It’s almost the end of June and I haven’t written about juneberries, my favorite foraging fruit next to blackcaps. Juneberries are small, round berries that look like tiny purple crabapples, but that are soft like a blueberry. They grow on shrubs or small trees. Where I live they are often called serviceberries or amelanchier (after their Latin genus name Amelanchier), probably because they don’t really … Read more
I went to pick cherries at my old co-housing today with Dekalb. These are tiny cherries, about the size of dimes, and their pits take up about have their volume. But they are nice and sweet, which makes them great for juice and jellies. I don’t know the name of the variety. One tree has yellow ones that are sweeter, … Read more
Last year, I was taking a walk around my neighborhood when I noticed a few landscaping stones in a ditch by the side of the parking lot. By landscaping stones, I mean those huge, 20-40 pound pieces of limestone that have been cut flat on the bottom and top so they can be used to build garden walls, bench supports, and so … Read more
I’ve been eating black raspberries at every meal now that they’re in season. They were in my oatmeal at breakfast, my yogurt at lunch, and in my salad at dinner. I love how they look next to the beets. The colors would make a lovely combination for a duotone quilt. If only I had made the salad before the sun set, the picture would have … Read more
If I had to pick a favorite wild berry, the black raspberry would probably be the winner. Also known as blackcaps or Rubis occidentalis, they grow wild throughout much of the eastern and midwestern United States, but can be cultivated anywhere in USDA zones 4 through 8. If you have a some near you, brave the brambles and try a few. … Read more
Sometimes I get a little distracted while baking and forget to put an ingredient in. Baking soda, sugar, oil, salt — if you bake for long enough, you’ll forget one or all of these ingredients at one time or another. Usually, it spells disaster for the final product. But every once in a while you make a fortuitous omission, discovering … Read more
June is a big month for harvesting and freezing berries for me. To make room in the freezer this week, I cooked up a pot of curry using frozen chicken, pineapple, and peas as the central ingredients. Not to brag, but it is beyond delicious. The pineapple goes wonderfully with the coconut milk, and together with the lemongrass adds a nice … Read more
Quilting is a great way to use up scraps left over from other sewing projects. But no matter how efficiently I cut my fabrics, I am always left with lots of tiny pieces that are too small for piecing into another pattern. I used to save these tiny scraps to use as batting in dolls and fabric ornaments, but they … Read more
I went cherry picking today with my friend Dekalb — not at an orchard, but at a parking lot that’s been home to these trees for the past few decades. The trees actually predate the parking lot, or so we have been told by the parking lot owners, who are happy to have us pick the cherries without remuneration since it … Read more
You know the feeling: you turn on the faucet and the water sprays in weird directions because the holes that the water is supposed to come out of are all clogged with mineral deposits. And maybe the faucet itself isn’t too pretty, either, coated with a white film that won’t come off no matter how hard you scrub. Fortunately, there’s … Read more