A Wedding Weekend in the North Ga Mountains

 

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of attending dear friend's son's wedding!  We've known Will  since birth, he and Grace were each other's first friends, and now he is married!  The wedding took place in the North Georgia Mountains, a place very near and dear to our heart.  

While we didn't get to spend any time with Will and Layne (of course), we did get some special time with Jack, Kathleen and Caroline!

On the day of the wedding we made ourselves scarce to allow everyone to go and get done what needed to get done and headed to breakfast where we unexpectedly ran into our other dear friends, Weatherford and Holle!  They don't even live in Georgia- a totally unexpected bonus!

Afterwards, we took the children on a tour of Young Harris College's campus.  They were actually interested in hearing some of the stories of our time there so it was especially fun!

The wedding itself was so lovely and fun!  

It was a short but oh so sweet weekend!  Congratulations to Will and Layne and thanks for including us!

PInk Celery

 

This is a short but sweet post about my favorite new thing I grew this year.  This is Chinese Pink Celery, a relative of western celery.  Celery is notoriously difficult to grow because it requires very specific growing conditions with little room for deviations.  This pink celery however was super easy!  I seeded it in late February, planted it out in May, and pretty much forgot about it all summer.  However, now that soup season is upon us, I've been going out to pick what I need.  I'm not a celery snacker and have always hated buying a whole bag of celery, so being able to only pick what I need has been great (I have been using a 2:1 ratio because the stalks are a fair slimmer than regular celery)!  And, of course, the pink hue of the stalks is gorgeous!    

Canning

 

Years ago, Gretchen and I took a canning class and I've been canning ever since!  The end of summer/beginning of fall is the busiest time for canning but I also can jellies and jams in the spring (violet jelly, rose jelly, strawberry rhubarb jam and strawberry jam being a few favorites).  I'm just now finishing up with most of the canning though I haven't yet made Marilyn's salsa, which is a perennial favorite.  Other favorites are Dilly Beans, Peach Salsa, Blackberry Sage Jam, Rosemary and Peach Syrup, Pickled Ramps and Peach Lavender Jam. 

I always make something new and sometimes it's a keeper and sometimes it's not.  Turns out Peony Peach Jam isn't that good nor is it appealing in the jar!  I particularly love how beautiful canned goods look.  One of my newest things to make were pickled tomatoes and I hope they are as good as they look!

I almost exclusively use fruits, vegetables and herbs from our garden for canning (thus no Marilyn's Salsa, it wasn't a great tomato year).  I find it super satisfying to can what we've grown plus it helps us to use all the surplus of vegetables that we can't eat while they are fresh!