A Wild and Windy Week

We've had a wild and windy week done on the Funny Farm. A big late fall storm decided to make an early appearance at the end of August! It brought down many trees, including several in our neighborhood and took out power to over 100 thousand people in our state. On the good side, it also brought some much needed rain! Good for our veggies and helpful to the fires still raging in Eastern Washington.

Speaking of veggies, today we harvested zucchini, lemon and English cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, leeks, zucchini blossoms, green beans, eggplants, jalapeno, habanero, and gypsy peppers. Yesterday, we cooked up a huge pot of green salsa base using lots of tomatillos. Can you say enchiladas?

To help reduce the frightening overload of veggies in the fridge, tonight was use your veggies pizza night. A prize was awarded to the pizza with the most veggies. I won.  I'd planned on photoing the winning pizza, but alas, the winning pie was eaten before the camera could be retrieved.  So, instead of a veggilicious pizza, here's another pic from our June vacation.

The Future Farmers at Medicine Wheel, Wyoming.

This is a really cool Native American site, closest to Lovell, Wyoming and within the Bighorn Mountains. It a mile hike straight up to reach it. The Medicine Wheel is a bit of a mystery. No one knows exactly when it was built, but it is sacred to many tribes who still hold ceremonies at the site. The cloths and trinkets tied to the fence are offerings and remembrances. From this site at the top of the mountain, you can see 60 miles in all directions. It was quite the view. 

We were also impressed by this little critter at Medicine Wheel

This is a marmot, and this one was particularly friendly. I think it wanted a snack.

 Unfortunately for him (or her), Anni was not about to give up her granola bar!

It's back!!!

Me at the top of the Rocky Mountains!

Well, It's really about time to restart the blog. We've been really busy this summer with all our eco travels, but we still have the backyard funny farm. The chickens have gone from single, lonely Henrietta to a coop full of six, the B girls: Bunny, Basket (both of whom are Easter Eggers, laying beautiful pastel colored eggs). Bumble, Bee (both of whom are Americunas, laying blue green eggs) Blush (a very smart and super friendly red x-linked, laying brown eggs) and Buffy the Bug Slayer (a buff orpington. laying brown speckled eggs). The future farmers raised the chicks from a week old, and they are all super tame. We love them all (Except for when they spot a rummaging raccoon at 5 am and begin to squack at the top of their little birdie lungs!)

The Future Farmers at Snake River Canyon, Idaho

The backyard farm patch is bigger than ever this year, probably due to the extremely warm weather we've had. Today, I harvested a 20 pound pumpkin! And it's only August! We've also already had corn, lots of other squashes, and bean. The kitchen table has it annual bounty of tomatoes, currently amounting to seven bowls worth, and this seems to be the year of the prolific cucumbers. We've had 43 English cucumbers so far, and 17 lemon ones. Ah, I love cuke sarnies!

The Future Farmers and myself at Cliff Palace, 

Mesa Verde, Colorado.

How high up the cliff we were standing!!!

More tomorrow! Until then, keep on farming!

Adventures and Vegetables

It's that time again when the family has a multitude of both adventures and vegetables.

We started our August adventures with a trip to Snoqualmie Falls. The lodge at the fall was the one of the sites of the Twin Peaks tv show. The falls themselves are part of a historic hydroelectric plant.

 Here was our first view of the falls.

 Here's a close up. The roar of the water was amazing!

 Ari happily sipping her coffee and admiring the view.

 The view!

 Alex being uber cool with his sunspecs and i-pod.

 The falls with the electric plant in the background.

A beautiful blooming thistle.

A fabulous twisted root tree on the grounds of the fall.

Our next adventure, featured Anni and myself. We were off to gourmet cooking camp again. This one was at the PCC Market Cooking School. Anni made cuisine from Brazil, Italy, the Southern USA, India, and Thailand. It was all delicious and lots of fun!

Alex and me went on our next adventure with family friend, Lisa, and her nephew, Stu, visiting from Indiana. We spend a beautiful warm day exploring the Washington beaches near Ocean Shores where we saw sand dollars, foraging deer along the side of the roadway, a Japanese fishing god statue that washed up after the big earthquake and now resides the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center. We explored tide pools, spying hermit crabs, tiny fish, and lots of sea stars. At night, we got a look at a single shooter from the meteor showers before the evening clouds moved in. Fun, saltwater, and sand were experienced by all.

The next day of our adventure took us to Mount Rainier. It's been so long since I last visited that I'd forgot how truly majestic the 14K+ peak really is. We stood on a log bridge over the rushing Nisqually River and visited the 176 ft drop Narada Falls before checking out the new visitors center at Paradise. It was evening when we began our hike up the mountain. My goal was to see a marmot. Lisa spotted the first. I found two more, and Stu found a pair whistling away to the twilight. We all took a turn standing at the base of a glacier before it was time to head back down before we got lost in the dark. Our only mountain casualty was a mosquito bite on Alex's forearm that turned narly giving him a Popeye arm for the next few days.

Marmot

Our final adventure (thus far) was a visit to the Ballard Locks to see the salmon running, the boats passing, and the flowers in full view. 

After all that fun, it was time to take care of the garden:

 The garden is in full swing turning out gobs of zucchini, patty pan squash, beans, cukes, berries, chives, herbs, and tomatoes.

It's time for tri tomato balsamic salad with feta cheese and basil, my absolute favorite summer salad! Here's the recipe:

1 large heirloom tomato, sliced

5 golden pear tomatoes, halved

5-7 cherry tomatoes, halved

Arrange on plate in spirals.

Dressing:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 teasp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Mix and pour over tomatoes.

Top with 1 teasp. minced basil and 1 Tbsp. feta cheese

Excellent with crusty bread and a glass of wine. Enjoy!

Violet Beauregard's Favorite

Why is Anni smiling?

Because this morning, she, David and I all headed over to the Mercer Slough for two hours of blueberry picking bliss. We picked lots and lots of berries!

 What did we do with all these berries? Well 12 cups worth immediately into pies! 2 cups worth went into lemon blueberry muffins. 2 cups went to a friend. 1 cups is destined for a salad tomorrow and another cup into the dressing. That leaves 12 cups for freezing! We had so much picking them that we can't wait to go back to the slough.

The pies prior to the tasting of the pies!

Can you spot all the gypsy peppers on this plant?

What are these strange orbs? Why, there the beginnings of this year's pumpkin crop! Yea!

And just to end with something pretty, the Asiatic lilies are blooming. The hummingbirds love them! 

Music, Flowers, and Gourmet Goodness!

We've been having a very busy week down on the Funny Farm. Summer here in the Pacific Northwest brings out all the artists, visual and musical. On Saturday evening, David, good friend Lisa, and I went to see a circle of songwriters at the Black Dog Cafe in Snoqualmie. The music and the edibles were both terrific.

Alexander finished up his series of drawing classes at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens on Sunday. The girls and I wandered the grounds snapping photos. Yes, we finally located the camera battery recharger! Yea!

This week, Anni has been attending gourmet teen cooking camp at Sur La Table in Kirkland. Everyone has been very inclusive, and she is having a blast! On Monday, she made homemade spaghetti noodles (lots of cranking), marinara sauce, mini meatballs, creamy dressing and Italian salad, and for dessert tiramisu. Yesterday, she cooked up a fiesta with tortilla chips and pico de gallo, chicken fajitas, veggie quesadillas, and  both strawberry cream and mango popsicles. Today, she journeyed to a Japanese menu, rolling sushi, folding gyozas, tossing yakisoba noodles, and mixing up some green tea ice cream. Tomorrow, Anni does a frog leap to France for a classic french menu. I love helping at cooking camp. The kids feed me well!

A word from Barkley: "Woof, arf, arf, bark, woof!"
Translation: I'm a happy dog: dog park! dog park! dog park!
                  Other dogs yippee! wag, wag, sniff, sniff, run, run.
                  Water? Water. Water! I need water!
                  Nap, Time for a naaaaaaaaaap.

Yes, we took the woofer to the dog park. He was deliriously happy and then slept the rest of the day!

In garden news, we're harvesting tomatoes, zukes, cukes, and lots of herbs and flowers. The lettuce and radishes have begun to bolt in the warm weather, and all the berries except for the blues and blacks are about done. It looks like we should soon be seeing more eggplants, pattypans, peppers, and green beans.

Even though, everyone knows I'm a winter queen, I'm really enjoying summer this year. Hope your's is great too!

Happy Beginning of July

The sun has finally reached the Pacific Northwest, and it decided to stick around for awhile. We're loving it; even when we grumble that the house is too warm in the evening! So what have we been up to?

Gardening of course! Berry season is in full swing. Almost all of our different berry bushes are producing. We have an abundance of raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, blueberries, strawberries, and even a few jostaberries and black currants. The blackberries will be along in a few weeks. We're also seeing our first green beans of the season, and yesterday, I harvested 3 yellow teardrop tomatoes!

What is this patient girl waiting for? Dinner of course! We've been favoring simple dinners in the heat. This one is a ginormous garden salad with coastal shrimp added and a rounds of garlic bread from our favorite local bakery.

What's going on here? The raspberry bush in engulfing farmer Julie Ann. Help!

Where did she go? Oh, no! The raspberries have exacted their revenge! Even the dog looks worried.

This week Ari had to go to Shelton, WA for a training. I went along too, and while she was training, I found a cool bookstore and an enormous bead warehouse to explore. Now, I have the yearning to remake some of my old jewelry. Crafting is cool! (Even on a very hot day like it was) After the train, we continued west all the way to the Pacific Ocean! It was gorgeous on the beach, even the water was warm (very rare here!) We had a lovely lunch and walk amongst the surf before heading the Prius back home.

We celebrated the holiday with a backyard bar-be-que and lots of fun decorations. We also went to see the new Lone Ranger movie. We liked its humor.

 The Independence Day BBQ: Ribs rubbed with dry rub, slow grilled, and slathered in BBQ sauce,

 Corn on the cob with butter and garden oregano, homemade potato salad, organic watermelon, and

Anni's favorite - red, white, & blue cupcakes, full of garden berries. We hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Clafoutis mania!

A few weeks ago, I read a book about an American who goes to France, learns to cook, becomes a cookbook author, and lives in a converted medieval convent. Along the way, Ms. Loomis dots the narrative with  lots of delicious sounding recipes, and now I'm absolutely hooked on clafoutis. What's a clafoutis? It's a  fabulous dessert concoction, part firm custard crossed with sweet omelet dashed with fruit tart, minus a crust, and since you all know, I HATE MAKING PIE CRUSTS!

So far, I've made:

raspberry clafoutis,

dark cherry clafoutis,

and apricot almond clafoutis.

These desserts are fabulous ways to use an abundance of summer fruit, and they only take 20-30 minutes to cook in a 350 degree (F) oven. They also make a terrific summer breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee. Here's my simplified recipe:

Clafoutis
2 cups fresh fruit (berries, apricots, cherries, apples, whatever!)
3 eggs
1 cup milk (I've tried these with both 2% and almond milk, both worked)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or other flavoring to fit the fruit. For example, I used almond extract with the apricot)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (or cinnamon, or other baking spice to fit the fruit)
1/8 tsp salt
powdered sugar (optional)
nuts (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a pie dish. Scatter sliced fruit at bottom of dish.
2) Beat eggs until frothy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour over fruit. If using nuts, sprinkle on top.
3) Bake 20-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.
4) Finish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, if desired.
5) Enjoy warm or chilled. (Some folks like to top them with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. I like them without. You decide.)

Next on my clafoutis list; banana walnut!

Besides baking desserts, we also make some very awesome pizzas to use up some of our garden herbs for dinner on Saturday.

This one is Kalamata olive, shaved ham,  feta cheese, and freshly picked  oregano. The other pizza got eaten too fast to even snap a photo, It was a Margarite with sun-dried tomatoes, fresh parmesan, and just picked basil. There were no leftovers for the new fridge this night.

Sunday was a super low tide (-3) due to the Super Full Moon phenom, so we put on our grubby sneaks and rubber boots and headed to one of our local Puget Sound Beaches.

 Alex and Ari discussing the finer points of beach ecology.

 Julie Ann getting sandy and salty in a tide pool. Here I was pointing out nudibranchs (really cute and colorful sea slugs) to another beach explorer.

 Anni wondering if there's any possibility of lunch or ice cream or ice cream for lunch.

 Ari being super animated after finding a lions mane jellyfish alive in a shallow pool, way cool!

 Alex and Julie Ann  checking out the Dungeness crab while Ari continues to gaze at the jellyfish.

A scallop shell amongst the seaweed. All told, we saw lots of cool beach life as we explored. We saw gulls and an osprey, a wriggling gunnel fish, clinging sea stars, lots of anemones, multiple species of nudibranchs, a red velvety sea sponge, mussels, dock shrimp, five kinds of crab including a very well appointed decorator crab, a squid egg pod, an armoured chiton shell, a moon snail shell, live clams, and baby sea urchins.

Then Anni finally got her wish. We had a car picnic along side the beach. The rain had moved in by then. It was cheesy chive (from the garden) scones, ham sandwiches on market rolls, pasta salad, baby radishes (garden), strawberries (garden), and blueberry ice tea. Yum.