Late summer sizzle

I'm nearly finished with "The First American", the bio on Benjamen Franklin. He's solved the French and British negotiations, created agreements with both countries for the United States of America, flirted with most of the women of note in both of those countries, and at 79-80, he amazingly survived the long voyage from France back to Philadelphia, even though he had been suffering terribly from gout and kidney stones, as well as various aches and pains of advanced age. He barely got off the boat before the Pennsylvanians elected him President of their fair state. He handled the contentious factions of the politicos with amazing, and typical, aplomb, all the while building onto his own home and 5 new homes on property he owned, to use as rentals and improve the legacy he left his progeny.

Hmmm, and I whine about being crippled and feeling old at 55. Shame on me! Although having 2 heart surgeries and gall bladder surgery 3 years ago and dealing with ongoing fibromyalgia does give me a reason to feel gimpy. I gotta keep focused on the things I can do... that's the goal. I picked a couple more pounds of figs this morning, and we found someone to mow down the weeds burying the property! It looks so much better today. We have a nice crop of tomatoes coming off too, along with peppers. The cucumbers are blooming like crazy, but only one big enough to pick. It's too hot to can anything, so either drying or freezing will do for now, at least what's left that we don't eat. I made some awesome fresh salsa yesterday, and sent tomatoes and figs with the kids, so we'll see what's left to play with.

Reflections

As I read about Benjamen Franklin, it helps me realize what a precious document our founding fathers designed. They did so at great risk to their lives; the British saw them as scum-bag traitors that should face the gallows. Even Franklin, who was renowned throughout England, Europe and America, faced Lords, Earls and Parliament that hated him and what he stood for- America's free trade, self-representation and equal rights as British citizens. When he realized how vitriolic they were, and determined to abase the Americans, to subdue them as they had the Irish, he threw his full force behind creating a Republic. His talents were formidable, he used all the contacts he had made in Europe over the past 30 years of his life to gain alliances that would allow America to survive.

Against all odds we as a country faced the most fearsome military and naval force in the world- and won. You can't tell me it was accidental. The men involved in the Continental congress were willing to pray about their decisions, pray for guidance, and acknowledge God in their success. Not all of them were church-going men, including Franklin, but as I read his writings, it's clear that he read the scriptures and he spoke often of prayer. I hope we can do the same- let's pray for our families, and pray for our country. We are on the verge of financial calamity, people are polarized against one another, and we are at war in far countries. Let's pray for our military, pray for our leaders and look forward to better times.

Salsa!

It's late summer, and the harvest is building. Yesterday we picked several pounds of figs. I have a Black Turkey Fig, it's about 8 years old, and this year it's absolutely full of figs. I covered it with netting to keep the birds from taking everything. I don't mind sharing a few with them, but they've been taking every ripe fig!

There were enough tomatoes last week to make salsa. Well, I have to admit that I used two gallon bags of frozen tomatoes from last fall. I had a great harvest last summer, but also my son's wedding, the illness, death and memorial for my Mother-in-law and a whole lot of other things that kept me from canning. So I took the frozen ones, added fresh tomatoes and peppers from the garden, and made a nice batch of salsa. I ended up with 8 pints of salsa to can for the winter. It isn't much, and cooking salsa down takes most of the day. But it's still satisfying to know I have more homemade sauce ready, and can enjoy it all winter long.

The sunflowers are looking so wonderful! I'll post some more pics, I just have really enjoyed them in the garden. I have to admit that typically I only plant vegetables, trying to get as much yield out of the garden as possible. But last year and this one I added easy-growing flowers, like sunflowers. One of them is over 12 feet tall, with a huge flower that is now turning into a seed machine. The rest are smaller, but with lots of flowers on each stalk. They've pollinized each other, so I have one that is a hybrid from the maroon and a yellow- it has the most beautiful flowers! they are maroon at the center, turning to orange and then a blazing yellow on the outer edges of the petals. Fabulous! I hope to save some of the seeds, maybe I can get more that color next year. No guarantee though, it may have bred with the yellows this year, and all the flowers will be yellow next year, who knows.

Sun again

We've had 3 weeks of cloudy, humid, rainy weather. In Arizona, that's really a good thing, but frankly, I'm a desert rat and a few days at a time is plenty. Normal for us is clear in the morning, heat building up to 100-110 degrees, growing humidity to the point of insanity, then comes the cloudburst. Pelting rain, either for a few minutes to an hour, that's typical Arizona monsoon weather. This one is more like a winter storm, it's been cloudy, no sun for days, and drizzling, depressing rain every day for 2 weeks. Isn't that New England summers? Anyhow, we need the moisture, so I feel a little guilty for complaining, but I'm really done with that crap! Today was more typical- nice cool morning, heat, now the clouds are piling up over Mingus Mountain, waiting to attack.

I took pictures of the sunflowers, they are a little battered from all the rain, but still pretty. The bees were all over them, and I tried to take a picture of a big black bumble bee, but it was too fuzzy to print, darn it. The rain has been great for the green beans and cucumbers especially, they are growing like crazy. The poor tomatoes have had a worse time. We didn't get them into cages, so I put straw under them, but with so much rain and warm muggy weather, some of them are moldy. They are ripening up nicely though, I want to make more salsa tomorrow. The peppers are doing great, we picked our first bells yesterday. Pretty late, but they taste really good.

I'm still reading the biography on Benjamen Franklin, what a fascinating guy! I tend to read the best of his colloquialisms when I'm laying down, and too lazy to get up and write them down, so I haven't shared them yet. All in all a good week!

Salsa for dinner, homemade lotion

It's still cloudy, no rain yet today though. Just enough change in barometer to kick my b__t. I picked tomatoes and peppers from the garden, and combined with some store bought ingredients made some marvelous salsa! I don't like really hot salsa, but nice and spicy is good. Here's my recipe:

1/2 lb. tomatoes, roma's preferably
3-4 teaspoons chile mix
2 poblano peppers
2 tsp. salt
2-4 New Mexico peppers
2 tsp black pepper
1-2 Bell peppers
2 tsp onion salt or powder
2 onions
2-3 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro
2 stalks celery

Blend garlic and onions in a food processor until chopped but not pureed. Move into large bowl. Remove veins and seeds from all peppers, cut into large pieces, then chop in food processor with celery, add to bowl. Cut and seed tomatoes, chop in processor along with cilantro. Add tomatoes to the bowl, blend all vegetables together while adding spices. You can add more or less spices and hot peppers to taste. I like to serve this fresh, but you can cook it over the stove if you choose.
Just be aware, that I rarely use a formal recipe and this is a taste-as-you-go project.

Julie, her mom Barb and I made olive oil, lavender and oatmeal soap last Wednesday. Julie's been wanting to learn how to make soap, so they came over for the day. We made 18 pounds of soap! It's more time consuming than difficult, but it's so much easier when I have help with the process. While we were waiting for it too cool and thicken, we also made lotion with coconut, shea, cocoa butters, almond oil and glycerin. It turned out really good! It's thinner than I planned; I thought it would be more like body butter, but it's really yummy and I put some in a lotion bottle with pump and it worked great.

Body Cream

7 ozs. Shea butter
3 ozs. Cocoa butter
6 ozs. Almond oil
7 ozs. Coconut butter
5 tsp. grated Beeswax
6 ozs. Vegetable glycerin
21 ozs. distilled water
1 tsp Cornstarch
40 grams Stearic Acid
1/4 oz. mint or lavender essential oil- or scent of your choice

Have 3 separate mixing containers, 2 that are microwave safe. In the larger container, #1, add the shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, stearic acid and almond oil. Melt them using 1 minute increments, stirring between minutes. Stir until everything is melted, including the granules of stearic acid. In a small separate bowl melt the beeswax in 1 minute increments. Once melted, quickly blend into the other oils. In container #3 blend distilled water, corn starch and glycerin, then slowly blend everything into the deepest container, using stick blender or regular mixer. Make sure the container has deep sides and wear an apron! It helps to set the container in a bowl 1/2 full of ice, and blend constantly until it is blended and thickened. Pour into bottles or jars, allow to set.

The stearic acid is actually a palm vegetable product, it isn't a chemical, so this whole lotion is chemical-free lotion that is just yummy. I use it on my face as well as a body lotion.