july snippets

1 // community garden - in full bloom.

2 // first corn harvest - tasted horrible but looked real pretty!

3 // muth organic csa basket

4 // homemade raw sauerkraut with tomato, caraway and dill seed

5 // my mother and i picked organic blueberries in hammonton, nj, "the blueberry capital of the world." made blueberry granola....

6 // lots of blueberry smoothies...

7 // and the most delicious raw blueberry pie!

8 // john and i are eating a lots and lots of raw foods. this has been the month of tomato sandwiches!

9 // a scary summer storm rolling in

10 // cute little bachelor buttons

11 // flowers pre-pressing

12 // my favorite turquoise bowl filled with heirloom, yellow and plum tomatoes.

13 // kati-cakes snoozing with some fruit=)

14 // rereading my beloved anne series and just finished the sweet 'anne of the island'.

15 // colorful salad with edible flowers and an adorable radish 'shroom

16 // sunflower - it wouldn't feel like july without 'em.

i hope you're all enjoying your summer (winter if you're in australia=). due to a sore right arm i'm unable to blog and comment as much as i'd like. with some rest and home remedies i plan to heal and be back soon. have a happy monday!=)

flowers for granny

on july 2nd my grandmom passed away after a hard battle with parkinson's disease and dementia. this is one of my most treasured pictures of granny.

i took it when i was a teen during one of our many sleepovers. my brother, sister and i absolutely loved spending time with our grandmom. we'd sleep at granny's house or she'd stay at ours. i'd get so excited for those sleepovers - i can remember running home from the bus stop to see her with such a thrill in me, i'd squeal!

my grandmom would sit with us for hours, telling us stories and listening to ours. she'd always have a song or show tune for everything we talked about. i loved it when she broke out into a song and dance. those happy memories will always be with me. i'm so grateful for all those times we had together. rarely a day goes by where i'm not reminded of my sweet granny.

on the day she passed, i went into my garden and saw two white butterflies playing. a rush of peace came over me as i imagined my grandmother reuniting with those who went before her.

my mother has some beautiful old photos of my grandmother that i wanted to share, but i'm having difficulties scanning them. instead i thought i'd share some photos from my flower garden, since my granny loved flowers and even had a garden of her own.

     

"each soul is a beautiful flower that passes from this earth, 

only to bloom again in heaven's garden..."

south jersey food swap

friday night john and i had the pleasure of participating in the second south jersey food swap held at bellview winery in buena. we swapped peach jam and herbs for edible flowers, raw apple sauce, fresh eggs, pickling cucumbers, natural bug spray, blueberry lemon jam, pina colada jam, coffee body scrub, vegan cookies, wet nuts, a frozen cookie log, and a jar of banana bread with with key lime curd. there were a lot of other swapable items like homemade liqueurs and kale chips, too!

meeting like-minded people is the nicest thing about these gatherings. debi (the woman who made the delicious raw apple sauce) has healed many health issues with raw food. i learned so much talking to her! she's a personal chef in the tom's river area who also hosts nutritional workshops and cooking classes. she can be contacted at recipeswithperks at gmail dot com.

the show stopper for me was the edible flowers. how cute and clever are those radish 'shrooms? there's also mache (aka lamb's lettuce), nasturtiums, borage, broccoli and onion flowers in the mix. i foresee a very pretty salad in our future!=)