Blackberry Crisp Rehash... and a Flying Squirrel. Life Goes On.

 

This is a post from two or three years ago... I'm re-posting it now because it's blackberry season here in the north, and ours were/are amazing this year! But I'm in the throes of other things right now, family things, beloved things, and couldn't put together a proper post... so you're getting a second week of re-postings.

And next week I will explain why... and I'll cry... and that's okay.

But we'll all have blackberry pies and crisps and life marches on.... But without one dear, and wonderful person.

And yet, with God, joy springs eternal!

So here you go.... and God be with you, every one!

Well, my phone is not happy these days and my son borrowed my camera, so I'm not sure if you'll get pictures, but this was too marvelous not to share!

We have a wild blackberry patch on the rock pile.

The rock pile isn't a metaphor.

It is a rock pile.`

It seems that a gazillion and three years ago, the earth heaved up a glacier or two (Imagine that!! Melting glaciers!!!) and they kind of steamrolled their way across New York State leaving us amazingly delightful Finger Lakes and smaller lakes, and the detritus of their long journey in rocks... So while most of our farm is thick (like 10 to 12 inches of topsoil) sandy loam (and may have been the bed of Lake Ontario a long time ago but not quite as long as the dinosaurs and/or those glaciers) we have an upper patch that is rock-studded.... and the rocks find their way up to the surface and get put on the rock pile.

The good news is that the rock pile cannot be seen from space, so it's relatively small compared to Staten Island's garbage dump....

But it's rocky and it sits there, growing weeds... but now it's growing blackberries, so this year we've already canned five pints of Blackberry jam and made one amazingly delicious fruit crisp/crumble.

I picked the berries.

Me.

I took the truck out back, climbed out and waded into the brushes and briars and brambles and picked about six quarts of berries.

Okay, maybe five....

And by the time I picked through them (staining my hands purple!!!) three days later, it was more like four usable quarts, but then I took those delicious berries.... laid them out in a lightly greased 15" x 11" Pyrex pan....

Sprinkled them with sugar....

And then this topping based on my favorite apple crisp recipe from Betty Crocker.

2 cups oats (rolled or quick, either is fine)
2 cups flour
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks or 16 oz.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture looks like meal... Spread crumbly mix over top of berries from side to side and sea to shining sea!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Berries should be bubbling, topping should be golden brown, light golden brown. Not dark golden brown.... Don't ruin this, darlings, check your oven... 

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream... or just eat it on its own, it's amazingly delicious!

And we celebrated Cousin Palooza not long ago.... (Not this year, remember... we canceled it for this year with the pandemic. But there will be other years, God willing! )

A day to celebrate our grandchildren, (and a few others, too!) where we all gather, eat great food, let the kids play games, ride in Grandpa's truck and bounce in the bounce house we rent for the day... and we just have fun. But Grandpa decided that day would be a good day to take down three big branches from an old tree... Yes. On Cousinpalooza day. Do not ask. We have never been able to figure this out. It's not like the branches haven't been up there, needing trimming for A Very Long Time. You gals know what I mean! So this is Beth, clearing debris!

Fourteen grandkids... (we stole one and we are not ashamed to admit it!!!) and a passel full of parents and beloved people....

It all makes for a special, inexpensive, let's celebrate family kind of day!

And it helps to keep down the crazy throughout the school year, when fitting in individual parties for all the kids would be tough in already tight schedules... So we went with a Carnival theme this year and it was so much fun to have a whole day of kids!!!

We've found that changing schedules was clutch as our family grew. How did you have to readjust things as your family grew?

 Even the big kids took time to have some fun! Zach and Luke shootin' hoops.

 Anna filling in driveway holes with fresh stone... this was not exactly a planned activity!!! :) But she kept at it!

And Circus/Carnival themed cupcakes by Lacey!  

We're bringing pumpkins up so I'll post some of the pics next week... the hills are alive and so is the yard of Blodgett Family Farm!!!!

Until next week and more blackberries!!!!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves baking, painting (not like art... like rooms... that kind of thing) and sharing sweet stories with all kinds of people. The author of nearly 50 novels and novellas, Ruthy lives a very busy rodent-filled life in the Eastern woodlands of Western New York ... Original rodent visitor a few weeks ago: Baby gray squirrel. In my cupboard. Must be put in a book, right?

Newest  rodent visitor:  Flying squirrel. Raise your hand if you didn't know that flying squirrels lived in Western New York!!!! Well, neither did Lacey and I until one scampered across the kitchen! OOPS! The video of us chasing along after this very active and agile rodent is hysterical and purely embarrassing!
Let's just say that we got him trapped with a bucket... and a couch cushion.

Yep.

That's how we roll. :)

Do not ask how.

I'm not sure how he got in.

I do not even want to think that there's a hole that big.

So I'm opting that the cat brought him in.

We named him Harvey.

And we released him into the great unknown past the donkey shed.

#mylife
#mylifewithrodents