Corgi: “If I eat this mushroom, will I fly?” Me: “That’s what the reindeer thought.” (Amanita flavoconia — cute, toxic, slightly magical.)

The little ones spent most the week catching snakes, turtles, fish and frogs by the pond. They even put a whole day into harvesting cat tail roots hoping to make cattail flour for a cake once things cool off. Anything to stay wet, and by extension, cool in this heat.

Three mama geese shared one big nest, but once the first goslings hatched, they ditched the rest. My daughter candled the leftovers—9 were still alive! Now she’s playing mama goose to the late bloomers in our brooder.

Thimbleberries, my daughter's very favorite fruit. Bright red, soft as velvet, and shaped like a tiny thimble (hence the name), these wild raspberries have big beautiful flowers early in the season and rich soft fruit mid-summer. You won’t find them in stores—they don’t travel

If you garden, you know the story—turn your back for two days in August, and suddenly your tidy zucchini plants are producing green baseball bats. Instead of tossing those overgrown giants on the compost pile, we dry them into zucchini flour—a simple, shelf-stable way to

Summer done right

Vermont snakes: nonvenomous, chill, and surprisingly helpful. This little guy’s handling pest control duty like a pro. I’ll take our laid-back reptiles and snowstorms over Florida’s pythons, gators, and hurricanes any day.

Testing out relish recipes for the blog, up to 12 kinds and counting. Current favorites: pickled corn relish and pepper onion. What’s your all-time favorite relish? (Bonus points if you have a good recipe to share too!)

It's jam time!

Little guy was napping at the edge of the pond. Be careful out there, you may be belligerent, but you're still snack sized.

My Friday night

Surprise gift? North Spore sent me a big box of mushroom spawn, a bucket grow kit, mushroom coffee and even mushroom honey. Totally unsolicited, but a nice surprise. I guess we're growing some new varieties this summer!

Never a dull moment around here. The geese are out grazing with their babies, un-bothered by my husband and daughter racing laps around the yard on a nifty two man trike we picked up from a free pile, as our corgi tries to herd them back to the flock. Vermont summer at it's

Milkweed Jelly!

Rhubarb salsa! For when you have way too much rhubarb and you've already put up, jam, jelly, pie filling and maybe even a few gallons of wine.

Breadseed poppies, feed the bees now and my family later.

Daylily jelly anyone? The first step to making a flower jelly is making a tea from the flowers, and it only takes a few blossoms for a batch when they're this big.