My vacation came and went. It sure is amazing how quickly time passes. I did accomplish several items on my list at least.
Eliot and I decided to venture to Wayne to pick strawberries at Stevenson’s. I haven’t gone picking in years and Eliot had never been. The picking was amazing and we may have gone a little overboard but it was hard not to. With six flats of strawberries, I set to work making jam using my digital canner. Although I had reservations with so many steps in the manual, it went great and I am a huge fan. I managed to can 20 jars of jam and with several flats of berries still remaining I made a couple of strawberry rhubarb pies before my rhubarb passes. While the pies baked, I set to work making a couple of loaves of strawberry bread. I also whipped up some biscuits for strawberry shortcake of course. A fruit salad was made and several quarts of remaining berries were frozen for later use. We both decided next year we better not pick quite so many.
I was convinced I could smell strawberries in the car for days and worried there was one that had rolled under the seat to rot so I decided it was a great time to clean and vacuum the car to confirm this was not the case. No strawberries were found although a few pieces of straw had escaped and possibly were where the strawberry smell came from.
The garden continues to do well besides the green beans as Betty, the pet chicken, decided they were a great snack. She has since been grounded to the barn in hopes that they can recover and the beans actually grow back. I sure do miss seeing her roaming around the yard and hopping up on my porch swing to visit.
With a stretch of good weather and a friend with hay down, we ventured to Bethel to help with square bales. Eliot enjoyed throwing hay as we only put up round bales. I was sure my dad was smiling down watching us out in the field. We used to say, “A family that hays together stays together.”
We are in a heat stretch but the mornings still start off cool which is nice for a morning run. I keep my eyes open for wildlife and so far have only seen a couple of deer.
Just a reminder that the Town Office is closed today, Thursday July 2nd, in observance of Independence Day. The Transfer Station will be closed on Saturday, July 4th, so please plan accordingly.
If you have any great strawberry recipes for my frozen berries, please feel free to share them with me. If you have any news to add, please send it to me at newrynews24@gmail.com. Have a great week and enjoy the weather as it won’t last forever.