My favourite time of the year is fast approaching. Soon the local vegetable stands at the side of the road will be popping up, loaded with fresh, local produce. It all starts in June with a few of my favourites: cucumbers, peas, and strawberries. But the thing I'm looking most forward to this year is garlic scapes!

Garlic scapes are the leaf-less stem of the garlic plant. They have a milder taste than the garlic bulb they grow from, like a cross between garlic and green onions. I have seen them popping up in most grocery stores the past couple of years, but you'll definitely find them in abundance at your local farmer's market. The scapes are harvested a couple of weeks before the bulb, so they are only available for a short time.

You can use garlic scapes anywhere you'd normally use green onions or garlic (but with a much milder flavour). Try chopping them up on salad, mixed into an omelet, or my favourite, made into pesto! Scape pesto is delicious on crostini, mixed with mayonnaise on a sandwich, or a great addition to scrambled eggs. I like to make up a big batch of pesto, some for immediate use on pasta, and the rest to be frozen and stored for later use. Of course, it doesn't last long at my house.

I'm especially excited this year because I joined a community supported agriculture group and one of the first items I'm expecting in my bounty this June are garlic scapes. There's nothing like fresh, picked-today, produce, but I'll have more about that next time.

Scape Pesto:

1 cup chopped garlic scapes
1/2 fresh grated parmesan cheese
olive oil (1/2 to 3/4 cups)
handful of pine nuts or walnuts (optional)

Process the garlic scapes in a food processor until well pureed. Add the cheese and nuts (if using). Process until smooth. Keeping the food processor running, add olive oil until combined.

Friends

I've been leaving Heidi and Amelia with my neighbour fairly often lately. I take her daughter once a week while she works, so she's been taking my girls a few hours a week while I do various other things (work, shower, clean, make cards... all the things that are nearly impossible to do with 2 little ones running around). Leaving Heidi is still hard, but she has so much fun over there. She and Sierra are 3 months apart and such good friends. It's so cute to see them together. Sierra gets excited and says: "Heidi, Heidi, Heidi" whenever we she sees her.

Amelia and River, on the other hand, are like brother and sister. They love to play together but get easily frustrated with each other. They both want/need to be in control of what ever game they are playing. I wonder if it's an oldest child thing, or if they are just that similar, personality-wise. Everything I've heard about River as a baby, parallels my experiences with Amelia.

I feel so fortunate to have their family as neighbours. It's strange how people come into your life right about the time you need them.

New cards

The first is a Thank You card for my neighbours, who provided great entertainment for the street party I helped organize. The "thanks" I cut out using my friend's Cuttlebug. I'm thinking of buying myself one for Mother's Day.


Today I made a whole batch of Mother's Day cards. The first is a new card for my Mother-in-law. Kendrick didn't like that my Mom's card was nicer than his... Next time he can make his own. I'm going to give the old one to my sister-in-law.


I made the next one for my sister. I had no "Aunt" stamps, but I figured this sentiment would work. I used my left-over pieces from above card, a stamp from my day at Sheena's, and my new ribbon and brads.


This one I made for my next-door neighbour who I do shared care with. Her kids are the same ages and mine and Amelia likes to call her "Mama".