You Win Some...You Lose More Than a Couple Dozen

Anyone who has ever gardened knows that not every plant grows as expected. And, certainly, not everything survives. So it is with our San Marzano tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are flourishing. The heirlooms are doing okay...so far. But, our paste tomatoes seem to be plagued with blossom end rot. That photo is only a small sampling of the ones that we have lost so far. We have only harvested four that were okay. There will be more that don't rot. However, my dreams of having a large harvest of these beauties, that I could can have been dashed for this year. Well, there's always next year.

An Uninvited...but Most Welcome Guest

Back in May, when I was planting veggies for our summer garden,  I had no idea that we had a guest hiding under the soil. Then, back in late June, I noticed that something was growing next to one of our zucchinis. I just ignored it, and thought that it was a weed and  I would pull it the next time I was at the garden. But, I didn't visit for a couple of weeks and had a pleasant surprise when I returned. Much to my delight, I realized that the weed was actually a sunflower. How, it got there...I don't know. We did not plant it but it was there none the less. And, since they are my favorite flower, there was no way I was taking it out. So, time has gone by and this week that lone sunflower bloomed into the beauty that you see above. I feel blessed that it is there. Sunflowers always make me smile.

Berries, Berries...and More Berries

It is berry season in the Northwest and I could not be more thrilled. After a long winter and early spring that felt like it consisted of way too many apples, pears and citrus, it is now time for a little fruit fun. Don't get me wrong, I like apples, pears and citrus. But, after several months of the same thing, one does start to dream of the fruits of spring and summer. And, since Dan and I like to eat seasonally and locally as much as possible, we will be making the most of this summer's fruit bounty. I have already baked a couple of buckle cakes. One was a mix of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries and the other was strawberry rhubarb. So far, I have only baked one berry crisp but I am sure that there will be a few more. One of the things that I am most looking forward to, is trying out some of jam recipes from a new cookbook that I picked up last month called The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders. Before strawberry season is over (which probably just has another couple of weeks), I want to make a batch of the Strawberry Jam with Aged Balsamic & Black Pepper recipe. It will be a lovely way to preserve the flavor of summer so that it can be savored in the depths of a cold and wet Portland winter.

Mead Making

Let's just say that Portland's culture of craft beer and homebrewing has had an effect on my husband, Dan. He liked beer but was never all that excited about it, until we moved to Portland. Then he got a taste of what fine micro-brewed beer was all about. And now, he has been bitten by the homebrew bug. First, came the trip to F.H. Steinbart for all of the equipment. And, given his love of dark beers, his first batch of homebrew was a stout. That was bottled a couple of weeks ago and is now happily sitting in the basement waiting for its first tasting,  which is most likely sometime in January. 

But, brewing beer was not enough. Next up on the agenda was mead. Most people don't even know what mead is but there are now about 150 meaderies in the U.S. And, for the uninitiated, mead is honey wine. It is an alcoholic beverage made from fermenting a mixture of water and honey with yeast. It is believed to be the first fermented beverage, predating wine and beer. And, it is found throughout history in Europe, Africa and Asia. 

Dan bottled the mead last week, on December 22, which was the first day of winter.  And, since mead should bottle-age for awhile (at least 3 months but 6 months or more is preferred, according to the books), we think it only appropriate to have a tasting party on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice on June 21. Between now and then, we need to think of a name for the mead and design a label. After all, we have 23 pints of it in the basement (right next to the stout). What's next on the homebrew to-do list? Well, Dan is thinking about a Belgian-style ale since it takes a year to bottle-age. After that, he has his sights set on making hard cider. That's for me, since I am the hard cider fan in the family.