Busy, busy, busy is an understatement, but with all that can be accomplished during the short growing season between late May and early September it’s hard to slow down. With the abundance of wildlife, flowers, food and herbs, both medicinal and culinary, there is a constant barrage of things to pick, dry, can, shoo, photograph, repair, water, and feed. I plan to post a canning update soon for anyone needing a fix, complete with recipes.
The animals here are wonderful companions and always add personality to the homestead. This year there is a group of six crows that come and go. I know they are the same crows each time because one of them never learned to “caw-caw” like the other crows and instead quacks like a duck. That still makes me smile every time. :-) Continue reading Peak Summertime at Chez Cog→
So there I was, caught in a bramble of sharp blackberry thorns coming from every direction. I’d been snagged first by the swooping thorn from high up that caught my hair, then by two more barbed branches that grabbed my pants and arm as I tried to retreat. Having left the house in an overconfident manner, thinking it was like any other day, I had no urgency to remember my phone, a sidearm or my small pruning shears to cut my way out. Cog was at work and there was no one for miles to hear me scream should the black bear come by for a late blackberry lunch.
Crunch time has begun. Like so many other things in life food production happens gradually, then all at once. Up here in our mountain climate, over the next 2 ½ months we will be ‘putting up’ food for the next year or two.
I find this overwhelmingly inspirational. Within a short span of four months of gardening we are able to harvest, freeze, can and dry a great deal of food which will then be consumed over the following one or more years. Once upon a time most people lived this way, but to a city raised gal like me it is pure magic. Continue reading Canning Fest 2015 – And So It Begins→
