(Don't mind the taped off outlets - we just tiled our backsplash earlier this week and we need to seal the grout lines before we put the covers back on. The exciting thing about this development, though, is that it means the kitchen is DONE! More on that later.)
Last night's haul: watermelon, half a cantaloupe, peaches plus a basket of seconds that will become peach butter later this morning, blueberries (can you tell that I go a little nuts over fresh fruit in the summer?), a dozen and a half ears of corn, two cucumbers, a head of bibb lettuce, a couple eggplant, four heads of garlic, a package of bacon and another of pork sausage links, a couple of cookies and a slice of raspberry olive oil pound cake. Not to mention the bread I didn't trade, which gets distributed to friends and family or ends up in our freezer.
A bunch of the corn, a loaf of white bread for French toast and a couple jars of peach butter are going with me up north where the boy and I are camping with some of my college girlfriends this weekend. This will be the first time we've all been together since a wedding last summer, and I can't wait to introduce the little man to those who haven't met him yet and to spend a couple days basking with my ladies.
It feels like this summer has been flying by, so I suppose in a way this post is an attempt to hold on to that summer-y feeling when you're eating fruit hand over fist so that the fruit flies don't get it first and you eat so much corn that you might turn yellow.
(Paul is from colder climes than I, and he's used to corn season being a month at most. The first time I came home with a 50 lbs. bag of corn to put up and freeze it was a novelty. The second time (two weeks later), it was cause for slight concern. The third time I think he may have contemplated divorce. I heard a lot of "creamed corn... fried corn... corn pone... corn bread... corn on the cob..." in the style of Bubba from Forest Gump, and "Corn! The other white meat!" To his credit, though, *he* was the one who first suggested buying corn at the market this year. I was going to give him a break for a while. And yes, we did eat all that corn I froze last year, and we ran out of it before the markets started back up.)
I was noticing the other day that I need to update my "printed word" reading list sidebar. I've been making a point to read more fun books (i.e. not-for-my-dissertation books) this summer, and I've got some great ones to recommend. I just finished Farmacology by Daphne Miller, M.D., which is about a medical doctor's investigations into the way sustainable farming can teach lessons about our health. It was a great read, and, although most of her recommendations are already in keeping with the way we live, it's always nice to be vindicated. I highly recommend it.
After Farmacology I read The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. It had been on my list for quite a while because I love books about the sea, and this one didn't disappoint. Just a warning: it's incredibly depressing (hint: it's a bad storm. A lot of people die), but Junger's research and the way he weaves the peoples' stories together was pretty gripping. I stayed up half the night to finish it.
Now I'm on Michael Crichton's Next. Crichton has been a favorite of mine since high school. I wrote him a fan letter when I was in 10th grade and he wrote me back and sent an autographed headshot. Call me a dork, but I still think that's pretty awesome.
Ok, time to wrap this up for today. That was the third time I've had to get up to chase after the recently-mobile kiddo, who is intent on playing in the dog's water dish. It takes him about 20 seconds to get from the kitchen table (which is in the front room, not the kitchen, confusingly enough) out to the kitchen where the dog's dish is. He's not crawling so much as scooting, but man is he getting quick.
Happy weekending!
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