It is good to have friends who garden and travel.

Our dear friends have been out of town and generously offered me a day in their garden to pick the ripe produce. What fun! All of the benefits of an enormous garden, almost none of the work!

I learned that Simon loves pea pods, and that he will sit quite happily in the grasses playing with Vincent for longer than I imagined he would if bribed with this fresh food. Two gallon buckets of free strawberries have been turned into jam 6 quarts of jam and two quart bags of frozen berries, and I have a bag of frozen pea pods waiting for winter meals now too.

Our own strawberry harvest may be nearing its final days, but the halcyon days of basil and tomatoes are just around the corner. The tomato plants have started to set fruit, and I can see baby squash on the vines already. The cherry tree will have a small harvest this year, but the young blueberry plants have a few berries on them that are growing fatter each day. Summer's bounty has begun.