Variety

68 this morning, heavy dew, mostly clear.

The past few days have been some kind of busy, all in a good way.

Canning season is slowing down now, with only grapes left to harvest and maybe some late corn. But last week I ordered some Cleared for making canned pie filling and made a nice lot of cherry on Saturday. 

I am looking forward to trying to making more, perhaps some blackberry and peach. I have frozen apple filling in the freezer, a good thing since there are no apples this year except the yellow ones, and those are a sauce apple. It's odd since the trees did have apples. Did the squirrels and birds get them all? Or did they drop? I am sure we would have seen them on the ground. But our son said the same thing happened at his house. Tbe other oddity is that the trees are losing ALL their leaves already. I do not recall this ever happening. Perhaps some kind of blight due to all the rain? So it looks like there will be no cider or apple butter this year. So sad.

I did finally get the beets canned, and have plenty for this year. I also baked banana bread because too many too ripe, and got 2 big loaves. And made more lemon squash bread. So two loves to eat and 2 to mail to my Florida son. He does love home-baked goodies, and they don't have an oven so no baking at his house.

I finished the dresser I have been working on, and started on a dining table. I am really happy with the dresser. Here are the before and after photos. 

Since we have sold several pieces recently I am scrambling to fill the spaces left. So Monday we went picking, and came home with a good load. On the way home we discovered more Chanterelle mushrooms--we had found a patch along our driveway, so we were thrilled to get more.

 I cleaned them up when we got home, and then started on some sides for dinner as our son D and his daughters and grandchildren were coming to grill chicken. I already had a squash casserole in the fridge, so I made potato salad and corn and peas. We added a bowl of cherry tomatoes, and some cut watermelon and grilled bread and had a real feast. It was a wonderful visit, and a nice way to spend the evening after a long day.

Today we are back on the road, picking up more for the booths. Tomorrow we will work on the grapes and get ready for our granddaughter from Colorado, who will arrive for a 2 week visit to work on her cabin. Life is certainly anything but boring 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.