This Week’s Old-Fashioned Pleasures: June 2-8, 2018

Time for some old-fashioned good stuff…

This week, I’ve been enjoying:

  1. Rhubarb

    Rhubarb close up
    It is the queen of fruit-that-isn’t-a-fruit, and I cannot get enough.

    At present, I have acquired 11 pounds of rhubarb, and I’m not done. Eventually, I’ll can it, but it’s tucked in the freezer for safekeeping. I discovered I have a bit of a hoarding problem, as there was still a quart of cherry-rhubarb pie filling in the back of the freezer, which I rather sheepishly made into a cobbler.

  2. My secret garden

    An impressionistic view of my little fire escape spot. 

    Our fire escape, like many in Chicago, is almost a porch. There’s room for a chair and some flower pots, and I’m very pleased with my little collection of impatiens, petunias, coleus, and begonias. I have vastly improved the view out of my kitchen window.

  3. My actual garden

    Kale, chard, thyme.
    A small harvest of greens and thyme, with promises of more to come.

    A few blocks away, 4×8, full sun, and all mine, my little community garden plot is doing quite well this year. I’m regularly harvesting greens and radishes, and everything else is looking good, for the most part.

  4. Composting

    Keeping food out of the trash (Photo by Thomas Dils on Unsplash)

    I finally have a compost bucket and derive a truly astonishing amount of joy from putting food scraps into it.

    What old-fashioned things are soothing your soul this week?