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!

Preservation Day!

What do you do when you have this:

going on on a daily basis, or even more?

And then you decide to go pick blueberries at the Mercer Slough?

 Ari looking for a choice blueberry bush.

 Julie Ann picking berries.

Well, the fridge and freezer are rapidly filling up with berries, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, herbs, and did I mention zucchini? All the kitchen counters are sporting baskets of tomatoes.

It's time for Preservation Day! No, not Presidents' Day or Native American Reservation Day, but preservation day! First, we made 10 jars of mixed berry jam and 2 apple blackberry pies. Then it was time for 2 big jars of bread and butter pickles, and 5 jars of tomato salsa. We also roasted 3 lbs of green beans and froze another 3 lbs after blanching. The kitchen was steamy!

 And because of the aforementioned zucchini abundance, it's also time for the Zucchini Challenge!

 Today's contenders are savory zucchini basil parmesan corn mini muffins and spicy sweet zucchini muffin cakes with orange and almond. Both were delish!

And in other news, Anni has finished up her summer cooking camps. She loved all of them! Last week's was the Science of Cooking.  She learned all about yeast, eggs, dairy, flour, and made lots of very calorie dense goodies! The gym is calling! Alex is halfway through his summer tennis lessons, and getting ready to restart the IB program at high school. When not fighting evil doers on his gaming rig, he takes care of the family computers maintenance. Go geek boy!

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!

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!

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!).

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.

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!

Happy birthday Julia!

Today is the would be the 100th B-day of Julia Child. We celebrated by having a delicious Salad Nicoise for dinner featuring organic red butter lettuce, dolphin safe tuna, tomatoes, green beans, herbs, and onion from the backyard funny farm, eggs from our hens, and several other delicious additions (mini bell pepper, olives, fingerling potatoes). It was delicious. Anni ate her weight in salad!

We are in that part of the yearly cycle where we harvest our herb crops. Over the past few days, we've gathered sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, lemon balm, mint, chives, lavender, and raspberry leaves. After rinsing and bundling, we have herbs everywhere. The chives were flash frozen and reside in the freezer. The raspberry leave are drying in a basket. The oregano, rosemary, and thyme are drying in small bunches, and...

 Ari sorts herbs in the backyard.

 She calls in the reinforcements, Alex, to help with the bundling.

 A bowl of pineapple sage sits waiting on the kitchen table.

 Sage hanging from our impromptu drying rack between the dining room and learning center.

 Bundled lemon balm drying on a towel.

 Lavender hanging from the curtain rod.

Chocolate mint drying on the kitchen counter.

We'll gift, trade, and use the dry herbs over the coming fall and winter seasons. We love a mint and lemon balm combination tea in the evenings and a raspberry leaf ice tea during the day - yum! The funny farmers love the sage in buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. Oregano takes center stage in our home pizzas, and rosemary is tops with our small homegrown potatoes. And I love thyme in practically anything!

Our Northwest weather has been steadily heating up over the past week. We may even break a hundred on Friday! The veggie beds are ready to explode in torrid showers of tomatoes and zucchini. (Does anyone have a really heavy duty brolly?) I can hardly wait!