"It was all so different! The days slipped into weeks, slipped into years, and somehow those tiny plantings placed into the ground with enthusiasm and a lot of hope turned into a bonified food forest. Now it was time to tame and nurture those trees, shrubs, brambles, and vines, lest they cross completely back into wildness."

Harvesting and preserving season is ramping up here in northeast Wisconsin. It can be overwhelming at times (especially when many things need attention at once), but it's also wonderfully rewarding - and it tastes so good!

I don't eat as much fresh produce in the "off season", because store produce tastes lackluster by comparison. Instead, we eat largely from our stored food from the previous season. It can get a little monotonous, but we use a mix of preserving methods and recipes to add variety. Now if someone would just come up with a recipe book that uses frozen, home canned, dried, and freeze dried foods, we'd be in like Flynn. (No, I'm not going to write that book, at least not any time soon, as we constantly improvise and recipes never turn out exactly the same.)

Strawberry season has largely wrapped up, but we picked our first blueberries this week (and put the blueberry netting over the patch). It'll be time to pick currants soon, too, and the juneberries are ready and mulberries have begun ripening.

The gooseberries look pretty nice this year, and we fenced the chickens away from them so we should get a harvest. (Last year those naughty hens got into the gooseberry plants and ate all the berries and picked off the leaves, greedy girls!) Local cherry orchards have kicked off their season, though our trees got nipped by late frost this year, so no cherries here.

The greenhouse cucumbers are ahead of the garden cucumbers, and we've been enjoying several each day. The lettuce is holding nicely, too, in spite of the heat. (It's planted in the shade of the trellised tomatoes.) I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

In other homestead happenings, we had another feathered guest show up in the yard this week. Duncan noticed an odd bird washing in the small pond. It turns out it was a pigeon. Pidgy, as we've been calling it, has been hanging around, nibbling at the duck chow and observing goings on. It is banded, so we're trying to get it used to us enough that we could catch it and check the band for ID.

The guys are tackling stage one of the solar electric update tomorrow. Hopefully when all is done we've have batteries and an inverter better sized to our solar array and a longer lasting backup. (Right now our inverter is undersized for our array. At the time we installed it, it was the largest size available, but technology changes.) We will be selling our old inverter and battery bank, in case you happen to be in the market for one and live in northeast Wisconsin.

We're also prepping for this year's annual open house, which is Saturday, July 26th from 10am to 4pm. Come visit and take the tour of the house and grounds.

Dunc made liver pate and I'm on dish duty since he did the cooking, so I'd best wrap up.

All our best to you and yours,

Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)

P.S. A close friend lost another close friend this week. It's a good reminder to not take those we care about for granted, as we never know when it will be our time to say goodbye. Thank you for being a reader and sharing this crazy thing we call life.

This week's featured articles...

If you have access to fresh currants, this old fashioned currant jelly is simple to make with a rich tart sweet flavor.

I am not much of a drinker, but this cherry pit vodka is lovely. The flavor is so delicate and it makes a wonderful summer spritzer. Definitely worth trying out if you're pitting a bunch of cherries for preserving or a recipe. Waste not, want not.

This article goes out to our neighbors who burn their trash incorrectly and stink up the whole area. I haven't spotted their location, but we smell it on the wind. Our burn barrel guide shows how to make a burn barrel, with tips for a clean, quick burn.

This is the week!

Heidi from Healing Harvest Homestead is running her popular free webinar, "Five Best Herbs for Your Home Apothecary (with Recipes & Remedies)".

As I've gotten older, I notice I'm a lot more sensitive to various things - like over the counter medications. Even some supplements don't sit like they used to years ago.

Instead, I find myself turning more to herbal teas, tinctures, and syrups. Gentle and effective, they work with my body instead of trying to override the symptoms.

I've attended this webinar, and Heidi is very generous with her teaching. It's a great introduction to readily accessible (and affordable) herbal medicine.

​Reserve your spot now for this free online webinar. Choose either July 13th, 15th, or 16th.