Midsummer Day's Canning and More

Miss Millie is finally a momma! She hatched all six eggs my friend gave her to set on and appears so proud of herself in all the photos sent my way. Our own flock loved the cooler weather the last week and a half and began laying us a good half dozen eggs most days. Too bad the thermometer is climbing again! While the rainy weather was rough on Stella's hairdo, it's starting to dry off enough to look fabulous again.

Speaking of the weather, the flowers around Kilby Cottage enjoyed a drink and burst into color. I named the mutated sunflower "Partly Sunny" ;-) 

The food preservation marathon has begun at Kilby Cottage this past weekend. We did a batch each of pickles and tomato sauce. The dill pickle recipe can be found on the Growing Green Family Farms blog, but the tomato sauce recipe was improvised on the fly. Just as soon as we finished up this round of canning we had another 5 pounds of tomatoes piling up. Maybe we can freeze some diced tomatoes for winter soups and chilis. 

While the farmer's oldest brother was visiting a few weeks ago, an updated family photo was taken before celebrating the June birthday boys. 

On the professional side of things the farmer and I were both featured in magazines recently. The farmer can be found quoted in the July/August issue of Eating Well with tips for shopping farmers markets. And on a smaller scale my postcard exhibit was featured in the library system's summer magazine and I heard that the director of the library would like the Chamber of Commerce to help the library share it with a wider audience!

We're soon off on a short adventure, so we decided to practice assembling our new (hopefully waterproof) tent before heading to the woods. While it makes for a huge tent, I love the screened-in "porch" on the front for setting up some chairs away from the mosquitoes and an easier place to take on and off shoes. I have a feeling Daisy will appreciate it as well. Adios!

P.S. If you've missed it before, we will be enjoying a "digital declutter" in the month of July, so subscribe to this blog on the "about" page above to keep updating on Kilby Cottage happenings.