Summer

Now is probably the peak of Maine's growing season. The gardens are full of lush, beautiful, flowering and edible plants.  It is the time we have been looking forward to since the end of the last growing season.  Everything is happening at once and it's hard to keep up. Suddenly there are peas to pick and shell, cabbages to grate for sauerkraut, garlic scapes to turn into pesto, new potatoes to dig, lavender to harvest and dry along with elderflowers to dry for tea, bugs to kill and weeds to pull. The work is constant and rewarding even if the weeds are maddening.


Kate's CSA members are enjoying the vegetables of her (and their) labor with a cornucopia of fresh food each week. Water from the sky has been in short supply and we are supplementing with hoses.

The chickens find shade and don't seem stressed, enduring these weeks of very hot weather. Ditto the dogs. But no matter how hot it is, they can not resist the call of the crows. When the cawing chorus begins, they run to the raucous sound.  I don't know what they find, but they come back panting to collapse once again in the shade.
We pick and shell peas practically every other day and have a nice supply in the freezer.

Another pea, the sweet pea, is not edible and it's seeds are poisonous, but a more colorful and fragrant flower would be a challenge to find. It is my absolute favorite and I always grow trellis's of them. Unfortunately they don't like heat and if our weather doesn't "break" soon, I fear the vines will die. I am enjoying them for now and keep bunches of them in the house this time of year.

Maine summer's are short and there is the feeling that we must hurry to do all of the things that can be done in Maine in the summer. Walks on the beach with friends and dogs, lobster dinners on Perry's Pier, bike rides, hiking in Acadia National Park, family visits, road trip to Nova Scotia?
So much to do and so glad of it. Happy Summer!