July Newsletter
NO. 60 | July 2026
From the Desk of Madison Moore is a monthly newsletter of friendly writing on living a creative life. Here, we celebrate the joy and magic of making things! And by reveling in the expansive definition of making, we acknowledge that we make things everyday. More concretely, I write about the process for all the kinds of things I make (books, clothes, illustrations, quilts, paintings, ceramics, baked goods, flowers…).
But, creativity is also more than an isolated craft—it’s a life practice. So you will find me writing about life, the natural world, home, food, and more.
Hi friends! Happy summertime! I love the summer for many reasons, and June is when it all hits. Long days where the sun lasts forever; light and birdsong to wake you up early; heavy heat that slows everything down and stretches it out; the first swim and float and cloud watch from the water; weeks that pass in the blink of an eye. Each season brings change that I feel really personally. June is the time for settling into that, I think.
I have plenty I’d like to write about to you here, but I’ve been pouring my creative energy into other projects, and so instead I am sharing a little snippet of living where we live at this little moment of the summer.
In our zone (and without a greenhouse), most things in the garden are still budding and beginning. But, our herbs are bushy and delicious; so, may I present to you:
Any Herb Green Sauce Recipe
I’ve never included a recipe here before, but I love making food, and I can definitely see myself sharing more casual, garden-friendly stuff like this in the future. We eat this sauce on lots of stuff, with favorites being beans and pasta. I suggest adding the optional dairy ingredients when using it for pasta, and some parmesan fits great too. It is extremely easy and has made every dish we’ve used it on better!
Ingredients:
Any combination of leafy herbs, like parsley, cilantro, basil, oregano
Additional aromatic vegetables, like garlic scapes, garlic, chives, onions
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Optional: Plain Greek yogurt or heavy cream
Amounts vary! It’s never bad to have leftovers of this sauce; use what you have, and skew the flavor profile by varying the amount of each herb. Vary the amount of olive oil (and/or dairy) to adjust the texture; this sauce can also be mixed in with a broth for a soupier texture, or if you add less liquid, it is more like a spread.
Roughly chop everything.
Put the herbs and vegetables a food processor with the olive oil. As necessary, add the ingredients in batches. If you prefer not to use a food processor, finely chop all the ingredients, then add to a bowl with the olive oil.
Mix in the lemon juice (and/or dairy).
Add to your dish at the end of cooking or after removing the food from heat (I don’t recommend boiling or cooking this sauce over a long time).
We picked 10lbs of strawberries this month and went all in on making goodies, including enough strawberry/basil and strawberry/vanilla jam for the year, drop biscuits, olive oil cake, and plenty of fresh eating. Strawberry basil is such a GOOD combo. Local farms and eating seasonally rocks! In the late summer, we’ll get more from everbearing plants and freeze them for future baking.
Portfolio Peek
I am making great progress on the picture book dummy I am working on (snippet of a page here in graphite!). This month felt a little slow as I developed some rendering techniques, but I ended on a big success, and then saw a group of swallowtail caterpillars in the garden after I drew this page (which is, of course, a good omen).
We Make a Home Videos
This month, we put out videos about planting our 2026 garden after starting everything from seed and planting dozens of willows and evergreens. It’s so fun to watch the property change over the spring (and with our additions). There will be a garden tour going up in July!
✷ An old man singing one of the best Adventure Time songs
✷ Have a favorite strawberry recipe we might want to try next time? Let me know!
✷ Are you watching Widow’s Bay? Show of the summer!
✷ Lovely live performance of Courtney Barnett with songs from her newest album
Thank you for sharing your excitement for summer and all the joy it brings!
☀️🫛🍓🌊
Thank you for reminding me I can make something from our herb garden rather than giving it to the chickens. Your beans look delicious! I have three go to recipes for strawberries. The first two strawberries are the companion, olive oil cake (Chef Steps has an amazing recipe) and pavlova (this is mainly a ratio game dependent on your weather). If I happen to have too many strawberries on hand and won’t eat them in time I’ll make a strawberry sorbet. 2lbs strawberries, 2c sugar, juice of 1-2 lemons (to your liking) blend until smooth then churn. If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can put the mixture in the freezer and stir every hr, increasing frequency as it firms up. Since it’s mostly sugar it’s fairly easy to scoop.