My Dad and I tend two big, beautiful gardens at his house in Hayward. Well, I guess they are mostly his, but I go there pretty often to plant, weed, thin, harvest, and process veggies. Yesterday and today were spent down there harvesting beets, green beans, peas, cauliflower, basil, eggplant, dill, and lettuce. There is usually such a big crop of everything that we tend to give it away to friends (if you need anything and are around here let me know!), eat what we can, and then process the rest. So far, processing has been relegated to freezing what we can. Enter hot water canning! Dad got me the stuff I need and we tried it out last night and today. I used the green beans to make Dilly Beans (something I was introduced to by my friend Racheal) and beets to make Pickled Beets (a family favorite). We usually make these every year but then have to keep them in the fridge since they haven't been officially canned. This really limited the amount we could make because those jars took up a lot of space in the fridge. So after a long, hot 5 hours, we ended last night with 12 pints total.
This morning we went to Bayfield to harvest raspberries. We go to Blue Vista Farm in Bayfield and they have tons of awesome berries. (We go back in a few weeks to pick blueberries next!) We each picked almost 10 pounds of berries and then headed home to make and can raspberry jam. Lots of the raspberries were frozen but we also came away with 11 pints of jam.
At this point I am about getting ready to leave to head home when I realized I needed to pick the peas and some lettuce before I left. Dad and I go out to the garden and are picking the peas when I feel something on the back of my leg, right behind my knee. Assuming it was a mosquito, I lifted my heel up to squish whatever it was. Dumb idea. It was not a mosquito but something that had a stinger. So I look at Dad and say "Something just stung me" (which really to be fair I totally stung myself, but whatever). Now this wouldn't be a big deal except that I am allergic to hornets and wasps. I carry an Epi-Pen for just such occasions. First thought, "Are you f***ing kidding me?" Second thought, "Can I take Benadryl if I'm pregnant?" Next thought, "What happens to a baby if I have to use my Epi-Pen?" We drop everything and go inside to look up if Benadryl is ok (which it says it is, thank goodness) and then to call my brother, Dr. Ben, to see what he thinks. I tell him I just got stung but am not sure by what. He asks all the right doctor questions and then concludes I'm probably going to be fine, just take a Benadryl and have another handy in case you start to get worse, and if things do get worse, use your pen. He was absolutely right. It must have been a bee or something little that stung me cause nothing really happened. Whew.
Moral of this story..... 1) don't squish something with a stinger into yourself and 2) there is so much I don't know about being pregnant so thank god for the internet....and my brother. =)
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