For the last 11 or so years, as much of our family as possible met at the Byrns Greenhouse near Zim, Minnesota, for our family buy-them-out-of-flowers day. Okay, so it seems to me! As our greenhouse and house are stuffed full of vegetable starts, we just can’t start flowers inside anymore. I love my hanging baskets of flowers plus I always need a few (ha ha!) more perennials. Sons, Bill and David plus their families joined in the shopping frenzy too. Granddaughters, Ava and Delilah, helped pick out a lot too.
Following that, we tired but happy shoppers went to the Wooden Table to enjoy a meal together that I didn’t have to cook. (Hey, it’s Mother’s Day, right?) I love to cook, but as busy as we’ve been lately, cooking kind of falls by the wayside. I’m more apt to pull a few jars from the pantry than cook from scratch these days. Thank God for the pantry! Last night, it was chicken salad sandwiches, made with canned chicken breast, a nice, sweet onion and some Gaucho relish. Yum! Quick, tasty and very easy.
Will got the Sand and Central gardens all manured and tilled up the day before and we also watered in the trillion onion plants in the Wolf Garden as it was headed for a few days in the low 90’s. Whew! That’s hot for spring in Minnesota. Will threw a tote on the back of the truck and hooked up a 12-volt pump to the battery, and a short hose into the tank, a longer one to deliver the water. We took turns walking next to the truck to soak the rows of onions. Very slick! It’s looking like a droughty summer so we’re figuring out how we’ll water everything.
With the heat, the fruit trees are starting to bloom! I’m just hoping we don’t get a late spring frost, so we’ll get fruit this year. Last year, we had very little. Will got our new FE cherry tree from Honeyberry USA planted. I’m really excited about it as it’s a Zone 2 pie cherry that has wonderful flavor. I can’t wait! — Jackie
