Today's post is just a little of this and a little of that.
Sort of how our weekend was....
a little of this and a little of that!

Saturday was our wedding anniversary,
so we took part of the day to explore a small college town
about 20 miles away.

Each Saturday they have a Farmer's Market lining the sidewalks of their Main Street.
Most of what we find at farmer's markets we grow ourselves.
But this week we happened upon some wonderful treats...
like...
 locally grown organic leeks and organic red raspberries,
organic mountain mint whole leaf tea,
and these....


Do you know what these are?
They are ground cherries.


Ground cherries are in the tomatillo family.
They are a distant cousin that is indigenous to our area.
They are smaller and sweeter than a tomatillo,
and they are yellow.


The young man who sold them to us said that their seeds are difficult to find,
and quite pricey.


So, I squeezed a couple in order to dry their seeds for next year's garden.
And the rest we made into Ground Cherry Jam...
Amanda, "jammin"
and let me tell you,
this jam is super fantastic!!


I can hardly wait to grow my own ground cherries next summer.
There will be lots of ground cherry jam in our pantry next year!

If you happen to find these at your local market,
email me and I will send you a great jam recipe!

With the arrival of Hurricane Irene, 
we spent a good portion of the rest of the weekend indoors.

Rain and wind took its toll on some of my flowers,
so I cut the sunflowers lying on the ground,


as well as some hydrangeas, 
and brought them into the house to enjoy.


Nothing brightens up a rainy day like fresh cut flowers!


Each summer I cut these white hydrangeas and dry them....
a lasting piece of summer to enjoy through the winter.


A break in the rain gave us a chance to pick enough apples,


for me to make a luscious apple pie.
Served warm with a vanilla ice cream....
heavenly!


I had a little leftover crust,
so we picked a few bunches of grapes,


and made a grape tart.


By the end of the weekend,
we had only 1 3/4 inches of rain...
enough to raise the level of the pond by about a foot. 
Two more feet to go and it will be back to full capacity.

No post is complete without an animal tale....

Something has happened in the farm mafia.
Apparently Guinea Gus has been thrown out of the "family."


He has been spending his days alone, near the barn,
while Guido and Guiseppe remain in the company of the turkeys.


It's odd, because up to this point,
for the past two years, these three have been inseparable.

I overheard Guido saying to him...
(in his best Marlin Brando impersonation.)
"Gus, you're my older brother, and I love you.
 But don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever."

If only I knew what that was all about!

Comments

Anke said…
Happy Anniversary Bev! I'm glad you guys didn't get too much damage from the storm, but were able to get some rain. My inlaws gave me some ground cherry seeds a few years back, but they didn't produce at all. I know I've seen the seeds in one of my gardening catalogs. If you want, I'll try and find which one.
KatyDidStitches said…
Ooo...what pretty flowers...and I LOVE your Fiestaware pitcher.

Last Fall, there was a discussion about ground cherries at our house. I can't quite recall, but I think an acquaintance of my in-laws had some in their garden...something like that. I had never heard of them. Anyway, my hubbin and I took a little trip to Ohio...and we found ground cherry pie! At a local grocery in Massillon. It was delicious!

Kathy
Country Gal said…
Happy Anniversary !
Looks and sounds like a great weekend awesome photos and post ! We love going to the local farmers market here . We have lots of wonderful Amish and Mennonites in the area and their produce a fresh baked goods are wonderful ! Have a great day !
Junebug said…
I'm glad you got some rain and not much damage. Those flowers are so beautiful! I'm on R&R in TX and they sure could use your rain. Happy Anniversary! I've never heard of ground cherries! I wonder if we have them in the NW. That for my morning on the farm!
Cindy said…
Happy anniversary!

We used to grow ground cherries every year when the kids were small. They loved to eat them out of the garden, so I never made anything with them. But a pie or jam sounds good!
Beautiful flowers, beautiful jam and pie and tart....oh my goodness. Poor Gus, will he be safe outside the family compound?
This N That said…
Poor Gus..he must be lonely..very sad...How do you dry your Hydrangeas?/ Do they keep their color??? Glad you didn't have serious Irene damage...
Unknown said…
I tried growing Ground Cherries this year! Went ahead and tried growing in a couple of containers. I was satisfied - considering they were grown in containers. However - I've decided to go ahead and turn roots loose in the wild next year! I wanna see how much better they do with totally free will!!
Dianne said…
Lovely pics! Happy anniversary! I'm wondering how you dry your hydrangeas??? I tried a few here but they just wilted!
Boy I'm really behind in reading my favorite blogs...I can't believe how many you've done since I last visited! Those ground cherries look like something we have growing wild around my garden area. I've never done anything with them or watered them and the chickens don't touch them but they sure look like your first picture of them. I'll have to take a closer look and maybe take a picture to show you. The jam looks delicious! That's too bad about your sunflowers getting knocked over...I was wondering if you were going to get hit by Irene. I'm glad you didn't get hit any worse than that. Oh gosh your pies look good...made my mouth water! Had to laugh at your farm 'mafia' story...you should write a book about your farm critters!
Maura :)