Valley Bounty

Blogger. grrr. WHY does it keep flipping my pictures?!!! They are so much better when they are presented as I've taken them. But two of the three are on end, again. What is their problem? And if I try to reload them, they don't get deleted, they are still in my online blog limbo, and they are still flipped. grrr. Good thing they're not quilt or people pictures!!

One of the good things about living in the Central Valley of California is the agriculture. Agriculture means farmers. And farmers grow good things. :) Good things grow in my friend's garden. That would be my friend Elaine. Every year she grows a bounty and feeds my family fresh fruits and veggies for months on end. Yesterday she gave me this first box of squash. Nothing you can buy in the store even comes close to what Elaine grows in her garden.

And her green thumb was inherited by her daughter Leslie. Leslie is in Hawaii this week, and Elaine has been harvesting some of Leslie's berries. She presented me with this yesterday, along with the squash. yum yum. I took them to Gwen's, and we ate them with vanilla ice cream.


Gwen is also a generous grower. We've been enjoying these white peaches from her orchard for the past week. I think her husband said they are called Snow Whites? Whatever their name, they are DELICIOUS.

Don't you wish you lived here? Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables abound. I've heard people on LA radio stations say that "The Central Valley should be nuked!" (They don't like our using water), but I tell you what, peaches, berries, squash...milk, nuts, citrus...it all grows here, and it feeds the world, unlike LA's palm trees...

But back to good things growing...

I really thought I had a picture, but apparently I finished that quilt before I had a digital camera. It was a Lone Star, made for Elaine, called, "Good Things Grow in My Friend's Garden." It's in Jan Krentz's book, Lone Star Quilts & Beyond, in the Gallery section. It featured many of the good things that Elaine grows: corn, cantaloupe, peppers, squash, etc. etc. oh well. Use your mind's eye to imagine a Lone Star done in sunflower colors, with a sunflower print around the border and fruits and veggies in the setting squares. It was as much fun to make as her bounty is delicious.

Doesn't it make you just want to move here?