The End of the Garden

We got over 2 inches of rain on Friday, but it came too late to save most of my garden.  We still have some tomatoes, but most of them are cracked or rotting in the bottom.  The green beans are still going strong, but since I only had about 2 dozen plants come up, that doesn't make for very many beans.

I picked the last of the zucchini yesterday.  Today, I decided to use some of the garden produce to make Ratatouille.  The new potatoes are actually from the Farmer's Market, and not our garden.  I used them instead of eggplant, because we are fresh out.  I also added garlic, because...why not?

We ate it for dinner with some Italian bread - delicious AND beautiful!

I picked some of the sunflowers growing in the garden.  They at least have seemed to thrive in the dry weather.  The brown one is called "teddy bear." 

Our new lawn tractor with rototiller attachment is on order, so we will be able to till the garden well this Fall, and try again next year.

Back to School

The girls are on opposite schedules with our "hybrid school" this Fall - it's a long story and I won't go into it here, but they have both experienced their first day at school and at home last week.

We did a few things the last week of summer vacation, as we typically do, to make it special.  J asked for another picnic.  We all dressed up and ate quiche, fruit salad, and gingerbread out near the orchard, and then the girls and I took a walk through the woods.

The quiche was delicious - the first I've ever made.  I adapted the recipe from this video by The Cooking Foodie:

"Pizza Quiche"

In food processor, combine 2 1/4 c flour, 1 t salt, and 3/4 c butter cubed and process until crumbs form.

Add 4-6 T cold water and process until a dough forms, you may need to scrape down the bowl several times.

Form into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out dough on a floured board, and press into a tart pan.  Poke bottom with a fork, cover with parchment and pie weights, and bake at 350* for 15 min.  Remove weights and bake for another 10-15 min. until golden.

In a separate bowl, combine 3 eggs, 1 c cream, 1 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, 1 t dried oregano, and 3-4 basil leaves, torn.

Spread 1 1/3 c grated mozzarella and 1/3 c grated parmesan into crust, then gently spoon egg mixture over the top.  Arrange 9-10 cherry tomatoes, halved, on top, then bake for 35 min or until set.

Cool and remove from tart pan prior to serving.

Last weekend, JP had been off work and symptom free for 9 days, so we all threw caution to the wind and went north to visit the Natural History Museum.  It was a nice diversion.

Having a little bit of time to myself, I finished some projects.  I made more back to school masks for the girls, including my 3rd, part time daughter, who is heading back to college out west next week.  I also made this display rack for the wands that JP and I brought back from Harry Potter World a couple of years ago.

I hope that the return to school is going safely and smoothly for everyone!

Hush...

HUSH.....

THE ZUCCHINIS ARE SLEEPING.

SMOOTH AND SILENT,

IN THE NIGHT.

THESE ARE BIG ONES,

RARING TO GROW.

TOP BANANAS,

LYING LOW,

HUSH.....

THE ZUCCHINIS ARE SLEEPING.

-Gordon Anderson

I think of this poem, featured in my college Into to Poetry class, every summer when there is a profusion of zucchinis.  Unfortunately, at this point in this dry, dry summer, the zucchinis aren't looking too good.

While they were going crazy, I shared plenty of them with friends and family.  We also ate LOTS of zucchini stuff.  I will post links to our favorites.

The really big zucchinis were perfect for stuffing.  First I tried this recipe for an Italian style stuffed zucchini. The girls and I shared it, however, and I made it with Italian sausage flavored soy crumbles from Morning Star.  It wasn't cooked in the time on the recipe, so if I did it again, I would microwave the zucchini for a while first, and then stuff and bake it.  It was very good.

The next stuffed zucchini recipe I liked even more.  This one was a take on Chicken Parmesan.  Again I made this vegetarian by using Morning Star's Veggie Chick'n Nuggets in place of chicken patties.  I tried the trick of cooking the zucchini in the microwave for 10 minutes before stuffing and baking it, and it worked well, and cut down the time the hot oven was on in the heat of the summer.

Who doesn't love some zucchini desserts?  L and I have made many loaves of zucchini bread based on a recipe in my "From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens."

Homemade Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

1 1/3 c sugar

2 c shredded zucchini

2/3 c oil

2 t vanilla

3 c flour (I use half whole wheat)

1 t salt

1 t soda

1 t baking powder

2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/4 t cloves

Beat eggs until foamy, then stir in sugar, zucchini, oil and vanilla.  Gradually add dry ingredients and spices.  Pour batter into 2 small loaf pans sprayed with baking spray.  Bake at 325* for 60-80 minutes.

We also found a delicious, moist cake with topping on it reminiscent of Samoas Girl Scout Cookies.  I halved the cake and baked it in an 8"x 8" pan.  Don't halve the topping, though, or there won't be enough!  I also found that using Evaporated Milk instead of whole milk in the topping made for a more carmel-y base.

One of our new favorite are these Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Muffins.  They are even better the day AFTER they are baked, and make a perfect summer breakfast with a cup of joe.

What do you do with your zucchini in the summer?

Sad

I do not regularly water my garden.  Typically we get enough rain in a summer that I don't water at all, but occasionally I will water from the cistern where we collect rain water from the roof.  This summer, however, it has been exceptionally dry, and I have watered every other day for the better part of the past 2 months.  There was a week in July that I watered every day, sometimes twice a day when it was terribly hot.

Despite my best efforts, things are not doing well there.  The cucumbers started out plentiful, but inedible.  Apparently inconsistent water can cause this.

The peppers are just not growing.

The tomatoes have an issue with blossom end rot, which is also related to dry conditions.

The beans and zucchini have done remarkably well.

The corn is just sad.  The stalks are only shoulder high, are drying up, and only a few have ears on them.

I looked at one the other day...sad.

It's hard to believe that all the watering that I have done has done very little to improve the garden!  Maybe I'll just give up.

Glass Half Full

 The past several days have been full - ALL THE WAY full!

JP discovered that our water cistern was empty last Tuesday while I was at work.  He hauled several loads of water from the water station that evening, so we could get showers and wash dishes.  The following morning, we had a water truck come out to fill it up the rest of the way, just to save time.  Our cistern holds 2000 gallons, and we can haul 200 gallons at a time at a round trip time of 30 min/load.  None of has had the time or gumption to spend 5 hours hauling water!

The good news is that the well people came out the following day, and confirmed that the 3 year old (2nd) well that we spent big bucks to install was NOT dry, but the pump is apparently malfunctioning.

The bad news is that they were unable to remove the pump from the well - somehow it has become wedged in there.  They are returning tomorrow with a crane to attempt to remove it again.  The rest of the bad news is that we have had to continue to restrict water and haul water until we can get things working again.  Also, I'm sure it is not cheap to have the crane come to your house!

L got 3 impacted wisdom teeth and an impacted pre-molar removed on Thursday morning.  She is doing much better, but still having significant discomfort.  The chipmunk cheeks from swelling has already gone down, so I missed my opportunity to document this milestone in pictures.

On Saturday, we FINALLY got the nice rain that we've been waiting for over the past 2 months.  We only got 3/4 of an inch all together, but it came down nice and gently over the entire day, so that it soaked in, instead of running off.

On Sunday, since the soil was loosened up in the garden, I was able to spend about 2 + hours pulling weeds.

Because none of us had to work today, and because the weather was reasonably cool last night, we decided to have another outdoor movie.  Because we had to wait until it got dark, and then had audio issues, we didn't finish up until almost midnight.  Oh well - it's summer vacation!

Today I looked through all of the beach glass and pebbles that I have collected over the past 15 years from Presque Isle, Put In Bay, Cape May, and Fay Bainbridge Beach in Washington State.  I made a couple of pieces of jewelry with some of it.

Last year I used some pebbles and drift wood to craft a memento from Presque Isle, 

and the year before, I built this stack, which still stands in my kitchen window.

Fail Averted

 Remember that beautiful watermelon that L had growing in the garden?  It got to be about the size of one of those soccer balls that your kids start out with at age 4.  We appraised it and thumped it, and decided to go ahead and pick it.

Unfortunately we jumped the gun a bit - it wasn't ripe yet.  Since the inside was inedible, I decided to make watermelon rind pickles so that we didn't waste the entire thing.  The recipe that I used made 2 quarts, so I gifted one to my parents.

They are crispy, sweet-tart, and a bit zippy.  Not bad at all for a near fail!

Lavender

I planted a bunch of English lavender in my flower garden last year.  It did well last year, but did even better this year.  Apparently it doesn't mind being somewhat dry.

I picked a bunch of the flowers a month or so ago, and hung them to dry in J's room.  She is an absolute fanatic about lavender!

Yesterday, we stripped the buds off the stems, and made Lavender Syrup - brought 2 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 2 T of lavender and 2 blueberries (for color) to a boil, and then simmered for 10 min.  After it cooled, I strained it into a bottle, which we are keeping in the refrigerator.

So far, J has used it in a chai latte, and in a matcha latte, and is thrilled.

Such an easy thing to do to make her happy!😊

She has already cut some more to hang in her room because she loved how it smelled.

Vacationing During a Pandemic

 Up until the day we left, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to take a family vacation this summer, and I expected JP to not come with us.  He had been self isolating here at home, due to the fact that he is seeing a couple COVID positive or presumptive COVID patients every shift that he works.  The schedule happened to work in our favor, however, as he had 2 weeks scheduled off (asked off MONTHS ago) and had several days off prior to the vacation days.  It ends up that he was EXTREMELY close to the 2 weeks of quarantine recommended after known exposure, and NOT having symptoms the day we left, so he came along!  It was the first time we've done anything as a family in close to 5 months - haven't been in a car together, haven't eaten meals together, haven't hung out within 6 feet of each other for MONTHS.  It was wonderful!

We took our yearly trek up to Lake Erie - I figured this was relatively safe as we weren't going out of state, so no quarantines on return.  We wiped down all the surfaces in the (very clean) house that we stayed in before moving our things in.  We got all of our meals (that we didn't make ourselves) as take out and ate at the house.  We went to beaches that were not crowded so that we could maintain social distancing.

We rode around Presque Isle again on our bikes - it's a 13.5 mile loop.  This year I wasn't sure that I was going to make it!

We picnicked by the lake, and rescued these 2 dehydrated raccoons from a dumpster.

We visited one of the lighthouses (none of them were open to the public this year.)

This year we tried out the Aqua Cycles on a pond - pretty fun!

The owners of the Air BNB house that we rented had this gorgeous 1946 Jaguar in the garage and promised us a ride in it, but sadly it never worked out.

Unfortunately, JP was back to work this weekend, and back to self isolating downstairs.  J goes back to work tomorrow, and I head back on Tues.  L is finished with her job, but is planning to see a friend tomorrow that she hasn't seen since March.

It was lovely while it lasted -  Pandemic Vacation 2020.