New Year gifts

A friend of ours dropped off a goodie bag for us today.  This is the same friend who has delivered "steaming poo" to us more than once, so she knows us well.  In the Pottery Barn bag (irony?) were 3 kinds of homemade jam, some apple butter, rendered duck fat and best of all a bear of honey from their own hives.  It was all I could do not to run to my room doing my best Gollum impression ("my precious!").

Best dishtowels EVER

Thanks Mom

Merry Christmas

The holidays around here are pretty mellow.  Christmas is traditionally Jammie Day at our home (the jammies opened on Christmas Eve)  After chores are done it is mostly sitting around reading and eating.

Reilly & I went out for our walk about 7am - no one was yet up.  We have a large park a couple blocks away with fresh snow covering the soccer fields.  I let him off leash in the morning quiet and he ran circles gleefully through the new powder every so often burying his nose and chuffing.

All the poultry (+the bunny) got spinach for a special breakfast with fresh water and grains.  And I got 3 (count them THREE) cups of coffee before the girls roused themselves out of bed to check out their stockings.

We did have a surprise though - outside our back door on the deck was a small pile of wrapped packages.  We have no idea who they were from - our gates were all locked and the names on each gift was typed.  And there was a single bare footprint on the steps to the backyard.

Dinner was simple.  Ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans with upside down peach cake for dessert.

It was really a lovely day.

You gonna eat that part 4

This past Sunday while I was working the girls went with friends to Miller Farms Harvest Festival near Fort Collins.  We were told they would be coming back with vegetables they would get to pick themselves.  

We were thinking a plastic grocery sack.

They brought home FIFTEEN plastic grocery sacks. 

Our dining room table seats 6 if you need a reference.

Some went to the food bank, some went with me to work, but most of it has found a home in our fridge or freezer.  I may even be able to save some of the potatoes for seed (how cool is that?)

Thanx Miss Mary!

You gonna eat that part 3

For those of you who shop at Costco - this is one of their bags I bought in Minnesota.  I am not sure how much volume but the bag is 20x12x14 inches - and I had three of them.  I didn't even have to pick them - just cart them away (I did, however clean up the windfalls for the hens)

That many apples made:
30 pints of applesauce
1 gallon dried apples
2 gallons apple juice

And I still have one to go.

You gonna eat that? Part 1

 7:30 am in Englewood.  Owner of tree did not wish to be bothered with the fruit of her tree.  We cleaned up the windfalls for the hens.  They are now ripening slowly in our basement.

Gifts

 Our lovely neighbor Deb brought over a few plants today.  First up is Lipstick Strawberry.  It was created in 1966 by crossing a fruiting strawberry with a Cinquefoil.  The result is a pink flowering strawberry that fruits rarely and spreads rapidly, used primarily as a ground cover in less than perfect soil.

I chose to place the 2 plants with their runners in with the Ozark strawberries I planted earlier this year.  New runners from this cross pollination should fruit more and the pink flowers are a nice change from Ozark's white.

I also got to plant a couple Red Russian Kale (Yum)  Perfect next to the small Howden Pumpkin that gets dappled shade from the ancient apple tree in the back yard.