on the homefront

The last 2 holdouts in the herb department finally sprouted over the weekend.  They were planted later than the others, but now the parsley and spearmint are growing alongside the others.  

Several of the herbs are growing tall!  Finn noticed the chives this morning and remarked, "that grass is getting so high!"

In the raised beds, the cucumbers just poked their heads out of their seeds.  Finn wants to know when they will be ready to eat!

The beets sprouted all over the place.  I've never grown beets, or any other root veggies, for that matter, so this should be a new adventure.  I'm not exactly sure how to tell when they are ready to pick.  I guess that comes with experience.

The zucchini are trying hard to poke their heads up as well.

The poor tomato plants that I just set out last weekend.  They were covered during the frost two nights later but still browned a little around the edges.  I'm hoping they'll bounce back and green up soon.

In other domestic news,  A friend came over this weekend and helped me make a lined curtain for our downstairs half-bath.  This room is fairly dark, with only the one window and not much light from the other side of the house so it's hard to photograph.  I really like how this little curtain turned out though.

You can see the print of the light part of the curtain here.  I chose a light fabric to hopefully allow some sunlight into this room.

And here's a slightly better view of the contrasting fabric.

I bought another flat of strawberries at the farmer's market this weekend and decided to make some jam.  It was my first experience using the Pomona pectin. I was a little doubtful of the two-step process, but it might be my new favorite jam-making method. Less sugar, preservative-free, and reliable results, yippee! 

 I also decided to use a few cups of my strawberries to make a strawberry lemonade concentrate.  Finn drank the little bit, diluted with water, that was leftover from canning and declared it "delicious!"  Now he thinks we should open the jars and drink strawberry lemonade all day.

The same friend who helped me with the curtains brought over a shelf that she wanted to get rid of, so now I have a canning shelf in the kitchen.  It's already being put to good use, as you can see.  The canning shelf in my pantry was full and spilling over.  This canning shelf is a welcome addition to help us contain our burgeoning collection of jars. (And it looks much happier with strawberry jam and strawberry lemonade gracing it's shelves!)

After reading about Tattler reusable canning lids on Food in Jars, I decided to take the plunge and try a few.  So far so good, I used a few for the strawberry jam and strawberry lemonade jars. This cute little basket on the top of the canning shelf is holding the Tattler lids and some small glass jars for freezing pesto later in the summer.

That's a recap of what's going on here on the homefront.  I'm feeling very domesticated this weekend. :)  How about your neck of the woods?