Produce Stand - Sept, 30, Oct 1, 2 and 3

This is a picture of Dave and Sonja Austin.  They are harvesting honey from the hives that they keep on our place.  After I took this picture, Sonja shared some honey comb with me.  Yum, I had never eaten raw honey that way.  Not sure how the honey harvest is going to go for them, but they provided the produce stand with some awesome local honey ... very reasonably priced.  Best of all, fresh and local. 

So, there will be honey, priced between $6 and $9 a jar, depending upon the size of the container.  We also will stock creamed honey. 

Sophie, a close friend, figured out how to recycle her woodworking sawdust and old candles.  She made them into fire starters.  They work really well and burn about 20 minutes.  Great deal at 75 cents each or (as she says with a grin) two for a $1.  Great idea, since she and her hubby Dick love to do woodworking projects.  She is also a fabulous knitter. 

Veggies currently stocked include beets and beet greens, swiss chard, cucumbers, kale, zucchini, crookneck squash, patty pan, scallopini, red and white potatoes, winter squashes: buttercup and delicata, spaghetti.  If you like butternut, you will love buttercup.  Anne and I spent this a.m. harvesting most of it.  So, it's good, fresh and nutritious!  Also, if we have some thing listed and you don't see it when you stop by, feel free to give me a call.  We think vine ripened is best. 

The goal is to keep the stand open Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 11 ish to dark through the end of October.  (Unless we sell out, then we'll take the signs down and close 'er up.) But if the nights cool down to into the low 30's, it will slow or stop veggie production.  Can't complain, though, it has been a magnificent late summer!  Make it a great day! 

Harvest Jubilee Comments

Wow!  We had a great time visiting with everyone who stopped by!  If you participated in Harvest Jubilee, thank you for supporting local farms and agriculture! 

Our produce stand was sold out (I think we had over 300 lbs of food on sale!)  Sold out ... until this weekend, Sept 30.  The rain is supposed to ease up toward the end of the week ... we hope!  LOL  There will be spuds (Red and white), kale, beets, carrots, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, swiss chard, and odds and ends of a few types of squash and anything else that's ready. 

Produce Stand Open - Saturdays Only or by Custom Order

Hi there - Wow!  We are being overwhelmed by the produce ... finally!  Just wanted to let you know that we will stock the stand on Saturdays.  So, if you are planning a visit to the produce stand on any other day ... please call ahead, 425-220-3903.  It seems that the produce lasts longer when it's in the garden.   So, we are leaving it in the ground or on the vine as long as we can.  So, if you can't make it out on a Saturday, we will put together custom orders ... and remember not everything on the list will be available all the time.  (See prior blogs for price listing.)  Make it a great day! 

Price List for Produce Stand

Wow!  Every time we go out into the garden this time of year ... it's full of surprises!  Last week the cucumbers were on and this week the green beans are ready!  So, here is the list of what we have in the produce stand: spuds (red and white), zucchini, patty pan squash, garlic, cucumbers, green beans, yellow wax beans, onions, kale, swiss chard, lettuce ... we will also do custom orders.  Sometimes we have a few of something or it keeps better left in the garden.  Not everything on the list is available all the time. 
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Apples  $2.50 lb Beans (Green)  $2.00 lb. Beans (Dry)   Beets  $2.00 lb. Broccoli  $2.00 lb. Cabbage  $1.25 lb. Carrots  $2.00/bunch Celery   $1.50 lb. Chard (Swiss) $1.00/bunch Cucumbers  $1.25 lb. Garlic  $5.00 lb. Herbs (Parsley, Basil, Sage, etc.) (Refrigerator)  $1.00 bag Kale $1.00/bunch Lettuce (In Refrigerator)  $2.00/bag Onions (Green)  $1.00/bunch Onions (Bulb)  $1.25 lb. Peas (Sugar Snap) $1.20 lb.  Potatoes  $1.20 lb. Squash   $1.50 lb (unless otherwise marked) Zucchini $1.50 lb.

TA DAH! The Produce Stand is Awake!

Wow, a dream come true!  Finally, we now can provide friends and families an opportunity to get on the "Buy Local" wagon!  We unofficially opened on Wednesday last week, but today we actually got the refrigerator plugged in and have unwashed lettuce and chard in it.  

Another purpose for the stand was to provide an outlet for those veggies that ripened between our CSA harvests.  The cucumbers and the zucchinis were the worst behaved.  Those zucchinis!  My word!  Turn your back on them for a second and they've changed from a cute, tasty little guy to something you want to put wheels on and drive around the yard.  You laugh, but you know what I mean! 

  So, here's the inside.  Not much to look at yet.  There are both red and white spuds, garlic, new red potatoes, some nice zucchini and the lettuce and chard in the refrigerator.

It looks empty now, but wait ... there will be reasonably priced green beans, cauliflower, beets, onions, a big variety of squashes and lots of other good stuff ... and later in the season, local honey.  All grown on the Farm.   In the lower left corner of this picture is the old antique scale ... the white thing ... we can't get it to balance ... maybe because it's a "money" scale and not a vegetable one.  Make it a great day!  LOL  (Oh, almost forgot.  Since it's on the honor system, the plan is to keep the produce stand open every day that we have produce.  We'll get it stocked with fresh produce by 11:00 a.m. and keep it open until 6:30.)

Farm to Fork Dinner. Is It Really Over?

Wow!  Pretty good when the hosts even have a great time!  Yup, I'm talking about our Farm to Fork Dinner event that we had on July 16.  We so enjoyed visiting with everyone. 

The picture is of the band that we had playing, Cabin Fever.  They are really a great group, good music and friendly.   Our guests wanted to sit around and listen to them play after their awesomely delicious meal.   But, we had asked them to start playing a little bit too early.  They played and sang for about four hours.  It was wonderful toe tapping fun!

After all of the turmoil it took to get ready, including trying to figure out how to keep the insistent swallows out of the dining area; all of the favors we pulled in from family and friends, equipment breaking down, produce not ready, it deserves repeating:  "We had a great time and it was because of all of the nice people who attended."  We can't ask for anything better than that!  And, yes of course, we will do it again! 

Why?  Because of the wonderful group of people that we met.  And how blessed we are that all were so gracious.  Don't even think it's about the money.  Someday, it will have to be, but not yet.  Everyone totally understood that Mom Nature really does affect what we eat and when we eat it.  Aside from the fact that the food wasn't produced on our farm, it was still awesome!  Goes to show that local and fresh is what it's about!   Thanks to Chef Devra, author of Cavemen, Monks & Slow Food and her assistant Jade.  Chef Devra developed the halibut recipe just for our event and she was kind enough to put it on her blog for all to share.  The vegetable recipes (that everyone was raving about) were from Debra Daniels-Zeller's Cookbook, The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook.  Thank you to both of these sweet ladies for helping to make this event spectacular!  Speaking of sweet, dessert was from Stanwood Cupcakes.

If you didn't attend, you missed out on fabulous door prizes donated by Chef Devra, Authors Debra and Kathy, Discover Cooking With Lavendar.   

Next year we'll plan for later in the season and the meal will be "Chef's Surprise!"  or "Gardener's Surprise!"  

Check out the picture that Amber took of our Pasek Cellars wine table.  It was one of those days that started out rainy and windy, then around 3 p.m. the sun came out and provided our photographers with perfect lighting!   Take good care!

   

What a Difference 20 Days Can Make!

Okay!  Happy Days!  We are in full swing for planting, planting, planting.  Just wanted to share these pictures with you.  The top picture was taken June 4. This area is what we call our small garden, just east of the barn.  Last year we attempted to plant in this area, but because of the late wet spring, we (I) tried to cut some corners by not tilling the entire garden ... ouch!  Big mistake!  Mr. and Mrs. Slug and their 7 million offspring thought we were providing dessert!   Anyway, big overgrown mess!  But, we have a little tractor, a dedicated equipment operator, and six yards of Cedar Grove Compost  and voila!  Food Heaven!

And 20 days later ...  From left to right:  Shell peas, sugar snap peas, Romanesco (a type of broccoli), two rows of onions, a variety of lettuces, two rows of spuds, and a row of two varieties of kale.  Nine rows total, each 60 feet long.  Now, remember, this is our SMALL garden. Wait til you see our Main Gardens!

June 24, today 

New Chicks on the Block and Bucket O' Roots

Aren't they cute?  These are the four new chickens that Sheila and Brad brought to our farm a couple of weeks ago.  We think they are a really nice addition to our farm.  Even though they are chickens, black chested, white polish banties (?), ... I think, they eat like little piggies!  We think we have two hens and two roosters.  So far everyone is getting along well, but that could change when the hormones kick in.  (It sure did with the bunnies!  Another story.)  Thank you Brad and Sheila ... they are really fun and have great personalities.

Guess what this next picture is.  If you think it's morning glory roots, you would be right!  This was, in Anne's words ... a "bucket o' roots."  Not what the Colonel had in mind.  We, (Anne) dug these out of the flower bed.  After shaking the dirt off the roots, we put them in a black garbage bag and estimate that the roots weighed about 20 to 25 lbs.  If we tie the bag up real tight, they shouldn't escape!  We know that we didn't get all of the roots, but what a good dent! Along with slug patrol, we will also start a morning glory patrol.  Thus avoiding hostile morning glory take overs!  Which with morning glory, it could happen over night.  In order to save a lilac and a day lily, we took cuttings from each because their roots were hopelessly tangled with the morning glory.

So, what happened?  After digging and digging at the roots, toward the end of last season, I gave up ... oops!  NOT good!  But thanks to Anne and Doug's help, we're hoping to keep the flower bed semi weed free.  Doug spread some new bark nuggets down, so we have a great start.  Plus, weeding the flower bed keeps us busy while we're waiting for the gardens to dry out! 

Make it a great day!

July 16, 2011 - Farm to Fork Dinner

Farm to Fork

Buffet Style Dinner

July 16, 2011

4 to 7 pm

We are sooooooo excited to be hosting our First Annual Farm to Fork Dinner.  Here's the latest:

Dinner will be served buffet style in three shifts: 4pm   5pm and 6 pm.;
using as many of our farm's veggies as available and may include (weather permitting):
Halibut mixed with grated spuds; Salad; Fennel Carrots; Romanesco w/Northwest Berry Vinegar; Dessert, (Strawberry shortcake is planned); Wine or Hard Cider ... still in the early planning stages ... check back for updates. 

Vegetables (yes, from our farm ... grin, grin, smile, smile, happy, happy, oh, pleeeeeease, Mother Nature be good to us) using recipes from The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook, by Debra Daniels-Zeller www.foodconnections.blogspot.com.  Debra will be on-site to sell and autograph her book; 
Chef Devra, (www.quirkygourmet.com) will be using an open grill to prepare some of our
dinner;
Dinner will be served on the ground floor of our partially renovated heritage barn;
We have assigned times for dinner, but you are welcome to spend the entire evening on our farm enjoying the wildlife, serenity, and sunset;
We will also have local crafts people on-site with their art work;
You will have the opportunity to take a Self-Guided Tour of our WSDA certified organic farm;
Music; (live or DVD, To be determined as of this date 4/16/11);
Door prizes; (lots of door prizes!)
Cost of the dinner:  $45/person;
Still in the early planning stages ... hope you can join us!
Further questions or to purchase tickets:  Feel free to e-mail me at:  bydenmythyme@hotmail.com  

Thank you for your interest in what we
hope to be a really fun, educational event!

Please RSVP by June 30

Nearby Stilly Flood Waters ... NOT on our property.

We drove down the road a bit, just to see what was going on with the flooding, plus we could see flood waters from our house.  AND the Stillaguamish flood WATCH was changed to flood WARNING.  The picture above is looking west to Marine Drive.  The intersection of Norman Road and Marine Drive was closed off. 

The picture below was taken standing on the bridge just west of Miller Road.  Note the branch stuck in the gate. 

And, it rained all day today.  We did some weeding and worked on staying dry!  LOL  Happy weekend!

March 11, 2011

Our thoughts and prayers for the people of Japan, and all over the globe.

Eggstraordinary!

Eggsellent! Ha! Spring is on it's way! Hallelujah! After a fairly, nonrainy, warm weekend, look what our little two year old buff orpington surprised us with on Monday, March 7! Her first egg of the season.  What a sweet way to start the week! 

Okay, so we did take the egg out of the pen and wash it, it was then that we realized ... picture! We should have taken a picture while the egg was inside the chicken tractor with her! 

 

 

Then on Tuesday, she laid another egg!  This is definitely a good sign!

And, you ... make it an eggsellent week! (Sorry, I can't resist the "Punsy" scheme.) Take good care.

Still Winter?

Yup! Took these pictures today, Feb 24, 2011 without the flash, shortly after Doug went to work. BRRRR. We're staying warm and cozy here. Will spend the day working on taxes, doing dishes, laundry and continued reading about permaculture! (The plan was to start opening up the raised beds and get started with some really early spring planting ... ah, well ... maybe next week.)

Got our organic certification renewal submitted to WSDA, ordered more organic asparagus crowns (for the second raised bed of asparagus), 3 lbs. of organic onion sets, and some organic sun flower seeds. All ordered from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds. We already have a big stash of certified organic seeds from last fall and last year ... uh, just can't help myself ... I love seeds!

Happy day!