csa days: boxes the sixth and seventh

 For as much as our farmers have been struggling this growing season, we CSA folks have been getting some unusual and fun things in our boxes!  Much appreciated!

Our sixth box contained a carton of blackberries (likely the last of the summer), a big head of cauliflower, a cantaloupe, tomatillos (!!), two ears of corn, a couple of chonky pears, two green peppers, a couple of peaches and one apple.  The berries and corn were consumed right away; the melon was chunked up for immediate consumption as well.  The peaches took a couple of days to ripen and the pears took a full week, but were really very good - and this coming from someone who doesn't prefer pears at all.  The tomatillos and peppers (plus a small zucchini and summer squash that were languishing in the crisper drawer) were eventually cooked down into a nicely spicy enchilada sauce for the freezer.  And that giant cauliflower (would rather have broccoli but better than more dang squash) was cut into florets, blanched and frozen for future use.

Psyched about those tomatillos

Box #7 had a couple more peaches (not yet ripe as of this posting), a couple of pears (ditto), a couple of nectarines (tart and sweet), small orange and red bell peppers, larger green peppers (love to get peppers - we use a lot of those), two ears of corn, a teeny zucchini, two tomatoes (!) about fifteen brussels sprouts (!!), another cauliflower, an onion and a cantaloupe.  The melon was cut immediately and eaten (good but it suffered in comparison to the Krenshaw melon we picked up in Green River) and the rest of the fruit was eaten as it ripened.  The corn: eaten day of, and better than the prior week.  The sprouts were blanched and frozen for future use - I'm picturing a big tray of roasted veg this winter.  And my hopes for this smaller cauliflower are to transform it into vegan buffalo wings, if it cools down enough to turn the oven on.  If not: florets, blanched, frozen.

Fun little peppers

csa day: box the fifth

 Got some high value stuff in this box (although I was sure we were supposed to get a melon too ...): green beans, sugar snap peas, a couple heads of broccoli, two cartons of blueberries, one carton of blackberries, a red onion, one each of zucchini and summer squash (sigh), big fat peaches, some donut peaches and a couple of ears of corn.

Request to double the berries and

halve the squash (wishful thinking)

As per usual, the corn and green beans got eaten post-haste.  The blackberries too - we snarfed those down quick (they're H's favorite).  The pea pods went to that tofu, rice and ginger sauce recipe; and half the broccoli went to a red pepper, tofu and rice noodle dish with a hoisin-peanut butter sauce.  Some of the blueberries went into morning oatmeal and the rest were snacked on - they were only okay but it's obvious that Maine blueberries are the best blueberries.  And the peaches were delicious just eaten on their own - no need to cook them down into pie filling this time.

csa days: boxes the third and fourth

 Ask any Utah farmer (of human food, not the alfafa farmers who take more than their fair share of water, grow hay and sell it to China for their cattle) and they'll tell you that 2026 has been a rough year.  The super warm March that caused the stone fruit trees to blossom early, only to lose those blooms - and nearly the whole stone fruit crop - with subsequent hard frosts.  The little-to-no rain we've had.  And now the really hot summer with multiple triple-digit temperatures in northern Utah, making the food crops ready faster, but also shortening the season for cooler weather veg, like lettuces.  Even now, the green beans and corn are tougher sooner.  But I'm still proud to support local growers through our CSA and am excited every week to see what we get in our boxes.  It encourages creativity in meal planning and keeps money local.

Regular carrots this time

Our third box had a good, if on the verge of overripe, cantaloupe, carrots, apricots, donut peaches, green beans, five (!) ears of corn, a cucumber, a zucchini and sugar snap peas.  We ate the corn and beans ASAP, of course; and had the peas, still in their pods, sauteed in a ginger sauce with tofu and rice.  The melon and cucumber got eaten and the stone fruit was flash-frozen for baking later.

I prefer regular watermelon to yellow,

but we'll make it work

Box #4 contained a yellow watermelon, a cantaloupe, four ears of corn, green beans, pickling cucumbers, a couple of squashes, regular peaches and donut peaches.  Again, the corn and beans were consumed immediately.  The melons were chunked up and about half the watermelon was flash-frozen for margaritas, while the rest were eaten - sweet enough for dessert.  The squashes were shredded and flash-frozen (I'm imagining zucchini bread, cornbread filled with zucchini and zucchini fritters, all when it gets cool enough to cook).  Still haven't come up with something for the little cukes: there are only a handful of them, so maybe a very small batch of refrigerator pickles.

csa day: box the second

 The CSA folks have said that produce is coming in fast and furious, ahead of schedule because of the intense heat.  The lettuce is pretty much done, bolting in the heat, and the corn is a couple of weeks early.  On the plus side, we did get some of that local lettuce, which is nice what with the current diarrhea parasite infesting bagged lettuce throughout the U.S. right now.  (This is the dumbest timeline.)

We got: a huge head of romaine lettuce, cherries, sugar snap peas, apricots, two bunches of green onions, four zucchinis (sigh), three summer squashes (double sigh), rainbow carrots and two corns.  I gave away a couple of zucchinis and squashes (seeing how we still had some from last week) and then shredded and froze 3.5 cups of additional zucchini.  I shelled and froze the peas (I know you can eat the pods but I prefer shelled peas) and the carrots.  And then we ate everything else fresh - it's too hot to cook.

Those are some funky carrots

pump up the jam

Sunday was perhaps even more soporific than Saturday (are you noting the ironic post titles?).  I really did intend to go up to Alta, to see if any flowers had started and at least get some non-walking-around-the-neighborhood content, but I really, really didn't want to drive.  Gas is so expensive, y'all.  And I drive 30 miles a day during the week for my commute - it's not the longest commute but it's long enough.

Tall grasses

It was less busy on our Dimple Dell walk (church people gotta go to church) but we did meet a couple of nice dogs.  And the bird-watching was good: a couple of western bluebirds, some hummingbirds and that black and white fellow from my last post that I couldn't identify, along with all the usual suspects (jays, doves, California quails, finches, chickadees, etc.).  Milton had an exciting encounter with a dog-savvy cat on the other side of a chainlink fence, plus four squirrels, so I think you can say it was a successful walk all around.

While we were doing that, H was sweeping out the garage (not that it needed it oh my heck), mowing the lawn and doing laundry.  I did some food prep (overnight oats and green smoothies for the next two days; a batch of arugula pesto, because I bought an enormous bag of arugula from Trader Joe's; and tahini sauce to go with falafel (more Trader Joe's ) for dinner.

The sunflowers are coming!

It was beautiful all weekend, a little windy maybe, but sunny and bright and not too hot, not yet.  Sunday evening saw us doing a little more tailgating, just to bug the neighbors.  Gotta keep the standards low around here, don't you know.

rager

 I had big plans going into this latest weekend.  We were staying put in SLC once again, but I was fixing to hit the Capital City Antique Mall on my way home from work on Friday, then swing by the neighborhood* Catholic church's annual indoor garage sale Saturday morning, and even drive up to Alta for a non-Dimple Dell walk, since there's not really any snow lingering up there.  But when I cut out of work a little early Friday, I didn't feel like shopping - so there went the antiques place.  And on Saturday, after Milton's and my walk, I just couldn't face being with people - so there went the church garage sale.  I've got some travel coming up and so I just want to be home now.  

So M and I did our Dimple Dell walk, getting out on Saturday around 6:30 a.m., to take advantage of the cool morning; there were lots of other dog walkers and runners out there too.  Back at home, I washed windows, weeded a little, swept the patio and put out the patio furniture while (a) Milton basked in the sun on the driveway and (b) H worked on some bike repair, after his commuter RadPower bike blew an innertube on his way home Friday.

Bigger than a chickadee, slightly smaller

than a robin, loud three-note (short/short/long)

song.  Name that bird (because I can't)?

After doing all the prep work for dinner (Mediterranean lentil salad, sub sunflower seeds for pistachios), we turned the lawn sprinklers on finally (it's very, very dry, but we are determined to water only enough to keep our one shade tree alive) and tailgated for a little bit, keeping an eye on World Cup scores via the BBC.

* So many churches within walking distance in our neighborhood: three Mormon churches, a Lutheran church and the Catholic church.

more city livin'

 Another SLC weekend that was busy enough that it flew by, but nothing much to share.  It got hot-hot-hot for the end of the week into the weekend, too hot for M to accompany me on any after-work walks  Saturday was rather unpleasant, actually, getting up above 90F by midafternoon, with lots of wind.  Not a fan of hot, gusty wind.  But we all got up early and did our walks/road rides before the heat settled in.  

Smells so good

After that, it was chores, including stripping the leaves from a whole lot of oregano I'd cut from our disaster of a backyard.  Along with the weeds, there are a number of oregano plants that self-seed and spread (and I would be happy if it completely took over), despite the utter neglect we show it.  It's best to harvest oregano before it flowers - otherwise it can be bitter - so I'd done that the weekend before and spread it out to dry for a week.  I had enough to last us the year, plus give away four bottles of it so I felt very homestead-y by the time it was done.  Plus the kitchen smelled great.

At 4 p.m., we gussied ourselves up (Hawaiian shirt for H, Pride penguin shirt for A, and both of us with our FDT bracelets) and went to our friends' 2026 backyard Pride Party.  As always, it is super-fun: E and K run a good party and they have very nice friends.  We stayed for three hours, got to reconnect with some folks we know and talk with some strangers, patted a bunch of dogs, and were home before 8.   Happy Pride, everyone!

city livin'

 I'm afraid that outdoors activity content is a little thin on the ground around here these days.  We've been up in SLC for the last few weeks and while we're making sure to get active outside, it has taken the form of 3-5 mile Dimple Dell walks with Milton for me and trail runs/road rides for H.  Plus lots of weeding, which is technically an outdoor activity and one that leaves my back absolutely wrecked.  With the super-mild winter we had, it never got cold enough to shut the weeds down for the season and they are absolutely rampant; I have managed to get the north side of the house somewhat under control but the backyard?  Yikes.

No truer words

Anyway.  A couple of weekends ago, R, H's friend from high school, and his youngest son, M, were back in Utah for a soccer tournament.  They were playing teams from all over the country at the Regional Athletic Complex near Rose Park, in SLC.  H and I drove up there and watched M's last game of the tournament with R.  They were catching a redeye flight back to North Carolina and had several hours before they had to go back to their rental to pack up, so R suggested we go somewhere M could get some food and we adult types could get a beer.  To be honest, H and I were stymied as to where to suggest - we always go to bars, and M, being fourteen, can't do that - but R said they'd been to a place in SLC called the Woodbine Food Hall and that there was something for everybody.  The two of them didn't mind going back so off we went.

Not the Woodbine Food Hall

The Woodbine Food Hall, located in the Granary district, is in a wonderful, old, restored warehouse and is awesome.  It's got all kinds of vendors (pizza, sandwiches, BBQ, burgers, ramen, sushi/Burmese, Venezuelan street food and more), plus a separate bar (not yet open at the time we were there).  A number of the vendors also sell beer/wine but as they are "restaurants," you have to buy food to get booze.  That was easy: M got a fantastic margherita pizza and the others of us got beers.  It was really fun to sit with them and catch up, plus be surrrounded by a diverse group of people - something we don't really get day-to-day living in the suburbs.  When we left, all sorts of folks dressed in bowties and sequins began arriving at Woodbine on their bicycles: the Bike Prom was just getting underway.

A better look at that bike rack

After seeing R and M off with hugs, H and I thought, well, we've come all the way in town, we might as well try to find the reputed best dive bar in SLC.  We were looking for Willie's Lounge (1716 S.  Main Street) and we found it, and it was a great dive bar with friendly bartenders and a custom bike rack out front.  We also found Manny's (1704 S. Main Street), which is also a great dive bar with friendly bartenders - and it actually felt dive-ier than Willie's, due to the old school decor.   We love us a dive bar and now we know two new (to us) ones, should we ever want to make the trip downtown.

Does that not look like a dive bar?

inching upwards to 289

We got snow!  I mean, it was just a little two day storm that brought rain and a couple of inches of very wet snow in the valley, but about 30" in the upper Cottonwood Canyons.  It's too little too late but every single inch counts at this point.  And when H went skiing on Saturday, he reported that it was MUCH better than it had been last week.  (And apparently Friday was really quite good storm-skiing.)

Another bluebird day at Alta

It wasn't that busy, though.  Which surprised me a little, since so many other resorts are closed, notably Deer Valley, PCMR, PowMow and Snowbasin, with Canyons closing 4/5/26 - I figured Alta would be very busy.  But I guess folks have written off the season and moved on to other things, like golf and kids' sports.  H reported that all the regulars were there, and the patio was getting full as he left midday.  It was a gorgeous day, clear and sunny, the storm having moved on, but it was still a little chilly - around 30F at the summit - which had a negative effect on the number of girls in bikinis (none, at last count).

This is a good, not-too-sweet snack bread/cake

Down in the valley it was a gorgeous day too, clear and sunny.  A took a stand against the weeds, refusing to acknowledge them (or pull any) for one day.  Instead, Milton and I did our usual Dimple Dell walk, observing lots of raptors circling overhead, looking for small and delicious critters.  Then Milt took up his post in the driveway, keeping an eye on the neighbors, while A made a coconut-turmeric loaf and chocolate chip cookies.  It was kind of a lazier day than they often are, but there were library books to read and afternoon walks around the neighborhood to take. 

oh yeah it's spring

In case you're wondering: Alta's year-to-date snowfall is still at 260".  That's just over half the historical average.  It almost hit 90F in SLC in the middle of March.  It's so bad.  But no, climate change isn't real.  (That was sarcasm.)

"Thin cover"

Still, ever the optimist, H went skiing on Saturday.  Ski resorts are closing early left and right around here.  Alta probably has the most snow but it's melting quickly.  The photo he took, looking down at Wildcat base, shows the southern-facing slopes across the canyon nearly bare.  And people have moved on, not wanting to pay the exorbitant pass prices for such subpar conditions.  H walked out of the lodge at 9:17 a.m. (Alta's chairs start loading at 9:15) and walked right onto the Collins chair without waiting in line.  When he left midday, the Wildcat base parking lot was not close to full.

Forsythia (and now I've exhausted my

knowledge of flowering trees/shrubs)

Down in the valley, A and M did their thing: five mile walk, taking photos of all the neighborhood flowering trees; and then nearly three hours of weeding.  The weeds are early and extra-prolific this year because they never stopped growing - it never got wintery enough.  

Pink one (might be a nectarine tree?)

There was also time for laundry and chocolate chip cookie baking and a trip to the library.  

At the neighborhood park

Oh!  And the day before, on A's way home from work, she stopped by SLC's Chinatown.  It's not really Chinatown like in NYC or Boston or San Francisco: it's a strip mall with lots of restaurants, stores and the biggest Asian grocery store in Utah, which is why I stopped.  

There's even a gate

I love an Asian grocery store with the variety of veggies, tofu, noodles, spices and so many snacks.  And I had a momentary pang of wishing I wasn't vegan when I saw the multiple bakeries - I LOVE Chinese pastries.

It was wonderful but so very loud

It was a little overwhelming - brightly-colored and -lit, with music blaring, and very busy.  I got tofu, rice sticks, rice noodles, mirin, some ruffle-y baby bok choy, Szechuan peppercorns, Chinese five-spice and an Indonesian hot sauce.  I wanted to get so much more (they had fresh jackfruits - huge!) but was proud of my restraint.  I can't believe it's taken sixteen years for me to get there.  To be honest, I prefer the Ocean Mart in Sandy: it's a little smaller, but calmer and still has a huge variety.

love local

As we inch ever closer towards Christmas, little (and not so little) local holiday markets and fairs are popping up across the Salt Lake valley.  I don't usually go to such things but this year, when I saw the Love Local market being held at the Wasatch Community Gardens, I felt compelled to put some money back into the local economy (aside from supporting our favorite bartenders at Woody's).

The winter garden beds at Wasatch Community Gardens

It was a $5 entry fee (going to WCG) and then there were lots of vendors selling hand made soaps, balms, oils, notecards, textiles, wreaths, pottery, herbal mixtures and tinctures, preserves, pickles, paintings, carvings, jewelry, mushroom-growing kits, decor and ornaments, hot sauces and relishes, candles, dog and cat treats, tote bags ... There were a couple of food vendors too, selling Thai street food and empanadas and arepas, plus a little beer/wine garden.

My haul

It seemed pretty well attended, and I had gotten there towards the early side - and had to circle several times before finding a parking spot.  Everyone was friendly and it was great to see folks out supporting small local businesses.  We need more of that.

csa summer: fourteenth and fifteenth boxes

 The end of the farm boxes for 2025.  We were going to be out of town for box #15 so instead I requested a box of apples to be picked up with box #14.  The apples were huge!  Like, grapefruit-sized apples.  Last year, when we got a box of apples, I was able to peel/core them using my peeler/corer and then cook them all down into apple pie filling.  This year, at least half the apples were WAY too big for that peeler/corer.

So I did the apple pie filling with the smaller ones; and for the big ones, I made orange-cinnamon apple butter in the slow cooker and also unsweetened applesauce on the stovetop.  Jeesh.  Apple stress.  At least they keep a good long while when airtight in plastic bags in the fridge.  (Huge thanks to Freeze Fresh for the storage and recipes - that book is invaluable during CSA season.)

Seriously look at those apples

For the regular produce box, we got a couple of peaches (past their prime) and plums, tomatoes, green beans, onions, pears, green peppers, potatoes and a couple of squashes (acorn and a giant spaghetti).  The tomatoes were chopped for cream cheese bagel toppings; the potatoes roasted; the peppers and onions sauteed for vegan grilled sausage toppings; and the squashes will, of course, be roasted and mashed for that weirdo Milton.

csa summer: tenth box

 Wicked nice variety in this week's box - bravo, Tagge's!  We got two cartons of raspberries, a couple of corns, green beans, green peppers, shishito peppers, peaches, tomatoes, pluots, nectarines, onions, a cucumber and, for squashes: zucchini, summer and a pattypan.

Can't wait for those pluots

As we do, we had the corn and half of the green beans the first night.  I must say, both veggies are past their prime by September: the corn was a bit starchy and the beans were tough.  I think I may blanch the rest of the beans and stick them in the freezer for soups.  We had onion, pepper and the pattypan squash in a chickpea curry; put the very delicate and squishy raspberries in our oatmeal; had more peppers and onions with vegan sausages; gave away the zucchini, cucumber and summer squash*; and ate a bunch of stonefruits just as soon as they ripened.  The massive amount of plums from last week are just getting ripe now and their flesh is the most amazing, vibrant purple-red I've ever seen.  I am planning to turn most of them into a cinnamon-plum sauce (for desserts and oatmeal) to freeze because try as we might, we will never be able to eat all of them in time.

* And I don't even feel guilty about it.  We have so much shredded squash in the freezer - I ate 1.5 cups in my morning green smoothies this week.  

csa summer: ninth box

This box was so heavy!  Kind of a weird one, but super heavy!  We got five huge onions, two Anaheim peppers, some jalapeno and serrano peppers, twelve (!) huge tomatoes, so many plums and so much garlic.  Plus I supplemented with three ears of corn because Utah corn's days are numbered.

Not a huge variety but lots of it - 

those onions are massive

We ate the corn right away, of course, and the bigger ears were a little starchier but the smaller one was quite good.  I chopped up half of the tomatoes to freeze for soups; the other half was eaten as-is, dressed with a touch of extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt - yum.  The plums were all underripe but once they soften, we'll eat a bunch and then freeze the rest for future compotes, crumbles and galettes.  I'm psyched about the plums - we didn't get any last year.  (Are stone fruits an every other year situation?)  The peppers and an onion were sauteed up and used to top some vegan Italian sausages.  And the garlic: there was really SO MUCH garlic that I gave half of it away to work friends.  The other half will be preserved somehow - pickled, or roasted, mashed and frozen - to extend its lifespan.

neighborhood things

Summer colds are no fun.  Both H and I ended up with one - he says I gave it to him but then he gave it right back to me - and it kind of derailed our weekend.  Oh, we still got out for trail runs and bike rides (H) and five mile dog walks (A and M), but then there had to be naps to recuperate and we ran the house out of tissues and A didn't get up to Alta for a real hike.  Next time, I guess.

Sunflower in the morning

It was also bloody hot and windy.  Anything we got out to do, including the dreaded weeding, had to be done as early as possible.  The sun is coming up later, of course, but Milton and I still headed out for our Dimple Dell loop both Saturday and Sunday before it came over the mountains.  Even so, it was nearly 80 when we began, so I made sure to wear my hydration vest so I could give him water during the walk.

Young one, still growing

The sunflowers are getting into swing, which is so cheerful and also good for the birds.  The local bison were out, grazing in their pasture and entirely unimpressed with the people stopping to check them out.  M and I met up with a number of the regular early morning Dimple Dell dog walkers; M is becoming expert at wheedling treats out of them.  And, before the wind kicked up, there were hot air balloons wafting about over the Salt Lake valley.  Not for me, but also cheerful.

Oquirrh mountains in the background

Next time, I swear, there will be an actual hike.

csa summer: sixth box

Box #6 arrived and it was pretty dang good, although we miss the cherries and berries of the early boxes.  For fruit, we got a big canteloupe, donut peaches and regular peaches; for veg, corn on the cob, green beans (must be nearing the end of those but they're still good), green peppers, a couple of tomatoes (yes, technically fruit but), a cucumber, a zucchini, a summer squash and a green cabbage.  I feel like maybe a couple more tomatoes and/or peaches would have been okay.

I am officially over summer squash at this point

The corn and beans were eaten that night, as corn's sugars start turning to starch as soon as it gets picked, so the longer you wait, the less tasty it is.  I gave away the cucumber and the two squashes.  The melon got cut up immediately: it was pretty good, although not Green River good, and we ate it straight and also in some smoothies.  The cabbage got put into a dinner of gochujang noodles and also a batch of coleslaw, which went with BBQ vegan "pulled pork" (soy curl) sandwiches.

And, glory of glories, I traded all the remaining beets from prior boxes to a neighbor for homegrown tomatoes!  Win-win!

csa summer: fourth box

 We are on the verge of full summer in a box ... but until then, more beets!  The fourth box was pretty good, with two cartons of blackberries, a ton of green beans, Swiss chard, lots of apricots, a couple of ears of corn, a mini watermelon, carrots with dirty tops (sigh), candycane beets (sigh), a cucumber and two zucchinis (sigh).  

Beginning to look a lot like summer

We ate the corn and half the beans right away, and the blackberries we split evenly and completely devoured.  The zucchini got shredded and frozen (we now have about eight cups of shredded zucchini in the freezer oy vey) and the apricots got frozen too: the apricots will be made into more BBQ sauce or pie filling; the zucchini will go into baked goods - I have a really easy Jiffy cornbread "recipe" that uses up a lot of shredded squash - or snuck into soups and sauces.  We sauteed the chard with EVOO, garlic and chile flakes.  And the watermelon got cubed and eaten - it was pretty good.  I have on my list of things to do this weekend to deal with the cucumber and beets ... seems like some quick pickling is in the mix.

csa summer: third box

 We got kale in our third CSA box!  We love kale!  We also got very good cherries, some sugar snap peas, a couple of zucchini and a summer squash, spicy little radishes, a bunch of apricots, rainbow carrots with tops, two (!) boxes of raspberries and more beets.  And although there wasn't any corn on the cob in the box, I bought three ears (for $1/each).  The ears seem a little small but the corn was still tasty.

I think I'd actually rather more

zucchini and fewer beets

I gave away one zucchini to a coworker and then shredded and froze the rest for future use; we also gave away almost all the cumulative beets to friends; the raspberries were devoured on their own, plus I put some in my morning oatmeal; the kale, radishes and carrots went into salads; and the carrot tops were clean enough this time that I was able to make them into carrot top pesto (rounded out with a little kale).  I don't know if we'll be able to eat all the apricots fresh before they get too soft - but if it starts getting close, I'll flash-freeze them for future baking (crisps/crumbles/galettes). 

csa summer: first and second boxes

 It's CSA season, that wonderful time of year where we vegans eat all kind of local produce (and get way too much squash).  We've had our first two boxes already; I forgot to take a photo of #1 but did remember to write down what we got: garlic scapes, zucchini, cherries, apricots, a head of romaine, two kinds of beets with greens and Swiss chard.  The zucchini got shredded and frozen; the garlic scapes got chopped up and frozen for adding to various dishes (stir fries, scrambles, etc.); we ate all the beet greens and the chard on three separate dinners, each time sauteed with EVOO, crushed red pepper and garlic [scapes]; the fruit just got et up; and, sadly, I tossed the romaine because it was super tough and bitter.  Lettuces struggle in the Utah heat, I think.  

Box #2 was better: rainbow carrots, green leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas, big apricots, amazing cherries, grilling onions, the tiniest scallions, beets without greens (boo) and summer squash.  The fruit got et up; the lettuce was pretty good and we ate it with beans and grains in salad bowls; the carrots, peas and onions got added to a curry; and the squash met the same fate as the zucchini (shredded and frozen for later use). ETA: There were so many apricots that we knew we couldn't eat them all before they spoiled, so a whole bunch went into a homemade apricot BBQ sauce that is fruity with a slow-burn heat.  Yum!  And a good way to not waste a bunch of apricots.

Oh, I'll use a couple of beets to add to hummus and pickle, but I'm going to give most of them to friends who enjoy them.

on repeat (northern edition)

 We've now had some time at home in SLC and, if I'm honest, things have been rather on repeat there too.  There's still too much snow up at Alta to make hiking much fun* (and not really enough snow anymore for skiing), so exercise has consisted of early morning walks for A and Milton (3.2 mile weekday neighborhood loops and 5 mile weekend Dimple Dell loops) and runs/bike rides for H (various lengths, times and locations).

Last batch of backyard 

oregano drying

Late weekend mornings have been spent battling the yard.  It seems as though perhaps we need to get started on before skiing ends.  That's always been my mantra - no yardwork during ski season because it just seems too early - but it gets ahead of us if we wait that long.  Maybe a little earlier in the spring would be a good idea.  I guarantee that I will have forgotten I said that by next year.

Here come the sunflowers!

Weekend afternoons have been pretty chill.  It's too hot to bake anymore so there's been a lot of going to the library and then reading library books, while Milton hangs out in the driveway, staring at the neighbors' house and hoping for treats.

Yay friends!

We did go to our lovely friends' annual Pride Party.  They have an adorable 1910ish bungalow in Sugar House with a double lot, and their backyard - which they put so much effort into - is perfect for entertaining.  That Pride Party is the big blow out that kicks off summer season.  H and I go on the early side (this year it went until 4 a.m. the next day!!!!!!!) and we always go if we're in town.  It's a lot [gestures wildly at everything] to be living in this country these days and so going to that party, to hang out, drinking and laughing, talking with a group of diverse, kind, interesting, supportive, inclusive and well-tattooed people, right here in Utah, was just really, really nice.

Love wins

* But maybe some Millcreek Canyon hikes, particularly south-facing trails like Grandeur Peak, could be in our near future.