Harvest season is well underway!

Harvest season is well underway on the Funny Farm. We still have lots of zucchini, patty pan squash, cukes, green beans, and tomatoes. The greens herbs, peppers, and edible flowers are also still producing. Below, are pumpkin # 3 and 4. We're also harvesting loves of raspberry leaf for tea and the dominant garden berry are black berries. After verbally insulting my two eggplants for only turning out 1 eggplant all season, they promptly spit out the lovely one above, and now 7 more are growing! I shall have to remember to speak sternly to them from now on. (Although, I did remember to thank them for the one they made)

As summer winds down, we are taking advantage of the last of the sunshine. Last weekend, we went across the mountains for a musicfest in Leavenworth. We heard some great Northwest talent. One of the musicians was Anni's physical therapist. Great music Hunter! On Sunday, I went hiking with my pal Lisa on Tiger Mountain and then to Snoqualmie Falls. I also learned how to do track lighting installation. Today, we hit our local farmers' market for tree fruits and spicy peppers (which we don't grow) I also found some lovely handmade soaps and beautiful handcrafted cards by our friend and local artist , Danielle, The Crazy Card Lady. Tomorrow, we are off to our favorite apple farm, Jones Creek Farm, to pick apples for apple butter. Anni has been learning about apple in her home school programs and has her basket all ready to go!

And speaking of school, Alex is once again a mighty viking of Inglemoor. He and David went to the football games last night. Unfortunately, the mighty vikings were trounced by the more mighty and less brainy rebels. Ari is gearing up for the University of Washington to start, but she still has a couple of weeks of vacation time which she is using to check out all the student life activities. So far, she's thinking activity clubs and yoga. Anni has been very busy with her home school program and therapy activities. She's doing awesome!

David is busy tacking the honey-do-it list. This week's task: fix the washing machine, which starting groaning, then whining, and finally spun to its death. A family of five can not be long separated from a working washer. I'm busy as ever with the teaching, writing, chauffeuring of future farmers, yoga, dance, and figuring out what to do with all this wonderful funny farm produce. At this very moment, I'm baking a low-fat chocolate zucchini cake, another entrant in the Zucchini 100. It smells divine. Hmm, I think I need to go see if it's done. Laters!

Fall has retreated

Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous the last few days. The front garden is in false spring with the roses, pansies, and assorted other plants all reblooming! We picked a whole bouquet of pink and red roses yesterday. They smell wonderful.

The pea plants and baby spinach are doing well in the garden. The green beans and tomatillos are still producing at an outstanding rate. Thank goodness the zucchini had finally slowed down. We still have 20 on the kitchen counter! Our pumpkins are in full bloom with two little pumpkins on the vine. Today, we cleared weeds and nonproducing plants (a few spent beans, tomatoes, and squash) to make room for seedlings that will need to be set out by the weekend. We also fertilized all the currently producing plants and herbs with an organic fertilizer and some compost from the worm bin.

Alex is finally getting over his bronchitis, but now Anni has a cold! Pass the tissues!

We had a lovely fall lunch today of potato leek soup with potatoes and leeks from the farmers market, milk from our local dairy farm, and chives from the garden. It was delish! For dinner, we had some porkchops basted in a wonderful apple chipotle sauce from the good folks at Aldrich Farms. It gave them a great sweet spicy tang.

And I'm still making it to the gym, 4 days in a row! Drum roll please...So far, I have 9 miles running, 9 miles cycling, 12 miles elipsing, and 30,000 lbs of weight lifted on the weight machines. Phew!

Colorific!

The funny farm home has been exploding with color! We're painting again. This time it's the upstairs learning center, in anticipation of the approaching new school year (Hear Alex groan!).
The wall above the fire place is now Ralph Lauren Ranchito sueded red. The fireplace itself is Behr Solitude blue. The side wall are in various stages of Behr Ripe wheat and Behr Rye. To see the true colors check out the websites (because they won't let me copy the colors here). The hardest parts have been 1) moving all the books, toys, and etc in that room, stopping the dog and cats from sticking to the wet paint, and removing Anni's hand prints as she guides down the walls! The trickiest part is going to be painting the wall above the staircase while balancing on a very tall ladder perched on the steps!

The warm weather has returned to Seattle, and the garden is going bonkers. New harvest items today were raspberries (yum!) and the sunflower heads. We're drying the seeds in the oven. We'll use them in our bread making over the next few months. We picked 6 large red tomatoes, 20 cherry tomatoes, and a green zebra striped one. We also harvested beans, kale, chard, and 6 more zucchini! In addition to zucchini, the yellow squash are beginning to explode. We also have acorn, delicata, and cabochon (sp?) squash coming on for the fall. For those of you following the zucchini 100 here are the numbers: 67 + 6 = 73 to go.

Movin' zucchini!

The harvest of garden tomatoes! They're beginning to rival those zucchini! Pictured are cherry tomatoes, chocolate cherry tomatoes, mini Roma's, standard Roma's, early girls, and green zebra-striped.
A close up of the green zebra striped and the chocolate cherries. I'm in tomato heaven!
The chocolate zucchini cake (3 zucchini) and 2 loaves of zucchini harvest bread (2 zucchini).

For dinner we made Parmesan oven 'fried' zucchini rounds (6 more garden zucchini), which we served up with a big bowl of cherry tomatoes (garden) and a dish of tortellini in a sage (garden) cream sauce. Desert was cherry plums from the farmer's market. This was delicious and super easy!

Julie Ann's Multicultural Oven 'fried" Zucchini Rounds

6 medium zucchini (or yellow summer squash or combo), washed and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 cup of milk
1.5 cups of flour

and now pick a cuisine, only one though.

(In parenthesis is the suggested serving sauce. Don't add this to the recipe. Serve it with the cooked rounds at the table, if desired)

Italian:
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
dash of cayenne pepper
(warm marinara sauce)

Indian:
1 Tbsp of curry powder
(plain yogurt and chutney)

Mexican:
1 Tbsp of mild chili powder
or
1/2 tsp of chipotle chili powder
(avocado and salsa)

Chinese:
1 tsp of Chinese 5-spice
(soy sauce or any favorite Asian sauce. The future farmers like sweet and sour)

How to:
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2) Cover multiple cookie sheets (large flat pans) with foil. Spray with nonstick spray
3) Mix flour with the cuisine seasoning of your choice in a large bowl.
4) Pour milk in deep, small bowl.
5) Dip zucchini (or squash) rounds into milk, a few at a time.
6) Then immediately dunk into flour mix, coating both sides.
7) Place in a single layer on cookie sheets.
8) Cook for 10 minutes, then flip and cook other side an additional 10 minutes.
9) Serve with cuisine complementary sauce if desired.

Warning: This makes a heaping bunch of rounds. Cut recipe down to your size or be prepared to either feed a crowd, eat zucchini for a week, or feeze a bunch for noshing on later. Enjoy!

Zucchini 100:
73 + 7 (harvested yesterday) = 80 - 11 used in cooking today and - 2 given to our neighbor = 67 to go!

It's raining! (finally)

The rain finally returned to Seattle. We were feeling alittle parched after our recent heat wave. The garden smiled and immediately churned out zucchini! We used 2 in the recipe for dinner, but harvested 7 more! If you're keeping count on the Zucchini 100, we were at 68 - 2 + 7 = 73 to go. Time to bake more zucchini bread and another chocolate zucchini cake!
Here's the haul from today's garden harvest: red, white, and blue (ok technically purple) potatoes, chard, Lacinato kale, green and purple beans, 7 zucchini, a yellow summer squash, our first acorn squash, 1 big red tomato, 1 green zebra stripe tomato (yes, it's ripe), 9 cherry tomatoes, and chives.

The refrigerator is ready to explode due to the volume of veggies. What to do?

Whip up a big batch of Julie Ann's Versatile Gumbo.


6 Tbsp of your favorite fat: olive oil, butter, margarine, bacon grease, etc.
6 Tbsp of flour
2 large onions: white, yellow, red, sweet or sharp, diced
1 cup of celery or bell pepper (red, yellow, orange, or green) or some of both, diced
2 more Tbsp of your favorite fat
1 lb of okra or green beans or some of both
1 lb of zucchini (yeah!!!) and/or summer squash
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 16oz can of diced tomatoes with juice reserved
2 quarts of your favorite stock: shrimp, veggie, chicken, etc
1-2 pounds of your favorite protein: seafood (shrimp, crab), sausage, chicken, or firm tofu (all work)
1 tsp thyme
4 bay leaves
3 sprigs of fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Louisiana hot pepper sauce

How to:
1) Make a dark roux by gently heating the 6 Tbsp of fat in a heavy skillet. Stir in flour. Cook until roux is caramelly colored (or darker if you like a stronger blackened flavor).
2) Add onion and celery and/or bell pepper. Cook until tender. Transfer to large stock pot.
3) Add remaining oil to skillet. Saute okra and/or beans with zucchini and/or summer squash for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
4) Add drained tomatoes (reserve liquid) and garlic. Cook another 5 minutes.
5) Add veggie mix to large stock pot along with 2 cups of stock and reserved tomato juice.
6) Add thyme and bay leaves. Stir well.
7) Add remaining stock. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes
8) Prepare your protein:
a) Rinse shrimp and/or crab
b) Brown sausages or chicken pieces in skillet
c) Pan fry tofu cubes
9) If using sausage or chicken, add to stock pot and simmer another 20-30 minutes. If using seafood or tofu, let stock pot simmer another 20 minutes, then add these in the last 5 minutes of cooking.
10) Season to taste with salt, pepper, and pepper sauce. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

Notes:
A) This can also go into a crock pot at stage 2 and simmer on low all day. Add the prepared sausage or chicken during the last hour and switch to high. If using tofu or seafood, add during the last 15 minutes on high.
B) We served this up over brown rice and with a bowl of fresh corn on the cob.

Enjoy!

Taking the cake.

Yesterday the weather finally cooled down (hip, hip, horay!) Zucchini awaited. We baked 2 chocolate zucchini cakes and 2 loaves of zucchini nut bread. The kitchen smelled heavenly. While the cakes were cooling, we ran a few evening errands. We came back ready for cake, but 1 was missing. We looked high and then low. A trail of crumbs lead to a very guilty dog with crumbs around his snout. We had to place a call to the vet to make sure Barkley wasn't going to be sick due to the chocolate. So who took the cake? The crummy dog!

Zucchini 100: All the baking used 8 zukes, but we harvested 4 more! 75 more to go.

A lovely weekend!

Yesterday was farmer's market day. We found large tomatoes, locally caught tuna, red onions, a ginormous lettuce head, 2 baskets of delicious black currents, a loaf of apple nut bread, and a loaf of garlic herb bread, and a selection of truly delicious sauces from Alrich Farms. We also were given a large bag of basil from our friend Lisa.

We've decided Aldrich Farms is our favorite local product of the week. Their delectable jams, pepper jellies, mustards, and sauces are made in Bellingham, Washington. We love the apple garlic pepper jelly on grilled meats. This week we are trying the strawberry rhubarb jelly, apple chipotle mustard, chocolate blueberry sauce, raspberry brandy sauce, and cranberry orange relish. Check out their wonderful website at http://www.aldrichfarms.com/ .

Anni enjoying the sunshine in her backyard swing.

An enormous garden spider hanging out by the worm bin.

Today, the funny farmers had a visit with our friend Ellie. We were all thrilled to see her again, especially Anni. We visited Kelsy Creek Farm, saw the animals and chatted with a local political candidate. It is still toasty warm here, hovering around 90 degrees. We're wilting! We went out for sushi to cool down. Ellie helped us out with the Zucchini 100 by taking 4 home, along with some peas, carrots, herbs, and jams. That leaves 87 more to go!

And last but not least we paid a quick visit to the Goodwill on 145th in north Seattle. We found books for 79 cents, a glass cheese dome that can do dual use as a cheese cover and a seedling protector for $1.99, and a multitude of school supplies, all for under a dollar. Goodwill is a good value and helps provide training and jobs for lots of folks.

The cool air comes back!

Lilies, day and night! Love that bright pink!

We are all ahs and smiles as the cool air finally starts to move back into the Puget Sound area. After temps of 106 and 103, we were ready for some cool relief! Even the chickens were panting! Our upstairs hovered above 90 for the past 3 days. No one could sleep or eat (bad news with all that zucchini in the fridge!). We finally hooked up a tiny room AC in our basement family room and all slept down there. A week ago, an 85 degree day would seem hot to us, but today it was a welcome relief! Just call us a bunch of NW heat wimps!

We finally cooked again. The menu was BBQed Mexican pork, Spanish yellow rice, and grilled zucchini (of course! zucchini 100 remember?) and yellow squash brushed with jalepeno infused olive oil, homegrown pico de gallo, mellow avocado slices, and a hibiscus sparkling lemonade. It was delicious! The lemons and avocado were from our farm box, and the peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, yellow squash, and zucchini all came from our back yard!

Someone recently asked about our exceptions to the local eating rule. We have 3 family exceptions per month and 1 individual exception per week. Usually the family exceptions are: an oil of some kind (olive, peanut, canola), a spice, and citrus or avocados. The individual exceptions are as follows: Ari - coffee always, Anni - hot chocolate usually, but occassionally a hamburger, Alex - lately a frappacino, David - coffee usually, but sometimes a pepsi, & Julie Ann - either chocolate or coffee.

Another reader asked about restaurants. We usually try to frequent local, family owned restaurants. If they serve local, organic food so much the better. Our favorite coffee place is Cafe Ladro who friendly crew serves up wonderful organic fairtrade shade grown coffee. They also have the best apple pie in the universe!

Stats for the Zucchini 100, at last count we were at 81 zucchini left to go. However, over the last few days, I've harvested 12 more! So that brings it up to 93 - 1 in my salad for lunch and another 1 on the grill tonight = 91 to go! Did I mention the 6 more zucchini plants about to spit out zucchini? Help!

Flat and Flatter

Today was not a bed of roses for the funny farmers!

It began with the prius having a tire blow out. Bad tire, very bad back right tire! By the time I could safely pull over, the tire had at least six holes in it! David arrived to take the car to the garage while I took Anni home.

Here's the lovely spare that comes with the Prius. Love that color! The garage had to call all around to find the matching tire for Bluebirdie, but by late this afternoon all was well with the Prius. Then David looked at the Accord. A screw was sticking out of the back left tire. Back to the garage, he went. What are the odds of 2 negative tire events in a single day? (Please if anyone actually knows let us know!) We avoided any further activities involving tires for the rest of the day. Anni get off that tricycle!
Did I mention we are starting to get our first blueberries on the bushes we planted this spring?

These ones are especially large.

No, seriously big! That's a nickle between them! And they're tasty too!
Here's today's garden harvest, minus most of the blueberries and all of the strawberries (Anni fruitmiester strikes again!). We pulled our first carrots this morning. And more zucchini, along with a few beans, lots of peas, a cherry tomato, and some herbs. We pulled some of the pea vines in the garden to give more space to a yellow summer squash. We also finally got around to staking the runner beans which were starting to wind themselves around the cabbages and kale.
And as if we didn't have enough produce, the CSA farm box arrived today. It was another good one with cantaloupe, Walla Walla onion, carrots, broccoli, mango, peaches, plums, cherries, radishes, raspberries, roma tomatoes, mushrooms, and bibb lettuce. This time of year, we go heavy on the fruit in the farm box as the garden supplies most of the veggies.

On day 4 of the zucchini 100, we had a summer harvest pizza with zucchini. It was delish! Here's the recipe:

Summer Harvest Pizzas

2 12" pizza crust (or dough to make a crust. We used a whole wheat herb crust)

1 cup of seasoned pizza sauce (We used leftover veggie spaghetti sauce + 1 Tbsp tomato paste)

3 small zucchini, peeled and slice into thin long slices

4 slices of your favorite white cheese, sliced into very thin strips

(We used Munster, but provolone would also be great)

1 cup of mushrooms thinly sliced

1/2 cup of red onion thinly sliced

2 tsp of dried oregano (or 1 Tbsp of fresh if you have it)

1 cup of coursely grated parmesan (or Romano)

Sprinkle of coursely ground pepper

1) Prepare pizza crust and preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2) Add 1/2 cup of pizza sauce to each crust

3) Arrange zucchini slices over top of each pizza

4) Place white cheese strips over pizza, around zucchini slices

5) Add red onion and mushroom slices to pizza

6) Sprinkle each pizza with 1 tsp of oregano (or 1/2 Tbsp of fresh)

7) Top each pizza with 1/2 cup of parmesan and sprinkle with pepper

8) Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy! We served this with crispy fresh veggies and a cool dip, along with fresh fruit.

99 zucchini - 15 used so far and 3 given to a friend = 81 to go.

The Zucchini 100!

Our garden is being immensely prolific with regard to zucchini production. The entire bottom of the fridge is full of them! This calls for radical action, hence the institution of the Zucchini 100!

For the next 100 days, or until the zucchini run out, we are eating recipes incorporating zucchini. So far, we've had a zucchini laden spaghetti sauce and a stir-fry heavy on the zucchini. Today for dinner, we had curried zucchini pancakes with chutney yogurt sauce. They were delish!

How did we train for the Zucchini 100? We scoured the cookbooks for zucchini recipes! From our immense collection, we found 23 books with interesting zucchini dishes. Now we have over 150 choices for the zucchini.

Did I mention that all of these zucchini are from just two plants that were planted mid spring? The !!!6!!! plants that went into the ground in late spring are just starting to flower! Will the zucchini ever end???

So, if you know of any fantastic zucchini recipes, zap them our way!