Baptism!

On Sunday, we baptized a sweet baby whose daddy, aunt, uncle, and grandmama were also baptized in our church. The grandmama is the clerk of Session so in our liturgy the clerk begins by saying: “On behalf of the session, I present this child.” She choked up before she said the baby’s name. And then I choked up, and so did the baby’s mother and father. And so did most of the congregation. It was a precious moment. 

The baby’s grandfather was buried from that church. Her great-grandmother was a deacon there, the first woman to hold that office. My father was the sponsor/godfather when her aunt was baptised. And they were all – somehow – present in that moment. It was so holy, so sacred. And I felt so honored to be able to so this. 

 

Pickle du jour!

Sweet Pickles with Lemon and Rosemary

People bring me all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It has been this way since I moved back to the farm.  The bounty is a blessing! And I feel I cannot let anything go to waste. Some goes in a pot for supper, some goes in the freezer for the future, and some gets pickled! 

In that past two weeks, I’ve made squash pickles, dill pickles, sweet pickles (for my neighbor who is off her feet for a while), black and blue chutney (my creation from boxes and boxes of blackberries and blueberries), sweet pickles with rosemary and lemon (another of my creations), and pickled green beans. 

I tasted the chutney before it sat long enough, and it was already delicious. I will try the lemon and rosemary pickles in a week or so. And the pickled green beans are so, so good. Today's pickle du jour was more of those. I am about to decide that almost anything can be pickled! 

At Christmas, when we do our big charcuterie for the whole family, there will be lots of pickles and jam and chutney. When a friend drops by for a glass of wine, there will be pickled green beans beside the cheese and crackers. When my sister and I crave a savory snack, there will be something in a jar to open.

And when I eat these pickles, when I serve them to others, I remember the folks who brought the berries and beans and squash and cucumbers. There is a blessing in the bounty of produce, and an even greater blessing in the bounty of friends!

 

Tenderness

Last week, I went to get my hair cut. The woman giving me a shampoo asked if I was “tender-headed” and I said no. She then gave me a good scrubbing and a wonderful scalp massage. 

I’m not sure anyone has asked me about being tender-headed. A more familiar expression to me is tender-hearted, and there are several in our family who are often described that way. I don’t know that I am one of those. But maybe I should have told the person washing my hair that I was tender-headed. It is in my head that I feel tenderness for the world. I think about the horrors that are reported every single day, big and small, and my head is filled with sadness, grief, frustration, and disbelief at all the daily cruelty. And I find myself wishing, hoping, praying for tender heads rather than hotheads in places of power and decision-making.

 

Update.....

The corn is now higher than my head and starting to tassel. Here and there, I can see baby ears starting. It has rained at just the right time. The sunflowers, however, are no more…. The deer ate them all, leaving only the lower part of the stems, all stripped clean of the leaves. And then the weeds grew, so the rows are green but not with sunflowers. The deer need to eat, and a tender buffet right there is tempting, I suppose. But I will miss the blooms in the summer mornings.

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Neighbors

Some of the pickles!

When I lived in New England, it was rare for someone just to drop in. People (me included) almost always called in advance, to see if the timing was convenient or if folks would be home. But here in the country, it is very different. People stop by all the time. And they usually bring something. Sometimes it is a story or an old newspaper article about a long-passed relative. Lately, it is produce. People have brought pints and pints of blueberries, cabbages, the last broccoli from a garden, a bucket of peas. And this week, it was squash, pounds of squash; and then, green beans. So I got out my jars and pickling salt and canner. I have make 20 pints of squash pickles and six pints of pickled green beans. We will share them with neighbors, and eat them in the winter, when they will be like a taste of summer in a jar!