Firsts...

On Saturday August 1 we took the kids and some friends with us to Cascade to pick Huckleberries. It was their first time picking them. It was a beautiful day, hot but pretty and it was so relaxing to just sit in one spot for a half hour and just pick away. Once every few years the huckleberries come on thick and big and this happen to be one of those years. As you can see the ones in Raelene's hands they are very pretty and good sized. Ross and I picked for 5 hours and got almost 2 gallons that day. I did amazingly well considering and would have done better had I not tripped and fell on logs but I saved the berries!!

We went to Ross' parents house afterwards and Ross was able to help his dad with one of the Shire's hooves that night. And write this one down in history... Ross did not get hurt helping with horses that night! We enjoyed new potato and pea soup (which came from his parent's beautiful and LARGE garden) and then had homemade huckleberry ice cream for dessert. It was wonderful to see them and our nephew, David.




This was my first time making apricot-pineapple jam. My sweet neighbor gave us some apricots and so I wanted to make jam with them. I was thrilled that I was able to do it all on my own. I am enjoying canning (most definately the results) and the fruits of my labor... no punn intended..lol. This was our first purple bell pepper from our garden. I think they are beautiful.

These were our first tomatoes out of our garden, but I thought they looked better with other produce...

With the help of my kids we made Zucchini relish last friday for the first time. I used Ross' Mom's recipe. I am not a relish fan but I enjoy this recipe. It is yummy on meat and also as a tartar sauce. My neighbor made Macaroni Salad with zucchini relish and I had 4 helpings of it!

Then we made Huckleberry-Rhubarb jam yesterday for the first time. Ross' parents were so kind to give us some rhubarb and I wanted to make jam out of it. Also I made Huckleberry- Strawberry freezer jam for the first time yesterday. They all turned out so pretty and tasted so good too.

I am most grateful for all produce that Heavenly Father is blessing us with. I know I won't need to by jam for at least a year and I want to bless other's lives with this blessing too.