Miles Away Farm Blog

Pickled Walla Walla Sweets 4 Ways

September 13, 2010 in Preserving | Tags: Onions, Pickle, pickled onions, Spokane | 5 comments

The jar on the front right was the refrigerator batch. You can tell because the onions still look raw. You can also tell which ones were boiled in the brine before canning, as they are more translucent.

I have this depression era reaction to fresh abundant inexpensive produce. I buy a lot of it. Even if I don’t quite know what to do with it all. OK, the first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

Thus was the situation when I saw a 25 lb bag of Walla Walla Sweet Onions for the bargain basement price of $10 back in July. They were huge. They were just harvested. They were sweet and wonderful. The issue is that sweet onions (like Walla Walla, Maui and Vidalia) do not store for long periods of time. They are a seasonal item (which is part of why people go nuts for them). Read the rest of this entry »

Mango Chutney

September 7, 2010 in Preserving | Tags: chutney, curry, mango, Spokane | 2 comments

OK, this batch was made with dried cranberries, because I was out of raisins and the store is 40 minutes away round trip. Don’t tell anyone!

The winter of 5th grade, I was living in Coronado, California, a burg just south of San Diego that is 1/2 naval base. Having lived most of my life up to that point in rural Missouri and Idaho, the multiethnic, multilingual, cosmopolitan feel of Coronado was very new to me.

I was also on the cusp of puberty, and beginning to realize that the world did not totally revolve around me and my immediate needs and wants. If I paid attention, there was some really interesting stuff going on around me. And still being a kid, I could often observe the world quietly without anyone taking notice of me. Read the rest of this entry »

Beanie Weanies

September 2, 2010 in Harvesting, Meals | Tags: green bean, skillet green beans, Spokane | Leave a comment

This old nest box, measuring about 12 x 18 inches, was the perfect bean planter

I love it when a plan comes together! Arriving in the Spokane area in early June, there really wasn’t much I could do garden wise (which is pretty much a crisis for me). But I wanted to had to plant a few things. What, besides tomatoes (which is everyone’s answer), did I really love from my garden? And what did I really want to be organically grown? Green beans! (Green beans used to be on the Environmental Working Group’s list of the Dirty Dozen produce items, in terms of pesticide contamination – now they are #16.) Read the rest of this entry »

Old Farm = Treasures!

August 30, 2010 in Farm Life | Tags: Spokane | 1 comment

The previous owners of this piece of land had a logging business that had gone bankrupt, and they had an estate auction to pay the bills. For the most part, this farm, which was homesteaded in 1904, is surprisingly bereft of old artifacts. That was until recently, when we cleaned out a loft area on an old building that had somehow gotten missed in the purge. Here are a few of our cool finds.

We found a variety of old newspapers lining boxes, from 1925 to the early 1950’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sourdough Update

August 27, 2010 in Baking | Tags: bread, sourdough, Spokane | 6 comments

Fresh from the oven sourdough baguette.

Well, I wrote too soon. Turns out the morning after my sourdough post, my starter “woke up”.

I had decided to stop feeding it twice a day, as that had become a bit of a pain with little reward. Having not fed it the night before, I fed it that morning for the first time in about 24 hours. As I puttered around the kitchen, I looked over at the starter jar and… drum roll… it was growing. “Well hello there” I said. Read the rest of this entry »

Adventures in Sourdough

August 23, 2010 in Baking | Tags: bread, dog biscuits, pizza crust, sourdough, Spokane | 4 comments

The dough (a 50-50 mix of white and rye flour) at the beginning of the adventure.

I don’t know why, but I want to make bread that is ONLY risen by a sourdough starter. I’ve messed around with sourdough starters for years. Years ago I used a recipe with baker’s yeast (not a good idea. The acidic environment in a good sourdough will kill bakers yeast). I also tried one that used yogurt to get things going (not a bad idea, as the wild bacteria in good sourdough is a lactobacillus bacteria, and so are some of the bacteria in an active yogurt culture. This would also explain why some starters feed with flour and milk, rather than flour and water, but…yuck…warm milk sitting on top of my fridge…can’t go there). I’ve made some tasty starters, but I have never been able to create a starter that could rise a loaf of bread on its own. Turns out, I still can’t. Here’s my adventure. Read the rest of this entry »

I Can Put Up With a Few Pricks!

August 16, 2010 in Harvesting, Preserving | Tags: apricot, apricot-blackberry jam, blackberries, jam, Spokane | Leave a comment

Beautiful bountiful blackberries!

I have occasion to travel to Walla Walla Washington, and while there a few weeks ago, I could not help notice the HUGE banks of wild blackberry bushes along the creek at Rooks Park. It was going to be a banner year for blackberries.

I returned last week and on a still cool Tuesday morning at 7:30, armed with long sleeves, long thick pants and a five gallon bucket, I got to work. I was serenaded by bull frogs, startled by a great blue heron lifting off, and generally given a variety of weird looks by the local walkers, joggers and bikers. The berries were JUST getting ripe. Ungloved fingers were necessary in order to judge ripeness (unripe berries, even when black, don’t release easily; overripe berries squish in your fingers). Read the rest of this entry »

Cherries 2.0

August 10, 2010 in Preserving | Tags: cherry, Spokane | Leave a comment

Christmas in August

Last week, I went up to Green Bluff in search of Apricots. I am one of those rare people who LOVES apricots. I love them out of hand, and I love them in jam and whatever else I can think of. So every year, I make some version of apricot jam, often mixed with some other seasonal fruit (Apricot-Raspberry and Apricot-Orange were past successes). Read the rest of this entry »

Stuff It!

August 5, 2010 in Meals | Tags: french bread, spinach, Spokane, zucchini | 2 comments

Stuffed Zucchini. Yum!

I love recipes that use up what I already have on hand. So when a friend sent me her mother’s stuffed zucchini recipe, how could I resist?

Zucchini, as everyone knows who either has a garden or knows a gardener, is in season right now. (Ever heard that old Garrison Keillor joke about not leaving your windows down in your car this time of year, or you will come back and find a bag of zucchini in the back seat?) I had purchased three good-sized zucchini from a local farmers market last week with this recipe in mind. They were a great price because of the size. Read the rest of this entry »

Keeping up with The Man

August 3, 2010 in Farm Business | Tags: hay, Spokane, WA Dept of Ag | 1 comment

Nothing says “farm” like big hay bales!

Just like that, in less than 15 minutes, I’ve created the Miles Away Farm Limited Liability Corporation. (Of course, my bank account is a little lighter because of it). Read the rest of this entry »