Fruits of Our Labor

The last five evenings have been busy picking blueberries and green garden peas.  One night peas, next night blueberries.  Why at night?  The sun has dropped behind the beautiful tall hills of Potter County.  Plus Clara is a very narrow valley with high hills on both sides.  We do have a view of Old Baldy, which by the way is no longer bald.  Kinda a reverse from old men, it grew a cover crop in it's old age :)  Now there is no difference from the hills to Old Baldy.  That is another blog...........on to the fruits of our labor. 


At night we pick before the dew has set in.  Never pick veggies when the plants are wet.  Why you ask?  I have no idea other than my dad, Uncle Orville and Bill Stavisky said so.  I will take their word for it.  So, that leaves early morning picking out because this time of the year we are laden with fog and heavy dew in the mornings.  If not..........then we will surely be in for rain.  Remember, dry grass in the morning, rain on the way.  Pick at night and in the morning we shuck peas, make sure there are no little bugs or stems in the blueberries.  The blueberries head straight to gallon freezer bags and then the freezer.  The peas are blanched in salt water, drained and spread on paper towels to get rid of the moisture then they are off to the gallon bags and freezer. 

The fruit was so heavy we had to tie up the branches.

Ready to clean and freeze.

One gallon of sweet tiny peas headed for the freezer.

I noticed little green beans starting which means next week beans will be added to the rotation.  They are not as quick and easy to put up.  We like canned beans and only put up a few frozen bags for soups and stews.  So far so good on the deer finding the garden.  I probably shouldn't have said that!


For the last week my true love, the zero turn lawn mower has been feeling quite under the weather.  It has been one thing after another with it.  First the bolts that hold the deck on pulled through the bracket on the front.  This caused the deck to swing around and end up under the right hind wheel.  I thought surely it was going to tip over but thank goodness stopped dead in it's tracks.  Well the hub was a little more than upset.  Nothing I dread more than saying, Dick, something is wrong with what ever I am running! Good thing I was brought up on a farm with 3 brothers, I understand the language. Seems like if something is going to go wrong with the power equipment around here, I am on it!.  The McCleaft boys did some fancy welding and got it going for me.  Sorta.....I was skimming across the lawn and thought I was in heaven, (that is how much I love a zero turn)  fast and furious with little to none weed whacking and trimming.  About 8 swipes and bam!  The thing started blowing smoke and lost power.  Off I jump, raise the seat and there is oil all over the place.  Gahhhhhh, why oh why?  His first response, it's done for........that was out of frustration.  Then he saw the look on my face and changed his tune.  Dick thought it maybe a plugged oil filter or some kind of a valve.  He started simple with an oil change, new filter and air filter.  Nope, it was something else.  Off to Kerry Mulkins he went.  Kerry knew exactly what it was, now my zero is at his shop and should be done by Saturday if all goes well.  Until then JD and I will take care of the lawn, slow and steady.


With all the things we needed fixed, ordered and bought the last few days it really has me thinking of how helpful so many are and most of them grew up right here in the Oswayo Valley area.  For instance, our 50th class reunion will be July 29th in the Shinglehouse Park.  The food will be prepared by a store owned by Tim and Natalie Harvey, Vickie Good Dietze is in charge of the deli and will make sure everything is perfect.  The band that will play on the 29th is from Olean but one of the members grew up in Shinglehouse, Cecil Voorhees.  The Shinglehouse Boro secretary is in charge of reservations for the park and she also grew up in Shinglehouse, Deb Voorhees Resig.  The McCleft's auto garage, they grew up here also and played Little League for Dick.  Kerry Mulkin, grew up here and his dad and mom were Dr. and Shirley Mulkins.  Many visits to his office in our early years.  We actually had 3 doctors in our little town for many years.  I love Sprout's Drug Store.  Joe Sprout was a wonder asset when he took over the pharmacy and now his son Ray has carried on the tradition for many years.  Life is pretty darn good in this rural remote area. From getting our hay each summer to buying gas and anything else it is great to have everything we need close at hand and offered by people we grew up with.  One more person entered our list of we need help.  My tablet charging port malfunctioned and needed replaced.  I took it to Roger Enstrom yesterday.  He summers at the home he grew up in on Water Street.  By accident last summer we saw him and he mentioned he repairs "techy" stuff as I call it.  Off I went and he said it would be a week or so and should be no problem and inexpensive.  If you are around my age or older you will recognize the Enstrom name.  They owned the Shinglehouse Show on Academy St. across from Freeborns and Chat and Chew.  Fun times, a movie theatre right in our little town.  As you can see, this has been a few weeks of calling on the locals for repairs, food, etc.  Love the Oswayo Valley people and area.