This Week: Celebrations, Giant Rats, and Strawberries

Happy Summer Solstice! I hope that you're finding time today to celebrate this longest day of the year (and, if applicable, your European heritage that valued this turning of the season)! Zach and I observed the solstice by taking a long walk (in the freakishly cool, beautiful weather), watching ducks and gathering California poppy seeds to plant, and I also picked a bouquet of radish flowers and some sort of beautiful weed from the backyard for a festive solstice bouquet.

This upcoming week will include my sister-in-law's wedding and me leaving for a week-long tour with Insomniac Folklore, so I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to blog again. But in the meantime, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to!

Centerpieces for the wedding, ready to go

Solstice bouquet!

Berry-picking. Strawberries are finally in season here, so we spent a couple hours on Sauvie Island doing u-pick! The berries honestly weren't as sweet as I expected, but they were delicious on shortcake with a bit of sugar, and in salads for a fruity punch. And speaking of salad…

Magic mayo! If you're ever made mayo by hand, you know that it's a long, laborious process. But I tried this method last week, and made mayo in less than five minutes. It totally blew my mind. Then I used the mayo to make delicious homemade salad dressings!

Wildlife watching at Steigerwald Lake. This beautiful nature preserve is close to where we live, so we visited a couple days ago and hiked around the lake. We definitely saw some beautiful birds— a bald eagle, several hawks, and dabbling ducks— but the highlight were the mammals: a deer and her tiny spotted fawn, a little vole that ran out on the trail in front of us, and several sightings of an animal I'd never seen before, a nutria (looks like a really big muskrat). I loved the chance to walk around and see some new animals! 

The lake (covered in brown water weeds) and the peak of Mount Hood straight ahead on the horizon

Honey wine (pyment). Zach had previously moved his first batch of mead into jugs, and has now started a new batch, using part grape juice and part honey. It's been bubbling like crazy!

Foraging wild wine bottles. Eventually we'll have to rack the mead and wine into bottles, so we've been dumpster-diving around the neighborhood (here the glass is separated into its own bin, which makes it easy to poke around). We now know who the wine-lovers are in the neighborhood! 

Zach's birthday. Zach turned 29 yesterday, and although we didn't do much to celebrate, I baked a cheesecake (this recipe, with a gluten-free crust), which was pretty good until I added a simple berry sauce— which made it absolutely delicious. In my opinion, food is still the best present.

What have you been up to this week?

~~~