The world in purple

The irises are waiting to open.

The morning glory has awoken.

Bluebells are ringing.

And whatever these are they are plentiful.

The lavender smells lovely.

And the wisteria is creeping skyward.

Ahh, we love purple spring flowers!

WORMS!

It was time to refresh the worm bin for this year's vermiculture. Alex is adding fresh red wigglers to a bunch of organic kitchen waste and a half bin of partial compost from our large 3 part system in the back yard.

Here's close up of the worm bin, based on a design through Seattle Tilth. Note the double bin construction to allow for drainage and the air vent around the sides. (It also has a vented lid to keep critters out) Our bin lives in a corner on the deck.

Here you can see Wiggle, Jiggle, Squiggle, and gosh, I can't remember the rest of their names. Sorry guy/girls. Did you know worms are hermaphrodites? The vermicompost produced by these critters is awesome for the garden veggies!

Cookies!

How did my hands get so BIG?

So close and yet so far!

Put them on the plate. Then it's time to taste!

They're going on that plate one way or another! Yum! I love cookies!

We made cookies again today. And I got to ride my bike in the back yard while mom planted. I threw the ball for Barkley.

Barkley: Woof, woof! Wag, wag. Translation: I'm a happy dog! I love my tennis ball! (And cookie crumbs.)

A Celebration of Light.

Today is Beltane, the Celtic festival of fire and light, signaling the end of cold and beginning of warm. Among other traditions, it is a celebration of nature. The flowering of our backyard Dogwood is one of our favorite signals of warm weather to come.

And the annual arrival of all our gardening starts is another. These came from yesterday's garden sale at Lake Washington Technical College where the horticulture students sell terrific plants to home gardeners for terrific prices!

And here are bucketfuls of future cherry tomatoes waiting to be repotted and planted out near the end of May (this is the Pacific NW!). These are from the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant sale today. This venue take place at the Good Shepard Center (a former convent) in a beautiful park like setting. Every type of future veggie and herb imaginable are available to tempt home farmers. We found an herb that smell just like 7-up! We also found eggplant, squash (not zucchini!), and chocolate mint starts.

A bevy of flowering plants to go in the center bed of our garden to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

After the plant sale, we went to the opening day of the Redmond Farmer's market. Hmm, what's Anni turning to look at?

Alpacas in brown...

and white. Check out the teeth on that fellow in the back.

Our market finds today included oatmeal bread, St Jude's local sustainable tuna, Docco's tangy BBQ dipping sauce (awesome on grilled veggies and bbqed oysters), apple chipotle mustard and cranberry apple butter from Aldrich Farms, and a bag of beautifully fresh shallots. It was really fun to see all the farmers and craft folks again. We've been marketing with some of them for over 5 years!

Today for dinner we made that veggie lasagna with the tofu. It was divine! Here's the recipe:

Veggie Lasagna

One package of no boil lasagna noodles (we like the whole wheat ones)

One jar of organic mushroom pasta sauce (or your fav. sauce)

One medium sized zucchini, peeled and sliced very thin

One small onion, diced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced (this is optional, but trust us, put it in)

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

4 oz of firm tofu, drained and crumbled (we like the garlic herb flavored variety)

1-2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese (depending on how cheesy you like it.)

Parmesan cheese

Italian herbs (dried or fresh)

Black Pepper (we like coarse ground).

How to:

1) Preheat oven to 375

2) Pour 1/2 cup of pasta sauce in bottom of rectangular baking dish (nonmetal). Spread across with spatula.

3) Add one layer of lasagna noodles.

4) Add another 1/2 cup of pasta sauce and spread.

5) Add a layer of zucchini.

6) Add a layer of crumbled tofu

7) Add a light layer of mixed mushroom, onion, and red pepper.

8) Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella.

9) Repeat steps 3) through 8) once more.

10) Top with a layer of noodles. Pour remaining sauce over these noodles. Add remaining mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with Italien herbs and black pepper.

11) Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes

12) Serve with lightly garlicked toast (for sopping up the delicious sauce), a green salad, and Italian wine. Enjoy!

Produce on parade.

CSA box #1: Lettuce, broccoli, miner's lettuce, baby bokchoy, radishes, red peppers, green onions, pea pods, mushrooms, tomato, strawberries, grapefruit, pears, & oranges. We made lots of stir fries this week.

CSA box #2: apples, pears, oranges, Myer lemons, cucumber, cauliflower, onions, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, lettuce, radish, tomato, asparagus, and avocado. Our menu included asparagus quiche and cauliflower potato curry this week.

Egg salad open face sandwiches using tomato and lettuce from the csa box, chives from the garden, and eggs from the coop.

An English tea for dinner one evening. All the produce is from the boxes. Have you tried miner's lettuce? It's a wild edible that tastes alot like water cress.

This week's CSA box was so big we had to split it into two photos. First, the veggies: carrots, lettuce, zucchini, onion, mushrooms, potatoes, jalapenos, avocado, green onion, and broccolini.

And now the fruit and grocery items: oranges, apples, grapefruit, tangelos, peaches, tomato (yep, it's a fruit), cheese, sausages, and tofu. Our wonderful CSA with Full Circle Farm has been expanding its offerings. We can now add organic teas, coffees, chocolates, cheeses, tofu, some meat, breads, grains, and gourmet items to our box. The garlic and herb tofu, along with zucchini, mushrooms, and onions are headed for a veggie lasagna!

Day at the zoo!

Old timer mountain goat on his rock.

Surprising a red lemur makes its eyes bug out.

"Hey, I wanted that piece of grass!" (Gorilla conversational thoughts)

"People? What people? I don't see no smelly people."

We finally spotted the elusive Duiker (a very small deer).

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Alex. We went to the zoo for a field trip yesterday. Anni has been learning about different habitats. Check out National Geographic's website for more info on habitats.

Plants on Parade

Basil sisters growing on the kitchen window.

Seeded pots: marigolds, peas, beans, nasturtium, pumpkins, & more basil

The repotted shamrock. (Note the beautiful brown egg in the blue bowl beside.)

The blood orange tree we are experimenting with this year as an indoor/outdoor plant. We've named her Sanguine.

The strawberries are blooming.

The pansies from last year self seeded and are back without any real work!

We couldn't resist one critter shot. Here are the chickens three enjoying a bug hunt in the rhubarb bed. Henrietta likes worms. Waltzing Matilda enjoys ants, and Claudette prefers dandelion greens.

Here I am in my Juneau Sneakers French trenching the first (and largest) of the veggie beds. French trenching is laborious, but it really breaks up the clods, loosens up the soil and mixes in the soil additions. Then we planted this bed with cauliflower, collard, and onion starts.

The chives came back in force. We've been enjoying them in all kinds of dishes, especially omelets.

All the berry bushes are back. This is the raspberry. We also have 4 blueberry, a marionberry, and blackberries.

And finally, here is the variegated ficus (or weeping fig) that we went on such a search for over the weekend. It seems very happy in its huge pot on the landing. His name is Fickle.

Critters on Parade!

A proud peacock on the prowl.

Foiled by the fencing!

This one decides to hop the fence.

The gosling and ducklings are happy within their fences.

The roosters have escaped!

The goat is out by a nose.

The lambs don't care as long as maaaam is close by.

And the bunnies are happy doing what bunnies do.

My friend Lisa and I went on a most excellent adventure on Saturday. It involved shopping for shelves, partaking of a few fashion finds, veggie sushi, coffee, heavy rain, more coffee, and a search for the elusive variegated ficus tree.

Along the way, we stopped at the mini farm across from Flower World in Maltby. Flower World is an incredible nursery with just about everything except my ficus. The little farm shop across the way has a fruit and veggie stand, lots of veggie starter plants (We both bought basil starts and organic seeds), and lots of critters.

Did we ever find the elusive ficus? Check the blog tomorrow!

Spring, Sprang, Sprung!

Ah! Spring in the great Northwest!

Over the past two weeks, we've had heavy rain, light rain, showers, light snow, hail, a wind storm, and lots of grey, grey clouds, but interspersed here and there has been peeks of a shining orb in the sky. I think it might be called the SUN!

On its appearance last week, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The animals were in full spring season. We saw some very amorous ducks. We also saw both of the Arctic foxes, the brown coastal and the white inland - very cool. We've never seen them both at the same time before. We also saw several members of the zoo's wolf pack and the big brown bears were very active in their outdoor enclosure. (I forgot the camera - BAD moma.)

Today was absolutely gorgeous. It hit the 60's. We broke out the shorts. The blinding light of all those white legs equaled that of the sun! We did some much needed gardening. (I swear those weeds sprung up overnight.) Our garden is showing signs of spring. The rhubarb is back. The herbs are still going strong. We'll start our indoor seeds this week!

This afternoon, we gathered up the future farmers for fun at a local park. Alex beat us all handily at a game of dandelion hole golf, and Anni is getting really skilled at dribbling a soccer ball! Then we took a long hike along the river trail. We spied a bald eagle in a tree, two otters in the river, and six garter snakes in the grass. After all that it was time for an afternoon nap!

Here's hoping for more sunny spring days!