 7:36AM
8lbs.   21 inches

I'M A GRANDMA!!!!!

JUST GOT THE CALL ABOUT A HALF HOUR AGO!

 

KATELYN MARIE

8 LBS

BORN AT 7:36 AM

APRIL 3, 2013



Breakfast chocolate!?!

My two favorites!

Dark chocolate has really inched out milk chocolate over the years. My taste has changed, more refined or matured or maybe more intense is what satisfies my taste buds.

 Dark chocolate has that intense flavor!

The Lindt dark chocolate with chili is spice and just a little sweet! I break off just a small piece and place it on my tongue, letting the warmth of my mouth slowly melt the piece enjoying the chocolaty goodness then comes the heat as I rub it around in my mouth and swallow!

The Manoa chocolate is from our February vacation to Hawaii! If you look closely at the chocolate bars you will see three flavors, Sea Salt, Hawaiian Chili Pepper, and Breakfast Bar!!

Breakfast Bar isn't that a kick!! Just what this post menopausal woman needs to start her day!!

The bar contains coffee beans, Coffee + Chocolate = a perfect marriage!

Manoa Chocolate Hawaii is a bean-to-bar chocolate company on Oahu, located at Grass Shack Industries LLC, Kailua, HI so keeping a supply of this chocolate on hand will be a bit tricky. More trips to Hawaii or have The#1Son and daughter-in-law D send a care package at proper intervals to keep my addiction in check! ;)

 

Well I have a project on the front burner today so time to put the breakfast bar to task and get busy!

I hope to post pictures of the project tomorrow! Wish me luck!!