Strawberry Freezer Jam with Lavender and Honey (FBF)

Today these strawberries



became this freezer jam



It is my new favorite recipe for freezer jam. It takes far less sugar and the flavor is divine to my palate.

Basic ingredients:

* 4 cups strawberries, chopped or mashed
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1/2 cup sugar
* A sprig or two of fresh lavender snipped into tiny pieces or 5 oz. dried lavender**
* 1 packet jam pectin (such as Sure Jell)

** Rehydrate lavender by adding a small amount of water to the lavender in a bowl. Stir and let sit while preparing other ingredients. Drain before adding.

1. In a large bowl, crush the strawberries to the consistency you prefer (I like mine fairly chunky). I use a potato masher.

2. In a small bowl, mix pectin and sugar together until incorporated. Add to mashed strawberries. Add honey. Stir for a few minutes. Add lavender and lightly stir.

4. Ladle into clean jars, leaving 1/2" space at the top for expansion in freezer. Cap and let sit for 30 minutes or more. Store in your freezer until ready to use.

I found I liked a rather generous amount of lavender in mine (I have made four batches so far, tweaking each).

Next I might try orange zest in lieu of lavender. Hmmm....

A Gardening Season At Last! (FBF)

In 25 years of living on this farm, I have never experienced a June like this one. Monumental rain, which made gardening rather challenging (except for weed pulling in the soft soil), and forced indoor activities like cleaning house and mending clothes that have accumulated for the last, oh, ten years or so...

Finally the sun and warmth came to visit and serious gardening beckoned. First, selecting the proper hoe for the job:



But not until the lure of fresh berries distracts:




A tour of the garden to assess areas of needs yields some treats; for instance, carrots and peas in bloom.





Supervised by a quail in the shade beyond the artichokes.



Grapes are looking good. Daisy and Zeke think the orchard is just fine too.























Muffy and Floyd agree that all the rain has made for good hunting for mice and gophers.





Can't help noticing a couple of poppy mutations, including my first ever lavender color!




















Hours pass of weeding and hoeing, enjoying the sunshine and vibrant bird song, and then it's time to eat. How about a fresh-harvested salad?



And some food for the soul...

Flanders poppies & their mutations (FBF)

Two or three years ago I overplanted my asparagus bed with Flanders poppies for color after the asparagus harvest. Those seeds escaped everywhere in my yard, garden and orchard - and this year they began to mutate into lovely shades of pink and mauve from the original oranges and reds, and some have done lovely things with a touch of white. Here are some examples:

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My heartfelt thanks to Jenny for the gift of a digital camera so I can participate on our family blog. ~Carol

One leaf at a time in HMB

Here's the mid-June update from FBF in HMB on how things are looking in the raised box garden. It seems like everything is growing fairly well, though I think I may be over-watering the peas and spinach, so I'm going to cut back by half on those two.

I also finally conceded that my little pepper seedlings were just not going to make it, so I broke down and bought jalapeno, orange, red, and chinese giant pepper starts from the HMB nursery. Of course, the next day, voila!

I haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do with these, but I suppose I could put them in a pot. We just don't need that many peppers, but then again, I'm very curious to see how they do and how they taste compared to the ones I bought. I'll find room somewhere.

I also started some dill from seed, and it is up and growing.

And now for the rest of the garden:

A mass of wildflowers.

I still don't know if I'll be able to actually grow watermelons, but at least they are up and out of their little hills. I've covered them with black paper in hopes that will help them get the heat they need. Also note the nasturtiums are really happy! Here's a little bug bath I added. In all, I put 4 throughout the garden in hopes of being friendly towards all the little creatures will give me good garden karma, or at least, encourage the good bugs to do good deeds.

Here's my Pruden's Purple tomato. It is growing very well, and appears to be quite happy.

And here are the Moskvich, Sun Gold, and Stupice, plus the new peppers.

The Mosvich has a baby well on the way.

And the Stupice has twins!

The basil sure is taking its time, but I'm hopeful that it will make faster progress soon.

I added some garden tape to the pea cage in hopes that it will give them something to grow up and around. Also, there is a sunflower in the middle of the peas and behind them, which I hope the peas will also use for support...which would be cool!

As to be expected, the zucchini are growing an inch a day, it seems. Here are the zucchini twins:

Only slightly behind them are the butterstick squash.

The beans haven't been growing as fast as I thought they would, but they are certainly putting out nice leaves, so I remain hopeful.

Here's the salad box. The onions are really happy, I replanted the garlic cloves (mistakenly planted the bulbs the first time around) and am curious to see how they do. I also got to "harvest" some of the garlic (basically, just used what I couldn't plant), and it was delicious!

Here's the tallest sunflower so far -- go overachievers!

And though this isn't a picture of my garden, it was just so pretty at sunset on Sunday night, that I had to include this to share.

Fat Bottom Farm, Oregon (FBF)

Long day on the farm & in my garden, too. Here are a few photos from FBF Oregon (Carol's farm).

Tomatoes.

Beans.

Quinoa.

Bachelor buttons.

Two varieties of bumblebees.

The fruit orchard.