Summer and fresh produce

Home made raspberry lemonade

Our raspberry patch

Raspberry syrup on vanilla ice cream with nectarines

Pickled asparagus

Tomorrow is my last day in Seattle! On Saturday morning I fly to Alaska for the next six weeks. I thought I would be sad to be leaving the warm summer weather, but as it turns out, Seattle isn't having any of that and Kodiak is getting it all. So I'm good to go!

While I haven't exactly gotten to enjoy much heat during my first (half) summer in Seattle, I have gotten to enjoy the bounty of fresh produce. I've been buying as much of it as I can get my hands on and eating grilled veggies pretty much every night we are home. I stopped to think the other day about why I was so enthusiastic about the produce this summer, and not in other years. I realized that I usually spend my summer on some god forsaken remote island in the North Pacific or North Atlantic eating dried beans and pilot bread. I usually don't get the chance to shop for produce when most of it is in season. Even when I have been in "town" in Kodiak or even Fairbanks, the produce just doesn't quite look as good by the time it makes it all the way to Alaska. Nor is it as cheap.

I'm hoping I have time for one more canning venture tomorrow before I leave. Maybe apricot jam?