Flowers & A Feather

Hello, friends.  A downy woodpecker feather was noticed near the bird feeders.  The next day, I saw one of these woodpeckers on the feeder.  Just this summer, it was brought to my attention that it is a crime to have most bird feathers in your possession.  I've brought them home for years, to decorate wreaths, windowsills and vases, and never knew.  I can understand the logic behind it, though picking up a random feather seems innocent enough.  The juicer I've been using daily for a little over 3 months has started acting up and showing signs of wear.  I wrote the company, asking about replacement parts.  With recent experiences with customer service, I didn't expect much.  I was pleasantly surprised, and there are two parts on the way to me for free.  The chicken coop was cleaned, and mint was harvested and placed in nesting boxes and on the floor.

One night, I pulled out corn on the cob I'd frozen, to go with a yellow squash and kalamata dish, steamed cauliflower and sliced tomatoes, which was a dinner requested by J.   A couple of days last week, dock seeds were gathered to dry and grind for flour.  I've started doing some Christmas shopping, though I've only been given a few ideas so far.  Most often, family members give ideas from Amazon and other online shops, and with hearing about the port closures, I want to get a jump on it.  I'd put one of the presents in an online cart, but didn't purchase it, as it was late one night.  The next day, I received a 10% off coupon, and purchased it.  I've gotten an idea of something I can make my husband, as one of his gifts.  Black eyed pea salad was made for lunches, but our home canned crowder peas were used.  Pasta Norma was made with our eggplant, tomatoes, onion and herbs, with a green salad with figs, pecans and beauty berries.  Though it's not strictly wild, the birds planted the beauty berry I harvested from, and it grows along the walking path. Any time I can get some extra nutrition from wild foods is a plus.  Another night a green salad was made with cherries, pecans and figs.  I made a Medical Medium-friendly "vinaigrette" from the last of a jar of fruit sweetened black currant jelly and lemon juice.  It was surprisingly good.

The mesh bags from oranges have been saved, and put at the outdoor spigot, for washing buckets, chicken waterers and such.  For a dinner side, I roasted yellow squash with maple syrup and butter.  Three jars of herbal glycerites were strained and bottled.   We're having a hard time growing bell peppers this year, as they're being chewed on before ripening.  I found several that had fallen off, cut away the good bits, and dried them.  Pasta salad was made with our cucumber, tomatoes and herbs, plus black olives.  The figs are bountiful.  I had seen a photo of a fig clafouti that someone had made, and decided to make one, but the recipe I used was not a keeper.  Well, J likes it, and is eating it, so that's good.  When I called to order metal for our home goods business, I was told they would not be getting any more metal until some time in November, due to supply chain challenges.  Our business continues to do well, and it would really hurt us to run out of metal.  I placed a much larger than usual order, and pray good sales continue.  The pups were bathed with homemade dog soap.

It's finally starting to cool off at night, so we can open up for at least part of the night, before closing in the morning.  I linked through Swagbucks for a purchase, and hadn't received cash back, so contacted them, and quickly received it.  I also wrote them again about another purchase, in which they hadn't responded in the promised 30 days, and am waiting to hear back.  Our volunteer watermelon has several melons on it.  One was an odd shape, so I cut it open for the chickens, and found out they're yellow.  More basil than was needed for a recipe was picked, and I chopped the remainder, put it in an ice cube tray with water, and froze it.  I prefer freezing to drying basil, as it has a taste much closer to fresh.  A new recipe was tried for gnocchi with tomato broth, which used our tomatoes, basil, garlic, onion and broth.  The recipe called for straining out the vegetables before serving in the broth, but I couldn't see a good reason to do that, so didn't.  It was very good.  The refrigerator is filling up with figs, so I see jam making in my near future.  Wishing you a bountiful and blessed week.