It’s not all fun & games, lazy pool days & popsicles for breakfast while slowly overhauling the dining room here.   This morning, I got up, put a second coat on the walls (ain’t nothing left to do but the trim!!), packed some lunches, made a decent breakfast (and got it into her!) before dropping Edie off at her ‘mother’s helper’ gig at The Boar’s Head and then headed out to pick blueberries.

I’d had it on good authority that Seaman’s in Nelson was the place to pick blueberries this year, so I trekked down there, picked a quick 10 pounds, ran home in time to grab Edie from her mother’s helper gig at The Boar’s Head,  headed over to Washington Park Pool where we met up with friends and spent the rest of the afternoon.

As you can see, the fun & games is slightly contained between projects.  I even got two loads of towels done today because some people that live in this house think they need a fresh towel each & every time they go to the pool and hanging out at a pool that has a towel service has not helped me break this certain person of this habit, nor has it cut down on towel usage.

Sigh.  There’s at least a third load down there, but I’m out of laundry soap.

Over the course my day, I happened to have been sent the poster for the first in a series of classes I’ve lined up for Friendly City Food Co-op (check the newly renamed Classes & Swaps tab for info on all of my upcoming classes) over in Harrisonburg starting July 18.  You can see the poster here.   I think it’s marvelous.   I love that I’m called a ‘local food adventurer’.   It makes me sound almost exotic, don’t you think?  I used to think that a full meal served on a plane (like on our honeymoon to Costa Rica) was exotic even though the food itself was not always so good, the idea was lovely.  It made flying feel like a charming, fabulous adventure.  That’s how I feel about being called a local food adventurer – just delighted with the idea.  But am I really a food adventurer?

But then I started thinking that driving down to pick blueberries was an adventure of the local food sort and while I’m not planning on doing anything too adventurous with those berries besides freezing a few pounds and making a blueberry syrup per a certain heavy-towel user who glared at me as I ran through the options of what I could do with those berries, I just might try my hand at a wee batch of jam.  I do have 10 pounds after all.

And then I started thinking about all the other little experiments I have going on  – I’ve talked about my adventures in pickling strawberries (and really owe you all a part two, as there was a second round with those),  I recently made and neglected to blog about these lovely Lactopickled Rhubarb from Phickle (a really great fermenter’s blog that you should definitely check out if you are so inclined to try your hand at fermenting).  Having recently won myself the new “Cooking with Flowers: Sweet and Savory Recipes with Rose Petals, Lilacs, Lavender, and Other Edible Flowers” from that blog, I have been babbling about trying out a recipe I saw in that book for roasted daylilies that is supposed to resemble roasted asparagus.  I have multiple jars of unlabeled experiments in our fridge – fermenting & pickling as well as a small batch of jam or two.  So much so that lately, the idea of a second fridge just for that seems slightly appealing.  Last December, I blogged about making mincemeat – bear, pork AND venison versions.  I’ve recently come to the realization that while I tell all my canning students to follow the rules, follow the recipes, I have yet to meet a pickling recipe that I didn’t adapt and make my own.  I suppose I am adventurous now that I think about it.  Well I’ll be….