When the garden decides to throw a metric ton of cucumbers at you, there isn't much you can do other than make pickles. A few years ago, we made a couple of jars of fridge pickles -- but they need to be kept cold and they take up a fair bit of room. This year, we tried cooked pickles.



I didn't have one perfect recipe, so I mixed a few lists together. I didn't realize it was critical to have alum stored in the spice cabinet, so the pickles weren't as crunchy as they could have been, but they were garlicky and briny and good.

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This is the JFK rose that I planted from Jackson & Perkins this year. I've been buying plants for my Dad from J & P for years and they have a reputation for excellent quality.



The rose plant blossomed nicely with three pure white blooms, and I'm glad I took this photo when I did. The montrous storm we had battered them to pieces just a few days later.

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I went hunting in the garden in the rain and managed to find a few edible items, even though we've seen mostly cloudy days (if not hurricanes). Everything was from our garden, except for a couple of items.

Roasted CSA potatoes with chives.



Squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and parmesean.



Balsamic salad with lettuce, tomatoes, CSA peppers and baby onions.



Sauteed baby carrots and baby leeks. (Hooray for thinning!)



Cupcakes with strawberry-cream cheese icing (strawberries from our neighbor's garden) and iced tea with mint.

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We've given up on mowing the field this year and it's getting tall enough to hide a boy.



The cats like to play hide and seek with each other in the hay. They often come trotting out of the high grass with a frog dangling from their mouth by one leg. I've seen Miley stun a grasshopper, at which point a chicken ran over and grabbed it then skittered away. Sometimes it's like wild kingdom around here.

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Trevor and I have been learning about medieval times this summer. Last week, he and a friend prepared a feast for their parents at our house with authentic medieval dishes.

There were a lot of things to be cooked, so I prepped anything that needed chopping, boiling, or other prep work before the kids arrived. Each plate held the ingredients for one recipe. It's amazing how similar a glass of honey (right) looks to a glass of beef stock (left).

Clockwise from the top left:
Tart of Ryce (rice pudding) - orange juice, butter, egg yolks, sugar, rice, cinnamon, ginger
Meat Pyes (meat hand pies) - raisins, dates, prunes, vinegar, salt, pepper
Pyneade (pine nut candy) - honey, pine nuts, spices
Ember Day Tart (quiche) - grated mozarella, sage leaves, onion, raisins, eggs, spices
Almondegas (meatballs in soup) - beef broth, butter, spices, egg yolk, wheat flour, green onions



It took two hours for me to prep everything and the kids and I finished cooking 30 minutes before the parents were due. All in all, the decision to do a little mise en place was a good one.



The Ember Day Tart was good, a sweet and savory mix of raisins and onions. The pyneade, though it reached hard crack stage, didn't stay solid at room temperature. The meatballs in sauce were good, but most other things were overcooked, even though we followed the directions to a tee. And the kids had fun making fruits and vegetables out of marzipan.

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A roof is more effective when placed on top of a barn, but this location has merits too. Modern art installation. Deterring 4-wheelers in the field. Sadistic children's playground.

The sky behind the twisted metal is still dark from the passing storm -- the one that took down trees all along our shoreline and left the southern half of the island with power for days.

A rare photo of an evergreen grabbing a quick nap:



If a pair of sneakers hanging from a power line indicates a crack house, a window screen folded neatly over the line means a house where the owners will try to sneak zucchini into your car while you're inside talking.

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Trevor was a trapper again in this year's Alburgh Independence Day Parade. Unlike last year, he wasn't sitting in the main canoe on the trailer, instead he carried a cardboard canoe with a friend. That wool hat looks hot, but I bet the boots were comfortable.

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