Weeds and Seeds

Weeds. As our flood approached low tide the mud underneath it did an unforeseen thing; it dried up! Thursday night I actually walked on the dirt that adjoins our neighbor’s property. This momentous occasion required some sort of celebration. I headed into the garage and grabbed my gloves. About an hour later I had pulled enough thriving weeds to create four quite large piles of conquered invaders. It was a good feeling to look out the kitchen window and actually see the rock wall Paul had built since I hadn’t been able to see beyond the swamp and jungle for a while. This was also good for my body. It was enough work that I was slightly sore but not debilitated the next day. What a great feeling! I had previously tried starting up my workouts again since I had passed that six-week postpartum mark, and let’s just say my body wasn’t ready (I won’t go into details). The weeds were my opportunity to feel like I had done something useful with myself that did not have anything to do with the kids (kids are awesome and well worth the effort, but we all know a mom needs something else every once in a while).

Seeds. I had heard about an amazing berry ranch that includes “pick-your-own berries” at a very nice price, but without enough details to actually go and check it out (like the minor detail of where it is—turns out it is just down the highway about 4 miles). I finally looked it up and found their website. I hit the jackpot!! The raspberry crop was just about finished and happens to be my favorite fruit, so we headed over to get one of the few remaining flats of freshly-picked raspberries they had as my brain churned with thoughts of the many uses of raspberries. I decided to get my head on straight and keep it simple. I had never before made jam, so that was first on the list. I strained out some of the seeds to make my freezer jam and it turned out delicious! I was so pleased that it turned out so well. I also strained out many more seeds to make raspberry cheesecake, which is just heavenly. I now truly appreciate that raspberries have seeds in them. If they didn’t it would be way too popular of a berry and my time on Friday would have been spent doing something much less monotonous than straining out pureed raspberries. I am so glad that many people cannot see past the seeds to how delicious these berries really are and that I am one of those people who can. They are delicious.