Cindy called two nights ago and said she’d picked three huge bags of broccoli, could she bring it over and preserve it at my house? She wanted company for the annual chore. I said sure, come on over! She arrived with pounds and pounds of broccoli, weapon-size zucchinis, green beans, and raspberries! And Buster, of course! The washing, trimming, and blanching began. With two big pots of boiling water it went pretty quickly. There’s a lot of water involved and with the distance from sink to stove the floor and cabinets had a good soaking and later both had baths; they probably needed it anyway 🙂 Cindy is a farmer’s wife, seeming to this city girl, from another era. I wonder if I fascinate her the same way? I also had to look up again why blanching is necessary – it’s to preserve color, texture, and flavor – something every good farm wife knows. City girls’ ignorance can be excused.

Lucky for me she left me with broccoli, the zucc’s, the green beans and the raspberries. For two mornings now I’ve had raspberry pancakes for breakfast – yum! Last night was battle of the zucchini. My 30-year-old food processor, the lid now held together with electrical tape, did a fine job of shredding and slicing and I diced one for later fall casseroles, then did the blanching thing again. I didn’t do a count but my freezer is bulging with bags and yogurt containers of green veggies waiting to treat me at some later date with their yumminess. I’m still cleaning up seeds and leaves and petals. I moved the coffee maker out this morning to fill it with water and there were broccoli petals hiding out under there. I expect I’ll find more in the coming days, maybe hanging out in drawers or cabinets.

And my kids and Buster helped, of course! Buster came over shaggy, went home with a summer do! All this in two hours. A fun night!