Summer Berries: Mulch Edition
The hottest weather of the year arrived in Seattle at the same our house received a dump truck full of arborist mulch from Chip Drop. Check out this haul!
This mountain of mulch meant we were spreading tree chips all over our garden and tree beds every evening over a week and a half.
Happy to have an activity begging for my attention outside, I found myself working on my computer and in planning meetings for work, but dreaming and thinking about how I wanted to toss my electronics out the window and be shoveling mulch instead. The only saving grace for me not shoveling at all hours of the day is the unforgiving sunshine at the front of our house in the morning. The way the sun sets in the back of the house paired with early evening temp decreases in the shade made after work hours the best time to indulge in shoveling. For all the new shoveling muscles gained, I, of course, indulged in some berry ice cream breaks throughout Project HolHuynhs Mulch the Yard™. It was nice to just sit in the warmth and nosh on some ice cream while smelling the warmed pile of pine wood mulch baking in the sun.
My ice cream this week was a combo Wild Blackberry from Lopez Island Creamery and Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper from Salt & Straw. They are vastly different interpretations of berry ice cream but their melted mix at the end of the bowl really worked together.
The first thing you have to know about Lopez Island Creamery is that it's one of the milkiest ice creams I've ever tasted! They really live up to using the word "Creamery" in their name. This isn't my first and won't be my last flavor from this creamery but each flavor of ice cream has been amazing in this way. On their website and pint labels they proudly exclaim that they have a commitment to producing a locally sourced, all-natural, handmade ice cream and still use the small batching method they started out with. This is probably why it's great, or maybe it's a bit of magic. To give you some sort of clue about how creamy their mixes are, the Wild Blackberry ice cream melted fast in the heat and it made me think of the perfect berry milkshake. But if I made a milkshake from this ice cream I would be hesitant to add any milk to it, (as milkshake recipes usually call for) because it already has the correct ratio of milk all on its own. I'm keeping blackberries stocked in the house, excited that the season is here for them to be their sweetest selves.
Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper is an entirely different berry concoction. Growing up strawberry ice cream (especially with strawberry bits) was my favorite. Strawberry ice cream what I wanted alongside my birthday cake. What I wanted if went out to ice cream at a small shop or Baskin-Robbins for a treat. Strawberry ice cream was the first thing I ate when someone gave me scoops of neopolitan ice cream (because you can't save your favorite for last in neopolitan for sake of flavor mingling). I hadn't had Strawberry Ice Cream for awhile - writing it off as something I liked before I had all these other gourmet ice cream choices I've indulged in while traveling the world. I thought that the other flavor notes in the title would make it feel like a pretentious grown-up version of my childhood strawberry ice cream, but to my surprise, it really was just that same strawberry ice cream I remember and loved. It took me back to growing up in Tacoma, WA staring at the bins of ice cream behind the glass - hearing my mom say "Of course she's going with Strawberry again..." after I had tried about 3 other flavors trying to convince everyone else including myself I’d verge away from comfort. The black pepper, the balsamic - really just clear the way for the strawberry to shine in the cream and as little strawberry bits.
These Berry ice creams are just summer in a bowl - 5 spoons and a fully mulched yard.
My view during ice cream breaks.
Nothing like a great smelling pile of mulch underfoot.
