As I’ve probably mentioned on this blog before, I’m a tea drinker. Black tea, brewed strong, with a bit of sugar and a splash of half and half (and no, whole milk isn’t the same, and if you offer me that non-dairy creamer drivel, I’ll abstain all together). My first cup of tea was served to me by my maternal Grandmother when I was about 4, in a fragile china cup, with a lot of cream and sugar. I felt all grown up and special, and I’ve loved tea ever since. Half of my heritage is English, so I think part of it is simply in my genetics. I have never learned to like coffee. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes you’re the hay.
Yup, I grew everything here except for the garlic.
I was home for a visit to northern California back in the 1990’s, during the height of summer, and my step-mom was making ratatoullie, a French vegetable stew. Not one to eat many vegetables at the time, I reluctantly tried some, and it was a revelation. It was SO good. Nothing like vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil to make all vegetables taste fantastic. I was sold, and have been making ratatouille in September, during the height of the warm weather vegetable glut, ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
Taken with my phone camera while following my husband down to Walla Walla on the last big haul. Hey, at least I wasn’t texting.
Wow, it’s been almost a month since I last posted. I’ve been writing three blog posts in my head. Ratatouille as a winter stew (still to come). The saga of the four baby chicks born in the middle of October (all chicks have now gone to chicken heaven, victims to being stuck under Mamma’s wing unnoticed, a too cold morning, and at almost four weeks old, the last one to the neighbors cat…ugh. Enough said about that). And one about…oh yeah, moving 200 miles south. Read the rest of this entry »
Peas. This was early on in the nightly buffet. It got much worse.
Note to self. When running down to Walla Walla to sign some important papers, and leaving in a hurry after trying to take care of the abundance of produce sitting in buckets, in the root cellar, and still on the vine, DON’T LEAVE THE GARDEN GATE OPEN when you leave. I was gone for about 36 hours. When I returned, just at dusk on September 27th, I could SEE the deer’s ears sticking up on the far side of the flower bed. Insert many expletives later. Insert yelling at deer, who then proceeded to throw itself into the net fence trying to escape, ripping out most of the staples on that side. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve got a few things to tell you, so you had better listen up. (We farmers market vendors tend to be an independent somewhat bossy lot.)
When I did my first farmers market on June 1st of this year, I as so excited and so so nervous. There was so much I couldn’t plan for. When I was researching becoming a vendor, I had a lot of questions that I don’t know how to answer.
As the season winds down, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve learned over the last 4 months. So here are the top 10 things I learned as a newbie vendor at a farmers market. Hopefully it will help some other farmers market vendor hopeful. Read the rest of this entry »
As the temperature drops, and that unmistakable crispness fills the air, the urge to squirrel away food for the winter kicks into overdrive. Our long wet cool spring put most warm season produce 2-3 weeks behind this year, which means we’re playing roulette with the ripening tomatoes (red) vs the first frost (black).
Wish I could take credit for the garlic, but everything else in this picture was grown by yours truly. Note the blue eggs. My Araucanas have started laying!
Years ago, while on a business trip in Albuquerque, a coworker and I stumbled upon a small coffee shop while looking for breakfast. The place was run by a little Mexican woman who barely spoke English, but boy could she cook. We returned there every morning we were in town for her Eggs Albañil, a dish so spicy and wonderful it made my coworker’s ears ring. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been having a wonderful time over the last few weeks, as my husband has been here full-time. He had some “use it or lose it” vacation time, and so took a couple of weeks off to spend on the farm. It’s the most time we’ve spent together in one stretch since January 2010! He helped me with markets (SO much easier with two people), made lots of new earrings (see the products tab above for a sample – yes, those ARE rusted fence staples), and generally “got stuff done” around the farm. Read the rest of this entry »
A tomato/cucumber salad on the side is a nice accompaniment
Back when I was a lot younger, and a lot poorer, I lived in Boulder Colorado. I was just beginning to explore “natural” foods and products (Boulder is a great place for this; there were two natural food stores within waking distance to my house). While I wasn’t a vegetarian (and likely never will be) I did start to experiment with eating more vegetarian dishes. And not having a lot of cash, I used to go to the public library and read Vegetarian Times (VT) magazine when I was looking for ideas. If I saw a recipe I liked, I’d plunk down my dime and make a copy. Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 