June Jam - Music and Strawberries

One might say that our little New England town is on the sleepy side. If that is the case, June Jam is the yearly wake-up call, a Saturday afternoon-into-the-evening outdoor live music event at Musterfield Farm. It seems that the whole town turns out to listen to a variety of local musicians and bands, catch up with neighbors and hang out on the grass with a picnic. I can't recall any other time where I've seen 3-year-olds, high school students, forty-somethings, and maybe-just-a-tad-older folks all dancing at the same time.

I'm sad to say that I did not attend June Jam this year. Instead, I was working on a different sort of June jam all together. Saturday afternoon, I was out strawberry picking at Edgewater Farm, and later that evening, Adam and I prepared the berries for freezing and jamming. Adam thankfully did most of the berry prep for freezing - wash, cut off tops, set in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and put in freezer. Meanwhile, I sliced up enough strawberries to make 8 cups, enough for one batch of jam using the last box of lower-sugar-needed pectin. I put the sliced strawberries in the fridge to macerate overnight, and made jam on Sunday night.

A profusion of vegetable growth - picture taken post-weeding

Also, on Saturday, I worked on addressing the grass situation. No, not the grass on the lawn - it was too wet to mow. But the grass in the garden - that needed to be taken care of, wet or dry. Two out of three raised beds were growing vegetables in addition to grass, and I picked some peas, chard, lettuce, arugula and scallions. I thinned some carrots, as well. Above you can see one of the beds I had planted in April-May.

A less successful garden bed - all the light green you see is grass.

The third bed was planted later in early June, and I was very disappointed in the germination of seeds in this bed. The brussels sprouts that I transplanted in early spring is doing fine, but other than that, the bed looks pretty sad. Out of 16 radish seeds planted, only two came up. I will have to replant this bed, once I finish clearing the grass out. Good thing that the days are long - there's plenty of work to be done.