44. Discoveries

The next block in the Bible Sampler quilt accompanies probably the most recognized passage of scripture, the 23rd Psalm.

Shepherd’s Crossing

I’m not going to reflect on this Bible passage. It is so rich and deep. Entire books have been written on this passage. I’m so glad I can say with assurance these words that David wrote: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

My dear friend posted this on the same day I was posting this. Great timing! We love Psalm 23 because it reminds us that God understands us and our needs better than we know ourselves.

In other news: The garden has reached the tipping point where I can’t keep up with the bounty. Besides the garden, we have fruit trees dropping ripe deliciousness on the ground. Even though we require all visitors to take a bag of fruit if they want to leave our home, it’s not enough. I don’t want to see anything go to waste. Those trees and their keepers worked so hard to make that fruit.

But I happened upon a little solution this morning for one plant I’m growing. This old girl learned a new trick.

I’ve got a stevia plant.

I pinch a few leaves for my morning green smoothies. I’ll also put leaves in my iced tea and chew on them as I drink. Yesterday I picked too many because the plant is mushrooming, and decided to throw the leaves into a cup of water for the next day, today. Well to my surprise, the water is SWEET! So now I know how to sweeten my iced tea, hot tea, kombucha, etc. I can also freeze the sweet water in ice cube trays.

Best of all, I’ll keep up with the growth and there’ll be no waste.

There’s another similarity between gardeners and quilters: Inch by Inch

We glean. I thought about this while I was gathering up grapefruit groundfall. We don’t throw the whole fruit away if there’s a little blemish or soft spot, we cut that part off and use the rest. Same goes with my oranges and limes that are falling off the trees these days.

I’ve been doing a lot of fabric as well as fruit cutting lately. I wanted to play with the fabrics waiting patiently in their dark tubs. So I’ve been sorting scraps into project piles, cutting out the faded and bad parts and slicing the rest into needed sizes. I don’t know why, but it’s very satisfying to give the scraps a useful purpose, and keep waste to a minimum. Gleaning.