Last year my mother, father and I stood on stepladders, a fine drizzle falling over us as we picked cherries off of our cherry tree. Big bags of cherries took up room in our fridge over the following days as we promised ourselves that soon we would make cherry wine, cherry pancakes and cherry pie.

However, our cherries began to rot long before we found or really I should say, made time to use them and our bounty turned to waste. This year I decided to leave the cherries right there on the tree for the birds to eat but there were too many even for them!

About half an hour ago I went out in this 97 degree heat to collect as many cherries as I could reach which turned out to be quite a few. As I picked I tried to think of what I could make using these cherries and came up with scones! The only problem was that we did not have buttermilk in the house. Not feeling like running to the store, my mother suggested making our own using a cup of milk and a tablespoon of lemon. Her recipe worked beautifully and within a moment we had buttermilk. I still have a ton of cherries to use so there may possibly be more food to come!

To find the scone recipe I used go to HTTP://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/CherryScones.htm

Photo by Kathleen Coyle

Recently, my family and I began to notice small holes appearing on the sides of the dunes at the Bayshore Waterfront Park.  The holes sparked our curiosity and as we were trying to figure out why they were there we noticed birds flying in and out of them.  At first my mom thought that maybe these birds were Purple Martins but it was Scout who, using his tattoos for reference, identified them as Swallows (cousins to the Martins).  My mom took some really great shots of the the swallow homes and I just thought I would share them here.

Photo by Kathleen Coyle

Photo by Kathleen Coyle

Our garden has grown in size since last year and we have planted more tomato plants than ever. We have many different varieties of tomatoes growing that I just can’t wait to taste but we had just one problem, we ran out of stakes to tie the plants to. My creative mother came up with the idea to use bamboo as the stakes.

Fortunately, for us we have what I like to call a bamboo jungle right in our yard. My mom just took a saw, clippers weren’t strong enough, and cut some of the dead bamboo down. Next she pushed the stakes into the soil next to each tomato plant and tied the plants to the stakes using shreds of old t-shirts. Now I’m just waiting to eat some tasty tomatoes!

On the 3rd of June I wrote a post titled “Second Hatch Day” about preying mantis babies. There must have been hundreds of them that hatched that morning! Now, just yesterday we discovered a small maybe adolescent preying mantis in our home. I would like to think this little fellow was one of ours. I will be on the lookout for more and as I spot them will continue posting photos of them.

Had a lovely dragonfly perch herself on my window. I regret not having a better photo, maybe next time.

Please check out the previous post titled Reel Food Event too, if you can make it out to support the wonderful organizations it would be wonderful!

This Friday, June 11, a fundraiser supporting the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey, the Asbury Park Film Initiative, The Garden of Joy, and Food for Thought by the Sea will be held at The Carousel in Asbury Park.  Local restaraunts will be providing tapas for attendees to enjoy and cocktails will be served as well.  Check out the flyer for more information!  If you can make it out to support these great organizations please do!

While in the garden weeding this afternoon I found this sleeping ladybug inside a stalk of Indian Corn.

Also while weeding, my cat, Isabelle, made her way into the backyard and sat outside the garden pathetically meowing to be let in. I could not deny her so I picked her up and brought her onto my side of the fence. Bringing Isabelle into the garden was not the best idea for she went back and forth between leaping and biting at my hand every time I went for a weed and munching on the corn. However, I have no regrets since she sure was one happy Kitty while in the garden with me. Here she is rolling around with a piece of string my mom gave to appease Isabelle long enough to allow for her to tie the tomatoes to their stakes.

Lately, I feel as if all I do is work and garden and I love it! This past weekend we got all of our starter plants out of the house and into the garden. In the garden we have fat boy ( I think ) tomatoes as well as Roma, onions, an Italian mix of lettuces, broccoli, carrots, beans, squash, zucchini, Indian corn, cucumbers, and eggplant, pretty sure that is everything!

Due to the limited space in tgw garden I have decided to do some container gardening as well. I have cilantro, Basil, and oregano in one pot and bell peppers, cayenne peppers and beefsteak tomatoes in another. Oh and strawberries in a third!

Now I just need to figure out where to put the potatoes and asparagus and we will be finished! I can’t wait until I can start to make tasty dishes using my homegrown vegetables and fruits!

Waking up groggy is not unusual for me so when I went to open the living room drapes and saw hundreds of little bugs moving around in a container it took me a minute to realize I was not hallucinating.

The bugs I saw were baby preying mantasis. Scout and I had purchased a preying mantis cocoon back in January when we had gone to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in Massachusetts. We were expecting the bugs to hatch in early to mid-May so at this point I was actually thinking of tossing the cocoon.  We were both so excited that the babies actually hatched and immediately brought them outside to our garden and released them to do their bug eating job!

Today I was able to harvest some lettuce from my garden for the first time this season. The lettuce is actually the first produce to be harvested so far period! I went out to the garden as soon as the rain stopped and it just happened to be at the same time Scout arrived home from work!
Cutting the lettuce, to ensure more grows in its place, was a nightmare since mosquitoes were swarming us. As soon as we got back into the house I washed the lettuce under cold water since I heard that’s the thing to do. Immediately after that our family consumed some delicious, fresh salad.
I can’t wait to eat more lettuce and also be able to harvest even more fresh, organic produce.