Ahhh What Summer Beauty, Lilacs and Dandelions for Joy!

The season where everything grows and the sun beats down relentlessly are my favorite times of the year. 

It seems like we have lept from winter into summer in a matter of a couple weeks, rather then more then a month. Already the temperatures are above 30c everyday and quickly the trees have flowered and now grown deep green leaves, to soon perhaps, but I think the seasons are just eager to change after such a long and harsh wintertime. I won't complain about not needing fire or sweaters anymore, I just need lots of st johns wort to protect me from the sun and perhaps a sunhat too! 

Oh, and how could I complain when the heat grows things? We have lilacs in town now, and I can't help but collect them when I visit. Their sweet aroma basically wafts around town and puts me into a lilac scented daze, and I am lucky enough to have brought some flowers home to make into lilac syrup and lilac sugar, and I am sure there will be more lilac things to come!

Here I will show you how I made lilac syrup, and then ate it! Super duper easy! 

You gotta spend a little time monotonously picking the flowering parts from the green stems, but with some wine and music and the scent of lilacs this is an amazingly pleasant task. Honestly, processing herbs and veggies and fruits and flowers is one of my most favorite things to do. I can listen to Susan Weed on time monk radio, or one of my favorite astrologers well my hands are busy. I have a hard time listening and learning otherwise!

After I have separated them all, I simply put one cup of sugar (which I can hopefully replace in the next batch....) in one cup of water in a pan and heated that until the sugar dissolved. I then put the one cup of lilacs in the pan too, and simmered that for about 10 or 15 minutes, until the sugar water tasted strongly of lilacs.

Next, I just strained those lilacs into a mason jar! The genius idea of putting cheesecloth in a funnel seems simple to me now, but I didn't think of it until recently. Silly me, I made lots of unnecessary messes before.... this was pretty simple though, I just squeezed the now thick syrup from the lilac blossoms, refrigerated, and waited impatiently for morning so I could have some on pancakes!

SO YUMMY! We have put this syrup in drinks, a little bit in icecream sundays, and more pancakes! Although, I have a little more then I need so I am going to gift some to my lucky friends! Next time, I am going to add two cups of lilacs to the sugar water instead of one too, so I can have a super strong flavor rather then this mild (yet still potent) batch. 

I also have harvested some dandelions finally, and although I think its a bit past their peak medicinally (for the roots) I see no harm in making a little bit of tea anyways. The transition from winter to summer was so quick, I didn't even find the time to harvest them right on point, so I shall wait until fall for my large harvest when apparently the medicine in the root is strongest. I wonder if I could make a flower oil with them as well, and I am always using little bits of the leaves in salad despite how bitter they can be. 

My dad also found some yummy wild morel mushrooms on our property! Sooo yummy, and terribly pricey if you buy them at the farmers market. The wild is abundant, and it supplies us as we care for it <3 NOm nom. We used them in omelets, in ramen, and in a bunch of other dishes as well, along with the wild dandelion greens. Oh, the earth provides such delicacies. 

Oh, and the dog rose has bloomed! And the skies are lit up with magnificence! The cotton candy clouds and wildflowers  blooming fill my heart. The truth is beautiful, and the earth is beautiful, I know it! I see it! Plus there are just sooo many bees and butterflies and other bugs to catch and observe and document. I could spend all of my time just watching bugs..... and yet the plants and animals and humans all call for my attention too! Life is so abundant, so diverse. <3

That's about it for now my dear internet friends! Ahh, I have so much to do and so much to tell too! Sometimes I wish there was more time in a day, but I also wish there was more time to sleep..... Its the season of busy, of progress, of joy! Thank you for joining me, and blessed be <3

 

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