Wednesday night, the third, we had an amazing thunderstorm. It was the loudest thunder and brightest lightning I've ever seen. It seemed like it was right over our heads. I was a tiny bit nervous, since we're right under the tallest tree in the neighborhood. I was still awake when it hit, at about 11:30, because I had just bought The Sims 3 and there's nothing like staying up as late as you want with a new game. The thunder actually woke Rick up. We watched it for a bit. There was a good strong rain along with the thunder and lightning.
Thurday was partly overcast, but we took advantage of the cool temperatures to do some work. The Ricks planned some hills for corn.
Then RickC got up in the apricot tree, and picked a bunch of fruit. We had about half a 5-gallon bucket full of usable fruit, with the other half full of "chicken grade" fruit. The chickens loved it!
The peppers are setting.
And the tomatillos are showing some serious fruits.
Friday, I set to work on the apricots. Many of the fruits were squishy ripe, and a bit bug-chewed, so I first blanched them all in boiling water. Then I just squished out the pits, and put the fruits in a pan. I looked up a couple of apricot jam recipes online, and they all said to boil the goop for 25 mins, stirring constantly, so that's what I did. Later I dished it up into 6 shares, each about a pint.
I put the pot of goop aside to cool, and I was just setting out to the farm when it began to sprinkle. It was about 65 degrees, and the rain was steady but it wasn't cold or windy, so we hung out anyway.
Rick C picked his dinner.
Saturday was croquet of course, and I distributed the apricot bounty. Afterward, we went to the farm briefly with David Tigerlad and the gang. Rick and I had Catan later with Titus and Jane, Renny and Cindy, and David and Miho (I won!). The weather cleared up for Sat. and got warmer, although it was still perfect.
Sunday we went up to Centerville for the 49er Fair, then we went to the farm after. Again, perfect weather, but a bit warmer: low 80s. I sat in the tub with a garden magazine...bliss!
We picked more apricots. These were firmer but still sweet and perfect, so we're going to try drying these. Buddy pulled out a food dehydrator he'd bought on clearance, and I've got it at my house to test out. I'll work on that after I finish this post.
This cluster is actually 6 apricots grown together.
We picked a few more baby squash and ate them on the spot.
The grapes are this big now.
And the peppers are actually showing fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment