August Daze

 Greetings Earthlings!

August is quickly coming to a close.  Where does the summer go?  It seems that July takes so long to come, but when the calendar changes to August, the next few weeks are a blur.  Perhaps, for us, it has more to do with the garden and kitchen work and not having the time to catch our breath?  Regardless, it already feels like Fall.  Which, I am not going to lie, is my favorite season!

What have we been up to at No Regrets?  I can honestly say that every single day has involved some sort of harvest and some sort of kitchen activity.  It is not uncommon to have a 12 hour work day this time of the year.  While many are spending their time at the lake or camping, we are harvesting and bringing in the fruits of our labor.  August is the end of the peas and beans, raspberries, spinach and lettuces.  It is the beginning of the potato, carrot, pickling cucumbers and squash harvests.  Tomatoes continue to ripen for us in the greenhouse.  They begin in June and continue until October.  As they ripen, I can up Stewed Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce and Salsa.  If I have enough, I would like to attempt ketchup this year.  Time will tell on that one.

Sweet Summer Peas shelled on the back deck.

August is a time of steam juicing raspberries for jelly and syrups and for making raspberry wine.  I pick almost daily Snap Peas to be steam blanched, then frozen.  The herbs have all had their first harvests and may offer a second flush if the weather cooperates.  Onions have been pulled to be chopped to be either frozen or dehydrated.  For some reason, we are no longer able to store our onions for any length of time.  So dehydrating and freezing is the best way for us to keep them.  Garlic has also been harvested and hung to dry.  We are able to store the bulbs, but still opt to dehydrate many of them, which will be ground into garlic powder at a later date.  

Another picking of Raspberries from our patch.  
Ready to be juiced to become syrup.

The early bearing strawberries have given way to the ever-bearing ones.  The first ones become jam and the following ones are collected, washed and frozen.  Some years we get quite a few.  Other years, not so much.  

The High Tunnel has proven to be a great addition for us.  (If you check an earlier post, you can read how it came to be and why we decided to build it.)  As cold and wet as June and July were, I am happy to report that we have squash this year.  We only planted a couple of zucchini plants as they can quickly overtake your pantry with their daily offering.  Papa brings several weekly to work to share with those who want them.  We will be getting Spaghetti Squash this year as there are several growing out there as I write.  

We ate our very first Canta-dew yesterday.  What is a Canta-dew you ask?  Is is the sister of the Honey-loupe, of course!  When you plant Cantaloupe and Honeydew plants reasonably close to each other, it is quite common to get a cross pollinated fruit.  The one we ate looked very much like a Cantaloupe on the outside.  When we sliced into it, we obviously expected to see orange flesh, but were greeted with green.  It had the texture of a Cantaloupe, the color of a Honeydew and a taste more leaning former, but slightly like the latter.  I am excited to see what other mystery fruit shows up at my breakfast table as these little gems ripen and fall off their vines!  

The one and only baby Watermelon in the High Tunnel

August is when the new pullets begin to lay eggs for the first time.  And when we harvest the roosters of the chicks we hatched earlier this spring.  We will cull the old layers later this month, or perhaps next month, when the new pullets come into full swing.  We only keep our layers for 2 years before we dispatch them to become chicken stock or canned chicken.  They are a generous creature and feed our family twice - once with their eggs, then with their meat.  

The flower pots on the deck and around the yard are finally starting to fill in!  We have never had such a late season with our flowers.  June was so cold and windy, many baskets and pots were bedraggled.  July was wet and cool so many never really began to grow.  We have finally had some heat and they are starting to fill in just now.  With the way this growing season is going, it wouldn't surprise me to have an early frost and lose them sooner than later.  2020 has been a challenging gardening year in many respects.

Petunias from seed we saved from last year's flowers are finally filling out their baskets.

Many of our fruit trees that appeared to be dead, have finally leafed out.  Most didn't produce any fruit, but at least they survived.  Hopefully better luck next year.

Due to the Cherry trees not producing anything more than a snack this year, when our friend B asked if we wanted anything from BC, we crazily said, Sure!  Cherries, please!  Two cases or 40 lbs of cherries showed up that suddenly needed to be picked thru, de-stemmed and pitted.  It was a very long day, but netted some beautiful Cherry Pie Filling and a batch of Cherry wine for our efforts.  Sure glad I didn't ask for any peaches!

Sour Cherries on one of the two trees that actually produced any fruit this year at all!

We have had an amazing song bird season this year!  I swear we have never seen as many juvenile Gold Finches as we have this year.  It is not uncommon to see 50 or more of the little guys at the bird feeder.  Their little wings are almost too small for their bodies and they appear to be inebriated when they fly off.  Hopefully they have a safe journey south and return next year to hatch more babies!  

The other day, I saw 6 Robins out in the back yard, all bopping along the lawn.  Most were juvenile as well.  They were so cute!  

Juvenile Gold Finches at the feeder.

And we have a clutch of 6 Blue Bird babies who all travel together.  They often sit on top of the weather vane and survey the property.  Our yard is alive with little song birds.

Not sure who these are, but I am suspecting they are Blue Birds.

We have also noticed more hummingbirds than usual.  In a normal year, I might go thru a liter of nectar every 2-3 weeks.  This year, I am totally refilling the feeders every week.  We have seen more than one at a time vying for time at the three feeders we have throughout the yard.  We have a couple that we see every day.  It's pretty cool!  When we purchased this property, there were only two trees on it and no birds.  Since being here, we have planted and transplanted over 1000 trees and the birds have come to enjoy the yard.

One of the many Hummers who have been visiting our feeders this year.

The bees are doing well this year.  Our bee keepers, with a full year of experience under their belts, have taken more of a laise faire attitude towards them this year.  They have learned that hives need to be left alone to thrive.  None of us knew anything about bee keeping last year so although they produced a lot of honey, the bees didn't make the winter and never really grew in numbers.  

This year, with a new plan, the hives have almost tripled in colonies and are happily doing their thing.  Papa improved the hive area and they are now protected and shaded by sunflowers and a wind break.  The bees seem to be thriving and will hopefully fare better this winter than last.  If things go well, there should be honey available for purchase next summer from our Bee Keeping Friends.

Doing a little hive maintenance.

Our Littles have been out for a few sleepovers.  It is always fun for Papa and myself to have them to entertain and to entertain us.  During one visit, we picked and shelled peas for several hours, made an Angel Food Cake with surplus eggs, picked strawberries and raspberries, baked some buns, hung out some laundry and collected eggs.  She commented that Papa and I do work very hard out here, but it is very rewarding work.  We spent a lot of time just talking as we completed our tasks and solved all the world's problems!  It's amazing what you will chat about as you spend a couple of hours shelling peas.  Wonderful memories for me.  Hopefully the same for her.  She went to bed very tired that night and slept until 9:30 the next morning.  The second day wasn't quite so taxing as we took in a bit of studio time to work on her hand stitched doll.

My Pea Picking and Shelling Assistant

The only time I get out in the studio is when it's too hot, too windy or raining.  I was very happy for a few rainy, then very hot days to work on my Scrappy Stripes Quilt.  It ended up a lot bigger than I had planned, but the best laid plans often go awry.  I guess when you have scraps, upon scraps, upon scraps, it's pretty easy to get a bit carried away!  I am very happy with the result, though.  It ended up fitting nicely on top the Queen Sized Bed in my Guest room for someone to enjoy at a later date.

Scrappy Stripes, quilted, bound, labelled and washed. 
Hanging out to dry before it's laid out in the Guest Room.  
Ended up being 86" x 94".

As August comes to a close, it has been wonderful deciding what is for supper by what is ready to be picked in the garden.  Lots of fresh raw veggies have been filling our plates.  As long and tiresome as this month is for us, it is wonderful to enjoy the fresh bounty of our labors.  Nothing tastes as good as a freshly picked cucumber or broccoli, an ear of sweet corn or a cherry tomato.  Soon the frost will come and the garden will begin to be put to bed for another year.  It is a bittersweet time of the year.

I didn't take a picture, but I can share my recipe for Zucchini Rounds.  I had a 3-4" diameter, by about 12" long  zucchini on the counter and I needed a side for the pork chops we were having for supper.  Washed the zucchini, then sliced it into 1" round disks.  The seeds were still small, barely noticeable, so they didn't need to be removed.  I put my pan over medium heat and added a couple table spoons of our home rendered lard (you could use cooking oil for sure).  In one bowl, I beat an egg.  In a second bowl, I added about 1 cup of Panko crumbs and 1/2 tsp each of Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder, then mixed them together.  I dipped each round into the egg, then dredged it in the crumb mixture.  Fried one side for about 3 minutes, until golden brown, then flipped over and browned the other side, also about 3 minutes.  Before removing, I poked the round to see if it was tender - not mushy, not hard.  Removed from pan and served as a side, with Ranch Dressing.  OMGosh!  They were amazing!  A definite Do Over for sure!

The days are noticeably shorter and the mornings considerably cooler already.  We even noticed some leaves are beginning to turn.  Enjoy the rest of your August as long as the days last.

Until next time,

Gremlynn