I've been really in love with my garden this year. So in love in fact, that I have failed to properly document it, like a good parent should! Photos have been taken but not posted, dated, or labeled. Ah well. More to come, but for now, a taste of a few hours in my summer kitchen.
I feel much like a 50's housewife might have felt, and it feels good. It feels good because it is a choice, not an expectation. I am grateful for all of the women (and men!) who have made that choice possible. This afternoon there was a screech of tires outside and to check to see that everyone was ok, I ran out in my polka dot apron, hair pulled back with a headband, hands red from the beets. I may as well have been carrying a meat cleaver and dragging a dead goat because the totally chic metropolitan woman walking by was taken more aback by the sight of me than the sound of the screech. Such is life in my neighborhood.
But the neighborhood has been good lately. After our block party for National Night Out, neighbors have been out and chatting one another up more than usual. We received smiles and waves from the folks that live in "that problem house". Tonight is another neighborhood concert. Let's hope the sweetness from this lasts through the cold autumn days when we start to mourn the long, warm, sidewalk chats about the status of the cucumbers, how many miles we're running today, the latest yard project, and oh did you see that suspicious vehicle parked here this afternoon and I called the cops too.
To help the summer love last all year, today I canned beets, made pesto, and pickled peppers. There is so much to learn about something it seems we should be brought up knowing how to do. I love learning from my grandmother and love using jars she has probably used for decades. It just seems right. I also love thinking about feeding my prized produce to my beloved this winter. WINTER. Ack. That pesto, though, will remind us to enjoy our days, whether they be warm or chilly, because they go by oh so fast.
For now, I'll grab my dog and go for a run before the concert in the park. Maybe I'll see some neighbors and ask about the cucumbers.
