Pruning... In and Out of the water

So with my host family all here we were discussing the 2 gardens they have on there property. One was for supplying the restaurant with local produce and the other for there home cooking.On some occasion the rest is sold at their farmer's market stand. Behind the new house that garden has tons upon vats of tomatoes and basil. I spotted some parsley and thyme also. So I got up early yesterday morning and picked until about 10 in the morning and our tomato salad was indeed at least for the day local and fresh. In the other garden I was shocked to see that they were growing all these different types of greens. Like buttercrunch, kale, chard, cabbage and many other salad greens. She had onions, chives, fennel, flowers and even wild grapes started a long and curling vine over top of the awning. I've never seen anything so shocking besides my great granddad playing minigolf in the blistering heat of the south at his age. With the nerve of making us play with him my asthma went through the roof.

On the way to work we had to stop by a autoclub to pick up a car that was being fixed. Some how or another I ended up driving the car to work. Apparently so I wouldn't feel trapped living in the farm house the family offered me the privilege of driving the car if i needed to get around. OH MY!!! When I reached work I had to figure out how I was going to use up the berries that were bought for me. So I decided to scrap the spoon bread ( which by the way tasted amazing these people up here don"t know passion if it landed in a ramekin with blueberries all over it) idea and start with something easy for them to understand. I made a mixed berry crumble with a blueberry jam, sweetened whip, and a lavender creme picked from the garden. I think it went over well I was trying to tone down the layers of the food. The pastry was just a simple short dough recipe with flour, sugar, butter, zest, and vanilla. I mixed the fruit with corn syrup, butter, flour, cinnamon, vanilla, and a berry liquor. After the dough is chilled you spread it in the pans and evenly spread the fruit over top of it as such. But you must mumble " money can't buy you classass" as you spread it. Then I made a quick kinda shortbread topping with just flour, butter, sugar, and orange oil. Set it and don't forget it. And that was that hopefully today will be a light day so we can sell the rest of the desserts I made. I kinda feel like i'm doing to much but i'm just trying to get their wheels spinning again. Most of the staff seems burnt out and there's only a couple more weeks left of the season.
Off to work. Oui