It is a beauty, full of summer weather, and with a full moon coinciding for the first time in many many years. They said 49 years on the weather yesterday morning, but I saw nearly 70 somewhere else. Anyways, a long time. June’s moon is, of course, the strawberry moon, also sometimes called the rose or honey moon. Ah, is that where honeymoon comes from?
Here at les collines, under the full moon however you choose to name it, and after a batch of rising heat, we are transforming bushels of June beauties into Strawberry Preserve with Lapsang Suochong. 
It is a personal favorite, and I plan to lay more in this year so as not to run out too soon. It is so, so good, sweet with an edge of smoke, I love it on good vanilla i.c. And if I could devour gluten like I used to, on a truly good croissant, divine.
The first batches are made with Thompson-Finch berries from Ancram, very special, that I pick mostly myself, a non-cost effective strategy in order to get a few moments in the fields, eating these sweetest of berries warm from the sun. It doesn’t get much more sweet and summer than that.
Fruitwise for sure strawberries really do mark the beginning of summer, the end of the long stretch of spring when rhubarb, so welcome earlier in May, is beginning to seem a bit, meh. And with strawberries we turn the corner into the fast lane for fruit. Cherries, black raspberries, raspberries, plums, gooseberries, currants, elderberries, blackberries will flow in in quick succession; sadly peaches and apricots took such a hit up here this year from the sudden very deep cold in February, there may not be many if any, and blueberries too seem to have suffered. Apples are touch and go depending on variety and location.
In the garden, the beautiful copious sage, beacon to honey bees, required some trimming this weekend, hanging over on top of everyone else as it was, and the harvest resulted in a big batch of infusion for the Cider Sage Jelly; infusing as I write. Everything else in the garden that didn’t winter over will be late, as it went in late, but we’ll just have to breathe and let it be.
Last week for the first time ever I lost an entire batch of jelly, labor-intensive Meyer Lemon Rosemary as fate would have it, very upsetting. I’ve come close in the past but always managed to pull it out or salvage enough in the end to avoid full frontal mishap. This was a no way, no go. A moment’s inattention with too many balls in the air; I kept a jar of the amber colored jelly with an inappropriate caramelized topnote in the frig as a cautionary tale, to remind me. Pay attention!! 
In case you’re not sure, check out here what MLRJ is supposed to look like, all delicate pale straw color. At les collines we say jelly and preserves, but jelly especially, are some of the original slow foods, and there is a reason for that. Respect the pace! Or beware of burnt jelly!!!
But right back in the saddle. I had to get orders out and with a batch of Meyer lemon mix, as I call the secret proprietary (!) concoction, pulled from the freezer, that same afternoon I held my breath and got through a normal round.
Yesterday I made a fresh batch of the mix, thanks to extra lime juice my new summer assistant and fellow (former!) French faculty member Anna had thankfully managed to juice just before the Krups died. Yet another tiny story in the annals of small business adventures; refund in process, new juicer en route. Now just trying not to cut any more fingertips as this seems to be the inconvenient trend of the past week.
So along with a big batch of the beloved SPLS, a new batch of MLRJ successfully made it into jars. The names are long, acronyms necessary…
All lined up with a few places to go, they rest to cool and set overnight, under a beautiful strawberry moon.
Not a bad day’s work this solstice of 2016 xo