Fresh Salt

My gardens this year have been a bit of a mystery.

For one thing, the combination of some really intense rainstorms and some really humid days throughout the summer have produced an abundance of flowers and growth on all the perennials.  I’ve also noticed  the wild flowers/blooming weeds all along the roadsides seem to have multiplied tremendously,  Queen Ann’s Lace and  what I call black eyed susans in particular.

As for the vegetable gardens… well, despite my fortification attempts in the two large raised beds here on the farm…. all my tender care and raising from seedlings the tomato, eggplant,  yellow squash, onion and yellow beans….they were a miserable lot.  Having produced only a pathetic yield,  I cannot tell you why.   The only plants that were marginally happy in my farm garden this year were parsley and basil, zinnia and new-to-me Dahlia.

The SEASIDE cottage garden, however…. Stella’s little 1′  x 5 ‘ raised garden bed crammed up against the side of the house?  The one we did almost NOTHING to coax? … has triple the yield, go figure.    I’m thinking it must be the fresh salt air, the moisture off the water, and the fact that for hundreds of years, before the “island” became a  140 summer cottage retreat, it was a New England seaside cow farm.  Lots and lots of old fertilizer makes really rich soil.

Despite that wicked heat and thunder storms, we’ve had some beautiful weather this summer.  The family has been enjoying our little Stella by the Sea in between work and volunteer and farm obligations, and that brings me great joy.

As does a really good pound cake -Like this one found on the internet I’ll share  below.  I hope you’re having a good summer!  I’m trying to look away from  the ugly and look for more of the good.  It is out there, we need to underline it, highlight it… celebrate what is beautiful, choose kindness and spread that shit like fairy dust wherever we can.

Old School Butter Pound Cake

 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c cake flour
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3 stick butter, unsalted (softened at room temp)
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp salt
6 large eggs

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until mixture comes together.

2. Add sugar and extracts; beat until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, alternating with flours 1/2 cup at a time until all eggs and flours are used.
4. Transfer to a buttered, oiled and floured, 10-cup shaped pan such as bundt pan.
5. Place in cold oven. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until an inserted tester comes out clean about 1 1/2 hours.
6. Remove cake from pan. Let cool on wire rack.

5 thoughts on “Fresh Salt”

  1. Saw this painted wooden sign yesterday and bought it : ” In a world where you can be anything…..be kind.” Karen’s mom

  2. My raised beds did well with the swiss chard and peppers, but the tomatoes not so much. That pound cake sounds wonderful.

  3. Your flowers are so pretty! And, that pound cake? Delish! I’m still waiting for one of my cousin’s to send me her mama’s sour cream recipe. I’m sure like yours, it melts in your mouth.

    Love your new header also, Karen.

    Yes, indeed kindness; we all need a little more myself included.

  4. Your flowers look wonderful to me. Mine have been totally neglected this year and the weeds are multiplying as we speak. The pound cake looks wonderful.

  5. Yum! Thanks for the pound cake recipe. I adore pound cake. Also loving your garden. Mine is pathetic. Overgrown and overrun with weeds. Rick’s tomatoes all died, I think and I didn’t plant any this year so I’ll be buying a bushel or half for making my pasta sauce. Ah, well. It’ll still be good…

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