Wild fruit galore

As I mentioned before, this year the wild plums are producing abundantly. Last year, nada. This year ... holy cow.

We have a massive plum tree in our driveway.

The fruit was so heavy, I was afraid some of the branches would break.

The fruit often looked like clusters of big grapes.

I was describing this bounty of wild plums to a woman at our church, and she wanted to know if she could have some. You bet! In addition to our tree, I called a neighbor who has two abundantly fruitful trees right on the road and got permission to harvest some of his plums.

Between the neighbor's trees and our tree, our church friend went home with somewhere on the order of ten gallons of plums. The branches of our trees are a lot lighter.

And that's not all. Now the apples are maturing. They're not ripe yet, but they're getting there.

We have several venerable apple trees on our property, trees we had professionally trimmed (back when we had money) in an effort to bring them back into productivity. The trees are producing heavily, though the apples are still fairly small. However they're delicious.

There are also thousands upon thousands of wild apple trees in our region.

But wait, there's more! We also have blackberries. Lots and lots of blackberries.

Again, last year, this ubiquitous fruit yielded nothing. Zip, zilch, zero, nada. This year, as with the plums, it's making up for lost time. While we have some outlier berries already ripening, most won't get ripe until late August through mid-September.

Personally I hate blackberries. Not the fruit itself (that's delicious!), but how aggressively the vines spread. There are whole hillsides and pastures taken over by blackberries. That was one nice thing about our last home; we didn't have any blackberries around us.

But say what you will, we live in a spot that has wild fruit galore. It benefits the wildlife immeasurably. That's a lot to be thankful for ... even with blackberries.

Spider web

In the slats near our yard gate a few evenings ago, I noticed the sun highlighting a tiny but nearly perfect spider web.

It couldn't have been more than three inches across, with the spider in the center (of course).

The next morning, the spider was gone and the web was in tatters. It's good to stop and notice things like this when they happen. Nature is amazing.

Ah, cool water

It's late July. That means heat. Lots of heat.

After a four-hour blueberry-picking marathon yesterday (I started in the morning, broke for lunch, and concluded in the afternoon), Older Daughter proposed a novel idea: To take a couple of lawn chairs and books, and go dangle our feet in a nearby river. I thought that sounded like a splendid idea, so off we went.

We found a spot and set up our chairs.

The river was very calm and beautiful, and the water was juuuust the right temperature: Cool, not cold.

I tried to photograph a fish (the dark shape in the center of the photo) in the lee of a rock, but the pic didn't turn out too well.

I had my camera out, trying to photograph a dragonfly (without much success)...

...when a bald eagle swooped by and landed on a sandbar some distance away.

It stayed on the shore for a good fifteen minutes. Once in a while it took a sip of water from the river, but otherwise it just sat there.

Finally it heaved itself into the air...

...and took off down the river.

We came home feeling enormously refreshed after the day's heat. Ah, cool water. What a concept.

Product Review Monday

This week's book review emphasizes safe canning.

As most readers know, I'm a passionate canner. I'm also passionate about safe canning. To that end, this week I would like to extravagantly recommend what I'm calling my "new canning bible": The USDA's "Complete Guide to Home Canning."

Each chapter has a comprehensive table of contents. The chapters cover:

• Principles of Home Canning

• Selecting, Preparing, and Canning Fruit and Fruit Products

• Selecting, Preparing, and Canning  Tomatoes and Tomato Products

• Selecting, Preparing, and Canning Vegetables and Vegetable Products

• Preparing and Canning Poultry, Red Meats, and Seafoods

• Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables

• Preparing and Canning Jams and Jellies

Each chapter is color coded, and the guidelines for each food item are detailed and easy to follow.

In short, if anything could be called a canning "bible," "The Complete Guide to Home Canning" is it. Highly recommended for both novice and experienced canners.

_____________________________

This week's product review features the solution to an annoying problem.

A couple of years ago, I noticed a large wolf spider on our bathroom floor. Because it was right against the baseboard, it was difficult to catch. I tried placing a (round) cup against the (square) right-angle of the floor and baseboard, and of course the spider evaded me with ease and disappeared behind the toilet.

I remember the frustration of that moment, because right away I went to the computer and started doing an internet search for bug-catchers, something that would let me live-catch them and wouldn't harm the critter. When spiders or wasps or even moths get into the house, I don't want to kill them; I only want them out of the house. Surely there was some sort of contraption that would work for a catch-and-release program?

Well, I found it: Something called "My Critter Catcher."

I had no particular expectations for this gizmo. When it arrived, I was amused to see it came with a plastic spider so I could "practice" catching arachnids.

Well, by golly it works. I've caught spiders, moths, wasps, beetles, flies, and various other insects and arachnids. The long handle makes it easy to reach high places. The nylon bristles hold the critter firmly but gently, and I can carry it outside and release it unharmed.

Here's the bristles in the closed position:

And in the open position:

The Critter Catcher has its limitations. It only works on hard surfaces (floors, walls, ceilings) and not soft surfaces (curtains, carpets). It works moderately well on screens, though since screens have a bit of "give," sometimes it takes several tries.

If you prefer to live-catch critters rather than outright killing them, this is the tool for you.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, we earn a small commission.)

(Don't forget: A complete list of all our book and product recommendations are linked here and at the upper-right column of the blog.)

New cover art!

This morning I was sent the final cover art for an upcoming (March 2026) Love Inspired release entitled "The Amish Baker's Redemption." I love it!

It's always a chancy thing whenever I see that email in my inbox with the prototype for cover art. Harlequin's Art Department does their absolute best, and they deal with hundreds and hundreds of covers across many different lines over the course of a year.

Some of my covers have been "okay," and some have been spectacular. While this cover is not my Number One favorite, it's close.

I've heard chatter on the Love Inspired forum about authors who were terribly disappointed by their cover art. One woman, who had written a suspense set in a Western state, received a cover with a Western-themed ranch setting in the background, and a rattlesnake (coiled and ready to strike) featured prominently in the foreground of the image. The cover was meant to convey some menacing event experienced by the heroine in the book, but instead it was an ophidophobic's nightmare. As a result, her sales for that book were terrible (anyone with a fear of snakes literally wouldn't even pick the book off the shelf).

Thankfully, I've never had anything even remotely that bad. For the vast majority, I'm very pleased with the cover art I've been assigned. This one is especially nice. So kudos to HQ's Art Department.

It's "Very Important"

Don received this spam email which made us both laugh:

Hello,

 

My apologies for this unsolicited approach. I would like to discuss something very important regarding your last name, is it possible we can discuss it here?

 

Your swift response will be appreciated

 

Kind Regards

Eddy

Wow! Eddy wants to discuss something very important regarding the highly uncommon surname "Lewis." What could it be? (insert "thinking cap" emoji)

Making butter

Ever since we started milking Maggie, I was looking forward to trying one of our more cherished acquisitions: A butter churn.

This marvelous contraption has been parked on top of our hoosier for about two years, ready and waiting.

This butter churn is pricey – somewhere on the order of $200 – and as far as I know, it's only available at Lehman's (which I believe manufactures it). I've been coveting this churn for a long time. About two years ago, I proposed to swap some writing for it, and the swap was accepted.

And then there it sat: Waiting, waiting, waiting...

At last I had the opportunity to try it. I had saved up a bit under a gallon of cream, then let it sit on the kitchen counter overnight to "ripen." (This is the second of two half-gallon jars; I didn't think to photograph both jars together until too late.)

I churned the butter in two batches, since the gallon jar of the churn isn't supposed to be more than about half-full (to give everything room to expand).

The handle of this churn turns easily. I timed it: It takes 12 minutes to churn the cream into butter.

I poured and scooped everything into a cloth-lined colander.

Then it's time for the most tedious and time-consuming step: Washing the butter, which gets rid of the buttermilk. (Yes, buttermilk can be saved for other purposes, but I didn't do that this time. Keep in mind fresh buttermilk is different than the cultured buttermilk available commercially. It's very thin and milk-like, rather than thick.) At this stage, the butter is very loosey-goosey, and since it's hydrophobic, it's a matter of endlessly filling a bowl with cold water, squishing the butter around, then pouring off the water/buttermilk combo. Rinse and repeat, literally. Again and again and again.

Can you see the cloudiness of the liquid? That's buttermilk still coming out of the butter, making the water look white.

This is the point where I use another Lehman's tool, one I purchased on my first visit to the store: A curved butter paddle. This is an aid for pressing buttermilk out of butter. It's been sitting in our hoosier for ten years, waiting its turn. Now at least I could put it to use. (It works great!)

Washing butter takes about 30 or 40 rinses until the water runs clear. After that, it's a matter of squishing the butter to extract any remaining water.

From this batch, starting with about 1.75 quarts of cream, I got about 2.25 lbs. of butter.

By some suggestions, butter should be left out for another few hours, then worked again to pull out any remaining water. I covered the butter with a plastic bowl cover during this time.

Then it was time to wash up.

The next morning, I pressed the butter one last time to extract any remaining water, then added salt. I kept forgetting how much salt to add, so I finally wrote it on a tiny piece of tape and stuck it on the kitchen window frame: 3/8 teaspoon per pound.

For what I don't put in the fridge for immediate use, I freeze. For freezing, I plop about half a pound of butter onto some waxed paper, wrap it, and slip that into a plastic bag, which I then tuck into the freezer.

All spare cream is going into butter at this point. (I'm not making cheese yet; I still need a cheese press!) Homemade butter is delicious and easy. I'll make all I can – while I can.