Summer Bliss and Reading

My summer days have been full of tidying garden beds (aka. weeding), harvesting herbs and mostly drying them, like the beautiful Spearmint above, having fun with our family, making a quilt for a grand-daughter and some other sewing, watching the clouds and some reading.  I have drank with relish fresh Lemon Balm tea and eaten fresh berries with yogurt.  What a blissful time of year!

A couple of months ago I read The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer.  What a fabulous book that had me laughing,
almost crying about the broken food system that we have, but even more educated and motivated me to live more providently with purpose.

In June I had the opportunity to go to the Mother Earth News Self Sufficiency Expo at the Puyallup Fair grounds and listened to Joel Salatin speak.
He writes the way he speaks,
with hands-on knowledge and passion.

Currently I am reading another book by him, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal, War Stories for the Local Food Front.  Can I just say....Awesome!!!

Whole, fresh foods should be the basis of our daily diets.  This is a great time to eat more beautiful produce.  The other day I went out to check on the chickens who were snacking under the blackberry bushes and found some Raspberries....wow!  I planted these 4 years ago and never got one.  Now I am picking a handful every couple days.  We will be transplanting them soon to a more fertile area to grow.  I just love these surprise blessings!!!

I hope you're enjoying some Summer Bliss!