Today I got a pot of beans started on the stove and reached into the drawer for a head of garlic. What did I find? Four heads. Just four heads of garlic left from my first garlic harvest. I knew the supply was dwindling, but I had on some level allowed myself to imagine a little magic going on in my kitchen - a drawer that never emptied, home-grown garlic always at hand.



Luckily there's another kind of magic happening out in my yard. Ordered in September, planted in October:

8 oz German Red Garlic
1 lb Music Garlic
8 oz Premium Northern White Garlic
8 oz Purple Glazer Garlic

Although it's double what I planted last year, and enough to keep the vampires away for sure, I'm making a mental note on this snowy January day that there'd be no harm in planting a little extra this fall.

I really enjoyed Victorian Farm, so I was excited to find that Edwardian Farm is also on YouTube. I find the narrator's voice grating, but I quite like Alex, Peter, and Ruth. I learned a ton watching the first series, and expect I will watching this one as well.

Here's my easiest, cheapest, everybody-likes-it-est recipe.

Grandma Carolyn's Vegetable Soup

1 bag of carrots (6 or 8 or 10 carrots, whatever you've got), peeled and chopped

1 large onion, peeled, halved, and sliced thin

1b can crushed tomatoes

8 oz tomato sauce

1/4 - 1/2 cup barley

6 vegetable bullion cubes

4 cups water

Throw it all in a pot and cook til the carrots are soft - about 40 minutes to an hour.

Here there be monsters.

Yesterday we visited Breakwater Beach, a bay-side beach in Brewster, right about where the Cape bends its elbow. Beautiful, right?


Beautiful, but much too cold for turtles. Rowan, Jon, and I joined the Dorseys on an (let's call it) invigorating walk. We were excited by the prospect of coming to the rescue of a chilly turtle, but glad in the end that there were none to be found. Hopefully they've made their way to warmer waters.

"If you can control your family, you've gone terribly wrong somewhere."

~Louisa Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

Cleverest witch of her age, indeed.






(Outfit designed and sewn by Rowan. Patterns are for Death Eaters.)


(Wand created by Jon.)

This week Dagny turned 81.



Or 18, depending on who you ask.



Either way, we got to eat Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.

Do you think I am very lucky to have a piece of Laura Bowman's art in my house?


I do too.

Ten years ago, when we moved into a neighborhood of farmers, I didn't know when strawberry season was. My food all came from the grocery store, where regardless of cardboard cut-out holiday decorations, seasons don't exist. I had dreamed of growing things, imagined gardens and fruit trees, but I knew so little and was so disconnected from how food grows that I didn't have any idea what I didn't know.

For me, this has been the year of the garden. I've spent hours preparing soil and planting things, but many more hours reading. I'm learning and learning and most days feel I can't learn fast enough to suit myself. I pick up a tip here and a tidbit there, and realize that even some of the things I thought I had figured out - you pick strawberries in June, with the new summer sun on your back - aren't quite so simple.



For weeks now I have gone outside with my colander, expecting this to be the day it comes back empty. It hasn't happened yet. I go out in a sweater and a jacket and pluck strawberries with cold fingers. Bright red berries poke out from under fallen leaves, and I feel exhilaratingly off balance.

I can't wait to find out what else I don't know.

Just for Anna, here's some of what's going on at our house:

The beehive got taller.



There are lots of bees in there, and the smell of beeswax is amazing.



The hydrangea are putting on quite a show.



I'm growing summer squash and zucchini for the first time.


The craft room smells like garlic.



Critters are eating all our strawberries.



And if this is what your 'weeds' look like, don't pull them - they're tall phlox.

Peanut Butter Bread

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups milk
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix peanut butter and sugar.
Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder.
Mix in half the milk and half the flour.
Add the rest of the milk and flour, and mix until smooth.

Bake in a well-greased bread pan 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Pancake/Waffle Mix

7 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
8 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt

Whisk together and store in an airtight jar.

Pancakes:

2 cups of mix
2 eggs (can substitute applesauce - about 1/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir until just combined.

Waffles:

2 cups mix
2 eggs (can substitute applesauce - about 1/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir until just combined.

Jon found this. You can get a bunch of games, pay what you can/want to, and have whatever portion you want sent to a charity. I think it ends tomorrow, so check it out today if you're interested.