Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Patience Grasshopper, Patience and Blueberry Cobbler





I have never been the kinda gal to sit around and wait. It was hard for me when I was engaged, got pregnant, adopted, house hunted and well you get the picture. Waiting, for me, is like a slow form of mental torture. Perhaps that is because I am a "live in the present tip toe around the past" kind a gal, projecting myself into the future is not something I am so good at doing. My husband on the other hand has a hard time living for the moment. So in a sense we compliment each other as we have all three time dimensions covered.


In shopping for our orchard today I came to the stark realization, as I was presented with tiny, weed stalks my husband dared called trees, that I wouldn't really have an orchard for at least three years. The nice young gardener at Lowes actually said "I figure you will have fruit in three years, if we are all around long enough to see that." uhm, okay. So a fight between the petunias and avocado trees at the nursery of Lowes, between Gary and I ensued in what I perceived to be a matter of life and death. He didn't see it that way. He told me I was making a scene. No.... that would be the five monkeys we brought with us on this fun family adventure of shopping for trees. You know the ones we named and feed everyday. The ones climbing on the bags of fertilizer and running through the misting system. Really, I told him I was close to 40 and I didn't care if I was causing a scene. I needed to be able to feed my kids fruit off of our own trees. I needed good, whole, organic, fresh picked fruit and I needed to have this like yesterday.


After much hesitation I gave in for the cheaper, smaller, younger trees. I am going to pray that God speeds them up though. Gary said I would be so busy with life I wouldn't realize the wait. I hope he is right. I treasure every day and I don't take a single year for granted. I hope that I am around in three years to see them growing and producing fruit. I hope we are all around, not to sound like my friend the melancholy gardener at Lowes. I mean I hope my family is here and whole and healthy. There are so many uncertainties in this life we are given.


To trust in God to cause the growth in me and the trees is Paramount. It is the key.

So neither the one who plants or the one who waters is significant, but God who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. 1 Cor 3:7

I feel sad. I know all of "this" can vanish in a moment just like it did for the people in Japan. The world is unstable, more so now than I ever remember. My trees are so little, so fragile so young. So are my children. That about sums it up.


So I decided to make that blueberry cobbler (recipe below) I had planned a few weeks ago, I mean what the hay? I have a can of sweet condensed milk in my pantry and if the world is going to end in a few years I can skip that diet!! At least I will enjoy that momentary false sense of security wrapped up in buttery goodness and melting icecream. I get started mixing and get to the end of the directions and as I am licking blueberry and sweet milk off my fingers the box says the cooking time is 70 minutes!!!!! Are you kidding me!!!!! Patience Grasshopper. Well to pass the time Gary and chatted about the chicken situation. He wants roosters and I refuse to eat fertilized eggs so I told him we could put chicken dog houses on the lower acres and have two flocks separated. I think that may have cost me some credibility. But as I sample this lovely blueberry cobbler (it just came out of the oven) I will gain it back again, especially since I will serve it up with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream. This could be how the wait causes weight. uh oh. Well here is the recipe.
1 pint of blueberries (frozen or not)
mix that with 1 Can of condensed milk 14 oz
2 tsp of lemon zest
take 1.5 cups of baking mix and mix with 3/4 cup of butter (get it all crumbly)
combine the two
pour onto a greased 9 inch square baking pan
Mix 1/2 cup of baking mix with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of butter (nuts if you have them )and spread on top of the blue berry mixture cook at 325 for the very long time of 70 min or until brown and serve warm with vanilla icecream.