Throwing caution to the wind, we were wild and crazy on a Friday night! We had a camp fire in the back yard, roasted potatoes and onions in foil in the embers. The embers weren’t ready until after 11:00 p.m., the potatoes weren’t ready until well after midnight. And then what did we do? We sat down and ate fire baked potatoes and onions with sour cream until we couldn’t move, then we went to bed to sleep off our indulgences. And then we slept in the next morning. That was fun.
Late nights are not for us as a rule, Attila is up at 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning so we go to bed early. Sleeping in on the weekends is a real treat, usually we sleep until seven or eight in the morning, and on rare occasions nine. Getting back on schedule after staying up late is wearying, so we don’t do this often.
Summer is approaching, and with it comes the busiest season of my year, food preservation season. Attila is at the end of his busiest season, which is the garden planting season. He still has about two dozen plants that have yet to go into the ground. They are waiting on harvesting the the Spinach in my raised bed, when the soil will become available for a second planting. The Spinach was harvested today!
Blanched Spinach 
Harvested Spinach
We start off the preservation season slowly, with Rhubarb this year. About 24 cups of diced Rhubarb were frozen for the winter. Today the Spinach (Bloomsdale Longstanding) was harvested, yielding 16 servings that were blanched, packaged, and frozen for the winter.
Not all the vegetables from the garden are preserved. Every day fresh produce is harvested to grace the table: Spinach, Garlic Scapes, Lettuce (Tom Thumb), Peas (Green Arrow), Beets (Fuer Kugel), Radishes, Strawberries (VeeStar). Every day a fresh salad is prepared. At present the salad consists primarily of Lettuce, fresh Peas, diced fresh Pea pods, and fresh Spinach from the garden, the Onions and Cucumber are purchased. We no longer buy any vegetables that cannot be peeled before being eaten raw, and we have long anticipated our summer “garden salad days”.
Salad dressing is homemade at Mist Cottage. Attila makes his own, using whatever ingredients appeal to him at the time, tasting and tweaking until it is just right. I am much lazier when it comes to salad dressings. I tried plain Cowboy Candy Juice, but the consistency did not suit me. Then I had a brainstorm. I mixed Cowboy Candy Juice with an equal part of sour cream. Wow, I love this stuff, it makes a wonderful salad dressing.
A free packet of Kale (Russian Red or Ragged Jack) were received with out last seed order, so Attila planted a lot of Kale this year. I have been a bit concerned about this, about Kale taking up so much of our garden real estate. I purchased Kale several years ago and hated it. It was a curly variety and I found the texture very unpleasant. The Russian Red Kale has ragged leaves, not frilly. Tonight Attila brought in some harvested Kale to try. He suggested I cook it in the Instant Pot, which I did, steamed for three minutes. We like it! This result was so unexpected. I am going to try dehydrating it in a very slow oven, which will bake it. Then I can put it into the food processor and create a green powder for winter soups and casseroles. For eating straight from the garden, the Instant Pot is definitely the way to go with Kale!
Attila and I were out for a walk the other day. We passed a home where it appeared the elderly woman who lives there is no longer in residence. Items of hers have been left at the curb, off and on, since the snow disappeared. Some of the items are valuable, such as the antique high chair. Other items are of little interest to most people, but of some interest to us. We have found and brought home vintage fabrics, a lovely little baking dish, thread, garden border, Rhubarb plants, and other small items that we would use on a day to day basis. This weekend though, I was delighted to find two boxes of vintage canning jars, and an empty 4 litre jar pickle jar. As we picked up these items, I sent a silent thank you to the woman, wherever she is. I will think of her kindly from time to time, well into the future. I hope she is happy and loved to the end of her days.
The boxes of jars we carried home. 
The different sized canning jars we found.
From left to right are:
1 1/2 quart Crown brand canning jar
1 quart Jewell brand canning jar with glass lid and ring
1 pint Coronation brand canning jar with glass lid and ring
1/2 pint Coronation canning jar with glass lid and ring
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Jun 13, 7:25 PM
27 °C
FEELS LIKE 31
Partly cloudy
Wind 6 SW km/h
Humidity 42 %
Visibility 27 km
Sunrise 5:23 AM
Wind gust 9 km/h
Pressure 100.7 kPa
Ceiling 10000 m
Sunset 8:52 PM
Quote
“He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.”
Horace
65 BC – 8 BC