It's a Small World...

The title of my last post was, "Final Snow Days" and while the snow is long behind us apparently spring/fall has continued to cling to the area. We've been hounded by rain, wind and cold temperatures with a few small hints of summer. Despite this my garden is growing and we are striding into the harvesting and preserving season. We've picked the first few summer peas and strawberries from our own garden patch, but in order to put up enough of what we need for the winter I am supplementing from our local market. Today Nick and I prepared 10 pints of strawberries (from the market) for freezing - just need to bag them; from our garden we harvested a big container of lettuce, a small container of peas, some handfuls of strawberries and 4 trays full of oregano for the dehydrator. The roses are blooming, squash are growing, potatoes re-sprouted, carrots and parsley almost ready for seed saving and life abounds on our little space.

We have been talking more and more about trying to sell our place to buy property and begin farming, but the cards seem stacked against us. For now we will be content in our small space and keep putting in as much edible landscape as possible. We'll be putting in fruit trees and blueberry bushes this summer and installing Mason Bee boxes for pollination. If you want to know more about Mason Bees, here's a good spot to visit: http://www.crownbees.com/.


There's been so much going on since my last post:

• Finished first year of grad school

• Worked on a biodynamic farm as an intern for ten weeks (Jubilee Farm) and could not have been happier!  Also realized how much more I need to learn about farming!!

Jubilee Farm - Online Slideshow Maker

• Jack turned five years old.  We had a dog bed custom made for him from Unique Kreations for Dogs & Kats.  An awesome lady at Redmond Farmer's Market does all of the work by hand from reclaimed fabric/textiles/foam from furniture and textile companies in the area.

 

• Redmond Farmers market season began

2012 Farmers Market - Online Slideshow Maker

• Put in and began harvesting from our garden

2012 Garden - Online Slideshow Maker

• Attended volunteer training for 3 weeks of summer camp and research through the awesome partnership of Oxbow Farm and Wilderness Awareness School
• Attended the Jubilee Farm May day festival and Oxbow Farm's Sowdown

Jubilee May Day Festival - Online Slideshow Maker

Oxbow Sowdown - Online Slideshow Maker

• Worked and studied at Dog Mountain Farm for a class on tourism - I was looking at agritourism specifically.  Awesome place - you should totally check it out!!

Dog Mountain Farm - Online Slideshow Maker

• Went to an awesome exhibit at the Burke Museum called "Hungry Planet".  Check out the book here: What the World Eats and here: What the World Eats Part 2

• Attended a class by Seattle Tilth on growing our own fungi

Fungi is Fun - Online Slideshow Maker

• Took a road trip to California and up the coast for spring break.  It was so much fun to spend time with Paul and Bear, visit favorite haunts and check out some new spots!

2012 Spring Break - Online Slideshow Maker

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I'll save that for a later post!  Hope to hear from and see many of you this summer; I know I'm not great about responding to e-mails right now, but think of you often and appreciate your love and support.

Here's to sunshine, summer treats and good eats!!