Here is a long overdue update on how our backyard is doing. You may want to compare this photo collage to a similar one I compiled just a few months ago…

Our ecolawn has come in very nicely, and is starting to look like it needs a serious mowing.

Our fig tree looks like it will produce nicely this summer.

Our kiwi vine is growing and even sprouting little kiwi buds.

At least 1 out of my 4 garden boxes is doing very well… we are getting radishes and lettuce galore!

…and our chickens are happy being allowed back out into the yard!

This morning I took the girls out to Sauvie Island to pick organic “shebbies” as Munchkie calls strawberries at Bella Organic Farm. We got just over 20 lbs, excluding the ones that went straight from the vine and into our bellies! Yumm!

I am going to start freezing some for the winter (using the cookie sheet method even though I am also curious about using dry ice). Now that we have a chest freezer, I don’t understand how we ever lived without one.

I may also, if I get really ambitious, learn how to can some jams in honor of my Nonna. She would always make big batches of strawberry jam that would be waiting for us every summer when we arrived in Tel Aviv just as fresh strawberries went out of season, so that we too would be able to enjoy their taste… My now 90 something year old Nonna no longer cooks, and her memory isn’t what it once was, but I should see if I can get her recipe and perhaps carry on her tradition…

Who knew that so many of those “old fashioned” things our grandmothers did would come back into style with the added value of sustainability?