16 Legs of Lamb Roasting

Seder lamb in OvenThe legs of lamb are in the oven. My annual Seder meal cooking has started. St. Joseph Catholic Community has been celebrating the Seder meal since the early 70’s as a way remember where we came from and where we are going.

It has been a tradition for me to cook lamb for well over fifteen years, maybe twenty.  In the early years, my father helped cook the lamb and my mother put on the Seder meal for our parish. Prior to that, Lee Keon taught my father and I how to cook the lamb and drink vodka martinis at the old Knight of Colobus lodge while doing the cooking.  For the past couple of years, I have been teaching Katie Beth how to season the lamb so maybe some day she take over this tradition. 

The smell has filled the church kitchen with the lovely aromas of spices and lamb. 

It is nice to be a part of something so special. 

Growing Lady Bugs and Painted Ladies

Painted Lady CaterpillarLady Bug LarvaWe ordered a set of young larva of Lady Bugs and Painted Ladies.  This is our first year for Lady Bugs, which made for some work not having the right house for the larva to mature inside.  Karen is very resourceful and quickly came up with a Lady Bug house.  The caterpillars were less than a ¼ inch in length and quickly grew to about an 1½ in length.  The lady bugs were about the same length, but were much more active and quickly spread all about their little house.

Painted Lady ReleaseIn about 2 weeks, we had Painted Ladies and Lady Bugs ready for release.  The release was so quick that I didn’t get a photo of the Lady Bugs being let go.  Sadly, two of our Painted Ladies had a misshaped wing, but we put them on our flowers.