Happy Independence Day

This year I celebrated my independence in the same way I have for the past five years.  I camped out on beautiful, unspoiled land... danced to pulsing drums in the mountains... played with fire... walked a labyrinth and gazed upon the Milky Way... and of course, there were fireworks.

We made new friends.

Well, to be quite honest, this fellar wasn't too happy to meet us.  Not even after we tried to buy his love with cherries.

This moth, however, was quite friendly!

He wiggled his fuzzy little bonkers at us for several minutes before flitting off into the golden sunlit leaves of the forest.

Once we returned home, rejuvenated from our trip, we attended to the animals and the garden.  They seemed glad for us to be home, and the chickens greeted us warming by pecking at our toes.  The cats pretended they'd been starving over the weekend.  The skunk tried to hide the fact that there was still nuts and dried fruit in her food bowl, and pretended to also be dying of hunger.  We were not fooled, but gave them treats and cuddles all the same.

It seems that we arrived home just in time... a heat wave has hit our area, and my poor blossom-end-rot suffering tomatoes require watering twice/day to keep them from shriveling up!!  The Black Sea Man tomatoes are producing very well and seem to be quite hardy to the dry weather... no black spots on the bottoms of these beauties...

However, the Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes can't seem to get beyond the size of a golf ball without developing a nasty leathery welt on their blossom ends.  It's frustrating to no end... I've worked powdered milk into the soil, I'm watering deeply, I mulched with leaf compost... what else can I do?

It's wild raspberry season, and as you can see above we took about ten minutes last night to grab some in the dark on our walk in the woods.  We really need a few hours and broad daylight to bring in a big haul like last year, but the 100 degree weather has deterred us from attempting that this week.  Hopefully the bushes will still be producing after this heat passes and we can once again journey outside while the big bright yellow thing hangs in the sky. 

Work has been horrible lately, which makes me not even want to write about it.  All y'all need to know is that we had only one bed vacant on our floor Monday night.  Not fun.

Lastly, a recipe.  This one has been a family favorite for generations.  My grandmother said that it came from the Depression era, when families may have had weeks in which there was only one or two food items available, and you had to make a meal of it.  I think it is one of the most delicious foods on the planet, even though it looks more like slop than anything else.

Creamed Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Flour

Butter (traditionally, bacon fat is used, but not for us pescatarians)

Milk

Salt and pepper

Slice fresh tomatoes and dredge them in flour.  Fry in butter until browned on both sides.  Mash 'em up and set aside.  Add some flour to the excess oil in the pan and cook to make a rue.  Return the tomatoes to pan, add milk until creamy and smooth but not soupy.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with slices of hearty bread, using the bread to scoop up the sloppy delicious tomatoey mess.  This meal is the absolute taste of summer when served with fresh corn on the cob.