Happy Holidays!

 The cookie jars are overflowing. We made cookies from Thanksgiving to Christmas; lots to share and lots for us too!

 We made an ancient Celtic feast for the Winter Solstice; spiced meat dumplings, wassail, broiled mushrooms, roasted veggies, and steamed plum pudding. It was delish!

 Here is our annual December 22nd Nana's B-day tea. It's one of our favorite holiday feasts. The kids love the sausage rolls, mincemeat pies, and scones. On the 23rd, we have Russian pancake supper, and on the 24th, we all gather in the kitchen to make loads of tamales.

 What is Alex eagerly awaiting?

 Why are Ari's eyes so large?

 Anni has the answer. Christmas dinner has arrived, roasted brussel sprouts on the stem, caramelized with maple syrup.

 Yorkshire puddings to go along with the roast beast (beef, this year).

 Oven roasted potatoes and gravy.

 And for dessert, a French Buche de Noel, complete with marzipan holly and meringue mushrooms. It was a lovely dinner.

Here's our tree this year, a beautiful all natural Douglas Fir, very round! Every time, Anni and Barkley passed they sent ornaments flying!

We hope all of you had a beautiful and peaceful holiday season, full of togetherness and joy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving. This is the turkey we encountered at the Bonair Winery last year. We liked him so much we had to post the photo again!

 Thanksgiving has been a busy time down at the Funny Farm. It's our favorite time of year. We celebrated the turning of the leaves....

 And the arrival of our first garden box from Full Circle CSA. Our back garden patch is pretty much done for the season. We still have a few root veggies and some herbs going, but this time of year is given over to slugs and mold. Our box this week contained Yukon gold potatoes, leeks, Braeburn apples, garnet yams, D'anjou pears, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, pomegranates, Cremini mushrooms, Cut greens braising mix, and Lacinato kale

 This year our thanksgiving recipes came from a wonderful spread in this November's Real Simple magazine. The menu included cider-glazed turkey, bourbon gravy, sausage and apple stuffing, scalloped potatoes with smoked apple cheese, sauteed Brussels sprouts with poppy seeds, brown sugar-glazed carrots with rosemary and toasted pecans, fig and cranberry compote, caramelized onion rolls, and sweet potato pie with candied nut cream.

 I cooked for three solid days! We made everything from scratch except the sparkling cider and wine from our favorite family vintners. It was fantastically delicious!

 We are thankful for so much: beautiful fall days, a warm home, our big wacky circle of family and friends, all our entertaining critters, and time to spend with each other.

And one final image of the biggest turkey of them all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's Harry!

 Anni decided she was going as Harry Potter for Halloween this year. Check out the school jumper, tie, and scar!

 She really liked the talking wand!

And that's a pouch of Berttie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans hanging from her belt. This wizardess is all set to conjure up some mischief!

Halloween or Samhain is our favorite yearly festival. We've done lots of dressing up, decoration, and cooking up of treats, and a few tricks as well. Ari's been a pirate and Medusa. I've been the Morrigan, a dark fairy, and a fine young cannibal. We've visitied friends for a Dracula movie night complete with our annual veggie stew baked in a pumpkin, and danced our feet off at our favorite celtic pub. We also celebrated some of the fun Latin traditions for the Day of the dead. Anni and I dressed up as calaveras, and we had delicious Mexican food. Time to hit the gym!

 The last of this year's tomato harvest. Amazing! We were still harvesting tomatoes in November!

 Rainy day farmer, Julie Ann, after a soaking wet trip out to the veggies. Anyone got a towel?

 The daily take; lots of carrots, tomatillos, herbs, and a few greens.

The cleaned up treasures.

We been making lots of preserves with our harvest bounty. Anni and I made four quarts of apple butter last week with the remains of her apple picking adventures. I've been making up vats of spaghetti sauce to use up our enormous tomato crop, and tomorrow, I'm embarking on a tomatillo salsa extravaganza! Now, what to do with several hundred carrots, hmm???

A new post, finally!

Okay, okay, I know it's been a L___O___N___G time since last we blogged, but we've been really, really busy with all our harvest activities.

Lisa, Ari, and I went east of the Cascade Mountains to visit the Yakima Pepper Market for our yearly stock up of heat. We now have peppers for those who like them mild (the girls) to those that like them screaming hot (David/Alex). We also visited several wineries to sample the harvest and purchase a few of our favorites. The Yakima Valley is beautiful this time of year.

The next weekend Anni and I visited one of our favorite farms, the Jones Creek Farm, up by Sedro Woolly. We picked organic Liberty apples from the orchards, visited with the farmers, and snapped up some homemade local soaps. On the way back, we stopped at another apple farm for apple cider and crab apple jelly. Finally, we made a pits top at the Potato Station for local spuds.

Anni has been enjoying lots of arts and crafts lately. Last fall, we dried apple gourds. This fall, we're painting them and turning them into bird houses. Can you tell, we've been working on an apple theme?

David has been working hard on all his classes. Here he is studying.

Dun, dun...
Dun, dun...
Dun, dun, doodleloo...

Nope, not a shark, but a wisteria that's trying to move indoors, through our front door! Anyone seen the shears?

Busy, busy, busy!

 The garden is in full autumnal splendor. We've been harvesting lots of herbs, berries, corn, zucchini (courgettes), eggplant (aubergine), carrots, flowers, and tomatoes.

 We've also been eating lots of garden inspired meals. On Tuesday, we made eggplant parmesan with lots of eggplant, garlic and herbs from the garden. On Wednesday, we made garden harvest soup with zucchini cheddar muffins (awesome!). On Thursday, we made homemade herb noodles (using our pasta machine) with a sage (from our garden) cream sauce. On Friday, we made fish fillets in a mango sauce (not from the garden) with a stir fry of zucchini, snow peas, onions, and greens (from the garden!). And today (Saturday), we had a garden feast of stuffed zucchini blossoms, fresh corn, beans, and fresh salsa (Alex's specialty and very hot!). We often start our days with a fresh berry yogurt smoothie. Yum. I love garden goodness.

We've begun harvesting this year's crop of pumpkins. We have seven on the counter so far! I can hardly wait to make spicy pumpkin stew (Yes, Lisa, you can come to dinner!).

Barkley was night romping and ran into a tree limb, injuring his eye. He had to make a quick ($$$) trip to the vet for treatment. Here he his standing guard in the garden (he keeps the chickens out when they're free ranging), wearing his homemade collar guard. The chicken, who usually either ignore him or sit on him, were truly terrified. He finally got some doggy respect.

This past Monday was international talk like a pirate day. Ari and I decided to dress the part prior to our weekly Celtic dancing stint. It was lots of fun, matey! Arrrrrrr.

The sunflowers are finally blooming.

The tomatoes are turning red.

The squash keep on turning out produce.

The berries are ripening.

The garden spiders are claiming their territories.

The green house is resembling a jungle.

And we finally got the eggplant to grow!

In other news, I finished up my aromatherapy class at Bastyr University. My nose is all burned out from smelling so many essential oils in such a short amount of time!

We attended Alexander's high school open house. He seems to really be enjoying his program, and the teachers seem like a great bunch. He and David have been going to the football games. Go Vikings!

Anni has restarted all her school activities. She loves seeing all the other kids for her cooking group, but she really misses Alex. She and Barkley check his room several times a day.

Ari and David have returned for fall quarter in their college programs. David is taking astronomy and environmental science. Ari is taking logic, American studies, and archeology.

Today, we hit the farmer's market for apple pie jam, apple butter, apples (Can you tell Anni is going to learn about apples next week?), cilantro, jalapeno peppers, cantaloupe, and sweet corn. Then it was off to the book exchange to trade books, followed by a stop by the library to return and pick-up. When our local market ends at the end of October, we'll be making a weekly pilgrimage to Pike Place Market.

Tomorrow, Ari, my friend Lisa, and I are off on one of our weekend adventures. Stay tuned for details.

Hiking and Harvesting

We've been hiking a lot lately (since the arrival of the sun!)

 One of our favorite hikes is to the Wallace Falls, just off of Highway 2.

David and Anni check out the view on the trail.

David does a bit of rock hopping.

Anni is a happy hiker.

Alex and Ari are wondering if their game boys are missing them.

Mossy trees at the start of the woods.

The Wallace River is full of rocks, lots and lots of rocks.

Big rocks, small rocks. Flat rocks, round rocks.

(Sorry, I just had to go Zuessical for a moment.)

What is this strange thing?

Eek! It was the old wasp nest.

Here's the new one directly overhead.

Double Eek, eek!!!

Berries on the bush.

Ferns abundant along the lower trail.



The undercarriage of the fern with the (a-hem) reproductive structures.

Slug approaching mushrooms.

Slug devoring mushroom.

Go, sluggy, go!

(More hiking photos tomorrow)

Well, it's been a busy few weeks down on the funny farm, too. Summer's arrival in the Pacific caused the garden to go Kaboom! We are having what to do with the zucchini contests daily. Currently, there are 22 residing in my fridge! The raspberries and blackberries finally ripened, and the strawberries decided to bloom again! We also have 17 tomato plants spewing forth red, orange, yellow, and chocolate colored cherry tomatoes. The rainbow carrots are determined not to be left out of the action, with white, cream, yellow, orange, red, and purple goodness.

Here are the zucchini cheese muffins Anni and I baked using some of that zucchini,

along with chives from the garden and local cheddar cheese. They're a family fav.

Did I mention they were ginormous? That's Alexander's big 16 year old hand! He's enjoying his new program at the high school. He's a proud viking. David and Alex went to the school's first home football game last night. They shut out their across town rival! Go Viks!