I finished two important tasks. Friday afternoon I made my first ever batch of Josta Berry Jelly.
It’s pretty much impossible to describe the taste of this jelly, but here goes. The first thing you taste is the sweetness of the jelly, and then the complex flavor and tartness of the fruit hits you like a mack truck. It’s extremely good. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. We will have to have some of this at lunch today. Which means I need to make something bread-like to put it on.
The second thing that strikes you about this jelly is the color. It’s so dark until light hits it and then it looks like something you’d see in a medieval stained glass window.
All in all, I can see a lot of making this jelly in my immediate future. Plus Gooseberry Jelly too. It’s amazing that Gooseberries are half of the makeup of a Josta Berry. I need to get the freezer downstairs empty of fruit because the garden will want to fill it up again soon. Sooner than we want, actually. More pies! 🙂
I finished the knitting on my shawl Saturday morning! Yay!!! And now I need to get to work on blocking it. I figure it will end up being roughly six feet square when I’m done stretching it out. My next task is threading a blocking cord into all the points on the outside border. I figured out this morning how to ensure I have six feet of cord on each side, so it is just a matter of being careful with how the blocking cord is threaded so all the points look the same when the shawl is dry.
The shawl is just deliciously soft and fuzzy, with the shine of the silk showing through. Blocking it will transform this fabric.
Our main project today is getting the greenhouse ready to plant. We really want to get some seeds in the ground.
Spring is really here. There was a Varied Thrush singing this morning right outside our front door!!!! We saw a Western Meadowlark on the main road yesterday, and small flocks of Robins are flying around on the mountain.
And we saw a Yellow-Bellied Marmot sunning himself on top of a rock, no doubt wondering what all that white stuff is on the ground around said rock.