Vermont: Growing Things

I don't know why it surprises me every time. Summers in Vermont are profoundly fecund. Apple trees seem to punctuate your every ride from one place to another. My mother has two volunteer apple trees growing down the hill from her house. This makes the deer living in the woods behind them very happy, and so you'll see lots of deer prints there. She also has blueberry and raspberry bushes that deliver so many berries that she has a hard time keeping up with picking them all. She freezes what she can, and we make preserves throughout the year from them. And if you've ever had homemade preserves, you know that store bought pales in comparison. She also makes tomato ketchup, which is actually more like tomato relish but serves the same function. Fresh flavors in the dead of Winter.