Summer Bounty

Last of the raspberries

Overripe currents

Bounty!

  

Love my August sunflowers!

OOC beanstalk

First of the hollyhock

We are decidedly more relaxed around here.  While we are not through major transitions, we are through major decisions.  And that brings its own form of peacefulness.  There's still a bit of anxiety in the air, as the summer has seemed too rushed.  For instance, this summer does not seem to be the summer I get out to pick huckleberries.  Or even pick the currents in the back yard.  But I am content in that the huckleberries and currents will be there next year, as will we.  So I can let that go for now, and just enjoy the bounty from my garden that I have been able to capitalize on this summer.  Like lettuce--for the first time ever we have been able to keep up with production.  And garlic scapes.  I discovered garlic scape pasta (recipe here) and have made three batches, to much success and acclaim.  I've also been knitting...a lot.  The most summer knitting ever.  Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon!

Oh, and we broke down and bought a new-to-us washing machine.  Because laundry is somewhat important in the grand scheme of things!

Spring Fever!

It's a balmy 36 degrees outside but the sun is shining so my son and I adventured into the backyard wilderness to tame the wild perennial bed.  It always looks so messy and forlorn over winter, but I find it easier to pull out last year's growth once it's had a chance to rot a little under the snow.  This spring I need to re-edge the perennial bed, in order to make a clearer distinction between "yard" and "garden".  I'm going to do that in bits, though, and mulch as I go.

My son and I were on an adventure to find the still-emerging bulbs.  When my husband came outside, my son ran up to him saying, "Papa Papa, we found the Jingle Bell Winter Flowers!"  I love his translation of "Snowbell!" I'm pretty sure the daffodils that I transplanted from the old homestead near my friend Kate's farm are coming up, but we just need to wait and see.  

In other news from our surburban homestead today, I made blackberry jam with some of the berries that I froze last fall.  It's the first time we've had enough from those bushes to make a batch of jam...and we ate tons of berries and blackberry smoothies already!  I'm not sure if it was our really wet summer that helped the berries, or something else, but it was pretty exciting.  My son is already telling me that he is going to eat all the strawberries this year, so I hope they are productive!

 

 

The Colors of Fall

Once, when she was here at the end of summer, my mother remarked "these are the colors I know how to paint."  She said this as we drove around the Palouse.  A Kansas girl, she meant, of course, the gold of the wheat, the blue of the sky, and the white of the clouds.  Today the clouds were more grey than white, but in the morning, the clouds occasionally gave way to bright spots shining down like gold on the fields.

We spent the morning at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA.  Red and gold and green.  As my four year old neighbor reported, the "apples have glitter on them" -- drops of rain leftover from last night, the first rain we've had in three months. 

Honestly, fall, when we have it, is there anything more delicious?

Smokey, Dusty Days

As much as I love September, around here it does seem to be kind of a dirty time of year.  We typically don't get much (any) rain in July and August, and until it rains in September it just seems to get dustier and dustier.  Harvest dust and forest fire smoke contribute to the overall griminess. It's also about this time of year that I just kind of get tired of watering...and thus forget.  So everything just seems dry, dry, dry.

But of course there is always the harvest!  I've been getting a ton of tomatoes, and supplemented with some from the Farmer's Market to can.  The blackberries this year are AMAZING, and I made a pie from them for a party on Saturday.  The pie wasn't terribly photogenic, but when smothered with ice cream it disappeared fast!

Despite the dryness, and the dust, it's still a beautiful time of year here. Fall on the Palouse really is lovely, all things considered!

Contentment

Summer never seems that lazy to me.  In the winter, we go to bed early and sleep a lot under many blankets.  Not so in the summer.   The days are long and busy, filled with activities and trips and general craziness.  

It's been hot here lately.  Now don't get me wrong, I love summer, but 95 degrees with no air conditioning is hot.  And exhausting.  I keep reminding myself how much I love wearing shorts and skirts and sandals and how that is all going to come to a screeching halt soon with the advent of fall, and therefore I should not complain.  But hot is hot!  Hot makes me switch from dark beers and red wine to the lightest of whites and summer ales.  Hot makes me want to lay around with no part of my body touching any other part of my body.  Hot makes me tired!

I like the turning of the season that late August represents, even though it makes me a little nostalgic.  It's harvest time here on the Palouse.  It's time to celebrate the season and put food by for the winter.  It's time to celebrate new weddings and the anniversaries of old weddings, at least in my book.  It's time to watch "American Graffiti" or some other end of summer movie coming of age movie.  Hot makes sunflowers and tomatoes ripen!  Salsa time!

The late summer heat with earlier, cooler evenings also brings contentment to me.  In that way, maybe contentment is a form of laziness.  I don't worry so much if the house is perfectly neat.  I don't feel guilty if I can sleep in late or have a quiet afternoon.  The seasons are changing, and we're moving from the period of business to the period of dreams...

I've never had so many tomatoes this early!!

Dug the garlic today!

Beany teepee!

My happy sunflowers!

Salsa time!

The onions are lonely in this bed now!

Palouse August

I love sunflowers and harvest...they remind me of my wedding!

Another gratuitous flower farm picture!

So Far to Spring

Don't let these misguided little bulbs fool you--spring is NOT here yet!  I try not to get too excited in February--spring is still far from the Palouse.  It's hard not to though--the seed catalogs have started arriving in the mail, and I bought a fun little ap for my iPad to plan my garden.  


I finished reading "The Quarter Acre Farm" by Spring Warren.  I was a little disappointed.  So far, I haven't read a narrative of urban homesteading/backyard sustainable agriculture that I really liked.  I read them looking for tips and insights, and end up with a slightly humorous self-congratulatory narrative.  Of course it doesn't help that most of them are writing about gardening in a climate which is much warmer than my own.  It's hard to be self-sufficient here.  It's even hard to eat local food at some times in the year.  


A year ago, I wanted to see if we could get our household local food consumption to 25% of our diet.  I haven't tried to weigh food or measure amounts at all.  I focused more on different food groups:  how much dairy is local, how much meat, etc.  I decided that if you expand "local" to mean "the Pacific Northwest" then almost all of our dairy is locally produced.  (Disclaimer:  I have a soft spot, no pun intended, for imported cheese!)  The  exception (other than the fancy cheese) to buying locally produced dairy items is that in the winter, the girls, I mean hens, around here stop laying.  Most of my egg suppliers have day jobs, so they don't always get the heat lamps turned on in time to prevent a full-on laying strike, so my November-January eggs are usually store bought.


Fruits and vegetables are extremely easy to obtain locally at some points during the year, and extremely difficult at other times.  The growing season here is short.  It is HARD to get local greens before April.  By preserving food that I grow or that is purchased at the Farmer's Market, we can carry over into fall and winter, but spring is definitely the lean time.  I would also have to get a pressure cooker and do a lot more preserving before we could ramp up in this area much more.


Meats aren't too difficult to obtain locally, if by "local" for fish you mean "brought into the Seattle market," which usually means "caught near Alaska".  The hardest foods to obtain locally are (somewhat ironically) grains and supplies such as oil and spices.  The Palouse is a major wheat producing region, but most of the wheat is processed commercially to be sent oversees.  An effort is underway to get more locally produced grain at the Co-op, but I don't think I'll have either a wheat field or an olive grove in my yard any time soon, which will always work against the percent of locally produced food.


So that's my summary.  I am continuing this quest, but I'm working in small increments rather than a take-no-prisoners assault.   I do love looking around and talking with others to get ideas and to think of new ways to become more self-sufficient!
 

First Attempts at Root Cellaring

I have been thinking about how I might make a root cellar for some time.  The problem is that our house doesn't have a basement, and I've always been worried the garage might actually freeze.  After deciding that the soda cans stored in the garage only very rarely freeze, I decided to take a chance.  This decision was fueled in part by the overabundance of carrots produced in my garden this year.  I bought a bin and liner from Gardeners.com and lined it with play sand.  The instructions with the bin actually said to use sawdust.  However, I couldn't figure out where I could get sawdust that wouldn't have any treated wood in it, and I had seen another suggestion for "horticultural" sand.  The building supply didn't have any of that, but said play sand would work.  So play sand it was.  If anyone has reason to believe this is not a good idea, please speak now or forever hold your peace (no refusing carrots served in the winter at my house)!

Carrots, layered and buried!

Stored in the garage, against the house.

My husband said I should purchase a second bin to store potatoes if this works out.  Whom am I to argue with that?!?

Apple Cider

Another perfect fall weekend!  It rained in the early morning hours but dried out nicely for a morning of cider pressing and apple picking at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA.  The Palouse used to have many orchards, as the climate is particularly well-suited to them, but wheat has long since taken over as the primary crop.  Few orchards are left in this area.  Bishop's is a moderately-sized orchard with five cider presses (available on weekends only) and lots of U-pick apples.  


According to Michael Pollen, in his book "The Botany of Desire," ancient varieties of apples make for poor eating.  However, prior to the 20th century, the primary use of apples was not for eating but for making hard cider.  In fact, the term "cider" used to refer exclusively to hard cider.  Hard cider has a low alcohol content, but was a useful (and tasty) way of making a drink that was safe to drink in the era before pasteurization and refrigeration.  


The cider I am drinking right now has no alcohol, but is still infinitely better than its watered-down cousin, apple juice.  I personally can't stand apple juice, but I can look forward to the shorter days of fall if only because of the promise of warm cider with cinnamon!

Washing the apples before pressing.

Liquid gold!

Half our jugs are filled!

Apples ready for transport!

Happy bees make happy apples (I bought some honey too!)

   

RJ

I'm a lazy canner.  I used to make fancy labels on my computer for my jam but then I decided it was a pain in the butt to scrape and clean those labels off when you wanted to reuse the jars.  Also, my printer died.  Ergo, my new labeling technique:  a sharpie on the lid detailing only the most pertinent information, content and date.  RJ = Raspberry Jam, GJ = Grape Jelly, BJ = Blackberry Jam, HJ = Huckleberry Jam (when I'm lucky).  


My timing was off this morning.  Usually I get the jam going and forget to sterilize the pots.  Today I had the pots very sterilized before I got the jam going.  Even still, it was quick and easy.  Best part is I cleaned half the raspberries out of the fridge, though I think I still have enough left for a second batch.  Some to keep, some to give away!

 

Holy Jack in the Beanstalk Batman!

The third time really is a charm!

I've tried three years in a row to grow beans and I finally got both the variety and the timing correct.  Blue lake pole beans from Territorial Seed Company.  And now I have so many beans I don't know what to do!

So I put some up today; blanched and frozen per Bell's Blue Book of Canning.  But I've only just begun...

Salsa Time!

My Cougar Reds are red!

And my Golden Nuggets are golden!

It's time make salsa!