Everything in this planter had been dying because it had poor drainage… Ezra fixed the drainage but nothing really came back, so we planted more in it – and it really took off while we were gone!
I think I’ve said this before, but the garden is pretty much all Ezra. Which is good. Although I wanted to be more involved, I think being more emotionally invested in it would have been draining with all the squirrels, rabbits, weather, etc.
The zinnias have not done very well… but we got a few!
We’ve gotten a few salads out of our lettuce, and some tomatoes. We’ve also harvested some small heads of garlic and small onions, basil for pesto, lots of mint, and the apple tree produced a number of apples.
Our 2 sunflowers that survived… and won’t get to 12 feet tall, but hopefully we’ll get flowers.
Only one rose from all the rose bushes that are in the yard.
Our apples!
They were so soft and a bit tart so we made applesauce
not sure what these are, but they were growing on a vine in the corner.
Not in our yard, but in our neighborhood – a monkey puzzle tree, aka chilean pine. What an odd tree!
garden yield going into breakfast!
And sweet peas on our table
What do you do with all these blackberries?
used in blackberry cucumber, blackberry mint kombucha
blackberry switchel
blackberry, rhubarb, and/or peach goat cheese toasts
blackberry parfaits
blackberry baked oatmeal crisp
matcha overnight oats
blackberry banana “nice cream”
blackberry cheesecake popsicles (sweetened with banana instead of honey)
blackberry kombucha slushies
friends made a blackberry buckle that was absolutely delicious although maybe not a traditional buckle… it tasted more like blackberry cinnamon roll bars. YUM.
blackberry clafoutis
Hope to make:
blackberry pie (probably in the middle of winter!)
these muffins with blackberries
And then, some friends gave us some of their neighbors delicious yellow plums. So we made:
Plum chai smoothies
I learned to can and canned a little bit of plum jam and a little bit of blackberry jam.
Finally, as we’ve moved into September, Ezra took the girls to pick some apples, and we went again all together.
We’ve thrown them onto salads and pizza, in kombucha, smoothies, pancakes, and made more applesauce. We have made apple cider in the blender, and used the pulp for apple cider vinegar, and may make apple butter and dehydrate some.
Kyleigh Dunn 