Flowers and Followers

 The irises are blooming! First in purple

 and then in yellow. Now, if the slugs will just leave them alone!

 The lupines are standing at attention and attracting lots of pollinators. Yeah!

The red rhodie has also bloomed. The garden is full of beautiful colors.

We've had a busy couple of weekends with Greenfest and the Folklife festival. My friend Lisa and I  danced the day away at Folklife on Memorial Day. We tried Zydeco, Cajun, and Scottish dancing. I got home barely able to move, and then Ari wanted to go Irish dancing! I managed one more hour of jumps and kicks! It was soooo much fun! This weekend, we caught up with our family friend, Ellie, and her lovely new baby girl, Charlie, at Greenlake.

We love that it is local farmer's market season again. Two of my favorite things at the market lately are the sustainably caught local tuna from the folks aboard the St. Jude and the beautiful recycled Scrabble tile charms from Ponder Press. Most of the warmer weather produce isn't available yet due to our especially wet and cool spring, but the market is alive with rhubarb, asparagus, lettuces, onions, spinach. The upside of the down weather is that the cool crops, normally done by now, are still going strong. Ah, I love silver linings!

Anni made pasta noodles with her school chums today with the hand crank pasta machine. They were delish! Last night, Alex and I gave the machine a turn making lots and lots of mushroom ravioli. We had it for dinner, topped with a very old Italian recipe for tomato sauce. Yum, yum, yum! Here's the recipe:

Ye Olde Italian Tomato Sauce:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion quartered
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
1 stick of butter
1 LARGE can of San Marzano Tomatoes. These tomatoes are definitely NOT local, but are very Italiano. (Substitute at your own peril)
1/3 cup of dry Italian red wine

1) In a sturdy large pot (I used the crockpot), heat the olive oil over medium low. Add the onion and garlic. Turn to very low and cook for 1 hour (why the crockpot works!)
2) Add the butter, cook another hour.
3)Add the Tomatoes, cook another hour or two.
4) While to sauce is cooking, be sure to peek and stir occasionally. You want it to be barely at a simmer.
4) Just before serving, stir in wine.

Serve over your favorite pasta. You will find this sauce is a true burst of rich tomato with a creamy consistency. It's decadently terrific!

Finally, a big shout out to all the folks who've been checking out the blog! We love to check the stats and see where folks are a viewing us. Many blessings!