Day 129, 130, & 131: Cooking Classes, Family Zoom

Summer continues in its hot and humid bear hug. I haven't been going outside much: just to water the garden in the morning or evening and to swim for a couple hours in the late afternoon. Our garden is aching for rain. I can water some of it with a hose, but a lot of the native plants I bought and planted this summer are outside the reach of the hose, so I'm carrying my watering can around to make sure they all survive their first summer. They should be drought-tolerant once established, but this year they need a little help. 

We finished up the week of online cooking classes for the kids. They made granola, smoothies, cucumber salad, raspberry lime water, cucumber mint water, roasted green beans, parsnip chips, and ladybug popsicles. It was lots of fun, and Taiya got some good practice chopping different vegetables. William did a little chopping, but mostly wanted to watch or help measure things. They were both shy about speaking during the class, and I had to remind them to speak up so they could be heard over the computer microphone. But one day at the end of class, everyone else had to go and it was just them and Tara, the teacher, and they were talking about what books they were reading. Taiya gave an amazingly detailed and articulate description of Anne of Avonlea and you could tell how much she loved it. And William one day taught everyone that corals are actually animals, not plants, and they are a bunch of polyps that make up a colony. I always love watching them interact with other people, they are little marvels. 

Taiya and William on their Zoom cooking class.

Parsnip chips we made! So good.

Out in the struggling garden, our first cherry tomatoes are ripening and our leathery heat-loving basil is doing well. The tomatoes are little yellow volunteers that grow every year, originating from some tomatoes I bought from Janet (the farmer who I picked up my native plants from last month) several years ago. These tomatoes are so vigorous and happy to reseed themselves, I have a feeling that in two hundred years when someone comes across our homestead in the woods they'll see rubble and these yellow tomatoes growing everywhere. Good thing they are delicious. 

Since my garden is not producing enough to put up, I made an online order that I'll be picking up from the Fayetteville Farmer's market on Saturday. I'm going to have a canning weekend ahead of me. I got enough green beans and zucchini to make dilly beans and dilly zucchini spears. I have big plans for a beet relish and an apple chutney too, but we'll see how far I get. 

On Thursday, Jeremy took William to go visit the town-farm, and Taiya and I had an afternoon of girl

William really was excited to go with 
Jeremy. This is just what happened 
when I asked if I could take his picture
in his cute hat. 

time. For a little while, she watched a show while I worked. Then we made Annie's mac 'n cheese and talked. It felt good to be able to focus on one person, even if we spent our time in the simplest way possible - making food and talking. After lunch we set up all her doll stuff again (she keeps moving it), all the while having pleasant and fun conversation. Jeremy got back with William, who had fallen asleep in the car, and stayed asleep while Jeremy lay him down upstairs. Then at 5 p.m. we had a Moats/Clarke family Zoom call, our first since the pandemic started. It was pretty chaotic at first, what with all the cousins wanting to show their guinea pigs and making faces in the camera. Then the grownups took control and we had a nice chat, from Hawaii to Arkansas to New York to Vermont. Jeremy was doing chores and joined by his phone, so people got to watch as he fed and watered the animals. It was fun to see everyone's faces. I miss my people. 

All in all, it has been a good week. We still don't know anything about school re-opening, and there continues to be insanity in the news (the most concerning thing these days is the federal officers kidnapping people off the streets in Portland). But here in the holler it's been pretty peaceful, and for that I am wholeheartedly grateful. May peace grow everywhere as prolifically as my yellow cherry tomatoes.