Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!

The time between Thanksgiving and now has passed in a flash. 19.23" of rain have fallen to date with more expected for Christmas day (Update 12.26: Christmas day total=1.24"->20.47" ytd). We've been working hard on our woods, thinning ladder fuels and recovering firewood for next year. We're enjoying the bounty of onions, potatoes, carrots, plum jelly, frozen peaches and peppers, and canned tomato, tomatillo, and pear sauces that remain from the summer. Persimmons and pomegranates have for the most part come and gone, which brings us to olives.

We harvested our first crop of Manzanillo olives off our young trees this year. At this point, they are cured and stored in brine. The final result is 10 half gallons, not to mention the ones that were eaten or given to neighbors along the way. They are nutty, oily and delicious in ways only a fresh olive can be. We plan to propagate cuttings from the trees this winter to establish a proper grove.

Merry Christmas to all! ...P.S. Check out this image from Oct. 2009.