Issue #19 Summer Harvests
Today’s poem comes with a bonus rant.
Note to world.
Stop trying to get me to get rid of stuff.
My house contains the following usage tiers:
Grabbed at least once a day
In service at least once a week
Seasonal use – at least once a year
Once in a blue moon
The thing about those bottom two tiers is that, when you need a thing, you really need it. I cannot tell you how many times I got rid of something I thought I would never use again only to find I needed it within a week of its departure.
So, I stopped sending away useful things, regardless of how often I actually make use of them. As long as I can find a reasonable storage spot, and we are not walking through a hoard with tiny pathways, I get to keep what I want.
In case you are wondering – that is a drawing of a cherry pitter.
I literally pit cherries once a year when the harvest from our tree comes in.
Usually the cherries make it into a pie – if you would like my coveted pie pastry recipe click here.
If you are making a cherry pie, just substitute pitted cherries where it says blueberries and don’t add any lemon juice. (I have found regular sweet cherries to be rubbish in pies and only use sour cherries. For what that’s worth.)
Copyright© 2023 Anne Morse Hambrock All rights reserved.
And…
When I wrote this in 2016, I had no idea how widespread a practice it was to sneak onto your neighbor’s porch and “gift” them some zucchini.
Apparently, so many gardeners are furtively trying to offload their extras that there is now an actual national holiday for doing it.
Here is a link to the story of the holiday and another link to an interesting piece about this year’s “ditch-a-thon”.
If you don’t feel like clicking on links, it looks as though the festivities for this year are on August 8th.
I’ll be curious to see who’s slinking around my neighborhood looking suspicious that day.
Here is the current state of our own particular zucchini - it’s already been quite prolific.
More Harvesting
Another one of those items I use about once a year is this large metal bowl. It is one of a set of bowls that I don’t reach for often because A) the clink of the stainless steel of bowl-upon-bowl hits me like fingernails on a chalkboard and B) I have lots of ceramic and glass bowls to grab instead.
But, because it is both really really wide and shallow, this IS the bowl I want when I am processing the results of the cilantro-gone-to-seed.
Fun fact – Cilantro is where you get Coriander. Yep – if you let cilantro go to seed you will be blessed with, not only a self-planting cilantro patch for years to come, but hundreds of coriander seeds. Once harvested and ground, coriander is an excellent ingredient in chili and, wait for it, spiced loaves of zucchini bread. :-)
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I appreciate the feedback and knowing how often I have struck a chord with your lives.
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