I ate the first raspberries today, three of them. There was another, but it would have required protective gear to reach, and I was in shorts. This is going to be a good year for raspberries.
The fireflies are gearing up to their full show. I think I might have figured out how to photograph them, but I don’t have a tripod.
The world may be ending: the 100lb dog let the cat eat his sausage scraps. Voluntarily. They did end up sharing the plate-lickings, both tongues at once.
My catbird buddy is back. He sings to me in the morning, comes to look in the window and check on me, and follows me around when I’m in the yard. He hasn’t brought me any bugs yet this year.
I want to go pick strawberries Friday or Saturday. How many do you think I can eat before I have to find some way to preserve them?
8 responses to “Important things”
At the VERY LEAST get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Joby-GP1-E1EN-Gorillapod-Flexible-Tripod/dp/B000EVSLRO
I’ve looked at those before. I take you think it’s useful?
Yes. They’re small enough to carry around without feeling self-conscious, but since they’re bendable, you can stick ’em places to make ’em higher–wrap ’em around a tree branch or chair back or something.
From “Dancing with Fireflies” posted June 23 2011
http://www.blevinsphoto.com/blog/archives/209
“I eventually arrived at the best settings to balance these two approaches, with just enough sensitivity to render the firefly’s light as the brightest part of the image, and just enough light from the camera flash to capture the details of the firefly. I eventually settled on an aperture of f/16, a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second, and an ISO of 1600. I set the flash to minimum power and held it 10 to 12 inches from the subject.”
That brings back memories.
When I lived out in the country many years ago, 4th of July was the peak of blackberry season, and there were several very healthy brambles on the property. So at first light my friend and her kids would head out with me – wide-brim hats, long-sleeve shirts, heavy jeans, ankle boots or higher if we had them – usually in 80+ weather with humidity to match – we’re talking NW Georgia here.
We’d get done in a couple hours and head in. We’d happily spend the rest of the day freezing and making jam & jelly. AND a batch of blackberry ice cream to go with the grill works the guys did every year.
Yum.
Several years ago my husband’s aunt gave him a couple of jars of canned strawberries she had bought at a Polish grocery store. They were very weird-looking, all pale and ghostly and bleached out in their syrup, but oh my word! They smelled and tasted awesome!
So I learned how to can strawberries.
I wash them, drain them, and cram a quart into a quart jar (really, I push them and smush them
until they fit), then mix 1/2 cup sugar into boiling water and pour that in each jar, followed by enough water to raise the liquid level to leave 1/2 an inch of headspace.
Then I process at 6lbs. pressure for 8 minutes, and let the canner cool until the pressure drops.
Mine look ghostly and pale, too, but man. The flavor!
One year I tried just pouring the sugar in, undissolved, followed by the water, but that didn’t work – I ended up with a slab of undissolved sugar on the bottom of the jar. Oops.
Canned? Huh. I can see that working for pie or something where the berries are cooked, but otherwise? Freezing. If I want to can them I make jam. :)
We get way too many power outages for me to rely on freezing things to preserve them.
The canned strawberries are safe when the power goes out for three days.