So I have been asked what we do while we wait for everything to grow. Sure, we have some early harvest, but in NE Wisconsin, the growing season is pretty short and "early" is relative. June is often a resting month. February and March are the seed starting months. April is the month of exhilaration when the herbs are shooting up through the snow promising spring mud and tilling. As soon as the ground is worked, some early plants go in and then the real work begins in May. A lot of hurry up and wait from May 1st - June 15th as we hurry to put some things in and then wait to put the others. June is the calm before the storm.
What does grow very well in June are herbs and strawberries. Basil in particular. That being said, June is our soup, stock, strawberries and pesto month. We roast several chickens per week, piece them, eat some for dinner and then freeze the rest in 2c bags for winter soup. The bones and scraps also get frozen into 13c containers and when we have 2 or 3, we pick a bunch of herbs, some carrots, celery and onions and make stock. Our stock pot renders 6-7 quarts of stock per batch. When we are bored with the chicken task, we switch gears to picking 5c of basil every 10 days or so to make batches of freezable pesto. Around Father's Day, we go to Pick Your Own strawberry fields and enjoy watching our kids eat more than they pick. 3 trays of strawberries, a couple of hours in the kitchen and freezer jars render us a freezer full of jam. Last year's uneaten blueberries need to leave the freezer to make room for the jam and pesto and so they also become freezer jam. By then end of the month, we have a freezer full of strawberry and blueberry jam, stock, soup meat and pesto.
So, stock is piling up with more on the stove and I cannot wait to switch into tomato season!
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