Where I've Been

So, I've been gone for a few days. We went to Ithaca because my grandmother died last week. It was sad, but she had been doing well for a long time, and she really didn't suffer long. She just quietly stopped breathing last Saturday. It was a nice service though, and I got to see some of my cousins I hadn't seen in a long time, several of whom had never met Olive. We hung out at my parent's house, Olive kept the mood cheerful by getting naked and playing in her pool or running through the sprinkler every few hours or so.

We did get to go to the Cornell Plantations; they were just putting in a lot of the summer herbs and stuff. The Pounder Hertiage Garden (Cornell's heirloom vegetable display garden; possibly one of my most favorite places on Earth) was just getting started; they had just put in tomatoes. I forget that they are about a month behind us seasonally, and they aren't impatient freaks like me and put things out way too early.

Before we went to Ithaca we had gone Strawberry picking and I picked 19 pounds of berries. I made two batches of jam, and then realized that I hadn't even touched the other huge box of berries, which was rotting literally before my eyes. I made one more batch of jam and then cut up the rest, added some sugar and lemon juice and then froze them in ziploc bags with all the air pushed out. They are so pretty. While I was home I made a rhubarb pie from my mom's rhubarb and added one of my jars of jam to it. I made a crumb top for it adn I took a piece to my 100 year old (other) grandmother at the nursing home. She's the best cook ever. I was laughing to myself because all my cousins spoke at my grandmother's funeral about how they always remembered the food and what a great cook she was. Now, not to belittle the woman, because I love her, but I recall plenty of spray cheese and ritz crackers going on at most holiday events. She did do some things really well, Kalach (?) the hungarian poppyseed sweet bread, and cabbage rolls at Christmas, which I still love. I think most of the time the woman was so busy keeping up with 5 kids that any kind of cooking convenience food was a staple item. Maybe that's just my take on it; but Bess was a really fantastic old-school cook, so that's what I have to compare it to. She was teaching me how to make a roux at 10 years old.

My bluebery bishes actually ahev some berries now, about 12 of them, but they are fantastic. I mulched them in the fall with compost and pince needles, adn they seem to be very happy in their pots right now. Hopefully I will get more as they get older.