Another weekend of harvest...

This weekend Nick was attending PAX (the annual computer gaming nerd convention) so I spent Friday evening and Saturday having alone time. Saturday Jack and I enjoyed a lovely day at the market, spent some time at the park, went for a walk and then did a bunch of cooking - well I did the cooking and Jack relaxed. Sunday I ended up getting called in for a case, then spent the rest of the afternoon doing housewifely things. Today I dug potatoes, pulled carrots, laid the potatoes out to dry in the garage (another sign of being a NW gardener), pulled onions (also laying on the counter to dry), put the carrots in sand to store, got a bid for our new pantry shelving, had a plumber fix the shower head in our bathroom that was becoming a Chinese water torture device, made tomato puree', dried tomatoes, put my frozen peaches in bags, picked and froze edamame, and pulled the biggest mother of a zuccini out of our garden that we've had this whole year!! Whew, I'm wasted...

Thought I'd let this weekend tell the rest of the story in pictures...

Top 10 Ways You Know You're a Gardener in the Pacific NW

1. You begin your starts inside; where they remain for a very long time.


2. You plant your seeds in the pouring rain.


3. You grow your tomatoes in a gardenhouse year round, but still pray they ripen.


4. You can grow lettuce nearly year-round.

5. You harvest in the pouring rain and have to dry things indoors.

6. Things that need to dry in the sun, end up drying indoors on the counter.

7. You can pick enough blackberries along roadsides and trails to make your own jam, cobblers, etc.

8. The flowers are amazing!!

9. You can winter store your potatoes and carrots in the ground all year.

10. Your garden is a green wonderland.

Pinging...

It's the sound you hear as jars seal after they've been canned and boiled in a water bath. It was music to my ears last night after putting up my first batch of tomato sauce!! Nick and I spent many hours boiling, peeling, pureeing, seasoning and waiting for our sauce to be ready. We finished around 2 a.m. in the wee hours of Tuesday morning - the time most canning projects end it seems! The sauce tasted yummy and smelled divine. We originally thought the recipe would make only 14 pints, however, we ended up with 21 pints, and had some leftover tomato puree' so we were able to freeze some straight tomato puree' for soup base and other things. Our next project to tackle is making our own ketchup - stay tuned! If you are interested in the tomato sauce recipe, you can find it here.

Also, my mom gave me another great canning/preserving resource - the cooperative extension in your area can really help with any questions or concerns you might have about canning and/or preserving. Click here for the link.

Lost Arts and Childhood Memories

Sticky floors, steaming hot jars, boiling water, hot summer nights, cool breezes from open windows, the smell of peaches or berries...

These are some of the memories from my childhood during canning/harvesting season.

There's starting to be a bit of bite in the air in the evenings, with beautiful sunny days. Corn is tasseling, squash is slowing down, tomatoes are reddening, Cosmos are blooming and carrots, potatoes and onions are ready to be dug. It amazes me how quickly things start to come on and how quickly things slow down as well. This year has been a true experiment for Nick and I in how we eat, what we eat and how to do that in a smarter, better, healthier way. I've been reading books, watching movies and trying new things this year. At the same time it reminds me of all those summer nights with my mom - canning, freezing, preserving and learning. The art of canning, preserving and freezing is becoming a lost art. The sections for canning supplies are usually an end-cap at Target or a very tiny section at some random store or you must order things online. My mom learned when she was a kid, I learned from my mom when I was a kid and today I'm working on establishing my own routines and decisions on what to put up. Nick and I have had so much fun remeniscing on our childhoods and experiences and making our own memories of putting up our own produce from our own garden.

The freezer is fast filling up with numerous items of produce and Nick and I are going to get a bid for pantry shelving as I do not have any room for the many quarts of produce I'm putting up.

I've been freezing things like crazy, but this week begins the voyage into the canning arena. I've got everything to put up our own tomato sauce. Next week will be tomato puree' and ketchup; then when pears come on those will be canned as well as putting up applesauce when those are in season. Right now I have tomatoes drying in the oven (I don't have a fan deydrator) and have dried a mass quantity of herbs. I'm hoping to try my hand at drying apples as well.

I was telling Nick that part of this experiment is to realize that you don't need anything fancy, lots of space or great amounts of knowledge - just a willingness to learn, some creativity and the desire to eat your own food in a healthier manner. So for those who would like, here are some resources I've been using for canning:
1. My mom!!
2. Sure-Jell Pectin low/no sugar recipe for jam
3. Food saver for all my freezing bags and sealing
4. Ball or Mason canning jars (I prefer narrow mouth)
5. Ziplock freezer containers; Ball freezer containers
6. Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
7. This is a great resource website: http://www.freshpreserving.com/

Happy harvesting, canning, freezing and preserving season!!



**I also uploaded some pictures of our weekend at the market to our Picasa photo album site.

Waiting...

You know what's creepy about waiting rooms - you can smell the stale fear and anxiety. Doesn't matter how much they clean, re-upholster or make the room seem "warm and inviting"; you can still feel the lack of oxygen in the air from people holding their breath and the fear of the "what if".

Before she went into surgery, Sarah told me she wasn't afraid of dying, she was more afraid of waking up with an 8-10 inch scar on her chest that reminded her of how close she'd come. Made me ponder if I'd be as calm...

Yesterday was the 13 year anniversary of this beautiful girl's death


I often wonder what she'd be doing, where she'd be, if she would have gotten married or made me an aunt by now. While the pain is still there, it doesn't hurt as bad and the memories are happy and comforting.

Tears, fears, questions, unknowns, prayers, restless napping...

And then the door opens and the person you most want to see walks through the door and tells you everything is fine and air refills the room and the elephant sitting on your chest walks away.

That's what else waiting rooms smell like - hope and relief...

Giraffe Slobber, Sunshine, Wedding Vows and Amazing Food!!

We had so much fun getting away to sunny San Diego for 5 beautiful days of vacation. After much planning we decided to splurge on a few things - first was ordering a towncar to pick us up and take us to the airport; then when we arrived at the airport to check in the kiosk asked, "would you like to upgrade to first class?" - well we didn't minded if we did! We arrived in San Diego and decided to upgrade our car - rented a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible - awesome!! We checked into our hotel in Alpine, CA, about 30 minutes outside of SD and promptly collapsed for a nap. Nick and I met up with Paul and Bear for dinner at a lovely Mexican restaurant called La Carreta - amazing food and the avocados were out of this world. One of the reasons I love CA so much - avocados aplenty!!



Friday morning dawned bright and early with Nick and I headed for Escondido and the San Diego Wild Animal park. We upgraded to parking a little bit closer and thank goodness we did because we nearly missed the most amazing part of our trip - the photo caravan! We arrived at the park, got our tickets and raced to the photo caravan loading spot; we climbed on the back of the flatbed truck, that's covered with a canopy and began the ride through the exhibits in the park. First off was Africa - giraffes, white rhinos, cranes and lots of different types of deer. The most amazing part of this section was getting to feed the giraffes!!!! I think my smile cracked my face; even Nick joined in the fun and we had an absolutely amazing time. The giraffe's tongue is warm and soft, but very rough as well. The reason it's purple is because it's sunscreen. The giraffe would wrap their tongue around the leaves we fed them and slobber all over our hands. If we could have, we would have done this the entire time at the park! The next exhibit was Asia, where we saw many different types of deer, wild cattle, birds and black rhinos. This is where we got to feed the black rhino. They are so huge and you can't feed them out of your hand because their mouth is like a beak and can crush your hand. Basically, you take the apple and they open their mouth and you just toss it in. While they eat you can "pet" them. They feel like a hard, leather shoe. Nick thought it was awesome that while the rhinos were lazing around they also were massively farting - very rude! After our photo caravan ride Nick and I got some lunch and planned out the rest of our time at the park. We spent the rest of the day walking through the exhibits, going on a Journey through Africa ride, buying souvenirs and enjoying the amazingness of the park. Our last exhibit of the day was a bird aviary and I was stalked by a pigeon from New Guinea who had this beautiful fan of lacey feathers across its head. The bird would come up against me, lift its wings and push against me; it also kept acting like it was going to peck me. Nick had great fun watching and provided no help whatsoever - it's kind of funny now. The only sad part is that some of our pictures from the end of our journey through the park did not save to our card reader. We're trying to figure that out now! We ended our day by eating at a fantastic restaurant and then taking a dip at the hotel pool.



Saturday we slept in, enjoyed a delightful brunch and then headed up to Paul's parents' house to help finish setting up for the wedding. We had a great time helping out and then Bear and I took a refreshing dip in the pool - fantastic!! The wedding started at sunset and was absolutely spectacular. Paul had designed a bridge to go over the pool where he, Bear and the pastor stood. Refreshments were divine - cheese puffs, assorted wraps, cookies, candy and these amazing pudding cups that looked like little plants - chocolate pudding, crumbles on top with a sprig of mint. The wedding was small, intimate, beautiful and I could not be happier for the two of them!

On Sunday Nick and I enjoyed a leisurely morning and then headed down to San Diego for a little tourist sightseeing at Seaport Village. Definitely a lot of souvenir shops, but also some cute stores, eateries and the historical carousel. One amazing stop we made was into a stunning art gallery where we drooled and ogled sculptures by a Vietnamese artist named, Tuan. Breathtaking and unbelieveable in the capturing of movement and balance; check out the website here. Once we finished walking around Seaport we headed for the Gaslamp District. Along the way we were treated to the sights of ComicCon goers and their fantastic costumes; Nick was able to take some pictures of the Optimus Prime statue at the entrance to the convention center and has made me promise to take him to ComicCon next year or the following year. We met up with one of my childhood friends, whom I haven't seen in forever, Kristen and her boyfriend, Jorge. It was a lot of fun and we greatly enjoyed seeing them after so long! Sunday evening we just hung out at our hotel and caught up on our Syfy show, Warehouse 13.

Monday morning came much too soon and we had to pack our bags, return our lovely convertible and climb on the plane back to Seattle. Unfortunately, our luck returning home was not as sweet and we weren't able to upgrade to first class, but we did have a lovely towncar waiting to take us home and we enjoyed a relaxing evening watching some TV shows, ordering in pizza and chilling before getting back into the groove of work, exercise, doggy care and housework.

Our garden continues to be a green paradise, with beans coming on (yellow, green and garbanzo), a few more ripe tomatoes, burgeoning onions, ripening potatoes, lengthening carrots and ever returning lettuce. Nick and I are beginning to feel like rabbits!

It's good to be home, but I can't wait until the next vacation!! Enjoy the huge slideshow!

How does your garden grow, IronMan and the 4th of July!

So much has happened since the last time I did a blog post that I will try to minimize the writing by putting in lots of pictures!

Our garden has exploded into a forest of plants! Lovely green with a few splashes of color here and there. Due to the fall weather we are having in Seattle and the massive quantities of rain, I have a very green garden with a few flowers, a few ripening veggies and fruits. It's lovely to look at, but wish we could eat some things as well!! We finally harvested a huge amount of lettuce, some parsley and cilantro. This last week we finally harvested some sugar snap peas which are beyond fantastic to eat straight out of the garden! Not sure we'll have many to freeze due to the fact that we keep eating them. The potatoes have some flowers on the plants, the little onions are doing well and some are developing some nice looking bulbs; my flowers are starting to bloom, the tomatoes are covered in flowers and a few green tomatoes, the beans are starting to bloom and the corn and squash are ever taller and wider. Nick and I did eat a little cherry tomato that we divided into four pieces to split between us. =) The sun has finally arrived in Seattle this last week though and I'm praying it lasts for several weeks to help my tomatoes and everything else along towards blooming and ripening.

GARDEN UPDATE: We have had some glorious weeks of sunshine and warm temps and our garden has loved it. We've harvested enough peas that I was able to freeze a bag of them. We've harvested about 10 tomatoes, gallons of lettuce, 2 jars worth of dried parsley, lots of cilantro and the garden box is filled with flowers. We've even harvested some mini carrots. I also joined the league of canners and put up 4 pints of apricot jam and 6 half pints of triple berry jam (blueberry, strawberry and raspberry). Sarah and I had a great time putting those up. Next on the list is trying my hand at making/canning tomato sauce!

Our other big event was traveling to Spokane to cheer on my girlfriend (Nick's aunt), Connie, in her first IronMan event. It was amazing!!!! We had an awesome time "hunting" for her during the swim course, "chasing" her during the cycling portion and screaming our lungs out at the finish line for the run. In case you don't know, an IronMan is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run. Woof... I'll let the pictures tell the story.

We celebrated the 4th of July in our usual fashion, but this time we decided to add an epic movie marathon event to the mix. We started watching Lord of the Rings on Saturday evening, made it until 2 a.m. and then resumed/completed the series on Sunday night. We did take a short break on Sunday evening to grill some asparagus and cook up some lovely black bean burgers; topped off by fresh cherries, strawberries and raspberries. Love summer fruit!!! We ended the night by blowing off a bunch of fireworks despite very cold temperatures and wind.

Lastly, we enjoyed a fantastic weekend (July 16-18) with our lovely friends going to the farmers market, the Mill Creek Fun Days Festival and seeing the movie Inception (go see it if you haven't already - it's awesome!!). It was great fun to take Aaron and Connie to their first time at the Gold Class Cinemas!

Nick and I are pounding out the last 2 days until we leave for California. We are traveling for my best friends wedding, with a little anniversary trip mixed in!