It has been at least eight years since anyone cared for the piece of land that I am turning into a garden to grow food and spend afternoons with a good book in the hammock. Parts of the land are so overgrown that I couldn’t access them. Time for some clean-up.

Preserving food is hard. Or rather, learning how to preserve food is hard. The last week’s were a fun trip through my early adventures in canning while the weather was too moody to work on the garden.

There are two huts in my new allotment garden, both with leaking roofs. I’ve decided that the A-frame is salvageable. Somehow.

There is a small piece of neglected, overgrown land that I now call my own. The allotment garden we now rent is in pretty bad shape for growing food. Though most of the cherries are eaten, the trees and bushes are exciting.

I am rarely home alone. My husband and I both work from our shared apartment. Last week, he was traveling for work, so I spent three days on my own schedule: cleaning the balcony garden, cooking, and visiting the chicken our eggs come from.

This time, I show you what my balcony garden looks like now in June, share my first harvest, and cook with foraged, home-made, and home-grown foods.

Spring has been slow to come, so I took my time to get ready. I planted seedlings, started building a greenhouse, and spent time in the forest and at the beach.

Even after years of learning and teaching about the environment, I still live a life far from the ideal. I'm slowly learning to live in balance, to say no to the societal pressure of more, more more.