Collecting Berries and Crafting Spaghetti

The summer activities already started a few weeks ago, even before school was finished. The Chavaya b'Kramim (Fun in the Vineyard) team at nearby Kibbutz Sha'alvim opened up their fields for berry picking. The grapes and passion fruits looked enticing but not yet ripe for picking. We were there for the berries and what a variety there was to choose from! Our absolute favourites by far were the gorgeous dark and juicy blackberries, which we picked in abundance.
Later we enjoyed them served with a little sugar and a lot of cream and there were more left over for a rather luxurious breakfast the following morning.  Perhaps with the next crop I get my juice-stained hands on I might make a delicious hot pie or even freeze a few. On this occasion the berries disappeared far too quickly to even attempt that!

Whilst we are on the subject of food, a customer recently put in an unusual request for a 12th birthday card, one which I can honestly say I have never received before! Apparently her niece is mad about pasta and in particular spaghetti. Could I make her a spaghetti card? You bet I could!

The card was actually very easy to create. I simply cut out wiggly pieces of spaghetti until I felt that they fitted together nicely on the plate. You can't have spaghetti without thinking 'Italy', so the card took on an Italian feel, with a blue and white gingham tablecloth, big red number 12 and a silver fork ready to hook that spaghetti with.
In the end it was such fun to make that I hope someone else will ask me to create another one some day. I suspect that I might have to wait a while though.