Beef: It's (Not) What's For Dinner

Last night I had the usual malaise about figuring out what to have for dinner.  Having a plan early always helps me, because if I wait til dinnertime it's just so much harder to think of it and fix it too.  The mate said "how about a salad?"  He also suggested fish.  I love it when he thinks of something that sounds like it might be good.
When we sat down to eat we thought our food was so pretty we should take a picture of it.

It had garden lettuce (supplemented with a little store lettuce), gold and red tomatoes, yukon gold potatoes, edamame with garlic onion and thyme, carrots, red and green pepper, and grilled salmon.  We did not grow the salmon. 
Honey thought he didn't like edamame (green soybeans), but that is because he hadn't really tried them.  Al wanted to plant them, and he and I shelled a container of them the previous week.  I ate some one night when partner was out, just sauteed some garlic and a bit of onion in olive oil, then put in the beans, a few sprigs of thyme, and salt.  Voila!  Add beer and you've got dinner for one.  I ended up sticking the bag of beans in the freezer because I thought they'd freeze well and if I was the only one eating them I would regard them as my personal stash.  On salad night the frozen beans worked fine, and now honey thinks he likes edamame after all.

Club Lilford

A few years ago we were impressed by our friends Chester and Daniel's trellis for green beans.  They made it simply from a section of heavy livestock fence from the farm store.  Last winter we covered ours with plastic and used it as a sort of primitive hoop house.  Our granddaughter Lillian dubbed it "Club Lilford" and posted a sign saying a password was required.
This summer I wanted to make sure the shelter had more shade than green beans could put out, so I planted some birdhouse gourds on the east wall.  A few lawn chairs, some decorative red salvia in a pot, and a summer retreat is born.  Plus we have a ton of green beans.

Pretty Pickles

Cucumbers actually came into fruition this summer while dill was still fresh. Usually it seems like the dill is drying up by the time we have cucumbers. In the past dill pickles have good flavor, but sometimes are a little too mushy. Mom says they didn’t use a water bath to preserve them, so this time I tried grandma’s recipe. I chilled the cucumbers in ice water in a cooler for (“at least 2 and not more than 8 hours”) as we had gleaned from last year’s “perfect pickle recipe”. Then each sterilized jar got filled with cukes, a head of dill, a grape leaf, a couple of garlic cloves and peppercorns; then covered with boiling brine. Two jars didn’t seal I think because a little bit of pickle was sticking up a little too far, so those are now in the fridge. The rest, we will wait 6 weeks to know how they taste. But we already know they are definitely pretty.

Checkers lays an egg

Checkers went to the nesting box.  Lacey and Rosie were beside themselves.... “where is our sister?” they demanded.  They ended up coming back to the coop to see what was up.  She finally gave up and left with them, settling herself in the dust as though sitting on a nest.

It looked like she was having a silent scream, eyes shut and having her siesta time, then all of a sudden they’d pop open and she’d open her beak repeatedly, making no sound, as though in pain.  Finally, the next morning, she put out, in her nest. 

Since then she has laid another little pullet egg, followed by 2 no-shell eggs (just the egg membrane covers the egg), followed by a big 'ole double yolk egg, and another ordinary egg.  The other  two birds are trying to get used to not doing every living thing together as they usually do.  Our leading lady doesn't like an audience while leaving her deposit.