This has been a very busy week filled with family blessings and Serendipity Farmhouse abundance. Here are some pictures and brief descriptions of what we did. One or two incidences of unusual disaster or hilarity (depending on your point of view) will be related in greater detail in special posts.

22 July, Monday: Monday, was indeed a day of blessing. Daughter #1 came to visit us for

two days. She is a delightful, charming, and beautiful person filled with good humor and great “curiosity”. She is deeply interested in all the serendipitous happenings here at SFH. On this day, she learned her first secrets of “Daring Dairy”. She is now fully certified in making SFH Butter.

23 July, Tuesday: On the second day of Daughter #1’s visit, she participated in making fresh pesto with ingredients from the SFH Herb Garden. Almost immediately after that meal was completed she was initiated into the ranks of goat milk cheese makers. She helped in many ways and said, “It was stirring experience.”

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24 July, Wednesday: A family friend, possessing many interesting skills, including a well trained palate recently told us that, while he greatly appreciates the flavors found in G&G’s Serendipitous Salsa, he suspects that it would become an even more exiting treat with the addition of more hot spices. There it was – there was the challenge. So on this day the soon-to-be world famous SFH Test Kitchen created Karl’s “Bad!” Salsa, V1.0. The new recipe now includes Jalapeno, Cow Horn, and Habanero peppers (and all their hot little seeds!). A total of seven pint jars were produced. Should our friend decide that the recipe requires even more spices, we are prepared to produce Karl’s “Bad!” Salsa, V2.0.

25 July, Thursday: This day was filled with errands and yard work.

26 July, Friday: On this day the SFH Test Kitchen produced four pint jars of Peter’s Pickled Okra. Let us just say the process did not run smoothly. We will save that story for an upcoming post now being drafted by Blondie and Mr. Monte – it will be a scorcher.

27 July, Saturday: With the bountiful crop of tomatoes this year, the SFH Test Kitchen is being hard pressed to keep up with canning. On this day, the Test Kitchen produced six pint jars of the ever-popular G&G’s Pasta Sauce. Fortunately, there were no repeats of the disaster that occurred on Friday. (Well almost. Mr. Monte and Old Fuzz Face spent a night in the RV together. While not technically a disaster, two alpha males in an RV overnight can be a rather touchy situation.)

28 July, Sunday: Sunday, of course, was/is our day of rest. Beautiful spouse picked 18 huge Big Beef tomatoes. When the simple chores were completed, we gave our family friend a jar of his very own Karl’s “Bad!” Salsa, V1.0. We look forward to his review of the new recipe. In the pictures below, note the size of the tomato bushes and the size and weight of the tomatoes. Several of these Big Beef tomatoes are well in excess of a pound.

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There it was – a wonderful week filled with creativity and excitement.

So, as we settle into another heat wave and week of work, chores, harvesting, and preserving, we recognize that all of these things and all of these wonderful people in our lives are to be seen as “Blessings & Abundance”.

SFH by the Numbers – Facts & Statistics

SFH Plantings: See SFH 2019 Plantings

SFH Harvest: See SFH 2019 Harvest

SFH Preserving: See SFH 2019 – Preserving – Food for Tomorrow

SFH WX Station Report – Monthly: See SFH Weather Summaries & Statistics

SFH WX Station Report – Weekly: See SFH WX 2019-07-22 through 28