Childhood Dreams

As a young girl,  the highlight of my summer was going u-picking.

Raspberries and blackberries,  apples and peaches.

Canning, making jam and pies,  oh the smells.

I longed for the day when I would have my own home, 

with all kinds of my own fruit.   How amazing would that be?

This summer,  5 years after putting our roots down here,

we have our first real harvest of fruit.

Raspberries by the bucketful~2 times a week,

  and we picked 130 pounds of peaches this evening. 

I feel something that money can't buy,  feeding my family from the fruit of our hands.

This blessing,  this is wealth,  this is abundance from the Lord.

100

100 pounds of gold
Yukon Gold, that is.
Praising the Lord of the Harvest
for his generous provision for all our needs!

Farmhouse Garden Style

                                                                                     There are times (ok, most of the times)

                                           that I long for a bit more elegance in my life.

                                               Then something like this happens:

 I've planted pumpkins in my flower bed (the sun has disappeared from our back garden plot---thanks to a neighbors elm tree) and they are growing crazy,  so they've been forced trained to climb. They rampantly climb galvanized pipes,  found here at the house when we moved in,  which are tied to the porch posts with leftover bits of wire.

(Good thing that "Industrial" is chic,  no?)

The crazy thing is how much I love it!!  The pumpkin leaves are so huge,  and they look amazing backlit from inside my kitchen window.    Then these feathery, hot pink cosmos dance above the foliage,  and it's a combination that I'm going to repeat.

We are oh-so-green.  

Go ahead, give me....

Lemons!

My aunt gave us this lemon tree earlier this summer,

and we have watched it excitedly as the lemons matured.

(I can't believe that my boys resisted the temptation to pick one early!!!)

Just this week, we finally picked the first one.

The juice and zest made it's way into some cranberry biscotti,

while Ian finished off the rest.

Harvest

As I worked in short shifts to get my peaches canned this year, there were many comforting thoughts for me to meditate upon. Who knew that the sights and smells of canning would have such a place in my heart?

I feel connected, rooted. I grew up canning with my mom and siblings....peaches were always a grand effort, done all in one long day. But even farther back, these golden delights have a tie to my great-grandmother, Grammy, who served them fresh on her homemade ice cream.

I feel postive about the future. By lining my pantry with bright and beautiful jars, I am providing nourishment and comfort for my family during the gray days of winter that are coming.

{Proverbs 31:25}

I feel hopeful. Fall is a time of abundance, the harvest. The God who governs the seasons of earth, giving harvestime after the summer of labor--- He is the God of my heart. He will bring fruit into my life again, if I do not become weary in doing good. {Galatians 6:9}

p.s. I'm now 14 weeks! Not that anyone's counting!

Garden (Finally)

There are some mysterious pests getting into the blackberries...

good thing this is looking like our best year yet,

so there are plenty for hungry boys.

We've been eating cherry tomatoes for about a week now.

Our other varieties still have a few more weeks.

C'mon, salsa!!

This is our first year trying watermelons,

and this is the biggest one so far

(about the size of a lemon).

I love rhubarb, and of course, we have been harvesting that for
a while now. I've even had enough to share!
The herb garden's first year.
I am really enjoying it, but I need to find more uses
for each herb.


We've also harvested some of the Yukon gold potatoes,
Purple Queen bush beans, and a few raspberries.
It's been a slow year, but the heat is finally
getting things moving.

Spa Saturday

Simple, homemade facials:

a herbal steam with thyme from my flower beds,

honey and yogurt mask,

finished off with a skin-tightening treatment of egg whites.

~

Ingredients:

free from our kitchen and garden

Feeling pampered:

priceless.

Peas and Spinach

My boys are anticipating the day when they can,

"Just go out to the garden whenever we are hungry

and eat all the spinach and peas we want!!"

This Week: In The Garden

A harvest! Yukon Golds and Reds....
Sugar Peas and Creamed peas, too!

Potatoes, Beans and Corn.

(the pedal car has seen some action

in the irrigation mud!)

Yukon Gold Potato Blossoms

Purple Queen Bush Beans... ready next week!

Huge strawberries, loving the aged compost!

Black Satin Blackberries, small and abundant.

They turn black as they ripen,

but I just love this shade of pinky red!

Cherry Pie

Our sour cherry tree, which Mr. Wonderful guarded jealously this year, both from frosts and birds, has rewarded us with our first harvest. Enough for three pies....