Gardenias & A Fairy Egg

Hello, friends. I was surprised to see how much there was to harvest, after my time away last week. Almost all the broccoli was ready, and I harvested approx. 9 1/2 lbs. That night, I made broccoli almond soup, then blanched and froze the remainder, in meal-sized portions. There was also bountiful chard to be harvested, as well as all the radishes that hadn't started going to flower. I experimented with the broccoli plants, after reading a tip in This Organic Life. I usually cut the broccoli just below the head, and end up getting some more side shoots, but the tip said to cut down to the last two leaves, for more substantial heads to regrow. We'll see how well that works. There are some recipes from this book I printed to try. Besides the broccoli, chard and radishes, I also harvested a few more peas, foraged chanterelles, lettuce and beets. I let the carrot patch go too long, and pulled all but the two for seed. Our gardenias are blooming, and they smell just heavenly.

For the drive to Asheville, I picked up an audio book at the library. Driving time was 6 hours, and the book was 10, so I finished it while working on packing orders and wrapping soap. Home canned black beans and homegrown onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes were used to make veggie burgers. As of midweek, we hadn't had to use a/c this spring. It's been pretty warm inside some evenings, up to 80 before we can open up, but we usually manage as long as nighttime temps are below 70. It cools down enough that we can close up in the morning, and be reasonably comfortable during the day. Looking at the long range forecast, with several 90 degree days coming, it looks like that may be coming to an end. While shop sitting at a local pottery this week, I finished removing the lace from the nightgown, which I'd started some weeks ago. Though tough to get to while I'm at home, it was the perfect task during down time at the shop. J tried our a/c one evening, which didn't work. He checked it out, and found a bad contactor, ordered one for $12, and fixed it. He's my homestead honey!

I handwashed bras in handmade soap gel and dried them on the line. All other laundry was dried on the line. Rinse water, warm up water, and water from cups were used for flushing. I added the beet greens to the chard bag, and will saute them together. On the way to the garden, I was delighted to spot four of the rose cuttings I potted up after pruning had roots, and one was even blooming! This is the first time I've had rose cuttings take, much less bloom. I'll have to decide good spots to place them. One evening, when I gathered eggs, I found a green "fairy egg" amongst them. As we don't have any newly laying hens, we think it must have been from our older Americauna hen. Blogger has really changed things the past couple of weeks, making it a lot harder for me to post. For example, they now use code for photos, paragraphs and such, among other things. I really hope this is a short-term glitch, though that's probably wishful thinking on my part. Here's to a smooth week for us all.