Category Archives: Cooking & food preservation

100 lbs of apples

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Sandy

After a lovely five days in Carlsbad, CA, we’ve returned home to find two of our apple trees in dire need of harvesting. One, the Chehalis, had super pretty fruit because I bagged it all to prevent pest damage. The other, … Continue reading →

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Share your best fruit

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Sandy

Last week, I encouraged you to eat your ugly fruit. This week, I’m going to encourage you to share your best fruit. Anyone who plants numerous fruit trees hits a point in time when it becomes tough to find enough to do … Continue reading →

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Eat your ugly fruit!

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Sandy

Organic fruit growing requires some additional work and compromise. In terms of additional work, perfect looking fruit requires manual pest control, such as I did with the nylon socks I used to cover most of my apple crop. I was a little … Continue reading →

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Green beans and a new venture

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Sandy

I’ve had trouble with green beans this year. Even though I waited until the weather improved before planting, I had to replant both my pole beans and my bush beans. Birds might have been a factor, but germination seemed to … Continue reading →

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Garlic & potatoes

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Sandy

My softneck garlic starting flopping over earlier in the week, so I knew it was time to harvest. Harvesting garlic is easy (just pull from the ground), but curing is an important step for long-term storage. After the garlic dries … Continue reading →

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Pie cherries

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Sandy

Pie cherries are a lovely fruit and fortunately they grow well in the Pacific Northwest. We grow Montmorency pie cherries, which offer a classic tart pie cherry flavor. Unfortunately, after changing up our garden plans, I attempted to move an … Continue reading →

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Salad fixin’s

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Sandy

Andrew (age 6) is very excited about the salad we are going to have with dinner tonight because he picked a bunch of the ingredients. In addition to lettuce, we will be adding the pea pods, garlic chives, and alpine … Continue reading →

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Asparagus “stump” soup

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Sandy

This is a repost from last year. I’m reposting this to kick off asparagus season and to cheer my friend Kelly on as she makes her first batch. After reading the latest post on A Posse Ad Esse, I hung … Continue reading →

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Harvest: Swiss chard and baby garlic

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Sandy

This weekend I harvest a good batch of Swiss chard (Bright Lights) and baby garlic greens (Inchelium red). The Swiss chard in the greenhouse has been going gangbusters! It’s one of those plants where a few plants can quickly start … Continue reading →

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Tomatoes

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Sandy

I’ve been harvesting tomatoes in onesies and twosies for a few weeks now, but with the recent heat I’m finally getting full batches of tomatoes ripening at once. I smell tomato sauce making and canning in my future this weekend. … Continue reading →

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