Enjoy!

A beautiful rose in my backyard in mid-June, 2011.

As I write this post it is the first official day of summer and it is sunny and 82 degrees outside! It is a bit difficult to be inside writing this, but Adam and I have been outside almost all day enjoying the weather. Summer is my very favorite time of year here in Oregon because it brings so much beauty and so much to enjoy! This week I am focusing on the things we have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy as the summer goes on.


Country Garden Report:

Some pretty wildflowers we found along a trail in the woods.

On Tuesday of last week Adam and I went to my parent's house to visit and do some work in the garden. Our day out there started as many do, with a walk through the woods with Adam. This time we went on the trail that leads to the pond. We had a fun time exploring there and saw many pretty plants along the way as we carefully avoided touching the stinging nettles.

Some lovely little blue wildflowers along the woodland trail.

A pretty view of the wetland grasses by the pond.

Later on, as Adam napped my Mom and I were able to work around 2 hours in the garden together. We got a lot of work done then. While my Mom planted all of the corn seeds in rows and covered them with newspaper to keep the crows from eating the seeds I worked on weeding along the fence area so that beans could be planted along that edge. We were each able to complete our tasks! Hooray!

Our corn seeds are covered with newspapers to keep the crows from eating them before they are able to sprout.

A very healthy bok choy plant that came up from last year's seed. There are many "volunteers" scattered about the garden.

Later on in the week my Mom was able to finish planting all of the seeds for our warmer weather crops! She wanted to finish it up quickly as all of us (my parents, my brother and his wife, my husband, Adam and I) were headed up to Seattle for the weekend to visit family and sight-see a bit. Here is her report on the plantings:

Seed Planting Report:

"Last night Dad spaded up the area next to the fence that you had weeded on Tuesday.

1. This morning I planted pole beans there.

2. Along the edge of the corn facing the shop, I planted winter squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon as there is a nice space there for them to grow towards the fence; and they can even ramble into the corn.

3. I planted a row of pickling cucumbers between the blueberries and the grapes.

4. On the opposite side of the corn, facing the orchard, I planted bush beans.

5. Basil seed is planted between the lettuce and rutabagas.

6. Tomatillos are planted at both ends of the lettuce/rutabaga/turnip/beet/basil block.

7. Zucchini and pumpkins are at the south end of the corn planting.

8. Dill is in the concord grape row, over by the rhubarb.

9. Swiss chard had only a couple plants show up, so I replanted some seeds in the same spot.

We have got a serious infestation of some kind of bug that is eating the leaves of vegetable plants, even the rhubarb leaves are riddled with holes. I noticed some spider webs in the area, so perhaps they are helping to reduce the bug population, but I don't see enough webs to take care of all of them, so we may have to do something. I have some red pepper flakes that I may add to some water to then spray on the plants to see if that will help. I doubt, however, that I would get to it before next Monday evening. Some of the smaller tomato plants look like the leaves are made of lace. Yikes."- Serena Johnston- June 16, 2011. Luckily- later on this week my Mom reported that the tomato plants had a lot of new growth and looked a lot better. So, hopefully the bugs will not keep bothering the plants this season!
Here is my Mom's report on progress in the garden this week. It includes a few items that need to be worked on this week and next in the garden. Adam and I will be headed out there later on this week to take a look and take some pictures, but here is the news as of today:


Country Garden Progress:

"I spent a little time in the garden and came in just moments ago. The garden is still damp, so no need for watering. I went along the area where the cabbages are, and weeded a bit around them; and I hope to spend some time tomorrow using the hoe to get the bulk of the weeds in that area. Dad dug up quite a bit of the soil around the gooseberries, but we haven't gotten all the way to that corner yet. The blueberries need weeding, too. The weeds are still small enough that it should be fairly easy to get some hoeing done all around the garden. The biggest need is getting the thistles out before they go to seed.

The tomatoes have actually grown some and are a nice dark green, so even though the bugs have eaten some holes in them, they are looking better than last week, and the holes are fewer and farther between. I'd still like to spray them with the pepper spray, though, as I know the bugs keep the plants from being as healthy as they would otherwise be.

We also need to put some more soil around the potato plants. They are nearly ready to bloom and are looking really good, but we can get a better yield if we hill them up. As I recall, after they are done blooming we could dig up a few new potatoes from around each plant.

We also need to put some fertilizer around the root crops and once I finish weeding the cabbages, we need to fertilize those as well. Dad has got another 1 1/2 garbage cans full of aged chicken manure/wood chips so we have plenty of material. Our carrots and parsnips are showing nicely, so we should have good yields there if we keep them weeded and fed.

Dad has mowed the orchard again - the grasses grow so fast. Amazingly enough, we have better fruit set this year than last. I guess the blossoms and the insects that pollinated them just managed to dodge the raindrops. The cherries appear to be pretty slim pickings except for the pie cherries. I did notice that the Stella cherries, although not bearing yet as we just planted them this year, are the healthiest looking, with large, deep green leaves. Those are reportedly the best for west of the Cascade mountains, and I think it is right."- Serena Johnston June 21, 2011.

Suburban Garden Report:

One of my heirloom roses in bloom.

This week my roses have really started to bloom. It makes me so happy to see the bright blooms and it is even fun to pick off ones that are past their prime in anticipation of more blooms later on. Also, my little dogwood tree is blooming as you can see in the photo below. Many plants are in bloom and my garden is growing so well too!

A large bloom on my dogwood tree.

One of my tomato plants growing quite well.

My vegetable and fruit garden is doing so well! I am very happy with it. It seemed like every thing grew a lot during the three days that we were gone during the weekend. My tomato plants are already getting so big! I am sure I will need to tie them to their posts soon. Also, my row of lettuce is looking very lush! There are still no ripe strawberries but I am hoping with the sun and warmth this week that they will ripen.

A row of lettuce in my raised bed garden.

A view of the back yard from my raised bed garden.

This week I have gotten out into the yard to weed a couple of times. Yesterday I weeded some of the flower beds and the raised bed gardens for a bit and today I was able to completely weed the side yard as Adam played outside. Later on I finished weeding the garden and most of the flower beds as Adam played with the hose and sprayer. He had such fun! It is nice to work outside in the sun and see all of the pretty plants. I love the view! We even were able to enjoy lunch outside today. I love summer!

Two pies, a party and Seattle:

One of my pie shells formed and ready to be baked.

This past weekend we went up to Seattle to go to my Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Maureen's annual pie party! It was held at their home on Saturday, June 18th. It was so nice to visit with them and sample all of the delicious pies. My uncle baked many kinds of pie including apple, cherry, blueberry and pumpkin. I brought two pies to the event- a French Silk Chocolate Pie and a Shoo Fly Pie. I enjoyed making these pies and both recipes were new to me. I decided to make the Shoo Fly pie because Paul surprised me with a gift of an Amish pie basket to carry the pies in to the party in Seattle and the basket came with the recipe. Here are the photos and recipes for the pies:

The French Silk Chocolate Pie I made for the party.

French Silk Chocolate Pie:

This recipe is from the magazine Cook's Country. It took a bit of work but it was well worth it!

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 2 bars of Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and softened.
1 9- inch pie shell, baked and cooled.

1. Whip Cream: With electric mixer on medium high speed, whip cream to stiff peaks, 2-3 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to small bowl and refrigerate.

2. Beat Eggs: Combine eggs, sugar, and water in large heatproof bowl set over medium saucepan filled with 1/2 inch barely simmering water (don't let bowl touch water). With electric hand mixer on medium speed, beat until egg mixture is thickened and registers 160 degrees, 7-10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat egg mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.

3. Beat, Fold, Cool: Add chocolate and vanilla to cool egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using a spatula, fold in whipped cream until no streaks of white remain. Scrape filling into pie shell and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours.

Note: I only had time to refrigerate the pie for 1 hour. Then, I put it in the pie basket with blue ice packs. After that, at the hotel I kept it iced down using a zip lock bag full of ice. It worked very well because the pie was nice and set for the party on Saturday!

The Shoo Fly Pie I made for the party.

Shoo Fly Pie:

This recipe is from Sarah Miller who included it in the Amish pie basket I received. It is a delicious pie that reminds me of molasses cookies or gingerbread.

Note: I actually doubled the recipe (below is the single version) because I had a 10 inch pie shell. I wanted to be able to really fill up the pie shell. Also, I used 1/2 molasses and 1/2 dark corn syrup for my pie.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg yolk
Pastry for 9 inch single crust pie
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons shortening

Preheat oven to 450F

1. In a small bowl dissolve the baking soda in boiling water.

2. In a separate bowl, combine molasses and egg yolk. Stir in baking soda mixture and mix well. Pour into pie shell. Set aside.

3. Stir together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over pie.

5. Bake for 15 minutes; reduce the heat to 350F and bake 20 minutes longer. Cool before serving.

Enjoy your pie!!

Seattle Trip Highlights:

It was such an unexpected treat to be able to visit with my cousin Dan (pictured below) at the party. I think that the last time I saw him he might have been 10 or 11 years old! How time flies! It is so nice to see him happy, successful and all grown up!

My brother Stuart, Me and my cousin Dan at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Seattle.

My Aunt Maureen and Uncle Lloyd- such sweet people- were lovely hosts. It was fun to see all 0f the remodeling that they had done to their home and meet many of their neighbors at the party. We got to see their new furniture and decor. My Uncle even made a really neat balsa wood plane for Adam to play with. He thought that was pretty fun!

My cousin Dan, Aunt Maureen and Uncle Lloyd.

My husband Paul, son Adam and my Mom helping Adam with some delicious cherry pie! It was my favorite pie of the afternoon! My Uncle does a great job of baking pies!

A lovely bunch of pies including- apple made with fuji apples, blueberry, cherry, pumpkin, rhubarb custard, French silk and shoo fly.

A very unique and lovely sign that my parents made for my Aunt and Uncle to label the pies.

Besides the pie party we had a great time sight seeing in Seattle as a family. We went up to Seattle on Friday and arrived in the late afternoon. From our hotel we were able to walk down to Pike's Place Market and enjoy the sunny day. First, we went to an arcade area that had a carousel. Adam was thrilled to ride it and had such fun picking out the horse he wanted to ride!

Me with Adam on the carousel.

After the arcade we headed down the hallway to the Crab Pot restaurant. We had seen the fun dinners that they served on TV so we wanted to try it for ourselves. It was a very delicious and memorable meal. Adam had fun pointing to what he wanted to eat on the table and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Paul and Adam enjoying a bounty of seafood at the Crab Pot.

The next day, as we promised Adam we took the monorail to the Space Needle. Adam loved looking out the window of the elevator on our ride up to the observation deck! I, however stood at the back of the elevator!

Me with Adam on the 0bservation deck level of the Space Needle.

Paul with Adam. He is pretending to look out of the binoculars to see the view. He wanted to try out each and every pair of binoculars there!

To close, as I am finishing up this post on June 22, 2011 I cannot believe that yesterday it was above 80 degrees! Today it started out very sunny but it got colder and only ended up being around 67 degrees. I ended up putting on a sweatshirt later in the day! However, Adam and I still had some summer fun in the back yard making water balloons as you can see in the photo below. The key is to enjoy every day!

Adam with two water balloons. He loves having fun in the back yard!