Five Loaves Farm and Territorial Seeds

You remember how the little boy gave Jesus 5 loaves of bread and two fish? Jesus blessed the food and when the disciples distributed it, it fed thousands of people, with leftovers! That's what 5 Loaves Farm in Lynden is doing...and just as in the ancient story, the loaves are multiplying! What started as one garden has become three! This year I am purchasing a 10 x 20 foot plot at the Methodist Church and will do the bulk of my veggie garden there. A portion of my harvest will go to the local foodbank, and the rest will be enjoyed by my family and friends. Thought you might enjoy viewing a little video clip about 5 Loaves...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUaN3qeUYI&feature=youtu.be


AND...thanks to a tip from Alyce (the lady in the video), I found Territorial Seed Company. They even have a virtual garden planner! Here's my plan. All of my seeds will be heirloom (naturally); and I'm experimenting with companion gardening, which is planting items next to one another for maximum benefit. For example, the marigolds and the dukat dill will repel pests from my cabbage and onions. The spinach is tucked between the pole beans and the peas because they will cast shadows over the spinach, which doesn't like blazing sun. Nasturtiums are planted between the cukes and the squash to repel insects. And the sunflowers attract bees! That's the theory anyhow. And of course the weather has to cooperate...that's always iffy around our parts. Stay tuned for updates!
http://gardenplanner.territorialseed.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=234173

Swanky Shoes

So have you seen the clogs at The Swanx? Hand-painted works of art for your feet! Love it!!!! Admittedly, they're a little pricey, but oohh-la-la! How cute would any of these little numbers be with a simple black skirt with tights and a white blouse? Or how about with your faded old jeans and a black t-shirt. There are so many to choose from; and I read that you can have them customized. How cool is that? These are a few of my favorites. Here's the link if you're interested...http://www.theswanx.com/

Peace Out, Man!

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Shhhh, don't turn me in to the lawn police...

What a leisurely Sunday!

Took Baron to park where he made new friends...Dexter the Wheaton terrier, Queenie the Aussie mix, and a Border Collie whose name I've forgotten. The Border Collie stole Baron's brand-new squeaky ball and wouldn't give it back. It felt like the days when your best-friend's toddler stole your child's toy...whaddaya do?

When we left it started to hail really hard. This is NOT the weather I am looking for!

By the time we got home the sun was out...go figure!

I think the sun made Hubby feel ambitious so he decided to prune the Gravenstein tree. He does a great job of pruning; but we still get very few apples in the summer. Like 7 or 8. I suspect it's because I won't use chemicals to kill the little bugs that invade it every spring. They gobble the apple blossoms like it's Thanksgiving Dinner! So if you have tips for how to kill the bugs without using harsh pesticides, I'd love to hear from you!

Hubby spotted me wandering about the yard with my camera. "Why don't you pick up the sticks?" he asked hopefully.

"Maybe later..." I lied. It's not gonna happen. I'm off the clock this afternoon!

 I've been moving Iris bulbs all around the yard, then forgetting where I put them. I'm noticing that they are poking through the soil in the most unusual places! With some luck Baron won't mow them down while chasing his squeaky ball.

 Eureka! I spotted an actual flower! (aside from heather plants, which don't count.) Welcome little crocus!

Tulips are popping up here and there. You can't really live in Lynden without planting tulips. It's a Dutch town. The yards are meticulous. Well, except mine. Our's used to be meticulous, with the help of all of Lilly Miller's handy dandy pesticides. Our grass no longer looks like a putting green. We don't have lots of shiny, toxic apples, and when it get's hot, heaven forbid, I let my lawn scorch a bit! I try to keep the dandelions in check with my neat new dandelion puller, but they're not as afraid of me now that I don't use Weed-n-Feed or Round-up...so they keep returning to my lawn.

Same with the moles. Word on the street, or in this case, in the tunnel, is that we're soft on vermin here on Park Street. Our friend Bob has a personal war with moles. He's kind of a red-neck. Don't worry, if Bob reads my blog, he'll be flattered to be called a  red-neck. Well Bob got so perturbed with his moles that he ran a hose attached to the exhaust of his car down the mole hill. Apparently the moles have some kind of civil defense early warning system, because he didn't kill a one! He did manage to somehow kill one mole. You know what he did? He put that dead mole's carcass on a stake in the yard to show the other's what would happen to them if they didn't skedaddle. I kid you not! But the moles weren't impressed. Moles are not easily intimidated. Either that or they were too blind to see their comrade hanging out to dry in the front yard. Well somehow, Bob found out that if you put little windmills in the yard, with poles that extend down into the dirt--the noise or vibration scares the critters away. He sent away for a few and by golly, they worked! So he brought us one, and by golly, it worked...they all took refuge in the back yard. So we now have 2 windmills, one for the front yard and one for the back yard. Now we're pretty much mole-free, but we've noticed a lot of mole hills next door.

People joke about our town.  Lynden, it is rumored, has 'lawn police' who visit unruly, non-mowing citizens. I've never actually seen a lawn policeman-but I suppose that the rumor helps keep us all in line. It's probably an urban legend. But if there are lawn police, I expect they'll be calling on me one of these days. I wonder if they'll search the garage to make sure that we have a good supply of Diazinon...

Ahhh, now this is what I'm talking about! A very unusual sighting in the Northwestern sky in February...

"Blue skies, nothing but blue skies...I see!"

Oh no! Hubby just came in and gave me the news...I missed it. The sticks are all picked up! Aw, shucks! (wink-wink!)

Hope you're Sunday is leisurely and that all of your sticks have been picked up for you!

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"Guess we'll have to eat beans..."




Powder-monkey crew in the Olympic National Forest...OSU Archives

 Mom and Dad got married during the Great Depression. They were as poor as church-mice. Mom was a farmgirl and Dad was working up in the woods as a cook in the CCC Camp. When the CCC bosses got wind that dad had secretly married, he was fired. The Civilian Conservation Corp was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. They hired young unmarried men to do unskilled manual labor for $30 a month; of which $25 was sent home to their parents. You'll never convince me that this workforce was unskilled! Every time I travel the Mount Baker Highway, snaking it's way up some 3500 feet above sea level to Mount Baker, I think of my Dad...and I am proud. The road was hewn into the side of steep mountains with tunnels blasted through granite rock, and it's bridges traverse deep-cut canyons with the wild Nooksack River tumbling over boulders below. This backbreaking work was not for the weak or the timid. It involved dynamite, cutting down old growth stands of fir trees with cross-blade-saws, and working on dizzying precipices in the harshest winter blasts.

After Dad was let go, my parents did many things to try and eke out a living during those lean Depression years. Dad worked in lumbercamps, picked apples, and even did some prize-fighting. Mom took in ironing, was a housekeeper for rich folks (even cleaned a mortuary), and worked in canneries preserving fish and fruit. (And that's only a few of the jobs they did!) Back then there was no negotiating for better pay or for medical benefits or for vacation time. If you were lucky enough to find work...you did it for whatever they offered; and you were grateful. You worked hard. Real hard. We have no idea.

Anyway, by the time I came along in the fifties, the folks were doing better. Mom had a good job at the County Court House and Dad was grading lumber at Bloedel-Donovan's lumbermill on the shores of Lake Whatcom. We weren't rich by any means, but compared to those early years; things were pretty good. We still however, lived paycheck to paycheck; and as you know if you've ever lived paycheck to paycheck...the slightest hiccup in your budget can upset the whole darned apple cart! So when our car broke down or the pump for our water well broke down (as it often did) Dad would grin at Mom and say, "Guess we'll have to eat beans!" My folks knew how to live cheap.

Now to my parents...eating beans meant that you were broke. Not that they didn't like beans...it was just that if we had to eat beans, it was because we couldn't afford meat. So from time to time...we ate beans. But most of the time, Mom managed to find the cash to buy a ham-bone or a slab of bacon to throw into the pot.

These days, eating beans is fashionable. They call them 'legumes' and praise the benefits of eating low-fat and high in protein while saving the planet by reducing our carbon footprint by eating vegan. (As though this generation were the first to have cooked and eaten a bowl of beans! How narcissistic!) Now I do believe in living healthy...low fat and reducing my carbon footprint...I really do! But I have to smile when I think of what Dad would say if I invited him over for a bowl of my bean soup. I'm sure he'd look across the table at me with a wry grin and say,
"Broke? Guess we'll have to eat beans!"

Bean with Bacon Soup

1 lb. great northern beans, soaked in water overnight--you could buy canned beans, but we're talking economy and home cooking here...so don't be such a pansy...use the real stuff!

1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, chopped
2 cans vegetable broth--or make your own broth. I'm sure chicken or beef broth would be tasty in this soup!
3 cups of water, or enough to cover beans
1 8-oz pkg Trader Joe's uncured turkey bacon, fried and crumbled into pieces-or live dangerously and toss in a hambone or a slab of real fried bacon! If you're broke or vegan, omit the meat.
Salt and Pepper to taste
A few shakes of Old Bay Seasoning--this is my new favorite seasoning. I dunno what's in it, but I've been adding it to almost everything I cook lately, and it's fantastic.



Wash and soak the beans overnight, then rinse. Chop the veggies, mince the garlic. Put the beans into a large pot and add enough broth and water to cover the beans. Add fried bacon, veggies, garlic, and seasoning.  Bring to a rolling boil, skimming off any foam. Reduce heat and simmer for a couple of hours...until the beans are soft and the broth has thickened. (The thicker the better, I always say. It's hard to tell whether my soup is soup, or just beans and meat. I like it that way.) Salt and pepper to taste.

Cornbread with lots of butter is the best accompaniment to this meal.

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