Independence Days, Sumac Tree Lemonade, I'm WALKING!

1. Plant Something- Done for now

2. Harvest Something- Sumac heads, eggs, kale, about a qt. of choke cherries (happy dance, I smell jelly!), collard greens, blackberries, small hot peppers, first lemon tomatoes, and green apples from emergency tree trimming. Compost is doing nicely.

choke cherries

3. Preserve/Store Something- Made another batch of pickled eggs, and sweet tart onion relish.

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Stocked up on cheese, fresh pineapple, Italian bread, cereal at Costco. Bought 2 batches of bird seed marked clearance at a big box store.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Tried a new Mayo cake, really salty and dried out way too fast. I got 2 new cookbooks from the library on French bistro cooking (review soon) and salads as meals, both by Patricia Wells

6. Build Community Food Systems- Got more free rhubarb.

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Compost, food scraps to the chickens. Will use green apples from tree trimming for some cobbler. They were much sweeter than I expected! Hoping for an early harvest before I'm back to work. Got some nice work tops at Goodwill today, oh boy! I'll be thrifting a lot more as I'm walking more.

apples from trimming

8. Skill Up- Learned how to make sumac lemonade. Also learned that if you're slicing a LOT of onions, let the water run in the sink. My eldest foodie daughter taught me that trick, and it WORKS!!! Doing problem solving on different fencing for next year to expand our veggie garden area. Want to add cedar posts instead of yard/garden stakes. Learned some new ways to keep the hens cool- bobbing for berries

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Apple and Sumac tree both needed major pruning. The apple tree is so loaded with fruit, and even with support, was at a bad angle over our easement. People drive thru there randomly, and didn't want to lose the tree. I had Dave selectively trim it and it looks much better! Ditto the sumac with the heavy seed pods, and a few low branches. Made some Sumac lemonade.

Sumac Tree Lemonade-
Last year I read about this, but never got around to it. Instead of waiting til fall for the sumac tree berry clusters, I used the heads as is now. There actually were berries under the fuzz. We had to trim them off anyway, for the sake of the tree, as they are heavy! I used this recipe- Sumac lemonade. There are plenty of others online. Just make sure it's the right kind of sumac. It came out a nice, pretty pink. The flavor as-is was lemon/berry-ish, which I didn't expect. Sweeten as needed.

sumac heads soaking overnight

I'm WALKING!-
As most of you know I've been in recovery mode with my foot surgery. I had a big 1 1/2" bone spur removed and Achilles tendon worked on. I've been doing pretty well this last week, with one crutch and partial weight-bearing. I'm seeing the doc about when I can do full weight bearing, with just my boot. THEN I can really get out, do yard work, shop, etc. Hopefully my lower back will stabilize too, pretty tough last 6 months with that.