a few shots from kurtwood farms, while waiting for a scrumptious homestead meal that was fed to a table full of booksellers. more shots from the meal to come tomorrow.
in the meantime, i can't stop thinking about this paris map bag.

rustic soap

growing things farm makes some of my favorite soap. it's handmade and coarsely cut into colorful squares with bright, beautiful scents. i've actually had to take a little break from buying it after a spurt of excitement sent me home with a bagful of handmade soap that we went through all too quickly.
for awhile i only bought their peppermint scent, for the love of feeling my pores open up and refreshed with fresh minty smells. but now i've tried so many other scents, all made with essential oils and the raw ingredient itself. cinnamon, lemongrass, anise, clove, eucalyptus--they're all nice.

if you are in seattle, you can find growing things farm at the ballard sunday market and the u. district farmer's market.

markets

i've been enjoying the beautiful colors of all this summer produce, the vibrancy is so inspiring. we got purple carrots this week, with a deep purple color on the outside and orange inside. they are some sort of opposing color heaven.

i'm happy to be back with some holga shots, too. it's been awhile. these were the first three on my roll, before everything got really foggy and out of focus. maybe there is a reason i don't shoot with my holga as much...

i'm off for a long weekend. see you on tuesday!

67 miles south

i was so happy with how my pictures from my trip to olympia turned out, that i couldn't bear to break them up. instead i am inundating you with a whole lot of pictures. isn't the land my friend lives on beautiful? a big garden, and goats and chickens, and greenhouses and more.

happy august to you, i'll be back later in the week with an august list.

menu planning

 

tomorrow night i'm having friends over for cocktail hour in my backyard. i've had a lot of fun planning the menu this week, but menu planning is always something i meet with mixed excitement and terror. i'm the type of person to get so pumped about researching an idea, that i end up finding a million ideas shooting off from my original one and feeling overwhelmed by all the options. for example, i decided to have my cocktail hour be simple, fresh and inspired by summer's seasonal bounty. i have a lot of ricotta in my fridge, so i figured i would make crostini spread with fresh ricotta, deviled eggs, fresh vegetables and homemade ice cream for dessert. simple, right?

while looking for a solid deviled eggs recipe, i found 4 spreads that i could use with the crostini, all completely unrelated to ricotta. then i thought ooh! i'll make that leek tart i just learned how to make. and i'll make pasta salad! and i really should bake something with that ice cream, shouldn't i? and then i realized none of those go together, i didn't have any vegetables in my supposedly simple spread, and i was thinking way too big for my budget. i ended up deciding on a vegetable platter with this dip to go with the crostini and deviled eggs.  to relinquish some control and decision-making pressure, i snuck out of work on my lunch hour to the wallingford farmer's market and let whatever was fresh and good looking dive into my bag to be used on the veggie platter or to be stewed and spooned over ice cream. i ended up finding beautiful thumbelina carrots, a round orange carrots that i've never before seen. i also got fresh rainier cherries and bright yellow string beans. shopping at the market was a great way to clear my mind and really stick to my plan. after all that fuss, i know my cocktail hour will be bright and beautiful, and that's all that really matters.

summer csa

 
it's official, our summer csa is in full swing. we got our first delivery last week and devoured every part of it by the time we picked up our second box last night. this year we are sharing our csa between four people so it is much easier to finish all the wonderful produce boistfort valley farm gives us than it was when just jon and i shared it last year. it may not sound like a big problem to have too much produce, but imagine a big head of fresh lettuce starting to wilt in your fridge because you couldn't eat salads fast enough. loosing food is never fun.

my challenge to myself is to: 1. eat all our produce before it rots 2. make some fun and new recipes with our vegetables as well as find ways to throw produce into all my basics and 3. (this one is the best) take a picture of our csa every week, in some form. i like the idea of documenting how the season slowly develops with what is ripe and harvest-able.

this week, i snapped what was left of last week's box.
feel free to email me if you have questions about community supported agriculture.

farmer's markets

it is a funny point in the year where spring produce is in full abundance, but our csa hasn't started up weekly and our garden is only on the verge of bursting, not yet plentiful enough to eat off of. because of this, we have made it a weekly habit to visit the farmer's market. i love watching the dark leafy greens and roots slowly give way to asparagus and rhubarb, and now to see those fade out and make room for the spring onions and green garlic. soon, beans and peas will show up and i will get a cup of ice cream as we shop around.

yesterday was a busy day, so we got to the market just as it opened, reaping the benefits of smaller crowds and first pick from every stand. i got a bunch of mustard greens, green onions and a bunch of collards then went home and stir-fried them all together with some chard pickings from our yard. lately, this type of cooking is so satisfying to me. roasted potatoes and beets are standard and i'm sprinkling chives or green onions over everything. it is all so wonderful.

happy monday and thanks to those of you who left sweet comments encouraging me through my rough week, last week.

new food adventures

this weekend i made an excellent new food discovery. rabe! i have definitely heard of broccoli rabe and i've definitely seen the brassicas in my garden go to seed, but i never really put the two together. this weekend we stopped by nash's organic produce stand at the farmer's market and one whole table was dedicated to rabe in all shades and varieties. apparently any brassica (broccoli, kale, cabbage, etc.) that is going to seed is fair game for sauteing and eating. bring it on! we bought a red kale rabe and a green cabbage rabe (see photos above, but ignore the pink from the red chard--the nice lady at the stand set it there for color).

the texture is likened to asparagus in that most of what you eat is stalk. you eat the whole thing so there is the stalk, the leafy greens and the seed portion, which is similar to tender broccoli. the taste is slightly bitter in a good way. almost like horseradish, but much more mellow. so far, i have found it a refreshing variety from my constant kale intake--i love it.

here is how i've cooked it up:

sautéed rabe 
i like  the mixture of red kale and green cabbage rabe, but i would also try red cabbage, green kale and brocolli rabe in an instant.

ingredients:
preferred type of rabe
olive oil
1 clove garlic
butter
salt, pepper
lemon juice
*all amounts are relative, you could make this for 1 or for 4, depending on how much rabe you want to use. you could also mix this with other fully formed brassicas, adding broccoli and cabbage with the stalks and/or kale with the leaves.

1. cut off the very ends of each stalk, separate the leaf from the stalk with a knife or by plucking
2. cut stalk to desired size (i like bite size inches, but you could keep them long like asparagus)
3. smash and peel a clove of garlic, chop fine or put through garlic press
4. heat a sauté pan over medium heat, add a bit of oil and let it warm through
5. once oil is warm add the stalk portion of the rabe. add a pinch of salt and cover for a minute or two
6. once stalks are darker green and a bit softer, add the smashed garlic a slice of butter and the leafs of the rabe. add more salt to taste and pepper. stir to coat and cover
7. cook, uncovering only to stir more
8. once leaves are wilted, take off heat and squeeze a tad bit of lemon juice over the mixture.

viola! eat this mixture on its own for an afternoon snack, with fried tofu and rice for dinner, on top of a slice of toast, next to fish cooked in lemon, with a fried egg...the options are endless.

bon appetit

green night

hello there.
these are some farm shots from back in august, when it was bright sun and heat. these bright photos are quite a juxtoposition from today's weather. today was really one of the first grey, fall days we've had and it poured! the rain is very nostalgic.

but these photos work very well with autumn color week, since today (tuesday) is green day.
and they also work very well with my dinner tonight! i know i showed you photos from the boistfort valley farm's barn stomp last week. the above photos are also from boistfort, a month earlier. we have been dutifully getting their csa every week and every week we are overwhelmed with fresh produce; greens, cucumbers, tomatos, flowers, carrots, beets, radishes, green beans, squash, zuchini. and today we received our first fall vegetables--rutabega and parsnips! i made a primavera, ravioli tossed with every green vegetable i could throw in. i will save the rutabegas for a another night. it's so magical to see where my food comes from!