4th of July weekend is in full swing, summer is enveloping us completely, and here I am playing with food coloring...
I had huge plans for blue rice krispy treats, for the 4th of July.
I told Mammie and she was like, "blooaaaakh, why?"
Haha! Good question.
I ended up with screaming teal.
(I love teal though)
I thought they would be fun.
They are still good, so that is all the counts, ain't it?
(Mammie thinks they are pretty in the end)
:)
As for summer edibles...
We have been enjoying so many squash blossoms this summer.
I have several pumpkin patches, which I planted at slightly different times.
So the waves of squash blossoms have been beyond delightful for eatin'.
I have spent several hours, every morning since March 1st, tending my garden.
The work is so worth it.
There really is nothing like harvesting edibles from your own patch of earth.
This weekend we will eat the very last of the spinach.
If you like spinach, I have to tell you, do try growing some next year if you haven't already. The spinach is soft and buttery good, with not one bit of grit like we find in store bought spinach.
We have enjoyed bowls and bowls of spinach over the weeks...
I wish I could share some with you.
I find myself harvesting goodies for lunch, and enjoying each moment of it. So much so, that I am planning a winter vegetable garden. As I don't want to say good-bye to garden eats.
One thing I love to do is invent light fresh salad dressings with tons of flavor. I adore salads, do you? One of my fave salad concoctions contains spinach, squash blossoms, peas, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts, avocados, hearts of palm, paper thin sweet onions, and a splash of homemade honey lemon garlic parsley vinegar olive-oil dressing.
Mouth watering!
I also love to eat nasturtium.
The leaves are peppery and delightful.
You can see them mixed in with pumpkin leaves below...
Garden treats...
So Sweet!
Here is a peek into one of my little enclosed vegetable garden spaces. I have others I will share later, but this one has been shady, for things like spinach and cabbage and Japanese radishes, and more...
Garden fresh, isn't it?
It's super organic around here. I don't use any bug spray or anything. I fear I am losing most of my corn to ants. We are having a massive ant epidemic this year. I have oodles of ant bites. Darn things ;)
But the good news, no gophers got to this yummy stuff. Why? In April I pulled out a few feet of dirt and did the whole waffle wire & rock barrier thing. Then put all the soil over that.
Success!
So much to learn. Life is never ending learning, isn't it?
No matter what age we are, there is always something new to learn. So grand!
With that, I want to say, happy safe and lovely 4th of July!!!
This 4th of July has me being very introspective. Lots of thoughts bopping around.
I mostly can't help thinking about how lucky we are here in America (as well as in other countries). What a good life we can have, and how we don't have to worry about most of the things that 3rd world countries face.
And then, I start to think about how we should take time to appreciate all the things that we have in life. Not the things we don't have. How if we let go of what we think we should have, and who we think we should be, and just embrace who we are and what we have, life takes on a beautiful perspective.
I was thinking yesterday, about how much negativity there is out there. For example, when reading articles online, the comment sections baffle me. Full of hatred and criticism. (opinions are good, but they don't have to be chock full of negativity, do they?)
Are we really that kind of people?
Hateful and judgmental??
Why not stop the petty negativity?
Be content with our lives, just as they are, before life passes us by.
Appreciate one another, and what it took to make America what it is today.
So, on the eve of this independence day, I say, we should embrace the good, and try not to find the negativity in things. Instead, search for the positive. It's not that hard to find.
We should realize how lucky we really are, open our eyes, and really realize it.
I love my country.
Nothing in life is perfect.
But maybe the greatest realization is that, things are perfect in their own way, and we are drowning in so much pettiness, that we can't see that everything is perfect, just as it is.
I want to see it.
I want to be grateful.
And, I am.
I know you are too!
(the garden by night)
Have a sparkly twinkly 4th of July!!
Love, Vanessa
ps: We just finished watching the last disk of America -The Story of Us. I highly recommend it.
pss: A tip on squash blossoms. When the pumpkin vine is fairly young, you will get oodles of male squash blossoms, before you ever see a female blossom (link that shows the differences between male and female, right here). This is the time to enjoy eating your squash blossoms, when there are only males on the vine. This is because, you don't want to eat the males when there are femles too, or you won't get any babies :)
