The Mountain Thymes

Cool with a little humidity at 8 am when I headed to my vendor tent at the L & N Depot.                                          From my seat under the tent. The morning began slowly.  Maybe people slept in on this cloudy cool morning.  Usually the serious produce shoppers arrive early, buy what they need before the farmers sell out, and bolt.  The shoppers who arrive later, like 10:45 or so, stroll and talk to the vendors, feel and touch the products, and linger making their trip a social event.  It was about then that my sales picked up.  Every market day is a surprise.  Today I sold all hats, adult and children, no aprons, no cloth recycle bags. Will sew more hats and a few new aprons for next weekend, Labor Day weekend, which should be good for sales, unless tropical sto...

Tuesday night's sleep was hideous.  I woke around 1:30 am, with mind whirling and thinking too much and eyes wide open.  The right knee ached, wrists were talking to me.  Couldn't blame it on the full moon and needed something to blame it on.  Streaming meditative Pandora music on my iPhone didn't even help calm the clamour in my head.  Finally, a few hours later, I fell back to sleep and woke again around 6:30, slurped down a cup of coffee, ate bowl of oatmeal with a tbs of peanut butter, and headed to the gym for my step/Pilates/yoga classes.  The body stops complaining after breathing and stretching in a few downdogs ending in savasana.  Going back to needing something to blame the restless night on, I Googled waking between 1-3 am.  We had company Tuesday evening and spent hours sitting on the back porch so I figured I ate too much, had a glass of wine and dessert too late in the evening (for me).  If it's on the internet, it must be tr...

The other day I was sitting in my garden chair thinking about where I would set my half-pound of garlic cloves this October. Last year I ordered a quarter-pound bag and enjoyed harvesting the bulbs so much this summer that I figured next summer I would have twice as much fun.   A half-pound should give me about 30 garlic bulbs in early summer. At the other end of the garden, peering over an old pine log, was a yellow and white feline watching me watch it.   I don't know whose cat it is but I'm sure it's keeping the mouse and vole population down.  A few days later I was picking a few of the remaining tomatoes when a little grey mouse scurried across the open garden right in front of me.  I told that mouse about the visiting cat and that I wouldn't be scurrying out in the open if I were him. The gourds are still growing.  I have only one winter squash and plenty of kale which I freeze and throw into soups all winter.  By mid-September the sad task of p...

Just posted another favorite summer soup recipes made with fresh vegetables from the garden and the farmers' market.                                                  Farmers' Market Chowder This year I froze dozens of ears of corn without blanching.  Just wrapped each ear in wax paper, placed 4 in a freezer bag, and put them in the freezer.  For this chowder, I took the 4 ears from the freezer, placed them into boiling water, and let them set while I did some leek chopping.  The kernels easily cut off the cob and were ready for the recipe. 

Melanie told me to sit down and get blogging......................... The hummingbirds this time of year are vicious.  While having coffee at 6:30 on the porch, I counted 6 in my view at once, bombing each other and body slamming in mid-air.  In Blairsville, Barb texted me that hers sounded like a squadron of mini jets.   They are so-o-o entertaining! They're so bold right now, they get in your face.  I'm boiling 4 cups of nectar each day to keep three big feeders and four tube feeders full.  The tubes are filled each morning and again by afternoon.  It's a full-time job keeping them happy.  Guess I can't go to work! Sunrise seen from our front porch. Monday is "old people" discount at Burkes (Bealls in Florida).  I finally found a pair of yoga capris that go to my waist and not 6" below the navel allowing the saggy abdomen to jiggle during downward-facing dog.  Then off to Logan's Run Rescue Thrift Store where I found three regu...