Strawberries and lettuce

The gnome of all gnomes number one “sprite” of the house in the roses, planted strawberries this year...

You know how it goes—the queen of the fairies who inhabit the house in the roses takes care of the flower garden, but the kitchen garden and herb garden are all Mr. Sprite’s pride and joy... so we have strawberries this year... gorgeous yummy strawberries.

I've been patiently looking at them each day since my sweet Sprite planted them, waiting until they were perfectly ripe to pick...

...Plump, ripe berries, best when still warm from the sun.

I wanted to make strawberry syrup.

Strawberry syrup over freshly baked French bread is the ultimate goodness, but this yummy syrup can be also enjoyed over ice cream, cereal, pancakes, waffles and almost anything... the best thing about it is that you can always carry all your sweet summer memories through the dark winter months with you by keeping it in canning jars or containers... now, I like that!

My sweet Sprite also planted lettuce this year... have you ever tried growing lettuce in your back yard garden? This is amazing--to have heads of fresh lettuces right outside your kitchen! And the best part: You won’t have to worry about any pesticide residues because it’s easy to cultivate organically grown lettuce in the home garden.

So I left the garden and went inside to cook!

Don 't you just love the easy going days of summer! During the summer growing season I love it when all or most of my meal comes from the garden... no, we don't have carrots growing in our kitchen garden, but it was fun opening a can! And so easy!

I will announce the winner of our give-away on Monday. And don't forget to come back for another Spectacular cottage at our "Show Off Your Cottage Monday"

Have a lovely weekend!