What Do June Showers Bring?

Rain has been rather consistent this past month. I have heard reports of 27 out of 30 days had rain here. Don't get me wrong - I love rain. It has beauty - both in sight and sound. Lying in bed listening to the rain fall is a wonderful pastime. Except when that time is 4am and you cannot get back to sleep.

The rain nourishes the Earth. It is a very important part of the cycle of Life, and I would rather have it than not. It makes the days that the sun comes and makes his presence known that much more dramatic.

And the rain's effects can be dramatic also.


This is what I started out with for my tomatoes. The transplants were about six weeks old and pretty hardy.

Now I have these:


Needless to say they are a LOT bigger. I had Romas last year, and the plants were of decent albeit smaller size, not quite 3 feet tall. This year I have heirlooms: Black Brandywine and Orange Banana and Green Skin Long Keeper. They are large plants. Many have topped the stakes I put in.


My only real concern with the large amounts of rain is that there will be not enough sunshine to help produce the tomatoes. But, we still have a lot of July to go. I am hopeful.

I had some new plants this year too, for the little faerie garden I put in out front: foxglove and violets and bee balm. They have grown huge also, overtaking the planter and swooping down towards the grass. While I certainly wouldn't mind them running rampant through the yard, my landlords probably would. But, I did have my first bee balm bloom, and I can see why those insects would be drawn there. Gorgeous.

Food Glorious Food

I got the email this week that our local U-Pick Orchard was opening up their strawberry patch. After the rainy week, and expected sunny skies on Saturday, I knew that getting there earlier than later would be essential. But, I have another orchard I like to go to, so I had a backup plan just in case.

And Saturday was sunny for sure! Bright sun and blue skies, it's been a while since we saw them. After the kids appointment in the morning we swung through a drive thru to get lunch (sometimes, you do what you have to do) and I called the automated picking line to make sure the patches hadn't been cleaned out before we got there. Still open, so off we went.

Finding a parking spot was hard, but not impossible. We queued up to get our baskets and off to the rows. They had people directing us to rows, reminding us to stay in them, mark where you stop with the little flag, and gave us a white bucket for any squashed or spoiled berries along the way.



After about ten minutes the niblets began to lose interest, but I moved them through filling their baskets as I worked on mine. Lots of people were out in the field, including row jumpers who didn't seem to remember what the rules were. I wanted to remind them, I also wanted to beat them with my flag marker, but I figured that would not set a good example for the kids.



Baskets filled, we checked out and moved the strawberries to the car. A good haul, over 14 lbs. worth. Then I let the children wander off to the playground, including the goats and ducks kept in a bordering pen. With children all over and food dispensers, the goats know they have it good.



Today we had rain and I have begun the process of washing, hulling and freezing the berries. I did a lot of jam last year, more than I planned with the ice storm and subsequent defrost of all my summer berries. I am sure I will do a little more, but I wanted to do some fresh stuff also.

This week has brought a lot of turmoil inside. Everyone has those days; I guess this week I was getting my fair share, plus a couple more. When times are hard, it is pretty easy to get restless and just need to do something. Something to move, something to soothe my soul - gardening in the rain doesn't hold real appeal, so I turn to baking. I had bananas stored in the freezer already and thought some banana bread would be good, and dug up my standard recipe (from Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, spiralbound), but hit the muffin recipe first. So, I threw together a batch of those, and decided to turn it up a notch with strawberries. Then they went into the bread.



Then I decided to throw together one more batch of muffins, but had used up all the bananas. But I sure have enough strawberries! Throw in a little lemon juice and zest, and I have enough to freeze for another week also.

It doesn't answer my questions or make the Path and smoother, but at least I have some snacks for along the way.