The Mountain Thymes

Our weather is still unseasonably warm which makes me want to be outside working the garden.  But with the sun lower in the sky now barely appearing above the tall forest oaks and pines, the garden is limited to only four to five hours of direct sun.  The fall garlic was planted a couple of weeks ago.  Last year I did twelve cloves and got eleven beautiful heads of garlic in June.  It was so exciting to dig, dry and use home grown garlic that I planted thirty-five cloves this year.  The garlic bed is covered with a layer of dead leaves and six inches of straw. My last couple of CSA bags contained lots of orange and yellow peppers.  Eating the rainbow is healthy and delicious and allows me to try lots of new recipes on Cliff. I chopped and froze four peppers for use during the winter and yesterday made fiesta stuffed peppers with the remaining ones. They're even better tasting the next day after the flavors have soaked in and blended together. One a...

Where is that gang of squirrels from the hood when you need them?  We've been squirrel-less this spring and summer.  They weren't around to yell at or throw blame at for things happening our woods.  And now when I need them to gather acorns in their cheeks, carry them off to their storage holes in trees or where ever acorns are hoarded, the annoying pests are absent again.  Even without a breeze, we can expect hundreds of acorn drops daily.  I sweep three to four times each day, mostly because acorns are painful to step on with bare feet and sweeping prevents leaves and broken acorn  morsels from being traipsed into the kitchen. This one mighty oak shading our side porch is the culprit.  We're thinking maybe most of the acorns have fallen as today was quiet and the porch is still fairly clean. This afternoon after returning from my Zumba and toning classes, it was time to tackle the two kabocha squashes from my CSA deliveries. The kabocha is a...

It's been raining acorns.  Winds from hurricane Matthew caused showers of acorns but no rain.  Can't remember the last time we had any rain.  It's been months.  The oak tree that canopies our porch was  full this year.  After gusts from Matthew died down, Cliff used the leaf blower to clean the porch figuring most of the acorns from the big oak were on the porch........but the dropping continues.  A barrage of pounding, then silence, so I sweep.  I find comfort in the sweeping.  The to and fro dance with the broom like my grandmother and my mother sweeping their porches.  Grandma Still had an old rocking chair among the other chairs on her rustic front porch.  Adirondack chairs and a bench beckoned friends and family to sit awhile on my parents porch.  So with a comforting rhythm I sweep our porch four and five times a day.  Folklore says a thicker acorn shell means a colder winter and an abundance means a cold wet winter....

I've been remiss in updating the refrigerator dilemma.  We did purchase a new Kenmore Elite. I love it.  There's a little more room in the upper and definitely a more spacious freezer.  Has a drawer and a slide shelf above the big bottom bin.  The slide shelf is great for freezing flat bags of our garden basil, spinach, and kale . Got my third CSA bag of fall vegetables Tuesday.   Fresh watermelon, red onions, a squash resembling a pumpkin, all in the same family, a bag of salad greens, and two eggplants.  Wednesday night I made eggplant Parmesan using gluten free bread crumbs and the jar of Cabernet spaghetti sauce we bought at the John Campbell Folk School Art Festival on Saturday. Nothing like the taste of garden fresh vegetables. It seems our hummingbirds have migrated south much earlier this year than other years.  I saw the last female perched on the back porch feeder on Tuesday and none since.  The feeders are still out, will rem...