May 28, 2012

Our first pint of blueberries for the season.

'Jersey' blueberries are the first to produce.

These are nights filled with the creamy fragrance of white gardenia and yellow flicker of fireflies.  We are so fortunate to have a berry patch in our back yard.  Picking berries on a quiet morning and enjoying them dewy fresh - that's the sweet stuff of life.  Our berry bushes are growing up enough to start really producing, so we don't have to depend as much on the market.  A full pint of blueberries made it into the kitchen over the weekend, but black, red, and purple raspberries didn't enjoy that kind of longevity; they don't "keep" as long, in more than one sense of that meaning!

Our harvests this week also included a large mess* of peas; we were surprised to see we still have some leftover in the freezer from last year, so we know we can enjoy as much fresh as we like.  You know they're good when the kids ask for seconds at meals!  Garden-fresh peas are so unlike anything else canned or frozen, pop-in-your-mouth tender, and surprisingly sweet like corn.

(*My grandpa used to use the phrase, "a mess of peas," but I haven't heard it used by anyone else. The meaning, enough food of a specified kind for a dish or a meal, from Late Latin missus--course at a meal--for you etymologists out there.)

Black 'Jewel' raspberries ready to enjoy.

All our pumpkin seed planted last week sprouted; there are only two crops left to plant for the summer, and we will be preparing soil this week to plant sunflowers and our second batch of sweet corn.  Just in time for Memorial Day, red and blue gladiolus are showing off in patriotic style.  Have a blessed holiday!

Red and blue gladiolus.