Yesterday was the 24th of July, a very Utah holiday. Neal and I decided that to celebrate the entrance of the pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, we would eat delicious corn. We call it Mexican corn, but please don't be offended if you are Mexican and don't eat the corn. I have no other name for it! In case you've never tried it, all you need is corn, mayo, queso fresco, and some chili powder. It's fantastic...and has nothing to do with pioneers. Oh well, at least we celebrated somehow.
Probably my favorite part of the day was trying to organize some of the canning we've done this summer. By we, I mostly mean Neal. I've been busy teaching, tutoring, thesis-researching, and planning for fall semester. I'm a bit jealous of his schedule, but I also know that in a few weeks everything will change. Anyways, we had boxes of bottled fruits in the spare room and I wanted them out! Well, at least out of the middle of the floor. After much consideration, we cleared out the top shelf of the pantry and crowded almost everything there. Ten quarts of carrots, ten apricot nectar, two plum juice, sixteen jam jars of strawberry (and two pints because we ran out of jam-size), thirteen pints of apricot syrup, seven pints of plum syrup, five quarts of apricot sauce and two of plum sauce. It's a lot of food, especially the syrup. But hey, the apricots and strawberries were free (thanks Mom and Grandma!) and everything else was a Bountiful Basket deal.
My other favorite part of the day was when my mother called to say she picked some more apricots from Grandma's and now we also have two batches of apricot jam. It made my day!
As we drove home from dinner and a movie at some friends', we decided we'd alter our celebrations in the future. Instead of just celebrating the first party of pioneers, we'd look up our ancestors and figure out when they entered the valley. That way our celebration is more personal.
We only found one ancestor so far. Her name was Patty Bartlett Sessions. And she didn't come to the valley until September. Well, maybe in September we'll pull out some more corn. :)
Although I already mentioned this last week, I still can't get over how grateful I am that Neal found a job. He probably gets tired of me continually mentioning it, but every day I thank the Lord. In case any of you are curious, he will be teaching three sections of secondary three, two of secondary two honors, and modern math. I don't actually know what all of those titles mean yet, since they reference the Common Core, but I have no doubts he will be fantastic. The one piece of sad news is that Neal starts work two weeks before school, which gives us a grand total of one week where neither of us work. Bleck! Well, we'll just have to enjoy that week for all it's worth. And I'll try my best not to overtake it with cleaning and organizing frenzies. I had no idea how difficult it was to organize a two bedroom apartment with only two people living in it. I've got a bad feeling for the state of my future house when children come along.
It seems today's blog has been somewhat of a discussion on food, so here are some pictures of my 'harvest' so far!
The many varieties of plums (ten total) we bottled
Handsome Neal, showing off his skills and bottle lifting (and his dashing beard)
Carrots!
Most of the apricots we picked...but there were more!
Our kale starters, since we plan on growing them year-round
the top shelf of my pantry, packed full
Apricot syrup is the prettiest, I think
Nectars
Our first batch of Sweet 100 tomatoes. They are incredibly delicious!
the current kale plant
lavender with a backdrop of thyme
of course peppermint!
Sorry if you aren't into the pictures thing, but heck, I need some motivation to actually document the beauty around me!
