Grow it, Make it

Look at these juicy berries!  All my strawberry plants are producing well and are happy with onions planted between them.  The flax straw is doing a good job of mulching and in a sudden post rain flush, these mushrooms have all fruited through the front garden!    I wish I had an experienced mushroom forager to look at them for me - I'm scared to eat them because we have many toxic species that look a lot like edibles...  I took a foraging class a few years back and ended up even more more terrified to eat mushrooms we find here.   There is no substitute for having an experienced eye and hand to guide you as I'm not willing to risk our health (or our lives!) in the absence of it!

The garden is giving us tender greens (generously) and as I haven't planted anything other than peas (before selling the house) that's about all we are eating from the garden (aside from perennial herbs and fruit).   The peas will be ripe enough to enjoy soon and we certainly hope we'll be able to gorge on the raspberries which are forming as I type.  It's going to be the BEST raspberry year ever - the canes are positively LOADED with fruit!

My kombucha is thriving and my system of brewing every 3 days works well.  This jar is one that's just been started and in 3 days, the SCOBY will be covering the top and the tea will be bubbling nicely.   Three days is just about right to go through a half gallon jar (stored in the fridge while the next jar is brewing).    It's satisfying to make refreshing drinks instead of buying them.  I find that I crave kombucha when I'm hot and thirsty from working in the garden as it's much more thirst quenching than any other drink.   It's really frugal to make our drinks and while the kids aren't crazy for kombucha, I think they will like the fermented lemonade I'm starting today.

The packing is continuing as is the purging and sorting.  It's quite tiring, but it feels incredible to go through all the bits and bobs to eliminate anything unnecessary.  Just yesterday, I did some niggling tasks - counting change from the change jar and putting it in my purse to spend on groceries this week, sorting through all the keys and labelling for the new owners (plus finding our bike lock keys, padlock keys and spare vehicle keys), sorting through the "hardware bin" which was a mess of tacks, hooks, suction cups, pins, nails and screws, etc).  It's all organized and purged of things we won't need so those are good jobs done.  I really don't want to move anything that needs sorting!   I'm trying to use up as much as possible before we go so am strategically planning meals and snacks around what we have in the pantry.  The freezers are all but empty so I'm not having to worry about that...

I use a lot of baskets in my home and some are lined.   The liners have been set aside to be washed and line dried today to get rid of all the dust.   It will be a good job done so I can get things put away in the new place right away.  

All in all, things are coming together quite early because we don't want to leave much to the last minute.  It's just too stressful to be madly rushing around in those last days.  Moving is stressful enough all on its own.