French Prune Plums

We have two French prune plum trees that are extremely productive. These prune plums are quite a delicacy in Europe, known as "sugarplums." We have been busy preparing the plums for drying in our dehydrators (halving them and removing the pits), and also making plum tarts, plum pie, plum jam, plum sorbet, and plum cake. We've also been giving away bags of these wonderful plums.

Above is an excellent photo (by plum-pitter extraordinaire, Jonathan) that depicts the stages of the plum-pitting process. We will certainly have enough dried plums for the winter!

Sunflower Watching Sunflower Motif

I woke up this morning and saw a new sunflower bloom in our vegetable garden. Above is a photo of what I saw: a sunflower seemed to be watching a terra cotta sunflower.

Below is a closer image of the two interacting:

Thistle bloom

A beautiful artichoke blossom!

Sunflowers

This summer the sunflowers are blooming awfully early! They are so cheery out in the vegetable garden. Today I planted some pole beans around some younger sunflowers.

Those chicks have grown...

Above is a photo of Lacey and her three chicks. You recall that they were hatched 5/10th, 11th and 12th. Lacey, the mom, is a lace-winged Wyandotte. The three fertile eggs were not hers but are bantam cochins. Here are the chicks with their "mom" around the asparagus bed.