Baking up a storm!

After a very busy weekend, full of sun and music, today was definitely a get to work day down on The Funny Farm. The back yard garden patch needed weeding and watering, and most importantly of all, harvesting! The tomatoes are turning, and the summer squashes are spewing forth. So much so, it was time to bake up a storm this evening.

Luckily  for heat wimp me, it was cooler today. First, I baked up a batch of curried eggplant slices for tomorrow's dinner (thanks greenhouse). Next, it was time for a double batch of cheesy zucchini mini breads with parsley and chives (all from our garden patch). Then, it was on to two trays of chocolate chip cookies, just because the oven was already on and the bread was still rising. Finally, we needed some breakfast breads, so, into the bread machines went orange currant bread and buttermilk apricot bread with almonds. I like to use the dough setting for these sweet breads and then form them into small loaves to be baked in the oven. After all the baking, the house is warm and smells incredible!

It felt good to escape the sun today. Ari and I got a little too toasted by it while attending the Blue Grass Music Festival on Bainbridge Island on Saturday. We'd never been to Bainbridge before. It was a lovely ferry ride over, and the island is pretty, lots of green and trees. We'll be back.

On Sunday, the whole clan went to the Highland Games in Enumclaw. There were pipe and drums and lots of marching about. We saw many mad Scottish athletic events and loved the modern bands playing at the main stage. Our favorite for the past few years is a band called Brother. These three guys combine the didgeridoo with page pipes and a bit of punk - awesome fun! While haggis was an option, we opted to dine on mini shepherd's pies instead. Mixed in with the tartan clad crowd were assorted fairies, pirates, and recent escapee from the ren faire. We had a terrific time!

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!

Summer Celebrations

Hmmm Honey, where did I stash the camera battery recharger??? Apparently this item is currently in electronic witness protection for overused devices. So sorry, no pics today.

Last Thursday, I went to hear a great local singer/song writer, Jean Mann, in one of my favorite venues, the Kirkland Backyard Concert Series. It was a very cozy evening with lots of great food, and Jean played "The Dance" one of my all time favs to listen and dance to. Many congrats to Jean for being commissioned to write a song for a movie!

And speaking of reasons for a celebration, it was Ari's birthday over the weekend. The mighty petite turned twenty three! She had a day out with her pal, Tony,and the next day we had a garden party with friends; Lisa, Shanie, and Jean. There were grilled garden veggies, a big salad, basil lemonade, raspberry ice tea, and truly decadent French chocolate cake. Lisa added Hoppin' John, Shanie some delish curry croutons for the salad, and Jean's wonderful salty sweet and sour homemade chocolates completed the feast. The weather was gorgeous. We ate, laughed, did a craft, and planted some herbs. Now, when's our next excuse to celebrate?

A few folks have been asking some gardening questions. I'll attempt to answer a few:

1) How do you supply nutrients to your organic garden?

We use a variety of methods, the biggest being compost. We compost all our plant based food scraps in a 3 tier composting system. By the time, it hits the 3rd box, it's ready to go directly onto the garden plants. We also use worm casings (poo) from the worm bin. Tomatoes love this, and finally for our acid loving berries, I use an organic fertilizer with a low pH.

2) How do you control pests in the garden?

Again this is a multiple step process. First, we don't plant in rows. We lasagna plant. A typical raised bed has a squash of some kind, a tomato or two, leeks, lettuce, marigolds, chard, nasturtiums, an herb plant or two, and more marigolds. By not planting in rows, if bugs attack that can't take out all of any one type of plant. Nasturtiums act a bug traps for a couple of pest drawing them away from your zucchini, squash, and pumpkins. Marigolds help keep cut worms away from root veggie such as carrots, radishes, onions, and potatoes. Lettuces grow quite happily in the shade of tomatoes which seems to help keep the dreaded NW slugs away. Lots of bugs don't like the strong odor of herbs such as basil, lavender, rosemary, and oregano. If rodents are pesky in your garden, plant lots of mint! We have two chickens, Henrietta and Claudette, they do a great job taking care of ants and earwigs.

When bugs do attach, I spray the plant with this mix: 1 cup warm water, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tsp castile soap (like Dr. Bonner's), and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Put everything in a blender and whirl. Let sit 1 hour and shake. Put in sprayer bottle and spray plants after they've been watered for the day. Keep extra in the fridge for up to a week. Lots of bugs don't like the garlic and the oil helps gum up their larval stage, protecting your plants. A word of caution: don't use on foods non compatible with garlic, such as berries, unless you enjoy the subtle tinge of garlic with these.

3) Exactly, what are you growing this year?

Oh, the toughest question of all, because I keep starting seeds and adding new plants! So far, we have 21 tomato plants, mostly heirloom, 4 gypsy peppers and 2 jalepenos, 4 garden cukes and 2 lemon cukes, 7 pumpkins, 4 zucchini, 3 pattypan squash, 3 butternut squash (thanks Lisa), lots of leeks, 5 kinds of lettuce, marigolds, nasturtiums, runner beans, peas, pineapple, purple and common sage, Greek and Mexican oregano, lemon balm, lemon verbena, purple, white, and red potatoes, rhubarb, camomile, borage, dinosaur kale, rainbow chard, mustard greens, zinnias, Gerber daisies, Icelandic poppies, Asiatic lilies, rose geranium, red geranium, black eyed susan, sun flowers, corn, garlic chives, common chives, chocolate mint, citrus mint, French and English thyme, begonias, snapdragons, calendula, sweet and Thai basil, eggplant, curly and Italian parsley, rosemary, pasque flower, bleeding heart, tea rose bush, black currants, jostaberries, marionberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, blackberries, grape, coleus, radishes, fuchsias, maple flower plant, aloe plants, cyclamen, an orange tree, canterbury bells, pansies, and lots and lots of dandelions (I count these as a garden crop since I eat them!).

Harvesting summer veggies!

It's been a busy day down on the funny farm. All the warm weather has finally engaged the fruiting parts of our garden veggies. Today, we harvested our first zucchini of the season, and we have one big tomato just about red (I can hardly wait!). Yesterday, we harvested our first gypsy pepper from the garden and eggplant from the greenhouse. We've also had a few runner beans and pear tomatoes. And the lettuces, berries, and herbs are out of control! We have to have big salads and berry smoothies for lunch everyday just to keep up with the flow!

Last week, we noticed a garden mystery; our zucchini and other summer squash were starting to grow and then withering and dying. Hmm, what was up? I checked for insect - none. I recharged the soil with compost. Still, they languished. So, I dug into my stack of gardening resources, and found the answer in Ma book: Willi Galloway's: Grow, Cook, Eat. The lady flowers were not being (eh-hem) pollinated by the male flowers. This might have been due to lack of bumbly bees, but I suspect it was due to our love of stuffed squash blossoms. I put a halt to their harvest and hand pollinated several lady flowers. A week later, the squash plants are all happily making zucchini, yellow summer, or pattypan squashes.

In family news, Ari is gearing up to start the UW in the fall. Translation: she filling out lots and lots of forms.
Alex got his pre-senior picture haircut yesterday. David had been trying the yin yoga classes with me. Now, I just have to get him to try a flow class. (I'll have him  in pretzel poses in no time!) Anni enjoyed her yoga session this morning, and she's been loving her afternoons in the back garden.

Remaking and hip hop!

We've been busy down on the funny farm this weekend. All the garden fruits and veggies needed to be recharged with some fresh compost. So, there was the turning of the compost, the shoveling of the compost, the spreading of the compost, the watering of the postcomposted plants, the splitting and repotting of the aloe vera plants and then an afternoon nap for all the farmers! Phew!

We also hit the farmers' market yesterday morning for tomatoes, broccoli, sweet pea flowers, and a very cool pendant for Alex, made by one of my favorite market artisan, Stephanie of Ponder Press. It's shaped like a shield, inset with his school colors, gold and black. Go mighty Vikings!

We've been doing lots of arts and crafts this summer, part of our new goal: Be remakers instead of new consumers or destroyers. The idea is to repurpose stuff you already have, might be tired of, or is wearing out, into new items that you really like. We'll be posting pics of some of our remade items over the summer.

Alex was continuing in the artsy mode today with his drawing class at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

Anni and I dug into the craft bin and decided to make a very cute purse:

Side 1

We took a rounded wooden clasp box, painted the outside black (with leftover acrylic paint), added dotty scrap paper and leftover black velvet ribbon. Then, we decided to have some fun. We added scrap velcro to the front, back and inside, and attached felt flowers, a wooden flamingo, and a felt bird cage. The additions can be mixed and matched to a unique look. The ones not in use can be conveniently stored inside.

Anni loves her new purse!

 Side 2

Inside

Tomorrow, we'll paint the inside of the purse, after the outside glue is completely dry. Anni already has her eye on some more items in the craft bin as possible future additions.

As many of you already know, I love to dance! Usually, I Celtic modern, ballet, or belly dance, but lately, I've been kicking my heels out. I've been enjoying Zumba with its latin rhythms, and tonight, I took my first hip hop class. It was a blast!Tomorrow, I'm trying a Tease class, va-va-voom!

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.

Summer Fun!

Yesterday was the summer solstice. I celebrated the day by spending it in Seattle with future farmer Ari and her pal, Toni. We started out at Pike Place Market at the Crumpet Shop. I went for one with green eggs and ham, while Ari preferred hers with lemon curd. Next, it was a hop across the street to Starbuck for some fuel for the day.

We met Toni at SAM's (Seattle Art Museum) hammering man sculpture. The featured exhibit was modern minimalism. Lots of the art work was labeled as untitled. So, we had great fun giving them all names. My personal favorite was Horde of Angry Bumble Bees for a canvas of yellow splotches and black zig-zags.

After SAM, it was time for lunch. We walked south along 1st Ave to Pioneer Square and finally arrived at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant. It's a really cool old place where lots of the jazz greats have played (including one of my favs, Ray Charles) and new artists abound. While waiting for our order, I pulled out a pad of origami paper and we tried our hands at folding a frog, butterfly, and bird. Toni was the only one to get hers done before the meal arrived. Toni and I both indulged in jambalaya; while Ari ordered up the Catfish and hushpuppies. All came with warm and tasty cornbread. It was Southern delish!

Then we headed back north to Pike Place. The girls had serious Manga to check out; while I had groceries to collect at the Spice shop, Italian deli, Parisian bakery, and Chinese bun stand. By the time we were done, we were tired, in need of another coffee, and ready to face Friday rush hour.

I spend the evening of Solstice in my garden contemplating the upcoming full moon. The garden was alive with sounds of birds and bees and the fresh smell of all the flowers we've interspersed between the fruits and veggies.

Today, was our Saturday farmers' market in Redmond. We've been going there for years. Today, we picked up a cucumber, cilantro, tomatoes, green onion, cherries, lettuce, peapods, and shallots. Every week the market has a different theme. Today was mustache day. Here's mine:

Hmm, I think I look a bit like Hercule Poirot.

I spent the rest of our beautiful sunny day in the garden: watering, harvesting, weeding, etc. Here's today's bounty:

lemon balm, chard and kale greens, basil, our first Marionberry and blueberries, a few remaining black currants, chamomile floweres, chives, parsley, strawberries, oregano, calundula floweres, borage flowers, raspberries, lemon oregano, and nasturium flowers.

I used the parsley and chives in a big patch of cheddar chive scones for our picnic tomorrow. The flowers, some of the berries, and herbs went into my lunch salad, delish!

Hope your summer solstice was a lovely one.

A day in the life of the Funny Farm

Today, I thought I'd write about daily life down on our Funny Farm.

David is our fearless early riser. He makes sure everyone else gets up and gets going. Sometimes, he even wakes up before the chickens.

Speaking of which, here are the girls, Claudette and Henrietta. They are always awake by 7am, but sometimes, one of them has the urge to lay an egg at 5:15am, groan!

Why is this boy smiling?

Because that big pile of Canadian rocks isn't going to fall on his head? No, that's not it. It's because he doesn't have to get up at 6:15 every morning to get ready for high school! And because now, he's no longer a middle ground junior, he's a mighty SENIOR! This photo is from our February trip to Vancouver, BC. It was cold!

I'm usually the next one to make an appearance out of bed.

Once, breakfast is going, it's time to wake up Anni and Barkley. Here's Anni awaiting a cup of tea, and Barkley hoping she drops something yummy on the floor.

Almost last to make an appearance at the breakfast table is our recent graduate, Ari.

Hmm, maybe that's because she was celebrating her graduation and acceptance to the University!

And finally, we have a family member who only graces us with his presence when it fits his feline fancy.

Yep, you guessed it, Alchemy the cat.

Today, was Alex and Anni's last formal day of the school year, although we believe in year round learning; so we'll all keep our minds busy with summer activities. This morning, Anni and I potted up some Marigolds for teacher gifts, and then we were off to speech and OT appointments. This afternoon, all the farmers went in search of a new dog food for Barkley. The old brand was not agreeing with him. While we were at the pet shop, we found a pal for our lonely goldfish, Squeak (the big orange one).

Squeak's pal, Bubbles went to the giant fishbowl in the sky after a swim bladder illness that caused him to swim upside down, quite happily, for the last 3 months of his fishy life. Squeak has been kind of droopy since. Now, he has a new pal, a comet goldfish. The funny farmers have dubbed him (or  her) Eros after the asteroid due to make a close pass by earth later this year. They seem to be getting on swimmingly.

Today's weather took a turn back to normal Pacific Northwest fare; some sun, some clouds, and some rain.

Here's today and yesterday's garden harvest:

 Yesterday: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, nasturtium flowers, calendula flowers, borage flowers, mixed greens of chard, mustard, kale, and arugula, mint, cilantro, and lemon balm.

Today: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, nasturtium flowers, calendula flowers, chard, baby radishes, squash blossoms, and sage. These are pretty typical harvest for early in our season. We are also harvesting lots of chives and oregano. 

Our tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins are just beginning to fruit up. I can hardly wait. Here's a photo of last year's final tomato harvest, once the weather had claimed the foliage. We ripened all the remainders indoors!

What do we do with all this garden goodness? We cook of course! Here's Monday's dinner:

Baby potatoes (farmers' market) with parsley (ours!) sauce, local sole fillets sauteed in butter (local dairy) and chives (ours), cucumber (farmers' market) salad with nasturtium and borage flower petals (ours). It was delish!

We've been working using lots of stuff in our aging and temperamental fridge which has been slowly dying since last fall. Tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed) our new one should be arriving! After multiple attempts to resurrect the old one, we've decided it's time to give it up and invest in a new energy efficient model. Now, are veggies will stay nice and fresh! Yippee!

And since we like to end on a sweet note, after dinner and clean-up this evening, we make cookies!

These delicious little morsels are mini chocolate chip butter cookies with local WA walnuts. Yummy!

We're BACK!!!

Hi Everyone,

As you might have noticed, the funny farmers have been long gone from the virtual farm. We had a sad year last year as both my parents passed away within a few months of each other. We needed time to be nonfunny for awhile, but now the year has turned, the sun has finally reached Seattle, and the garden is in full bloom.

So what's up with the funny farmers?

The big news is Ari graduated from college with her Associates degree in arts and science, with a concentration in anthropology, last night. She was so excited at the commencement ceremony! And today, she received her acceptance letter into the University of Washington Anthropology Program. She was ecstatic! It seems like just yesterday she was the smiling Buddha baby in my arms.

Alex is about to become a Senior his high school. He is enjoying the challenge of the International Baccalaureate program and is busy checking out colleges to see where he would like to go after graduation. In April, we took a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, so he could check out Stanford. What does he want to be? At the moment, it's a toss up between an eco-green architect and a medical illustrator. And speaking of this baby, my cuddly teddy bear boy is now taller than me by a few inches.

Anni has caught up to Ari in height. She has had a busy year working on all her goals and many, many activities. Her latest passions are art, baseball, and cooking. She's been learning and growing  with a great crew of folks all year and continues to make many gains. This summer, she's doing yoga, swimming, and going to cooking camp. Anni is also the funny farm energy monitor and recycling goddess.

David continues to go to college. He only needs a few more classes and he'll be the next college graduate the family. He's very interested in sustainable business practices.  I'm busy from dawn to midnight, keeping the place from falling down. I also joined a local yoga studio and gym to keep fit,and as always, I continue to write lots of stories and dance. In my spare time, I'm learning all about herbal medicine (as I sit sipping elderberry tea).

Once again we've expanded the organic garden and are currently growing 92 different varieties of fruits, veggies, and flowers. This year, we're interspersing the flowers all around the veg to encourage lots of bee activity. After a winter break, our chickens  became inspired and started laying eggs again. Henrietta and Claudette are getting on; so we hope to add a couple of younger birds to the coop over the summer. Barkley, the wonder dog, continues to keep the garden free of squirrels and most crows. Alchemy, the cat, sits and gives him disapproving looks from the deck. Bubbles, the fish, could care less.

Speaking of summer, we've also begun the season of home improvements. Or geriatric refrigerator has been slowly dying for the past few months. On Monday, the new one finally arrives, yahooooooooey! Then, it's painting season! And eventually, we really, really, really have to clean out the garage. Do we really have to! I don't want to! No, no, you can't make me! We'll I guess I'll have to force myself. Someone out there probably can use some those things we're not, and it'll save resources. It's not easy being green.

Pictures to come!