We stopped in at my mom’s house in town to pick mulberries from the ancient mulberry tree in her front yard.  The tree is huge and covered with berries, but the birds have begun to eat the ripe ones already and we mostly found berries which had just recently fallen. 

My mom tempted the girls to stay the night with a promise of a movie night. We have no screens where we live, other than this phone i use for blogging/ internet/ a line to the Outside Otherworld. Of course they ran off squealing with delight. I took the chance to stop around the corner and scavenge some loquats from a tree I’ve had my eye on for a while in passing.  

Near to a neighborhood road, it would have been a difficult stop with Clo, who always seems to be trying to get run over, even in situations where you would have to put some effort into it.  The traffic kept slowing down when the drivers saw someone picking something out of a tree. I’m not sure why it’s so weird to see someone harvesting fruit, but at least there’s very little competition. 

Laden with fresh fruit, i headed home…ALONE!!! (wheeeee!). Ethan was out of town too, so you would think it would be nice and quiet, but it isn’t at all. Even with most of the humans out of the way, there is always something going on. 

The dogs immediately mobbed me with overenthusiastic affection as soon as i was home. 

From the pastures the calves loudly reminded me that i had driven off that morning without giving them their usual treat. The chickens were scampering around under foot around the kitchen, and the cats felt like they were starving without someone to rattle the brimming kibbles in their bowls to remind them how full they still were.  

Then Ralph pinched me when i tried to load the washing machine because Dolores has decided to try making a nest behind one of the freezers in the shed. 
Even when i tried to sneak away to read  under a tree somewhere i was followed at first by 100 little meat chickens who are free-ranging in the orchard and are still small enough to slip under the gate.  After i had fed them for the second time that afternoon, i made another attempt to get away but as soon as i had settled down the goats were there, looming over me and trying to eat my hair.  

I moved to a different spot, and as soon as i had taken off my shoes and stretched out the dogs came over and sat on top of me, pinning me down and breathing breath that smelled like whatever rotting dead thing they had last dug up and chewed on into my face.

I tried baracading myself in the garden, where the dogs are not allowed, but the cats came in after and climbed on my shoulders and pounced on my feet and mewed piteously. I looked up and realized that from where i sat, in all directions there was some sort of animal doing something, and it was hopeless so i gave it up and shut myself in the kitchen to make a cobbler. 

Now i miss my family because being alone and unsupervised with a whole pie pan full of dessert is an unfamiliar situation….

Filling:

3 cups deseeded loquats

4 cups mulberries

1/2 cup water for cooking the mulberries

1/4 – 1/2 cup honey (depending on how sweet you like it)

1 tablespoon arrowroot

1/4 cup water

1. Make sure all the pits are removed from the loquats.  Put the mulberries in a pot with the water and gently cook with a lid on until soft. 

2. Puree the mulberries in a food mill (removes the stems and all the tough parts) and put the resulting watery pulp back on to simmer. 

3. Mix the arrowroot and 1/4 cup water and stir into the mulberry pulp. Stir while it cooks and thickens. 

4. Scatter the loquat pieces in a baking dish and drizzle the mulberry pulp on top. Generously crumble the crust on top:

Crust:

1/2 cup butter, lard or coconut oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups pecans or walnuts 

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1. Put the nuts, seeds, salt and arrowroot all in a food processor and grind them up into a floury mixture. 

2. Melt the butter and add to the crust mixture and pulse a few times to mix it in. 

3. Turn it out into a bowl and stir in the coconut sugar with a fork. 

Bake the cobbler at 350F for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is nicely golden.  Try not to eat it all yourself.