Morning Glories & Bumblebees

Hello, friends.  Last week while getting groceries, I found dogfood on sale for $6 off, and blueberries for my smoothies for $1 off per package.  Two books were requested from the library.  Swagbucks points were redeemed for a $25 gift card.  I opened a jar of our eggplant caponata, so we could enjoy it with dinner on one of the hottest days.  Mini ciabattas were heated for J to have with it, and I used tasty GF crackers.  We're eating sliced cucumbers and tomatoes most meals.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, elderberries, the first tromboncino, figs and zucchini were harvested.  I've seen our first few honeydew melons and butternut squash in the garden, and on Sunday, saw the first little kajari melon.  Bags of frozen tomatoes, along with newly harvested ones, were cooked down into tomato sauce, and canned.  I'm always surprised by how little it produces, once cooked down.  Close to 4 gallons of tomatoes made three pints.  Oh well, I'm still quite thankful for it.  Two pints of tomato juice were also canned.  

I removed several tomato plants that were dead or dying from the garden, then replanted with new seedlings, which I've kept going since the spring.  We expect they're too small to produce, but it's worth a try.   J and I were discussing our decision to have a smaller, simpler garden this year.  Our main goal this year is to grow enough tomatoes to put up plenty of sauce and canned tomatoes.  The tomatoes have had so many challenges this year... a large variety of worms/caterpillars, aphids, and some sort of blight.  With having a simpler garden, I've been able to spend around 1 1/2 hours almost every morning tending to them; cutting away yellowed  and chewed leaves, cutting stems to open up good airflow, and looking for the aforementioned worms.  There's no guarantee we'll end up with all we hope to preserve, but during a normal year, there's no way I'd have that kind of time to devote to them.  Perhaps it was intuition that spurred us to make changes for this year.  All the bees in this butternut blossom made me smile one morning in the garden.  

A new batch of golden paste was made for the pups.  Tomato skins and bits were dehydrated, along with elderberries.  The tomato skins were turned into powder, to add to dishes, and the bits will be used in bird suet.  The last of an older batch of nettle & comfrey tea was used to fertilize all the houseplants, rosella, dwarf pomegranate, zinnias and nasturtiums.  As I suspected, every last hazelnut has been removed by the squirrels.  Sigh.  A quart of food was made for the hummingbirds.  A basil seedling that had gotten broken when the others were planted, was finally large enough again to plant in the garden. On Saturday, we headed to a family reunion in Eastern NC.  I brought apple beet salad & cranberry quinoa kale salad to share, and brought water and snacks for the drive.  On Sunday, I made stir fry for dinner, which included our cabbage, pepper, and garlic.  The cabbage was one of the offshoots from one that was harvested weeks ago.  I'm very much looking forward to a trip to the coast to visit an old friend this week.  I hope your week is a good one as well.