The First Vegetable Harvest

Good morning, my friends. It was a momentous day yesterday. I was able to harvest the first zucchini from the vegetable garden. We’re starting with the small ones while they’re still defenseless.

Those were shredded, and then I added a cup of blueberries to make this Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Buttercream. This is how it looked when it came from the oven. And let me just point out that this is a cake made with fruit and vegetables. It’s gotta be healthy, right? I’ve linked to the recipe, but know that I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8 x 8 pan.

After it cooled, I frosted it with a lemon buttercream frosting. This frosting is to die for. The cake isn’t much of a looker.

But when we cut into it, it was pretty inside. You can see some flecks of zucchini.

Also on the baking schedule yesterday was another round of these Granola Cups. As it turns out, we really like these. I had some problems with them last time around, and so I made some adjustments this time. For one thing, I used this muffin pan that once belonged to my grandmother. It only makes nine muffins, but they are larger than the standard 12-muffin pan. They looked like this when they came from the oven. While they were hot, I used a small ladle to press on the centers, molding them into a bowl shape.

Then, I gave them some time to cool. When they were reasonably cool, I popped them into the refrigerator and waited another 20 minutes. About half of them came out in one piece after that.

The rest fell apart as I took them from the pan. I want to try it again, only this time, I think I’ll try putting them into the freezer for 15 minutes before I try taking them out of the pan. As Mike would say, it needs more practice.

During one of my wait times, I snuck out to the garden to see if the Bumble Rumble had bloomed. Ooooh…it is so close, but not quite there yet. Maybe today.

But the other dahlias are dazzling me. I’ve never seen so many flowers on these plants.

Just to their right, I noticed the purple poppy is hanging its head, as poppies do before they bloom. I thought I might be fooling myself with this, and maybe it’s really just a weed. Seeing it like this, I’m almost 100% certain it’s going to be a purple poppy.

Around the front of the house, I noticed some blooms on the “hens and chicks.” These used to be more visible until the wild strawberries we planted for ground cover inundated them. They’re still putting up flowers, though.

Here’s another one over here. 

Here are some of the “hens” peeking out from under the strawberries.

They have a Dr. Seuss-type flower. Here’s how it looks from the top.

These were given to us by some dear friends as a house-warming gift. They were a married couple, Larry and Tracy, and they’ve both passed away at this point, and much too young. I’d like to get up enough energy to pull some of the strawberries out and give the hens and chicks some breathing room. I can’t see them without thinking of Larry and Tracy, and so I’d like to maintain them as a memorial to our friends.

Okay with my kitchen and garden duties complete, I quilted another row on the Shop Hop quilt. That’s three rows down, two to go.

Now I’m at the top of the quilt, and I’ve turned it around to keep the bulk on the table. From here, I’ll have to do the quilting upside down and backwards. It shouldn’t be hard.

Next I was ready to work on the third block for Across the Wide Missouri. The third block is dedicated to this woman, who went by the name of Kate Carmack. Here's a picture of her.

Born in the Klondike she was a member of the Tagish tribe, and known as Shaaw Tláa. She spent her childhood in south-central Yukon. Native Tagish, Shaaw Tláa was one of eight children born into an arranged marriage between the coastal Tlingit people and the Tagish to formalize trading partnerships.

During our trip to Alaska last year, we passed through the area that was inhabited by the Tlingit.  You can read my blog post about our travels right here. Shaaw Tláa’s first husband, a Tlingit man, and their infant daughter died during an influenza epidemic. Her sister also died during the epidemic. After that, her mother encouraged her to marry her deceased sister’s husband, as was tradition in their culture. He was a white man named George Carmack. After marrying him, she took the name of Kate Carmack.

In 1896, while traveling in remote Canada with her husband, her brother Keish (Skookum Jim), and Ka'a Goox (Dawson Charlie), the group discovered a significant amount of gold as they stopped to fish along Rabbit Creek, a small tributary of the Klondike River. While debate remains about who first made the discovery of the claim, it was staked by George Carmack, the only white member of the group. There is some controversy about who actually spotted the gold first. It is believed that she was the first to discover the nugget, but she had two strikes against her: (1) she was a native, and (2) she was a woman. On the other hand, her own biographer gives credit to Kate’s brother, Skookum Jim. News of this gold quickly spread and ignited the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. 

For the first year after the big discovery of gold, little changed in their lives. She and George worked their rich mining claim for two seasons. In their cabin, she kept house, cared for their daughter and took in laundry. She sewed moccasins and warm winter clothing to sell to other miners and helped provide meals for her family by picking berries and trapping rabbits and ptarmigan. The uncaptioned image below was in my book, and I'm assuming this is where they lived.

The block in the book includes fish because fishing was their primary source of income prior to the discovery of gold. Sadie helped me choose a background. She doesn't care much for fish...they're too slimy and wet. She purrfers mice, if you please.

The book pictures a tan background. This one made me think of water.

I spent the rest of my sewing day constructing the fish and fusing them to the background.

They still need top-stitching, and I'm hoping to finish that today.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to finish off the Love Sampler. 

Eventually, I'll add some borders and turn it into a little wall hanging.

Okay, on today’s agenda, I need to hoe the garden again and I need to water the flower pots. It’s been warm here, and I’m sure the flowers would appreciate a drink. No doubt the bird feeders are empty as well. I’ll be taking the first stitches on the final twelve Tiny Treasures blocks, and I’ll get back to my quilting and top-stitching. It’s going to be a heavy gardening and sewing day.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you’re avoiding the heat where you are. We ran the A/C for only the third time so far this summer, but we’re expecting more warm weather. It’s a good time to hang out in the meat locker that doubles as my sewing room. The A/C keeps it nicely cool in the basement. Despite it’s being July and hot, I’ll be wearing my sweatshirt to keep warm.