Is it summer yet?

It has been an incredibly wet June in this corner of the globe. We’ve had rain on 18 of the past 25 days, and I’m starting to worry about the welfare of my poor tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. It’s been downright cold in the evenings, getting down to around 10 degrees celcius (50 fahrenheit). They even had snow in the Okanagan last night, which is home to the one desert climate in Canada, and typically the province’s hotspot at this time of year.
Since we haven’t been spending our days gardening or relaxing on the beach (we did go last week, but after sitting there shivering while the sky misted us for two hours, we finally gave up), I’ve had quite a bit of free time on my hands. Luckily, it’s strawberry season. We’ve got dozens of plants scattered throughout the garden here, but they tend to get gobbled up whenever one of us spots a ripe one. In order to have enough to see us through the winter, I usually end up getting them from a local berry farm. A friend saved me the trip and grabbed me a flat (13 pounds) while she was out there the other day.

I froze most of them, sliced in half and frozen loosely on cookie sheets to be scooped into bags. Some of them will be used in the occasional dessert, but they’re mostly to satisfy my son’s smoothie addiction, which is why I have to make sure they’re not frozen together in a lump. Thirteen pounds isn’t really enough, so we’ll likely be heading back out there sometime this week.

I also made a couple of batches of strawberry jam, which is something I didn’t do last year and really regretted. I think we should be set for the next year or so.

Baking is one of my favorite things to when the weather is cool, and a pan of muffins cooling on the window sill makes my heart go pitter pat. Throw in a mug of tea and a good book, and I’m all set. As long as I get enough sunlight for my plants to produce, I think I can handle these cooler temperatures.