ME II: strawberry jam, anyone?

· Maine Event

It was a beautiful blue day here with nary a cloud in the sky. Not too cold and not too warm. I woke up extra early without my personal alarm clock. I was out the door at 7am to hit the farmers' market for lettuce. Of course, I came away with more. Food prices are so high and there are so many crises happening due to climate change that one thing I'm more dedicated to than ever is trying to not waste any food. There are lots of systematic reasons why we waste food – this article outlines a few. There are also individual reasons why we waste food. One thing I'm guilty of is that I buy food and think I'm going to cook three meals a day, seven days a week and that doesn't always happen. I'm also taken in by the gloriousness of vegetables and end up with too many. This is specifically what I'm trying to tackle currently.

I think all of you know that I'm heavily into planning and one thing I'm trying to do is to build in days that are scavenger meals, where we make something up from what we have. We usually do that before we leave home for vacation or something, but to do that a couple of days of the week could be fun. I have plenty of friends that do that every time they cook but I usually plan it out and then buy things. It isn't an oyster day simply because I didn't want to open a dozen oysters by myself. One of the surprises at the market was the farm I get dry beans from among other things was also selling strawberries, raspberries, and cornmeal made from dent corn they grow. At some point, I want to make a side-by-side comparison of cornbreads using dent corn vs flint corn. Flint corn was the kind that Native Americans grew and it is harder and less starchy, dent is what is more widely grown commercially and it has a dent in the top. What can I say, I couldn't resist. It's kind of red. The strawberries were so so, but no one has strawberries outside of Spring here. I made two quarter-pints of very tasty fresh strawberry jam. It's really good. I'm looking forward to making cornbread.

strawberry jam
The strawberry jam turned out perfectly.
strawberries in Sept in Portland
Strawberries in September in Maine seems rather outrageous.
raspberries in a box
cippolini onions, beans, tomatoes
Kennebec Dent
Cornmeal from locally bred medium red dent corn. It is a cross between a blackish one and a yellow one.
fluffy black cat with a bit on white on a stair
Cats of Portland. This one asked for a moment to pose. 💙
Windows lit up in an old house
Love these curved windows.
sunset on the western prom
Sunset on the Western Prom. Dusk.

Have an extra sweet evening.

Sending love, Tawnia

And a combined Matt and Tawnia bird list today, merging Portland and Columbus:

  1. Common Grackle
  2. Northern Cardinal
  3. Blue Jay
  4. House Sparrow
  5. Herring Gull
  6. Rock Pigeon
  7. Mallard
  8. Canadian Goose
  9. European Starling
  10. American Crow