Vegetable Fairy Strikes Again!

Yesterday, we went to my sister D.'s farm for a lovely lunch and a little trip to her magnificent vegetable garden for strawberries, raspberries, swiss chard, beets, lettuce, basil, parsley, cilantro and dill.  No pics of these or the farm, so sorry I didn't at least take my phone to the garden...

Last night I made freezer strawberry jam with a product D. sent along made by Club House.  Had the jam this morning on toast and it was beyond delicious and not too sweet. (1 1/2 cups sugar for 4 cups of berries.) I recommend the product, it's got a couple of unpronounceable ingredients but nothing really evil. I'm going to make the freezer raspberry jam today.

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D also gave me her garlic scapes and with it, this morning I made garlic scape pesto with this recipe. It's seriously good! Very garlicky tasting and green just like basil pesto. My friends Corey and Yann would love it.
Going to be having it tonight with pasta and swiss chard. I'm roasting the beets on the barbecue now and will make a roasted beet salad with lemon and thyme dressing which I found here.  I love cooking from fresh produce and sometimes regret that I don't have my own vegetable garden.

Next week we are heading to Chicago to meet our son T.'s special girl.  We look forward to hugging our boy and spending quality time with them both.  This year, both our sons have a special girl and we are enjoying having more people at the family dinner table.

My cast has been off for 9 days and I am working every day to make it stronger.  I finished knitting two hats this week and I've never been so happy to do dishes! I am going to cast on my first shawl this week and will have it as my knitting project in Chicago and in France later. Check out the pattern, it's called AGLEAM by Canadian designer Lisa Mutch.  All photos are from her Ravelry page:

All images via

I am making it with the same yarn featured in the pictures, it's called Metallurgy MCN by Northbound Knitting and is hand-dyed by the pattern designer. Check out my Ravelry page (link on the side bar) to see my finished projects.

I have been knitting rather simple patterns and I thought it might be time to do something different.

So glad to be making again.