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!

Early June

Some of our wonderful snow peas harvest this year.

Catherine and Anthony played happily in the sandbox.

Anthony's tunnel.

When Daddy and the other kids were gone to Victoria, we went to Burger King for a fun treat.

My attempt at making mint jelly once again flopped, only this time it was way too jelled, so we ate it almost like taffy.  It was actually pretty good.

Ice cream at Braums.

Joseph lost his first tooth.  You can see the new tooth was already almost all of the way in.

Catherine got new glasses.

Garden in Early June

In the first half of June, we harvested some turnips.  This was our first time growing them.  We ate them raw, cooked, grilled, in stir-fries, grated into pasta salad.  Most of the kids liked them.  They will try anything that comes out of our garden!

The boys cut the tops off of the turnips.

Anthony got a big one!

Washing off the dirt.

A few of our turnips.

We got lots of snow peas this year.  We ate them in everything!  So yummy.  

Steamed snow peas.

We have a little mint growing in one of the raised beds, but one day my friend gave me a sack full of mint, so I used it to make mint syrup (good in iced tea and mint juleps) and mint jelly (which never jelled, so it has turned into a topping for pancakes or ice cream).

Snow Peas

We got quite a few snow peas this year.  Not enough that I put any in the freezer, but we ate a lot of them!  We ate them in salads and stir fries, steamed as a side dish, and just plain raw.




I gave the kids containers so they could help pick the peas.

However, Anthony and Anne got distracted by a ladybug, which Anne found and put in the container.



Dominic and Joseph hunt for snow peas.  I think Catherine must be back there eating some!

Some lovely steamed snow peas. 

Snow Peas!

Every few days lately, the kids and I have gone out and picked the snow peas.  We have six twenty-foot rows.  The kids usually lose steam partway through, but it's nice to have some help.

Of course, not all the help is helpful. 

Joseph likes to help me, though.  He actually sticks with it longer than the bigger kids.

With a funny face thrown in for good measure!

Here is a small sampling.  They sure are tasty:  raw, steamed, in stir-fries, etc.

This salad came totally from our garden:  spinach, radishes, snow peas and asparagus. 

Snowpeas Galore!

Our first picking of snow peas:


Here come Catherine and Dominic. What have they been doing?

Look at that teamwork! What is in the bucket, kids?

Look, Mom, we picked some snow peas!

Then another day, the four older kids and I picked the snow peas (while trying to keep Anthony pacified sitting in the stroller) and this is what we got:

While everyone else was napping (except for cranky boy Anthony, I carried him in one arm the whole time!), Catherine and I blanched the snow peas and put 6 bags in the freezer. She was a great help.

Then all the recent rainy weather hit. It rained and it rained, and the garden was too muddy to get into. So the snow peas sat. Finally this past Saturday, Dan pulled up all the snow pea plants and then he and the kids picked them over. We got a whole sink full of snow peas. They sure are yummy!