Local grains!

I purchased some purple Tibetan barley at the West Seattle Farmer's market this week. It's grown right here in Western Washington by Whidbey Island Prairie Grains
Now you can add grains to your local diet.
I wasn't sure what to do with it, grains in their original forms are still a little new to me. Georgina(?) recommended beef and barley soup, and said there were recipes on the website. The recipe is very basic, just begging to be "souped up." I didn't change it up too much but here are a few things I did:
Browned the meat, I always brown beef and pork before making soup, this seals in the flavor.
Added a couple of bay leaves from my stash from a big pruning job I did last summer. I honestly don't know what bay does, but my Nana put it in all her stews, so there you go.
Carrots and Celery, the original recipe calls for just onion as a vegetable, but you can't have beef stew with out at least carrots.
Well that's all I added, then just dumped it into my rice cooker/crock pot and let it stew (pun intended.)
5 hours later...YUM! So good, the beef is super tender and the barley is really awesome, not mushy and flavorless like you get in most beef and barley soup. It has a lovely earthy flavor, I feel healthier just eating it. On that note, the recipe only calls for 3/4 of a cup of the purple barley, I think I could have doubled that and still have had plenty of broth left.
I look forward to trying some of these other local grains, but for now some glamour shots of my soup.

Super High Tec Seed Starting System

Started starting my seeds today. They say you should start peas on President's Day weekend, but with the howling winds and driving rain today, I don't think so.
So I decided to start my Tomatoes and Peppers down in the basement today. I began using this system last year and it seemed to work really well.
One of the most important things when starting seeds is to provide bottom heat to get the seeds to actually germinate. You can buy really expensive heat mats, but you can also do it with inexpensive Christmas lights. I used a set of rope lights I bought at the hardware store on clearance after the holidays. You want to make sure the lights are not LED lights, since they do not provide enough heat. I attached my lights to an old shelf with cable staples, so I can put it away at the end of the season and still use the table top.

My other supplies are pretty basic too. I start all of my seeds in 4" pots, I never have good luck using those little peat pots (besides, peat is not an environmentally responsible choice anymore.) I find that I often have to pot up into bigger pots or that the roots have trouble busting through the bottom of the pot. I use wood popsicle sticks for plant tags, my light source is a florescent shop light I picked up at the used building supply store for just a couple of bucks. I also use the most basic of timers to turn the light on and off.


The shop light is on chains so I can start the light directly above the pots and move it up as my plants get bigger and bigger. I cover the whole thing with one of those shiny space/emergency blankets. The blanket helps to keep in the heat, since it is generally pretty cool down in the basement.

FO's and WIP's

I've had a pretty productive winter, mostly because the estate sale business has been slow. I have also returned to my original crafty love, quilting. We have recently remodeled our home office into a guest room/sewing room, so I am no longer stuck sewing at the dining room table.
I have finished lots of little projects (FO's=finished objects,) but also my first machine pieced and quilted baby quilt for my friends Michelle and Philip, who are expecting a little boy any day now. I also made a reversible tote bag for their daughter Lucy, so she wouldn't feel left out.
Robot Factory quilt with Robert Kaufman "Robot Factory" and Kona solids:




Bag for Lucy, based on this pattern:http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/07/17/how-to-make-a-simple-reversible-totebag/



I also have at least three works in progress (WIP's):
This little nine patch quilt. I wanted something easy and basic to work on, mindless sewing you know:


Then there's this one, I am calling it "Road to Dali" it's inspired by my trip to China last summer. Going to Dali was my favorite part of the trip, there are farm fields as far as the eye could see.

Finally, this skull quilt, inspired by Boo Davis (http://www.quiltsryche.com/) her book "Dare to be Square" is one of my favorite quilting books. I got the skull done ages ago, but am not sure how to proceed. I think its partly because I want it to look really great, so I am waiting for inspiration to strike.

So, it's been a while.

So it is almost a year since I last blogged. That's the story of my life really, I am really good at something for a while, then I completely stop or lose interest. Anyway, lots has happened in the past year-new job, new flock of chickens, trip to China, tore my plantar fascia, acquired a thyroid condition, acquired a new tattoo, got hooked on Downton Abbey, and on and on.
This year proves to be as mixed and busy. We are starting down the long road of getting our house ready to put on the market. This means lots of little things that need to be finished (again, good at doing things for a while, then totally losing interest,)putting up molding, changing out light fixtures, power washing, etc. These are all easy projects, just things we have been putting off forever.
We are going home to the East coast for the first time in several years, only for a week so it should be a whirlwind tour, but it will be good to be home for a little bit.
Anyway, I will try to be better about blogging, and here are some of the best photos from the past year.

Climate Change in the Garden

Most people these days seem to accept that Climate Change/Global Warming is, in fact, a real thing. Even concerned citizens, unless they live on a tiny island in the South Pacific or in the shadow of a glacier, have a hard time picturing the actual effects of Climate Change.
For me the results are right out in the backyard. The last two years have been hard ones here in the Pacific Northwest. There have been stretches of extremely hot and extremely cold weather and the rain the last few years has lasted forever. Although this could just be a natural flux in the weather patterns plants in the garden are starting to show signs of this new weather trend.
Many reliable, even hard to kill plants are dying or just struggling along. Some examples are: Phormium (New Zealand Flax,) yes, only marginally hardy any time, but for the most part most of the grand Phormiums in the Seattle area are now gone. In my own yard I have lost both my Evergreen Clematis (Clematis armandii,) these were large plants that covered the entire backside of my deck. Also, the hedge of Wax Myrtle (Myrica californica,) are really showing signs of stress, with lots of brown leaves and dying branches.
As a gardener it is always disappointing to lose plants, but it is especially difficult losing tried and true, common plants, to the harsh weather. Does this mean we will need to start re-thinking our garden plans? Will our native plants have to be ousted to make way for new, hardier "native" plants?

Summer starts with...

The first best weekend in Seattle, started with a trip on Saturday to El Camion, a taco truck in Ballard (just off 15th, in the Mud Bay parking lot.) We got yummy fish tacos and Mexican Coke (with real sugar.)


Saturday we went to see the U2 360 tour, with tickets we bought 2 years ago. The original tour was canceled when Bono had to have back surgery. The wait was totally worth it. What a spectacle! Supposedly, this is the largest touring show ever, it takes 100 semi trucks to move it from place to place (I am still wondering if those trucks are bio-diesel or not, since U2 seems so environmentally concerned.)




The show was amazing! They really deliver. So often you here about big bands phoning it in, because people are willing to pay anything just to say they went to see them. The show really was incredible, it's hard to describe in words and blurry cell phone photos.
The fun continued on Sunday with a hike up to the Lime Kiln in Granite Falls. We left late and got there about 11:30 and there were several other cars on the trail. We did meet several other folks on the trail and one couple really freaked out Tim Tim and he managed to get out of his harness, but he came right back as soon as the people continued up the trail.
The weather was perfect, maybe a little too warm, at least out in the sun. There was one area where there has been a slide in the recent past that was a little tricky to navigate, especially with a dog hooked to your waistbelt. The lime kiln itself was really interesting, it's strange to think there was a thriving town out there in the middle of nowhere, and now you can only get there on a foot path.

Winthrop Weekend

Spent the weekend at Lewisia Lodge (lewisialodge.com) in Winthrop. I am starting to like this Eastern Washington thing. Winthrop is a strange little town, many years ago, as a money making venture they re-did the town in an all out western theme. Hokey, but still cute. Lots of photos ahead....