Gardening and a Spoiled Harvest

August 18, 2016

So apparently I managed to mess up every plant I touched today.

I thought we had some sunflowers ready to harvest. So I cut them and brought them in and then watched you tube to figure out what to do with them. They aren't ready until the outer leaves turn brown and the seeds have white stripes. STRIKE ONE.

Then while we weeded today some of our grapes looked close to ready so I tried a couple that were fine. Then I picked a couple bunches. Apparently we have concord grapes and they aren't ripe until they are almost black everything I picked was super tart. STRIKE TWO.

Finally our poor little branch on our apple tree is so loaded it is dragging on the ground so I picked a few to lighten the load hoping they wouldn't be to bad. Well apples aren't ready up here until after the first frost and they taste grainy. STRIKE THREE.

Gardening must be a talent I don't have yet.  But don't tell the kids that because spoiled or not, they tell me it was the best gardening day ever and they can't wait to try again.

Sour Cherry Jam...Just Add Bread

July 2016

My husband has been talking about wanting to make jam for a couple of weeks now so when his Aunt Joann called and said that her sour cherries were ready to be harvested he jumped at the chance.  So he gathered up the kids a couple of buckets for putting cherries in and drove over for an afternoon of cherry picking and visiting.

It was the next morning that he set up shop in our kitchen and made not only a small batch of sour cherry jam, but also made some cherry pie filling with them.  The girls had a wonderful time and were invited to do some future canning with Tolmour's cousin Jill when the grapes and apples are ready to harvest.

Just looking at this wonderful jam makes me want to bake some fresh warm bread to have with it.  Anyone have a favorite recipe?  Feel free to share in the comments below.  I am always looking for tried and true, good and tasty recipes to add to our list of family favorites.