Look what our cherry tree did this summer! It’s been one of those rare occasions when a kitchen scale would have been helpful. Since we don’t have one, I’ve no idea how much fruit our tree produced this year. We’ve eaten lots of cherries, and there are two bags in the freezer all ready to be converted into cherry cobbler. I even borrowed the neighbor’s ladder only once, leaving everything I couldn’t reach on my own for the birds … and I still feel like I came out ahead. Save
Spring in these parts has been… well, to say “atypical” is to be nice about it. “Worst spring ever” is a more common description. Cooler than normal. Wetter than usual. Snow pack is something like 39,000% of normal. Some of this I haven’t really objected to, much. Yes, I’ve been a bit cranky that we still can’t reliably picnic on Wednesdays, but, as a person whose brain shuts off when it gets hot, I can’t say that the temperatures that only sometimes make it to 70 degrees have really bothered me. It’s been nice not really thinking much about watering …
With the return of our farmers’ market, it’s time to take stock in the pantry and start planning what will be put up this year, even if the weather is acting more like late March than early May. Excepting the jam, which I apparently made in large quantities two years ago, and the apricots, which Caitlyn refuses to pack for her lunches, I think we actually did really well in eating through much of what I put up last year. We have tomatoes left, but probably just enough to get us to tomato season in a few months. The same …
Maybe it’s the proverbial spring cleaning, but I’ve been on an organizing spree lately. I’ve got bags of out-grown clothes to take to Goodwill, books to drop off for the Seattle Public Library book sale, and dead electronics and computers finally making progress toward Re-PC and Total Reclaim. If it’s been ignored for years, I’m making an effort to decide what to do with it and then follow through. I’m pretty good about bagging up Caitlyn’s old clothes a couple of times a year, but they usually move as far as another closet, not actually out of the house. Mixed …
It’s the return of the Columbia City Farmers’ Market! (Which probably means it will rain this afternoon). I’m so, so, so hoping there is asparagus. Not sure yet what I’ll do with it – quiche, Spanish tortilla, cooked with a little garlic, tossed with a cream sauce over noodles – but, please, let there be asparagus. Because I have to wait two more years before I can harvest any of this. That’s 2013, folks, before I can cut and eat any of the asparagus I grow myself. I have to visit it in the p-patch and drool and keep my …
