Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh wow! Those are gorgeous!

 

[tortoise]

Thank you FEM!

My MIL visited over the weekend. We picked 4 ice cream buckets of blueberries with her. She took them all home.

My bestie and her family visited yesterday and today. She picked 2 ice cream buckets. She took 9 dry pints, plus homemade/canned mustard, ketchup, and blueberry syrup that my family didn't like but her family loves. Win-win!

I have 1 ice cream bucket of blueberries - fortunately a little pink so they can sit for a couple days. We have busy-busy rest of the week. I should be able to get to those berries (and whatever else we pick) on Friday evening. Time to think about recipes! I'll need to make another batch of syrup and butter and several more dehydrated quarts. After that.... I'm not sure!

I need to try baking a family favorite recipe with canned berries rather than frozen to decide whether to can or freeze. Freezer space is precious, I hope we like the result of the recipe with canned berries.

 

[tortoise]

I've been playing hookie again! DH took us to a big urban zoo and IKEA for my birthday. I'm so excited for a piece of furniture I'd been wanting! I struggled badly with the heat at the zoo. There is a side of the zoo I knew was difficult, but it was SO BAD. I opted to push the stroller so that if I fainted it would break my fall. I was in bed the entire next day - too tired to put my furniture together!

Today DH wanted to go fishing (on his only free weekend of the summer). So we went. I wasn't feeling so great in the morning, but when we got out on the water with the sun and heat I felt terrible again. I hunkered down with my head under the "dashboard" of the boat and feet up on a seat. It passed after an hour or so, and by the time we were getting ready to leave the lake I was starting to feel normal.

I've learned to take opportunities as they come, so we went to the county fair afterwards. I didn't enter this year, since I only enter when I'm sure I will win. I should have entered!!! The classes I was interested had few entries and the competition wasn't too tough. I took notes and plan to enter a few things next year.

While I was gone having fun, the blueberries were getting ripe! I'm straining berries for syrup overnight. I am scheming to make blueberry cheesecake tomorrow. That leaves me with a 1/2 gallon of blueberries that MUST be preserved tomorrow (or fed to chickens). I need to pick another recipe to try. I'm expecting we will pick 8 gallons of blueberries this week.

 

[tortoise]

I'm planning to enter my christmas cactus in the fair in 1 to 3 years. I repotted it, pruned it, and am training it to grow the way I want. It should be lovely when it grows out. I don't know how fast it will grow. Internet tells me I've been caring for it all wrong, so I'm not sure if it will grow faster if I change what I'm doing.

 

[sumi]

I'm sorry to hear you've been feeling so unwell But it sounds like you managed to have an o.k. time in spite off?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Dang sorry you've been having such a rough time lately - but I've gotta hand it to you - ya just keep going! Hope your Christmas Cactus gets with the program! We will be expecting pics of the blue ribbon when you get it!

 

[tortoise]

DH is picking blueberries today for me! Isn't he the best?!

I'm free to stay inside and cook/can. We're having a lovely cool, cloudy morning so I'm feeling rather normal as long as I continue self-care.

I'm cooking up a second double-batch of blueberry syrup and blueberry butter, and about to blanch berries to dehydrate.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

He IS awesome! Ya'll are gonna be turning blue soon, lol.

And, that reminds me of a funny story. When DD was about 4 or 5 years old she had an ear ache. We headed off to the pediatrician office. We had plenty of time and she was fussy so we stopped for a shaved ice treat on the way. Her favorite flavor - bubblegum! (and the bubblegum flavoring was blue). We got to the pediatricians office and went to sign in when one of the nurses looked at us and said...."hey, we've got a cancellation - let's take ya'll right on back". Okay - my lucky day - right!?! We no sooner get into the exam room when the pediatrician is right there. Woo hoo! She is questioning me about DD's symptoms while she's looking at her fingernails...and then she asks me. "Mom, how often do her lips turn blue like this?" Lightbulb moment! So, I calmly tell the pediatrician that her lips turn blue every single time she eats a blue snow cone! I could literally see her relax in an instant! She started laughing, and I started laughing and DD was just sitting there having an earache! She thought DD was having a serious cardiac episode! Whew!

The moral of that story - give your child something blue before a doc appointment and you'll get done a lot faster!

 

[tortoise]

So funny!!!!!

Hey guess what! My last batch of syrup turned into jelly! Okay then! I have a batch of syrup canning that I cooked the sugar syrup by "that looks about right" rather than thermometer. Then I recalibrated that thermometer!

There must be a ton of pectin in our berries. I canned blueberries in water and it gelled almost as stiff as pie filling. It was easy to make so I will try again canning them in light syrup. I think I'll end up with a good pie filling if I follow that recipe.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That ALL sounds sooooo delicious! Making my mouth water...