From The Yard

Gathered from around the yard a bedroom bouquet of lavender, oak leaf hydrangea, catmint, and a couple favorite roses, New Dawn, a lovely pink tinged yellow we found in the yard when we moved into this house, and beautiful bright white September Mourn, a 2005 introduction named to honor the 911 victims.

Summer Squash Harvest

Summer is finally in full swing. The garden is overflowing with bright green leaves and yellow flowers promising vegetables to soon come. The squash as always is first.
Tromboncino and yellow sunburst, both flavorful heirlooms, ready to be sautéed for dinner. I'll melt a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil in a pan. Toss in 1/2 an onion sliced. When the onion starts to soften I'll add in slices of fresh squash give them a couple turns around the skillet and cover the pan. With the heat on low the squash will steam in it's own delicious juices and caramelize just a bit on the bottom. 20 minutes later a delicious garden fresh side thats good warm or cold for dinner as a side or scrambled into eggs for breakfast. A summer favorite.

A Cake For The Fair

The last fair of our local season ends today.
I brought my usual jellies and jams and ended up with a couple blue ribbons. I hoped this lemon meringue cake with tart lemon curd filling (made with home grown Meyer lemons), fluffy white cake and airy sweet meringue frosting would be a big winner but alas only 3rd in the layer cake competition.
There's always next year. Sigh.

The First of Their Kind

A couple years ago, thinking back onto a perfect vacation week James and I enjoyed on Orcas Island in Washington state I ordered a barefoot Orcas pear tree. A whim that this year has finally started to pay off with our first little crop of beautiful blushed yellow Orcas pears.
Discovered by a local horticulturist in his island yard, Orcas pears are one of the few summer pears that will ripen in just a couple days on the counter instead of weeks in cold storage. Prized for sweet buttery flesh Orcas pears are homegrown favorites for canning, drying, and eating fresh. For me the tree is a living memento, better than a postcard of happy, lazy summer days together.