Kent & I have never dreamed of owning a cottage. We can’t figure out the appeal of having TWO places that fall apart and have to be fixed and kept up all the time. (We love visiting our friends at their cottages, though!) And as much as we love to travel now and then, we just don’t vacation all that much either – it’s so much money and over so fast. So as busy as our lives are, we’ve always coveted the Saturdays that we’re able to just relax at home.
This past Saturday was extra sweet, and at the risk of putting you straight to sleep, I thought I’d share some pictures. Don’t worry – of course they're all food related, most everything in my life is!
Side note:
I’m getting into this taking food pictures thing. Although I wish I knew the secret to good shots indoors, I’ve learned now that every single picture I take has to be out on our deck with all the natural light, which I’m sure you’ve probably noticed. (Thank you to those who couldn’t look at another one of my rotten pictures and gave me that tip early-on.) I’m finally getting some half-way decent shots this way, though.
First, here’s a picture of the berries I got at the farm market that morning, aren’t they beautiful? Just imagine how good they tasted.
Next, check out this superfood breakfast, we loved it: from-the-farm crispy bacon and eggs, the yummy berries, and my coffee from Frenz after the farm market, as always. 🙂 I love something crispy with my eggs, and good bacon does the trick so I can skip the carbs in the toast.
After that, the kids played and Kent worked in the garden a while – here’s a picture of he and our friend, Brother Andy, checking things over. (I wasn’t a slacker, I went to visit our 9 year old friend, Gabe, in the hospital – he's doing great, by the way. Thank you to all my Twitter & Facebook friends who said a prayer for him.)
Later Jeanne gave us a lemon plant and a mint plant from her garden and Kent planted them on the hill behind our fence, I can’t wait for lemon mojitos! Jeanne also suggested I use the lemon leaves in my Tabouli. (What else can I do with these plants, besides just throwing the delicious leaves in a salad? Any ideas?)
So it’s true, we’re easy to please around here. Tell us what makes for a Sweet Summer Saturday at your house?
- Read my other gardening post with 5 gardening questions – this was very helpful to us as we were getting ready to plant the garden.
- The importance of healthy soil – I find all this stuff fascinating, any other crazies out there? 🙂
- The Quest for Nutrient Dense Food – High Brix Farming & Gardening – I'd never even heard of a Brix meter until I read this article!
- Why we buy local, organic, sustainable food as much as possible. This lingo is getting more and more maintsream, I love it!
- Milk comes from cows, not beans – a post about a great talk given by Karen, who owns the farm where we get our raw milk. 🙂
- How we treat the animals we eat – Oprah & Lisa Ling missed something HUGE.
- This is part of Things I love Thursday & Kimberly's Natural Foods Carnival, find more fun posts there!
Those pictures are just beautiful! I’m a sucker for fresh berries. Those cherries look to die for!
Untypically Jia
I hope to plant mint next year and do some mint jelly! Love your pictures by the way!
Christy
Great ideas everyone, can’t wait to try some. There’s nothing like grabbing herbs, lemon or mint leaves, and produce right from your back yard – how could we have not done this in past years?! OH, and get this, we just found blackberries on the hill behind our house!!!
I don’t know if I’ve ever left a comment for you, I really love your blog, it’s very useful to me as we make our transition to TF! Thanks for being such a prolific poster!
When you say lemon plant, are you talking lemon balm? If you are, it’s great in green salads, fruit salads, grain pilafs (soaked of course!), tea, with fish or lamb, or in bone broths. 🙂
Sarah
Hi Brenda, thanks for commenting, let me know if you ever have questions I can help you with. 🙂
Kelly
Beautiful berries, and I bet they tasted super good too! I love your site and I’m learning a lot. Thanks!
Hey reader friends, Lyn (above commenter) is Gabe’s Mom (who I’ve been asking you to pray for) and she wrote this comment from the hospital. Hopefully he’ll be home today or tomorrow! 🙂
Those berries tasted as good as they looked. Kelly was so sweet she brought some to us and we sure needed the fresh fruit. Thanks, Kel, and your garden looks great!!
Pictures- the only way I can do indoors is right near a big window, on the south side in the afternoons, north in the mornings. If I’m not right next to a big window but there still is light I’ll set my camera up on a timer and then set it on something that doesn’t move with the flash shut off. Without me holding (moving) the camera to blur the photo I can do better with less light. Don’t know if that helps. My kitchen has really bad light, so all my pics from there just look bad, and that’s just how it’s going to be :o)
Cara
speaking of tea … I’ve been using Luzianne decaf for years and years. I have long wondered how they go through the decaf process and if there was something that wasn’t healthy about it. Anyone got any alternate suggestions?
Kelly – the pictures are gorgeous!! I wish we had a garden that beautiful!
Your fruit and breakfast look great! I put mint leaves in a jar, fill it with water and set it in the sun for the day. I like to drink the resulting tea as is but you could add any sweetner you wanted.
What a great post. I love seeing photos! And your photography is great!
I can’t believe how far you’ve come with your garden. It looks awesome!
I love mint in carbonated water or in kefir soda pop. I also like it in iced tea. You can also make mint jelly to go with lamb.
CHEESESLAVE
I can’t keep my mint plant healthy. Every time one of the kids walks by they grab a leaf to chew on until the thing is totally bare! Our version of gum. I freeze mint in ice cubes to float in lemonade and make mint chutney to have with lamb.
Local Nourishment
Mint leaves make a great tea, with a little honey and served very cold.