Summer Days Are Slowly Fading…

I’m sitting on a plane headed home from a work trip in England with 4.5 hours remaining.  As much as I’d like to watch another sad love story I have loads of catching up to do!  I know my mantra has been no pressure to write, but I’ve snapped a lot of fun pictures that I really want to share, so bear with me as I look over these past few months of summer.  It’s becoming more and more clear to me that blogging is not my first priority or even my second.  Blogging actually lives in a sea of “things Mary is interested in”, which must take a number and wait.  I imagine that winter will change my heart.  If I could get in a rhythm like my friend Ashley, I would blog 3 times a week, and they would be short, sweet and focused.  She’s one of the most focused people I know.  I’m one of the least focused people I know.  ADD?  Maybe. 

Turbulence.  Lots of it. 

You’re not going to believe this, but my battery is running low.  I’m going to have to save this posting for later.  Dang it!  Back to another sappy tear-jerking movie where I have to fight the tears so my seat mate doesn’t think i’m crazy. 

…

Now two days later, I’m sitting on my couch, drinking my coffee and 100% committed to completing this post.  Let the summer photos begin:

We watched the grapevines slowly mature throughout the summer,

(purple grape photos coming soon…)

we watched the orchestra of flowers slowly burst into song,

we watched the butterfly bushes become, amazingly,  a butterfly magnet (I couldn’t help but have a photo hay day with them, such willing subjects!),

 

 

we watched the garden continue to grow and grow and grow…

 

the sunflowers became GIANTS

the fruits of our harvest began rolling in beautifully and in abundance!

 

 

 

We enjoyed a visit from my favorite Canadian, Karen, who stopped in the mountains for a visit on her way back to Sudan.  I felt she deserved a proper southern meal – Fried Green Tomatoes with fresh basil over a bed of Jalapeno Pepper Jack Grits.  So delicious.  She agreed, although I can’t imagine her saying otherwise. 

We also had a few visits from our friend Kari, who is an exceptional chef.  She comes over to our house and cooks for us!

The first meal was of Greek origin.  Steak over a lettuce wrap with hummus, tabouli, cilantro and some special sauce.  She even brought me gluten-free crackers to eat it with.  I’ll have to look to her for the recipe. 

 

John showed off his homemade pickles to Kari

as well as his canned beans.

 

She also made us incredible fish tacos on another occasion.  Come over anytime you like, Kari.  She rocks. 

We spent the whole summer coming up with ways to indulge in our fresh produce.  We also ended up selling quite a bit of our veggies to people at work, our first market of buyers. 

Ratatouille:

Eggs, tomato and basil: 

Marinated tempeh and kale: (a modified version of My New Roots recipe.  By the way, Ashley discovered this blog and we are pretty stinkin’ excited about it.)

And totally unrelated to our yard or garden efforts, we went into the local Mexican Market for some “real” cokes (sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup), one of our few times a year indulgences, and found some plantains.  We decided to fry them up for a yummy snack. 

Throughout all this time, Farmer John worked hard on our vehicles, as well as his father’s, all of which needed maintenance or repairs. 

I spent one Saturday shopping with friends and found an old dresser that I wanted to restore.  It’s still unfinished, but here’s what I’ve done so far. 

Stripped and ready for priming and painting!

Well, that only took an hour.  I’m sure you are ready for a nap by now.  Thanks for enjoying the latest summer update from the Daileys. 

It’s August Already??

Some busy times around here folks!  I have been snapping pictures left and right and finally have just gotten a moment to upload all 200 something pictures!  Don’t worry, I won’t post them all, just a few of the highlights from the last month and a half since I last blogged.  But first, a recap of my time in Alaska, where I spent my time doing these things:

gazing at the beautiful mountains which could be viewed from my cabin window,

cooking delicious food for the volunteers,

playing lots of nighttime volleyball, sometimes until 10 pm, which is around the time that this photo was likely taken,

hanging with my husband (for 24 hours when he showed up for his “man-cation”) and my brother-in-law, who together carried this kayak for 3 miles until we reached the mountain lake (those are some seriously strong men!),

drinking directly from fresh river water for the first time,

watching my husband do one of his favorite things in life  (I caught one),

watching he and his brother bond (pictured here on the foggy Lake Kontrashibuna),

enjoying my own bonding time with one of my newest favorite traveling partners,

and enjoying endless mountain scenery from the many plane rides.  Breathtaking. 

 

Wow, this blog post was supposed to be about the garden, things I’ve been up to, food, life…but it clearly just became an Alaska blog, which I’m fine with.  Although it was a little over a month ago, it already makes me long to get back there again soon.  My brother-in-law, Uncle Jay Bob, who lives up there year-round, has been tasked with finding our family a “time share” as he calls it.  We just want him to build us a nice little cabin so we can go visit him and the glorious mountains whenever we want.  He needs the cash so he can afford to make it happen.  We’re going to turn to the in-laws on this one.  We don’t even own our own home yet, much less a vacation “time share”!  Here’s hoping that it happens sooner than later!

Pantry–Freezer Soup

Today I got very domestic.  I always have great intentions to make meals in advance on Sundays so that I have less work to do during the weekdays, but this rarely ever happens.  On a rainy day like today, it made perfect sense.  I knew that we had a lot of frozen vegetables that have been in our freezer for months and really needed to be cooked…so I decided to make a big crock pot vegetable-bean soup.  As I started to to search the freezer, I discovered that 5 of the bags were actually broccoli!   Broccoli doesn’t do great in a crock pot for hours as it turns into a mush, so the whole “clean the freezer out by making a big crock pot soup idea” went out the window.  I did grab one bag of spinach from the freezer.  Not sure why I had frozen spinach though?  Farmer John must have bought it. 
So here’s the recipe of what I threw together, and I must say it’s quite tasty!
Yellow Zucchini, White Bean, Spinach and Pesto Soup

• 2 yellow zucchinis diced (bought at the local farmer’s market)
• 1 medium onion chopped and sauteed in olive oil
• 1 can diced tomato with herbs
• 1 can tomato paste
• a few cups of organic chicken stock (didn’t measure)
• 1 can cannellini beans
• 1 16 oz bag of spinach
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 2 pesto cubes (from freezer, saved from last summer)
• 1 tsp salt
• pepper to taste

(just about any vegetables or herbs could be added to this, but this is what I had on hand)
I turned the crock pot on high around 2:00 and it was done by 6:00.  I ate some and put the rest in containers to be frozen for later. 

Farmer John will enjoy these for dinners when I am away in Alaska!

Farm Dreams…

I took a moment this morning to read one of the latest posts of gluten-free girl and the chef.  Check this out!  This is totally something I could see Farmer John and I doing on our future farm. 

5-course Farm Tour and Dinner