Hard to believe another Summer's nearing its end. We're still picking calendula, anise hyssop, basil, catnip, eggplant, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and lemon cucumbers, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting!

I saw these these cool lemon cucumber pickles on Twitter (by @flight0001). I'll have to grow more so I can do that next year! What we don't eat has been making its way into face creme and a new soap.

(I've always made cucumber soap with mint, but I've been wanting to play with bay, so this season I'm using a blend of bay, petitgrain and lemon essential oils. The soaps have a warm, light caramel color and a fresh, sweetly-balsamic, herbal fragrance. They should be ready in another week or so.)

Still waiting on the first crop of shitake mushrooms. The logs that were inoculated last fall are covered with mycelium but no fruit yet. It's probably a bit early for their first flush. We were just hoping all the rain we've had this season would get the mushrooms cranking