Is It Fall Yet?

How are you? What have you been working on? What have *I* been working on?

I’d love to say that my summer was smooth sailing and glorious. But let’s be honest with each other here. I had some minor health issues, and was struggling to find our son a car in time for him to go back to school. Once kids are no longer first year in college, they aren’t necessarily guaranteed a dorm room…at his school at least. So he made arrangements for an apartment, and it’s crazy to prep a 20 year old for his first apartment–long distance.

And the car? Have you tried to purchase a car lately? Dealers will take a deposit, and then you wait for the manufacturer to deliver whatever they have the parts to build. Seriously. Used cars? Ha. They cost as much as new (well, almost). My husband’s car is now worth more used than he paid for it brand new two years ago. Crazy times.

But for now, we are somewhat on track. He moves out again next week to his own place with a functioning car.

And in my spare time, I have been consumed with the vegetable garden.(And the bugs, the weeds, the critters, the watering). For whatever reason, the tomatoes have gone nuts this year. No kidding, the plants have jumped the shark.

Shown are Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes, San Marzano Roma, Early Girl, Big Red and Beefmaster. All varieties are as disease-resistant as I could find. But things still nibble on them once in awhile. An old gardener once told me “If the nothing else will eat it, neither should you.”.

I have roasted tomatoes, given them to friends, forced my family to eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner. And this is after the cucumbers exploded. I planted *one* cucumber plant, knowing that would be just enough. But the plant produced well over 40 cucumbers. All in the span of a few days. I made jars and jars of fridge pickles, bread and butter pickles, carried armloads off to the Salvation Army Food Pantry and we had cukes with every meal.

Dear readers, I am suburban. If I were capable of canning I would certainly do it, but it scares the h— out of me. I don’t want to poison anyone down the road. I know how to cook and freeze things. I’m not afraid of letting things pickle in the fridge. But guaranteeing a seal with a water bath and all that jazz? Mmm…No. So this weekend, is Tomato Sauce Weekend. I will be spending my time making two different types of sauce and freezing them in meal sized portions.

And on top of that, I planted cantaloupe on a whim.

Now I have 5 cantaloupes in the fridge to eat (and counting…still some on the vine). So far, they have been tasty but not super sweet. I would have liked them to get a little sweeter, but I did as YouTube instructed me, and waited till they easily came off the vine. Some are delicious and some I throw out the back door into the woods for the squirrels. An experiment for sure.

And I have two watermelons. I really have no idea when those should be picked. They resemble what would be referred to as Black Diamond or Blackjack watermelons. Which just means they don’t have the traditional watermelon stripes. I am clueless. The name was not on the small container when I purchased them and now it’s just an interesting game. I am not invested in these being tasty at all…just curious as to what I’ve grown here. They look like black soccer balls in the garden.

Here’s a little recipe for you. I’m sure you can come up with your own way of consuming cherry tomatoes. I grew Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes this year. I highly recommend them as they are disease-resistant and prolific.

These are roasted. Simply cut in half and arrange on a baking sheet with the cut side up, parchment paper lining. In a separate bowl, combine 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning. Mix it up and meticulously spread it little by little over the top of every teensy cherry tomato half.

400 degrees in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Toast some crunchy bread (I use gluten free), top with some goat cheese and then pile on the tomatoes. Chop a little basil if you have it. This year I grew Amazel Basil. Totally worth it. I’ve been harvesting for weeks and weeks.

I’ve been pounding out the pesto too.

Finally, every few days I get an amazing display of zinnias.

Here’s a two-gallon bucket full of them, just one morning’s trip. They are blooming so profusely that if I don’t cut the flowers and bring them inside the plants will begin to fall over from the heavy stems and blooms.

So have I sewn at all? Not a stitch. Though I have been knitting a tiny bit for stress relief.

But once that first cool breeze hits, I promise, I’ll get back to sewing. Suddenly, in the car this morning, I had an idea for something I’d like to try with fabric scraps.

Enjoy the last days of summer before the routines all change. My experience in the garden has been that lately, summer lasts through mid-October. But once the kids are back in school, even the plants are ready for a change.

And once I dig out from under these tomatoes, I’ll be back at the sewing machine. I’m feeling something new coming on. Happy harvest!

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Farm…

I didn’t grow up on a farm.

I grew up on the south side of Chicago, spent countless hours on the CTA as a kid. I rode the bus to go to the library, school, the movies, to meet friends and to visit relatives. I knew every stop on the 62 line, from my house through Bridgeport and Chinatown and into the city.  I knew when I could catch an express bus and when it might be just as fast to take the local.  After that, I went to college across the street from the Water Tower downtown.  And then I got a job at the Sears Tower, where I worked for years til the corporation moved to the suburbs.

I know the city.  I am a product of the city.

But.

My grandparents on my Dad’s side had a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin.

We traveled there a couple times a year and almost always during haying season, because my Dad (and other uncles) helped them to bring in the hay and get it into the loft.  For those of you who don’t know, August is usually the best time for that sort of thing.  Hot, dry, with long days. Fill up the hayloft with bales so the cows have enough to eat all winter.

Me, I could not wait. Could. Not. Wait.  To wake up early with Grandma and Grandpa, around 5 – 6 am to milk the cows. I would wear a little head scarf (like Grandma) and follow them around the barn, play with animals and taste fresh milk.  And by fresh I mean straight from the cow before it goes into the strainer while it’s still the temperature of the cow.

I spent hours in the milkhouse afterward having conversations with Grandma while she cleaned all the equipment. I watched her hands, I studied the underground “cool pool” where they kept the milk cans up to their necks in cold water til the milk man came to pick them up. I fed and petted cows, guided them into the pasture, shoveled poop, chased kittens and chickens, and sat down to true, hearty meals.

farm1farm2I was a farmgirl.

To this day, I live as far west from the city as possible, on the edge of the suburbs, where the land becomes fields and the fields become grain and the horizons are long and rolling.

I drive past farms every day. I shop at their stands, I take cooking classes there, and in these long, last, few hot days of summer, I miss the work of the land and the animals.

But I remember the farmhouse kitchen, where my mom and aunt always had a hearty breakfast waiting after milking time. I remember the canning and the baking and the processing of fruits and vegetables. It was a tiny room, so well-organized, and was the absolute heart of the house.

Yesterday, I made a blueberry croustade.

I have been tweaking the recipe for awhile.  For a long time I fiddled with making my own pie crust every time.  But I soon grew tired — and frustrated — by that, and these days I mostly settle for Pillsbury which gets me 80% of the way there in .0001% of the time.

Here’s to farms and haying and long summer days. Here’s to fresh baked pies cooling on the counter top. Here’s to whip cream made from actual cream. Here’s to homemade goodness and the people in our lives who make it good.

Blueberry Croustade (Pie)

–2 pints (large) or 4 cups  blueberries

–1/2 cup sugar

–3 T corn starch

–2 tspns lemon juice

–1 T fresh ginger

–1 package Pillsbury pie dough.  You need 2 rounds.

Be sure to use enough corn starch…3 teaspoons is too little.  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Line the dish with your pie dough.  I cut up the second round to use it to curl up over the top. One pie round is not enough. You need both.

Combine the rest of the ingredients.  I use a cheese grater to shred the fresh ginger. I would not recommend substituting powder. At all. Use the actual ginger, peel and grate.

Bake for about 30 minutes but keep an eye on it.

The whole prep takes a total of about 5 minutes. Seriously, maybe 10 if you include rinsing the blueberries.

Whipped cream is a must, ice cream optional.

Have a great end of summer season.

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