Port Potager

We're definitely ants around here. The Ant and the Grasshopper  From ''The Æsop for Children'', by  Æsop  Project Gutenberg etext 19994 http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19994 You know, the hardworking ones who spend their summer storing up grain for winter while the grasshopper plays and sings in the sunshine. That grasshopper always seems to be the star of the show in that fable, even though at the end he's shivering and starving and has to beg for some food that he was too lazy to put up for himself. In the illustration, the grasshopper seems far more human than the conformist ants, who literally look up to him, even though they stick to the task at hand. It's like they can't help but admire that grasshopper in spite of themselves. In the mean, old-fashioned version of story, the ants tell the grasshopper to get lost and go dancing to keep himself warm. We're not meant to really like those ants, even though they're right. In t...

Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, all-hallown summer! ~Henry IV, Part I, Act 1, scene 2 It's the last night of summer vacation, and I'm sitting up — later than I should — to squeeze out the last drops of it before I go back to work tomorrow (I'm a teacher for money and a farmer for love). We had a last-hurrah Labor Day cookout tonight — burgers, caprese salad, and a ginger cucumber salad (we're still trying to work our way through all the tomatoes and cukes!). But the very best of all was dessert: homemade strawberry ice cream! I spent the last month or so hoarding, puréeing, and freezing most of our strawberry crop until I finally had four cups of gorgeous, red strawberry sauce:  I saved so much so that we could have strawberry ice cream at Tiegan's birthday party. This recipe made almost a gallon, so we had enough for kids and parents alike, and we still have some leftover for the rest of the holiday weekend — a sweet way to say ...