The Rest of June

This is what happens when you mix up your mulberry muffin batter a little too much.

Ice cream!

Some friends of ours who moved away a year or so ago came back to the area for a visit at the end of June.  We hosted a small gathering at our house for lunch one day and we were very happy to get to see them.

My friend and one of her baby boys.

Catherine with the other baby boy!

The three amigos (with photo bombers in the back).

Joseph, especially, had been missing his buddy.

Our first cucumber harvest of the year.

Peaches from one of the trees near the garden.

Ending June with more ice cream!

The First Week of June

This year we got our biggest crop of cherries yet:

Most of the crop filled up my biggest silver bowl.

After a long pitting session, the girls and I made...

...cherry jam!

And a cherry pie.

It was good!

We have a bunch of wild mulberry trees near the pond and off into our woodsy area.  I told the kids that if they picked enough mulberries, I would make them some mulberry jam.

And here it is.

We also made some mulberry muffins, which did not last long.

From Monday through Thursday, Dominic and Joseph attended a basketball clinic at the YMCA for 2 hours every afternoon.  They liked having a chance to work on their skills.  While they were at the clinic, I took the rest of the kids to the outside pool each day.

Joseph 

Dominic went for the shot.

At the end of the week, Dan began making batches of homemade silly putty/goop for the kids.  They had a lot of fun with it.

Catherine was able to blow a giant bubble with hers.

They all came to see.

Pop! There it goes!

We began to get a lot of snow peas:

Bucket is full!

That weekend was warm, so the kids played in the sprinkler one afternoon:

Anthony, Joseph, and Anne cooled off.

Head in!

More Mulberries!

Mulberry Muffins - oh, so good!

9 cups of Mulberries turned into...

Mulberry Jam!

All Around The Mulberry Bush...

...the children picked some mulberries.

 Well, really they are mulberry trees.  One day a week or two ago, I remembered the mulberry tree that we found last year down by the dry creek bed in our woodsy area.  So I called to the children and off we went to see if there were any ripe mulberries.  Much to our surprise we found more mulberry trees with ripe berries along the creek bed.  So we began to pick.

Here is our loot from that first picking.  At least, this is what actually made it into their buckets.  After I took this picture, we had a mulberry party and ate them all up.

We have picked the mulberries several times now, and each time we find more trees.  There must be about 15 mulberry trees, I guess.  We have also discovered that some of them are white mulberry trees.  I just thought those trees weren't ready as fast as the others, but no, the mulberries are actually white when they are ripe.

The price of picking mulberries:  purple fingers!  Small price to pay, though.

 Before last weekend, we had just eaten them by themselves.  Then I found a recipe for Mulberry Rhubarb Pie and last Saturday we managed to pick enough to make it.  I picked the rhubarb out of our garden, so it was a homegrown pie!

Joseph with the mulberry and diced rhubarb mixture, ready to go into the homemade pie shell.

The pie is ready to be baked.

All done!

I barely managed to snap a picture of the cut side of the pie to show the lovely color.  It tasted as good as it looked!  Sweet mulberry and tart rhubarb make a good combination.

Find the recipe I used here.