The Farmer's Market

What a beautiful summer day!  After several hours spent working in the yard, pulling weeds and planting a tree (Here's my bargain of the week... $2.97 Red Maple Tree on sale at Lowes!)

I loaded the bikes in the back of the pick-up and headed down to town to let the girls go on a bike ride.  While they rode on the Centennial Trail, I took the opportunity to do a little shopping in Snohomish.  I love browsing through this little antique capital of Washington.

Thursdays are also the Farmer's Market day.  I picked the girls up after their ride and we hit the market.  Live music entertained us as we got our Kettlecorn, Shaved Ice and the best part...STRAWBERRIES!  These aren't your Costco strawberries.  These gems are like God's little gift in a green pint sized carton. 

 They are to die for.  They absolutely melt in your mouth and SWEET - oh my goodness, you can't eat just one.  THIS is the reason I come to the Farmer's Market.  They were just picked about 2 hours prior to me buying them.  If ever you are at the Snohomish Farmer's Market and you have just $4 to spend on a treat, don't get the Shaved Ice (although it is wonderful...) you must get the strawberries.

Enjoy your summer!!

Impatient for Impatiens!

Happy Spring!!  Here in the Northwest, Spring has arrived with sunshine and mild (50 degree) temperatures.  I am so ready for my flowerbeds to be anything but brown.  I soaked my sweet peas in water last night and planted them under my kitchen window this morning.  I look forward to them peeking up to greet me in the next few months!

I also planted my Impatiens in a starter tray.  They are now sitting in my kitchen window.  I plan to move them to a greenhouse until they are ready to plant.  I just adore impatiens.  They look so pretty along walkways.

I was inspired to plant them because of a former neighbor who had them planted all over her yard.  They looked SO pretty.  Every year, her house looked so nice lined with these sweet little flowers.  Recently, she lost a battle to cancer.  I plant them now to remember her by.  Every time I look at my yard, I think of Lisa.

I hope your yard brings you happiness this summer.  Happy planting!

Aww, Sweet Pea...

These sweet little delicate flowers can bring me such joy.  Every spring, I buy my packets of sweet peas, soak them in water overnight, plant them, and anxiously await the sweet fragrant little flowers to say hello to me from my kitchen window.

My trellis is just below my kitchen window, so in the summertime I get to see these beautiful little flowers every day as I stand at the kitchen sink.  It makes doing dishes just a little bit more pleasant.

When I was young, my mom always planted sweet peas and I remember her putting a tiny bouquet by my bed so I would wake up to the smell of sweet peas in the morning.  She did the same with lilacs - nothing smells better than a fresh bouquet of lilacs.

My yard is by no means a professional masterpiece.  When we finished building our home, we put in the grass, cut in the flowerbeds, and then came to a screeching halt.  Over the past 3 years, I have slowly filled the flowerbeds with my favorite flowers - sweet peas, lilacs, iris', hydrangeas, roses, daisies and impatiens.  We could use a few shrubs and trees to look nice year round, but come summertime, one by one all my favorite flowers come into bloom.

This makes me happy.

Berry Pickin'

Homemade jam.  We treasure it like gold in this family, only bringing it out when company is over.  My mom keeps me stocked with jam - I just need to save the jars and get them back to her for future jars filled with heaven.  I remember as a kid we had rows of raspberries, and all summer it was our job to go pick the berries.  Through the spiders and bees, we would make it up and down each aisle looking for the perfect berries.  Not too light, not too dark - they had to pluck off the vine just right.  Eat one, save one, eat one, save one.  There is nothing better than fresh raspberries right off the vine.

My sister is the ultimate Martha Stewart.  She picked up all the "nesting traits" my mom had when we were kids.  She cans, grows her own herbs and veggies, bakes, and creates memories with her own kids with annual trips to the berry farm, Christmas Tree farm and pumpkin patch.  I, on the other hand, have discovered the better pumpkins can often be found right in front of the grocery store, artificial trees look just as pretty once decorated, and Smuckers makes a perfectly good PBJ for a 10 year old.

This year my sister invited me to go with she, her kids and my mom up to the berry farm to pick strawberries and raspberries.  Thinking this was a fun idea that I would not have done otherwise with my kids, I agreed to go with her.  She knew exactly what to do - grab a bin here, wait for the tractor ride there - she was a pro.  The tractor came and took us all to a patch far away from other pickers.  We started picking strawberries which were perfectly ripe and absolutely melted in our mouths.  Both of my girls started filling their bins, and soon we all had 3 full bins of berries.

We moved to the raspberry field and continued picking.  Suddenly it was 1975 and I was in my yard filling my bin with these wonderful perfect berries.  Eat one, save one, eat one, save one.  A little bee started following me to the best berries.  For some reason he wasn't as scary as the ones when I was a kid.  It was almost like he was helping me out~ "Where are we going?  Did you find some good ones over here?  Hey, wait for me, I'm a good helper!"

We filled 3 more bins with raspberries and headed to the checkstand.  They probably should have weighed each of us before and after picking to account for all the berries eaten along the way.  My sister and mom went through the checkout - their average amount spent was around $10.00 each.  I suddenly realized that I had 3 times that amount, since I had 3 very efficient berry pickers.  $37.00 later, I left the checkstand.  I thought to myself, "I could buy a lot of Smuckers for that $30.00".

I shrugged it off as a good day and fun experience and went home with my treasures.  I probably should have thought this through a bit further.  I was leaving the next day for a long weekend away, and the berries would go bad if I didn't do something with them ASAP.  Canning, freezing and jam making really wasn't in my game plan as I was scrambling to get everything done before I left.  It had to get done though.  I went to the store and bought Pectin and came home to begin the process.  I decided to just freeze the raspberries, as I could always decide to do something later with them.  I laid them carefully in Ziplock Freezer bags and set them in the freezer.  One down, one to go.

Now it was strawberry time.  I had also picked up some plastic freezer jam jars so I began preparing the strawberries.  I made 2 batches of jam and froze the rest of the berries.  Finally at 11:00 pm all the berries were done and the kitchen was clean.  In hindsight, I may have skipped the trip to the berry farm.  I should have timed it better and gone another day.  Would I trade the experience?  No.  Did I enjoy the trip back to 1975? Yes.  Now I have several jars of heaven in my freezer and I'm glad I took the time to make them.

I will still buy my Smuckers for those every day PBJ's, but look forward to the good stuff, picked and prepared with love by us.