Friday, September 1, 2017

This summer in the garden....







Earlier this summer I made elderflower cordial from a recipe given to me by a fellow instagramer... and then recently when the elderberries ripened early I made a jar of elderberry syrup.... I had fun this summer using all the berries we had or picked.  I made black berry cobbler and strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberries and cream, and would have made more but my older son was still at home then and ate the last quart of berries plain I think. 







I did a bunch of sketches of flowers from the fields around me.....


My husband and I made the garden sign we have been thinking about creating for a few years now.... it has all the places we (Our kids or either of us) have lived or stayed for a week or so. All pointing the actual compass direction. 


The garden did amazingly well with our wet July.... too many cukes and zuchinni to use actually. I have made canned zuchinni bread and regular zuchinni bread, and 12 quarts of pickles....
Our next project will be salsa with all the tomorrows that are ripening... but that will be another post. 
Happy paint party Friday, and Labor Day!

















29 comments:

  1. Everything looks so yummy. :) Love your illustrations!

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  2. beautiful watercolor paintings Andrea! Lucky you to have gotten so much produce-AND cooking, canning, etc. done as well. Happy PPF!

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    1. Thank you, and yes, I am happy with our garden, just wish I had more time with it.

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  3. oh your mushrooms, your mushrooms! That drawing is spectacular! And I love that you're so versatile and talented my friend. I'm giddy to find another artist who cans. We can everything we want to eat in the winter. Even our own catsup and grainy mustard. We've yet to make pickles lately although mom's pickles used to be DA BOMB when I was a little girl. I'd eat a whole jar. Now we know that's fantastic for the digestive tract, all that pre and probiotics, yummy. Hugs, thanks for commenting on my blog, have a great long weekend and happy PPF!!

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    1. Oh, I am jealous you can everything! I aspire to that but come nowhere close. Your own catsup and mustard, how do you find the time? And thank you so much for your comments... I do love drawing mushrooms!

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  4. What a great post!!!!!
    I love all your paintings they are lovely!
    I am fascinated with your garden... what a joy!
    wish I was a neighbor to reap some of those benefits :D

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    1. Thank you! It is a raised bed garden and actually fairly small but we get more than we can use.

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    1. Thank you, I so appreciate all the kind comments!

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  6. There is nothing like fresh out of the garden ... you are so talented in so many ways it boggles the mind. I wish I lived close to you ... I could learn a lot I am sure and maybe even get a sweet treat while I was at it. Lovely post,Andrea ...

    Andrea @ From The Sol

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    1. Gee thanks! I would like to teach others to find joy in painting, doesn't happen much around here though as I Don't live in an area where too many people are interested in painting.

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  7. I have just pooped over from Neesie Natters blog - I can lots of similarities, your great flower paintings this week for instance! Lovely to meet you!
    Wren x

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    1. Thank you for stopping in, I will try and return the favor when I get a chance.

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  8. Wow your place looks peaceful. Bounty from the garden and the art room.

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    1. Thanks, that is actually exactly what I was striving for ... a peaceful abundant spot!!!

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  9. I love it to see your garden pleasures in both ways. The photographs and the lovely illustrations! Wonderful work! Both, the garden and the art :)

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    1. Thanks, both things (easy gardening and joyful art) are how I am want to spend my free time!!!!

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  10. the place sign is a good idea and your garden looks nice :) big healthy looking veggies. use to make sweet pickles all the time when I was younger, now its just easier buying them from the store lol

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    1. Thank you. It is funny I am just the opposite. I did not can at all or even garden much when I was younger but now I want to make everything I can find time for!

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  11. The garden, and all you create from it, is just lovely! Any pictures or posts about canning takes me back to my childhood. Waking on summer mornings and the smells of my grandmother already hard at work in the kitchen. Peaches, sauerkraut, strawberry jam and the sharp aroma of canning piccalilli most of all. Thank you for stirring those memories today. I'm off to pick blackberries this morning! :)

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    1. Oh, I am jealous you still have blackberries, ours are long gone. (Well, I still have some frozen ones left. ) glad I could bring back fond memories. It is funny, my mom didn't can that I can remember. My grandma did a little.... dillybeans are what I remember. But my mom and dad did take me on foraging trips.... I road in the back of the ford pickup truck and we followed the book "stalking the wild asparagus "

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    2. Dillybeans! Ahhh that's another I remember. The smell of the fresh dill, which my grandmother never had around except for canning! My mother never canned in her life either. Now, in her 70's, she regrets that she didn't take an interest, if only to have had the chance to have bonded wth her mother more. The blackberries come so late here due to the mild weather. Two hot weekends (which means temps in the 80's lol) have them just perfect right now and they grow wild down by the bay in a stretch where only locals who know the tides go! :) Those foraging trips with your parents sound like wonderful memories! Do kids still ride in the back of pickups or did that go the way of playing with dry cleaner plastic bags :)

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    3. No, I never see kids in the back of trucks anymore, I am sure that's a good thing, but I used to love it! I remember the search for May apples, and sassafras root (the best tea ever!!!) and elderberries and I am sure there must have been lots more.

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