My lunch. Toasted baguette with either zucchini spread or goat cheese and tomato. Good grief, do I love summer. The eating is just so darn good and easy.

In the pop-up garden at the corner of 20th and Market Streets for a press conference. We (Philly Homegrown) announced our partnership with Center City District and this fall’s Restaurant Week. There’s going to be at least one locally sourced dish on every participating restaurant’s menu.

There’s also a nifty new mobile website for checking menus and making reservations. It looks like an app, but isn’t specific to any one phone platform. That’s perfect for this Palm Pre-using girl.

Fresh dill heads from Turhune Orchards in Princeton, NJ. I spent most of the day stressing about some final book edits, so I wasn’t able to go any further than my dining room for photographic inspiration.

Sunflower on Blue Moon Acres in central New Jersey. A co-worker and I went on a farm tour and saw three glorious, though very different, farms.

At the farmers’ market today, I bought 25 pounds of seconds apricots (it was pre-arranged with Beechwood Orchards) and two bundles of chinese long beans that I pickled tonight.

Create a Cook, the space in Newton, MA where I taught a canning class. It’s an amazing place, two full equipped cooking classrooms, a big open area where people can gather and lots of reliable staff. We have nothing like it in Philly.

On the road to Boston to teach a canning class. It was a gorgeous day for driving.

A pot from Ikea that will serve as new home for a Christmas cactus. Now I just have to get some potting soil. One step at a time.

A quick weekday lunch. I had a couple small slices of toast on the side. Three and a half years later, the fact that I work close enough to home that I can make lunch in my own kitchen most days still hasn’t gotten old.

Today was one of my work from home days and after a brief hour at the office for a staff meeting, I spent the rest of the day catching up on all those life-maintenance tasks that have been piling up. Though not everything on the list is crossed off, I assure you, those things were done by the time the day came to an end. I adore being on top of things.