Bread and Butter Pickles

 
    Yesterday we picked 60 pounds of cucumbers from Robert’s Cucumber Haus. We’re going to make Bread and Butter Pickles, so I had him pick up the necessary ingredients form the store: ground turmeric, ground ginger, canning salt, vinegar and yellow onions. I already had mustard seed and whole peppercorns [...]

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Old-Fashioned Companionship

 

 
I started hollyhocks from seed this spring. The winter was long and hard and I was still recovering from surgery. I felt the need to push new seeds into fresh potting soil, to actively be involved in helping something grow and flourish. Sowing [...]

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Like My Mother Before Me

 

There’s about five weeks of summer left, and I’m doing all I can to make it last. After a long string of hot days, I’m spending mornings up in the garden again, sipping coffee and reading my Bible under the shade of a walnut tree that’s next to my husband’s “Cucumber Haus.”

The roof, constructed of [...]

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An Intoxicating Aroma

This is the bountiful year for the apple tree at the hedgerow. We spent time there this spring under its fragrant bower, celebrating the delicate scent of paper thin petals. Now the branches, heavy with yellow and rose dappled apples, cause us to rejoice.

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