Getting the Mail

Hawk/Vulture Feathers & A Nice Birthday Card

Odd photo, right?

Well, this is what I collected on my trip to the mailbox today. I am interested in getting a bit more exercise lately, so I have been walking the 1/3 mile to mailbox more often lately instead of always driving to get my mail. Even on hot and sweaty days like today, a little walk seems like a good way to get some exercise.

The feathers I gathered on my way back up the hill toward my home. I occasionally find one of the big hawk or turkey vulture feathers, but it is very rare that I would find so many all at the same time. those large feathers measure 10-12 inches from root to tip. After finding the second large one, I began to look around me to see if maybe there was a dead bird lying nearby, as if there had been a big bird fight. I saw no birds, just more feathers. Strange. I do enjoy collecting the feathers, especially the really big ones. Reminds me that I live amongst the wildlife.

The birthday card is from my Dad to me. He included a nice note and a nice birthday gift check that I surely was not expecting. The card is nice. The gift check is nice. The best thing though is that my 89 year old Dad remembered my birthday which is later this month and he sent me a card and gift well ahead of the date. I am impressed and very pleased.

You see, although my Dad still lives independently, his memory is failing more and more and I worry about him a lot. Until today, I hadn't heard from him for over a week, and was just reminding myself earlier today to remember to call him later this evening. He lives in the great state of Texas, so I need to remember the time difference between here and there when I make my calls.

Anyway, for most of my adult life, I have been the one who would remind my Dad of family birthdays etc. My older sister's birthday happens to be tomorrow, earlier in August than my own, so usually what happens is that I remind my Dad about hers and that triggers his memory about mine. For the past couple of years I've dropped the ball on that reminder duty and have not reminded him about my sister's birthday. So he remembered mine this year all on his own. That is what pleases me. He even got the date correct and did not mix it up with my sister's this time. (He noted my birth date on the inside of the card. That's how I know.)

I don't have a lot of my relatives left on this earth, so it is very comforting to have my Dad reach out all the way from Texas to send me his happy birthday wishes and his love. It is a connection to my roots that I seldom get to experience. I am mindful that I don't know how much longer my Dad will be here, so I value his gift even more. Thank you Dad (Daddio). I love you.

My Dad in his favorite restaurant in Texas

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Plum Crazy

8 Lbs of Santa Rosa Plums

Today I climbed up on my rickety aluminum ladder and picked all of the plums from my Santa Rosa Plum tree. This was after I carefully untied and opened the bird netting that was protecting the plum bounty from all manner of critters...including me. I tediously untied the twist ties that I had holding the netting together. I got impatient to get at my beautiful purple plums and ripped some of the netting off in a fruit frenzy.

This year's harvest, all 8 lbs of it, is probably the biggest harvest I have had since planting the plum tree in 1999. Some years the weather just doesn't produce ideal conditions for plums. This year was a good year.

I enlisted the aid of partner Jack to help me remove the bird netting off of the tall tree after about an hour of me struggling to do it all by myself. The netting gets stuck on every single pointy twig on the tree, sometimes multiple times in a row. Very frustrating. Together we finally removed all of the netting without breaking the tree. Well, I did break a few sprouts that I would have pruned out anyway come winter. I also tore the netting in places, which will need to be repaired or replaced before next Spring. It is a nuisance, that bird netting, but it does its job well. It allows me the chance to eat my plum harvest before the birds, squirrels and deer can eat it.

I gave some of the fresh plums to Jack., (he loves fresh fruit) and will probably eat most of the rest fresh. Might make some plum jam or plum sauce, but then again, I can do that with the plums I have stored in the freezer.

I like those beautiful purple plums. They are sweet and tart. Just my style. Plum crazy.




© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Happy Half Birthday Jack!

Half Birthday Cake ~ on fire!

Life is short.

Seems like the days pass by more quickly with each passing year. Loved ones come into your life, stay for awhile, maybe grow with you, and sometimes they leave. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes it is through the losses we experience in our lives that we become aware that life is precious, our loved ones are precious and that we need to celebrate and enjoy our love and our lives every chance we get.

It is with this semi-deep introduction that I share with you our family tradition of celebrating not only our annual birthdays, but also our half birthdays. It is a tradition that I started about 15 years ago. I got the idea from a Hallmark greeting card advertisement. They were just trying to sell me more birthday cards and wrapping paper, but I saw an opportunity to have additional celebrations throughout the year. I like cake and gifts and happy parties. I like seeing my loved ones happy.

So I created my own version of half birthday celebrations. I will tell you about it.

First of all, a person's half birthday occurs 6 months after their last annual birthday (on the same date of the month, but 6 months later). In this case, we celebrated Jack's 1/2 birthday which occurs on July 30th. So this party happened last Wednesday evening.

After you have the date set, you need to gather the appropriate ingredients for your half birthday party. The most important of these you can see in the photo above, a homemade half birthday cake. Now this is not just a two layer birthday cake cut in half. It is a single round layer of cake, cut in half and then frosted as if it were a whole round cake. There is frosting in between the layers and slathered all around and on top. You can either make half the recipe for the whole round cake or make the whole recipe and save the other layer to eat as a snack cake at some later time.

Jack's half birthday cake shown above was made by me, and it is a zucchini spice cake with pecans. The zucchini of course was homegrown in my veggie garden. It is frosted with a lemon cream cheese frosting. Very tasty, smooth and decadent.

Then just like regular birthdays, half birthday gifts are another important ingredient. The difference in gifting for half birthdays, is that the gifts usually are less in number and less expensive more "fun" gifts. Not "gag" gifts, mind you. Just more along the line of trinkets or accessories. I said usually this is the way it goes. Well look at the pile of presents Jack received in the photo below:


Jack's Half Birthday Gifts

I think we did go a little overboard on the number of gifts for this half birthday. There were about twice as many gifts as usual. Between my gifts and Bob's, Jack did very well in the gift department. None were all that expensive, and some were quite fun, but I will get to that after I show you the "cake ceremony" as we refer to it around here.

We are on my front porch, half birthday cake aflame, and this is Jack waiting patiently for me to fetch my camera and take the picture before he can make his wish and blow out the candles. Note the colorful natural beeswax candles adorning the cake.



OK, I took the photos of the flaming cake, Bob and I sang "Happy Half Birthday" to Jack and then Jack was free to wish and blow. And blow he did!



One big breath of air blew all of the candles out. That means he gets his wish!

So now Jack gets to open his half birthday cards and gifts. His gifts were varied and all were useful things, from the barbecue cover and rain gauge from Bob, to the coffee gift card and watch repair tools from me. One gift from me caused great amounts of curiosity and hefting, feeling and shaking of the wrapped package to figure out what was inside, immediately followed by large amounts of laughter once the gift was opened and revealed.


What could it be that caused such fits of laughter?



Why, a homegrown zucchini, of course!

A big 1 1/2 lb homegrown dark green zucchini, freshly plucked from my garden that very afternoon. He loved it! I told him that I had to share some of the prolific zucchini and this was a good opportunity to do it. I am sure he double checked to see if he had locked his car doors or not. I gave Bob a zucchini "party favor" to take home and enjoy too.

After the cake ceremony and opening of the gifts, we had a nice dinner outside on my porch table. The menu consisted of Zucchini Parmesan seen below:


Zuke Parmesan ready to bake


Zuke Parmesan just out of the oven

Gotta use up that fresh zucchini!

We also had my famous Stuffed Broccoli Leaves which is sort of a cross between Greek dolmas and my Mom's Stuffed Cabbage Leaves. The broccoli leaves were from my garden. This is my favorite way to use the fresh broccoli leaves, although I do cook them as "greens" other times. Their taste, color and texture remind me of the grape leaves used in the Greek dolmas (stuffed grape leaves). They were delicious!


Stuffed Broccoli Leaves in the pot ready to cook



Cooked and about to be eaten! (A taste test by the cook)


After we had our fill of comforting dinner fare, we indulged our sweet tooth with zucchini spice half birthday cake topped with the natural vanilla ice cream that Bob contributed. The combination of the cool creamy vanilla with the sweet spicy texture of the cake was outstanding!


Zuke Cake and Ice Cream. Yum.

We finished the evening by watching an entertaining movie on DVD. A fun family evening at home. No crowds. No travel, traffic or parking. No waiting for service. Very comforting.

Half birthdays are a fun way to celebrate our lives together. A tradition that we will continue.


Bob enjoyed the party too.


© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Mime Monday (well, almost)

Veggie Garden Greenery




Hawks Soar High in July Blue Sky

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Yesterday's Lunch

Yesterday I took a store bought potato, a home grown light green (Clarimore) zucchini, a bit of purple onion, a couple of garlic cloves, some home grown fresh basil and parsley and sliced and chopped to make a heap of fresh veggies:


Russet Potato, Clarimore Zucchini, Onion, Garlic, Parsley & Basil


I then sauteed them all in extra virgin olive oil with a bit more garlic powder, some freshly ground black pepper, some lemon pepper seasoning and a bit of paprika. It smelled great and looked like this while cooking:


Potato Zuke Saute

After a few minutes they all cooked tender and started to carmelize bringing out their natural sugars and great taste. I was hungry so I ate it for lunch:


How did that broiled sausage (Bockwurst) get on my plate?
(delicious with horseradish deli mustard!)


© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Homegrown Dried Herbs aka Kitty Drugs

Kitty Drug Stash ~ Catnip

Just a short post to show off the great "kitty drug" stash that I was gifted with from Hardware Bob a few days ago. No, it's not pot/marijuana, (although I have heard that some folks do smoke it). It is beautiful organically grown catnip that Bob grew in his garden and then harvested, bunched and hung it to dry. He then sifted it through a collander to filter out the big stems and crush the leaves. He has no kitties of his own, so he grows the majority of his catnip for me and for Joggin Jack. Between us we have 5 cats.

I keep it up high in a closed cabinet and the whole cabinet smells like catnip now. My kitties love it. I rub it on their scratching post and toys. It stimulates their nervous system and makes them a little "high". Perks them up a bit.

Oddly, it has the opposite affect on humans. Catnip tea is a mild sedative safe enough for children to drink. Calms them down and helps them sleep. Much like chamomile tea. In the cold winter months drink catnip tea as hot as you can tolerate it to help break up and clear chest congestion. Tastes pretty good, especially with a bit of honey added to it. We save the really "good stuff" for our own consumption as tea.


Jessie ~ my precious baby

My Jessie loves her scratching post, especially after I rub it down with dried catnip! Thank you Bob for the great herb stash. My own catnip crop was rather slim this year.

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Broccoli Bouquet

Broccoli in "Bloom"

My broccoli plants have been giving me beautiful plump green leaves all season, but only recently has it formed some flower heads for me to harvest. The unopened immature flower buds are the broccoli we see in the grocery stores. My homegrown broccoli produces many small flower heads and when I cut them off with my paring knife to harvest them, it encourages the plant to grow more side shoots with additional small flower heads on them. I sometimes wait too long to harvest the heads and then the little yellow broccoli flowers begin to open and attract the bees. It's still quite edible and tasty when this happens, but as in most flower stalks, the stems then become more fibrous and less tender.

I've only harvested 1/2 lb of broccoli heads so far, but more are forming out there. I try to allow the heads to grow as large as possible while still making sure they remain unopened, before I grab them for my dinner.

While I do enjoy eating the broccoli flower heads, I really get jazzed about growing my own broccoli in my garden. I consider it another one of the "2 for 1" vegetables that give me two crops for the effort of only growing one. You see, I also harvest and eat the beautiful deep green broccoli leaves! They are delicious in many dishes. Of course I use them as I would any DGLV (dark green leafy vegetable) such as chard, spinach, beet greens, collards etc, but they excel in other uses as well. My favorite thing to do with the broccoli leaves is to stuff them with meat and rice using my Mom's stuffed cabbage rolls recipe. They come out so tasty and tender, and I know they are very nutritious. I read in an organic gardening magazine many years ago that not only were the broccoli leaves edible, but also that they had more nutrients than the flower heads do. I was already growing them in my garden, so I ran outside right then and picked a few leaves, brought them into my kitchen and cooked them up. I was very pleased with their taste and performance and have been eating them ever since. It's a pity that you never see broccoli leaves for sale in the grocery stores. They are versatile and can be used in place of cabbage or even grape leaves. The smaller leaves are good raw in salads or slaws.

Grow your own broccoli. Eat the flowers, stems and leaves. Have fun. It's delicious.


© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket