Kitsap Garden

The Savage Vine

2011-04-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

Savage Plants and Landscape has long been my favorite North Kitsap nursery. It's not the largest in the area, but it has remarkable diversity, outstanding grounds, and personable and knowledgeable service. Well, they have improved on all this by adding a wine shop! The Savage Vine is located on the premises, in a peaceful and refreshingly non-hipster setting. They are open daily and do tastings on Saturdays, with the price ranging from free to $5, which sounds reasonable to me. They expect to add outdoor seating as the weather warms, which will make it all the more divine. I quite like the idea of drinking wine while shopping for ground cover. It's also located conveniently between my house and my shop...nice!

I'm really pleased to see so many quality small businesses opening in the last year or so in the area, especially in the face of an uncertain economy. It seems that the worst things got, the more courageous and creative many people became; resulting in flurry of business openings and reinventions, cool new events, and fledgling non-profits.

Poulsbo Mini Pub Crawl

2011-04-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

Katie, a fantastic server, behind the bar at Tizley's.

I left work with beer and sausage on my mind, so after rendezvousing at home, Drew and I decamped for Tizley's Europub in Poulsbo. Sitting on their comfortable old furniture on the second floor with late day sunlight filtering in, life begin looking pretty good. I had a sample of a delicious coconut porter from Maui Brewing Company, and a glass of a refreshing Kristallweizen from a new Poulsbo brewer, Sound Brewery. We also had mounds of sausage, sauerkraut, a lamb burger, bread sticks stuffed with cheese, apple strudel, and other wholesome delights. And it's OK, because I had raw spelt flakes for lunch! With green tea!

Front Street in Poulsbo from Tizley's deck.

The tasting room at Sound Bewery.

Inspired by the Kristallweizen, we then set out for Sound Brewery's tasting room. After driving haplessly around an assisted living center for Alzheimer's patients, we finally found it in a small warehouse tucked beyond an automotive center. It was as unpretentious as you get. Some breweries go out of their way to promote a gritty industrial feel, but this was an authentic bare bones tasting room. It was fairly crowded but pleasantly low key, and the beer and service were both friendly.

We came home and with a mixture of hope and dread turned on the Mariners game. Bless their incompetent hearts, they actually won the game.

It has been a stressful year and little pockets of goodness like tonight feel really sweet.

Kitsap Spring

2011-04-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

The last year or so has been a big one for me, and I'm just now feeling that I'm settling into my new routine. I'm a lazy writer, and the more complex and momentous life events often seem too hard to write about. It's not a good trait for a blogger, since I end up chronicling the mundane and skipping the interesting stuff. I'll work on it.

Anyway, spring is supposedly here, and the farmer's markets are beginning to open around the county. Kitsap Cuisine does a fine job of writing about the local farm and food scene, including good articles on the local farmers markets. A full schedule of local markets is below. It seems like they're getting bigger and better every year, which pleases me no end. I have tomato seedlings happily growing in the laundry room and all the onions and most of the greens are in the ground. My snow peas are up and looking vigorous. So, yeah, it must be spring.

African Basket Giveaway

2010-09-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

A new blog covering Kitsap events, communities, and businesses, Kitsap Daily, is doing a giveaway featuring an African basket from my li'l store. Check out their website for details. The baskets are similar to this one, but come in a multitude of colors and patterns. We are also now offering free shipping on orders over $100 throughout the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii.

I don't want to use this blog much to promote my business (I will return to gardening and life in general soon and thus will actually have something to write about), but I just wanted to get this out there because I really like the Kitsap Daily and I think this is a pretty cool little contest.

I Love My Town

2010-07-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

After work The Husband and I swiftly trotted off to The Filling Station for food and beer, where we enjoyed a view of the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier from the deck. After such a dismal May and June it felt almost decadent to be all hot and sweaty. We then took a walk around town and snapped these pictures. I had forgotten how much I love little Kingston. I just needed the sun to come out to remember. Probably the frosty Stella helped too, but anyway, it really is a lovely and completely unpretentious place.

Capitalism!

2010-04-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

I've been working day and night the last few weeks starting up a new business, Tango Zulu Imports, selling handcrafted goods from (mostly) West Africa as well as Nepal & Tibet. Between that and training for the marathon the garden is a little neglected, but it seems to be muddling through. The chard and kale are pretty delighted with the cool spring we're having but I am despairing of ever getting my tomato seedlings out of my bathroom.

Anyway...I have leased a 147 year old house in Port Gamble, Washington, as my base of operations. Retail shop downstairs and internet operations upstairs. I have always loved Port Gamble, which is a bit of an anomaly out here in the Pacific Northwest. It's a true company town, built in the mid-19th century to house lumber workers (my place used to belong to the doctor and it had rooms for patients, so it's pretty big.) The lumber company was from Maine, and the houses were built accordingly, in a northeast style you don't often see here. A lovely place to go to work, and it's only 10 minutes from my house, AND backs up to the trails I like to run on. It couldn't be better. By the end of next week I expect to be open for business, both in the store and on the web, doing something I've always wanted to do.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs

2010-04-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here are a few signs from recent travels that amused me. One is from China, where apparently I had no business being on the ropeway (tram). The others are unusually morbid ones, by U.S. standards, from the Grand Canyon. I especially liked the one of the guy puking.

Quick Trip to the Desert

2010-03-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Drew and I spent a few days in Phoenix last week to watch some Mariners spring training and dry out after the wet Northwest winter. Highlights of the first leg were the Desert Botanical Garden, our lovely Seattle Mariners, and of course, the warm and dry weather. From there we drove north to Flagstaff and the glorious Grand Canyon, where there was still plenty of snow on the ground but clear and sunny skies. I got all fired up about making plans to hike rim to rim through the canyon next year, but after getting home and researching it I was a little dismayed by all the gruesome ways hikers have died there. Breaking a leg and then drowning in a flash flood! Drinking tea brewed from poisonous flowers! Heat stroke! Dehydration! Hypothermia! Lightning! I would need a companion, (Drew already says hell no), and some experience with desert hiking. Maybe it will be a 2011 adventure. For now, I'm just relaxed and happy after a week of sunshine, baseball, and gorgeous scenery.

Taking Inventory

2010-03-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day in Kitsap County. I wandered outside this morning and snapped these pictures of pear blossoms and the anemones that are are inter-planted with the strawberries. The snow peas are up and looking strong. The lettuce and spinach are just getting going, and the daikon radishes are growing briskly on the topside, but Lord knows what is going on underground. Likewise with the garlic and shallots. I still have three kale plants from last year, and the rhubarb is growing briskly.

The fruit trees all seem happy, and I have tons of flowers blooming throughout the property. It really seems like spring now.

Inside the house, even the cat (Cloud Bai-Yun, who shares the house with us and his sister/lover Ginger Root Six Nipples), was gardening his little patch of oat grass this morning. Cherry and regular tomatoes are sharing my master bath with fish peppers. I've potted on the tomatoes so they are taking up a lot of space, but the peppers are still in their peat pots, growing slow as dirt. The room has a lot of glass, which is odd for a bathroom, but it makes for a nice little greenhouse, especially with a space heater cranked up a couple of hours a day. And yes, I have other bathrooms, so I'll still be showering over the next couple of months as the seedlings grow. In case anyone was concerned. In a cooler spot I have some broccoli and napa cabbage humming along, and I'm growing cilantro inside this year, hoping for better results than I've had with it outdoors. So far, so good.

We still have some cleanup from a nasty windstorm that came through earlier this week, but generally I feel like things are in pretty good shape and that all is well here in Zhutopia.

Happy weekend to all.

Spring Must be Here?

2010-03-11T22:33:00.000-08:00

We've had freezing temperatures, wind, rain, and a bit of snow this past week; but also some signs of spring. My rhubarb plants are rearing their wrinkled heads, and of course the daffodils have been going for a few weeks, and the crocuses are mostly gone already. I keep early spring flowers in the rhubarb patch for a little color early in the year before the rhubarb wakes up. By the time the rhubarb is full-sized the flowers will have died back, and the rhubarb leaves will cover the dead foliage. It is all very clever of me.

I love rhubarb raw with salt, cooked in a crumble, stewed and served over vanilla ice-cream, and any number of other ways. And bless it for being a perennial, not to mention high in fiber and vitamin K.

Flo's Boiled Cookies

2010-03-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

My Granny used to make these cookies for the grandchildren all the time. They're not much to look at, but are so...very...tasty. I'm chomping one now, as my nephew Max would say. Granny got the recipe from her neighbor Flo, and even when she passed a hand-written copy along to me she was careful to give Flo credit.

The beauty of this recipe is that you don't need to preheat an oven, dirty a bowl, or even use a cooling rack. The ingredients are mixed in a pan, boiled on a stove, and dropped onto tin foil or wax paper. They take about five minutes to make and ten minutes to cool. If there is a faster way to make cookies, I'd love to know about it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 C white sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 4 T cocoa
• ¼ C butter or margarine
• ½ C milk
• 2 t vanilla
• ½ C peanut butter
• 3 C quick oatmeal
• coconut if desired

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk in saucepan
2. Bring to full boil, keep at rolling boil for one minute, while stirring. The key to getting the right consistency is to keep boiling for a minute AFTER the butter has melted and the mixture is at a full boil.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add vanilla, peanut butter, and oats
5. Stir until it starts to thicken
6. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper or tin foil and allow to cool.

Heritage Park

2010-03-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

North Kitsap recently gained another park, Heritage Park, and the main entrance is just two miles from our house. Just after it opened in January, Drew and I hiked a few miles into it and along the way saw this old car. I'd love to know how it got all the way in there. I went back in February with my cousin Liz and took this very Western Washington-y shot of mushrooms and moss on a tree.

This is a nice addition to our park system, and I'm pleased to have more trails to run on.

Marathon!

2010-03-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

I'll get back to garden stuff any day now. However, I've just committed to running in the North Olympic Discovery Marathon in June, and I'm so excited I may fall out of my chair. I've never run in an event longer than 5k, so this is a big step up, but I begin running regularly last year, and in spite of a ridiculous assortment of injuries, none of which were running-related, I've stretched my mileage out quite a bit. I ran from my house up to Twin Spits in Hansville last Friday, which is eleven miles with a lot of hills, and I felt great the next day. I'm up to about fifteen miles on flatter terrain, so I think this is doable, especially if I start to focus now. So I probably shouldn't be having wine and a cheese stick for dinner, but oh well. Tomorrow I'll begin living a more wholesome life.

Hopefully in three months I'll glide across the finish line, looking just as fresh and cheerful as the girl in the picture! And doing that cool hula thing with my hands.

From Whence I Came IV

2010-03-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is one of the first photographs I ever took, circa 1980, on the Idaho farm I grew up on. Those good dogs are Blue and Biscuit, and that's my grandfather's truck. Drew and I have been without a dog for a year and a half now, and seeing this picture makes me sorely miss having one around.

Chinese Workers

2010-03-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

Just a few more pictures from China and I'll get back to the garden. I got some shots of workers along the way, doing tough jobs without much in the way of worker protections or pay. The fellow in the yellow is a park worker in Huangshan talking on his mobile during a break, sitting on a granite outcrop overlooking a drop of several hundred feet.

The next guy is a porter delivering goods to the hotels in those same mountains.

Last but not least is the utility worker in Shanghai.

Now I feel like a pansy.

Hainan Island

2010-02-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Hainan Island was everything Huangshan wasn't. We were warm, comfortable, well-fed, and unambitious. We stayed in a beautiful resort (albeit with a weird Aztec theme), along with a slew of Koreans and Russians escaping the harsh winter back home. Because of my ankle, the most I exerted myself was paddling about in the South China Sea in between stints in the cabana. I was pleased not to have to sleep in my clothes for warmth or slug beer for carbs because of being low on food. And since at that point I never cared to see another hiking trail again, I was quite happy to share golf cart rides to the beach with well-oiled Russians.

I'd love to report on something of cultural interest here, but this is all I have to offer:

First, the buffet at the resort. Maybe it shows the degree of my shallowness to remember such a thing so fondly, but please, hear me out. For the equivalent of about $20 USD per person, which is actually pretty expensive by Chinese standards, we ate piles of local seafood, Korean barbecue, Russian pastries, anything you could want in kabob form, various south Chinese delicacies, and random things like bread pudding and pizza. And it was all good. And then there was the beer, fresh brewed right there in the room and included in the price. Who gives Russian tourists unlimited beer? Once we watched a Korean woman and her son, who looked to be about ten, take their frosty mugs to the one of the giant kegs. The mother expertly drew her beer and returned to her table, but the son struggled with the tap. I saw a waiter rush over, and I thought for sure he would tell the boy he was too young for alcohol. Instead, he helped him draw a nice mug of beer, and the boy sat down with his mom and drank it. I watched him, It wasn't for anyone else. I was too busy ravishing plate loads of fresh shrimp to be troubled much.

The second thing that struck me was the difference in beach behavior among the various groups. The Russians, men and women both, wore the tiniest swimwear possible, regardless of their physique. Some of the women in bikini bottoms would roll up the back and stuff it in their cracks to make an improvised thong before taking a stroll across the beach. The Koreans came ready for sport, and made the most of the sand and water before them. For example, the only tourists I saw in scuba gear the entire time I was there were Koreans. The young Chinese couples favored matching Hawaiian outfits or 1950's style swimwear, and mostly took pictures of each other while strictly avoiding the key elements of the beach: sun and water. They didn't seem to be having much fun, but maybe the Russians and Koreans had enough fun for everyone. Drew and I just lounged around and waited for the buffet. A sampling of Chinese and Russian beach fashion is below.

After our all too brief time on the island came to an end, we flew back up to Shanghai, where I'd planned to end my trip in a glorious explosion of shopping. Instead, I came down with the swine flu and was bed-ridden the entire time. After 3 1/2 weeks abroad, I flew home with a blackened ankle and infested lungs and begin the process of recovering from my vacation.

Uh Oh!

2010-02-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

Joan from the excellent Pacific Northwest Gardening blog I'm in the Garden Today notified me (via the fabulous UK garden blog Simon's Allotment ) that the comments function on my blog hasn't been working. I've fixed the problem, but I apologize if anyone wasn't able to get through. If so, please try again! I love comments!

Day #3 in the Yellow Mountains, and Back to Hangzhou

2010-01-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

The next morning we awoke again at 5:00 and decided we were too sore and tired to attempt the 500 meter climb to see the sunrise. We slept a couple more hours and finally got ourselves together for the two hour hike down to the cable car. It was painful to walk, but we saw some of the best views yet.

From the base of the mountain we took a taxi to the edge of the park, where we transferred to another cab that took us back to Huangshan City. From there we collected our bags and made our way to the bus station, and then rolled on to Hangzhou. Two hours later while walking down the steps at the Hangzhou bus station I took a bad step while trying to adjust my luggage and sprained my ankle. I immediately dropped to the ground and there I sat for a few minutes until I was sure it wasn't broken. Drew got me into a cab and we went to our hotel, where the bellboy took me across the street to a clinic. I had done a lot of hiking on treacherous paths on this trip, even before the Huangshan trip, without even a minor injury, and now this. I've done a lot of traveling over the past twenty years, and only one other time did I need medical attention - and that was when I fell ill in Hangzhou back in 2001. I love Hangzhou, but clearly she doesn't love me.

We spent the next day struggling around Hangzhou as best our sore muscles and my ankle would allow - visiting the ancient silk market, the garment district, the art street, and of course West Lake, but we didn't enjoy it much. The following day we flew down to Hainan Island, where things went considerably better.

Day #2 in the Yellow Mountains

2010-01-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

The next morning we arose at about 5:00, hoping to catch the sunrise. We got outside and saw it was too foggy to see squat, so we went back in and slept awhile longer. We ventured out a couple hours later to find the fog still lying very heavy on the mountain, and a thick coat of frost blanketing the landscape. We elected to hike to the Western Sea, which should have taken us around five hours. We didn't start out at our best, as we hadn't eaten enough the night before and had very little for breakfast, and our legs were weary and sore from the previous day's hike. However, we decided not to bring food with us, figuring it was early enough that we could soldier through our hike in time to catch lunch at the cafeteria. The first hour or so was a bit scary. We couldn't see far through the fog, and the path was slick with frost. The wind gusts were strong enough at times that we had to huddle against large rocks until they passed. Gradually, however, the fog begin to lift, and as we descended, the frost disappeared and the wind died down. Soon we could catch glimpses of peaks, and as we begin to appreciate our surroundings and felt more sure-footed, we started to enjoy the hike. Not the least because we were blessedly free of the ubiquitous Chinese tour groups, with their crowding and spitting and shouting.

The trail as it transverses the Xihai Grand Canyon. This is one of the few stretches with handrails.

The Fairy Bridge

A few hours into it, however, it became clear that we'd taken a wrong turn. We should have been looping back to the hotel, but we were still heading down the mountain. We decided to keep going rather than turn around, because the map showed a food stand near the bottom. After about four hours we were at the foot of the mountain, the food stand was nowhere to be found (we eventually came across it - it was marked incorrectly on the map, and was closed anyway), we were hungry and tired, and knowing the only way back up was to walk. We'd come about seven miles down the steps, and our legs ached and were extremely fatigued. Not having food was a real problem, because we felt like we were out of glycogen. Looking up that mountain and knowing how tough the descent was, it seemed impossible to walk back UP it in our condition. We also knew that running out of daylight on the trail would be dangerous, between the bitter cold and the drop offs. We poked around a little, hoping for a stroke of luck, and we found it. A sign pointed to a construction area and warned us not to enter, but we could see a little mud house beyond the sign. We approached it, Drew called out, and the next thing we knew, the couple who lived there ushered us in and made us noodle soup. The husband was employed by the park as a carpenter, and he worked on wooden rails in the same room we ate in, as tasty-looking chickens wandered about. I know it sounds clichéd, but that soup tasted as good as anything I'd ever eaten. We couldn't stay long, so we paid them handsomely for the food - not that they asked for it or expected it, they were just good people.

That bit of nourishment and rest was enough. We headed back up by a different route that was longer but less steep and better maintained than the way we came down. We stopped as little as possible because we were still seeing very few other people and didn't want to be stuck on the trail in the dark. I got through it by counting 100 steps and then starting over, and over, and over. We managed to reach our hotel in another four hours or so, about half an hour before sunset. All in all it was about fifteen miles in eight hours. Climbing up the stairs to our hotel room was almost more than I could do. We showered, put our clothes back on for warmth, and lay in bed eating crackers, drinking beer and watching BBC. That was the most brutal hike I've even done, partly because of our own mistakes, but also the most beautiful. .

Day #1 in the Yellow Mountains

2010-01-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

A few hotels are scattered near the base of the Huangshan mountains, but they are far away from the prime hiking areas. To get the most out of the hiking, it's necessary to use one of the hotels near the top, which are reachable through a combination of cable car and hiking (or you can hike all the way up, if you're tough enough and have the time.) We chose a hotel high in the mountains, and thus left most of our luggage back at the hotel in Huangshan City, only bringing enough to get us through the next few days. We went by taxi from our hotel into the park, where we switched to a different cab (only official park vehicles are allowed inside) to the cable car station. The two cab rides totaled about an hour. We then traveled up the mountain via Austrian-made cable car, which was another ten or so harrowing minutes. The scenery was breath-taking, the swaying of the car nauseating. I actually had to stop eating my potato chips, something I don't do lightly, for fear I would spew them on Drew. We disembarked and begin a rigorous two-hour hike to our hotel. Anyone who has done much hiking in China is familiar with the infernal little steps they cut into hillsides, most of which are made for people with feet smaller than mine. It makes hiking much more difficult than it is on the trails of home, where I can use my natural stride instead of mincing and crab-walking up and down mountains. We were both tired and hungry by the item we got to our hotel, where had to walk up an additional four flights of stairs to get to our frigid room.

Hello, hello. I'm at place called vertigo.

Our hotel was very pleased with itself for providing geothermal heat, whereas most of the hotels in the mountains offer no heat at all. It was below freezing the entire time we were there, so I was grateful for any heat, but it only came on for a few hours at night, and heated the room perhaps to the low 50s F. We dropped our bags and went to assess the food situations, which was grim. There was an over-priced and filthy restaurant in the hotel; and a cafeteria on the grounds with nasty food, somewhat better prices and cleanliness, but very limited hours. We arrived a the end of lunch time and got a bit of stringy chicken in us. We had brought some provisions from Huangshan City in expectation of a situation like this, but because we had to pack sparingly we hadn't brought much. If I did it again, I would have brought more food even if it meant a more arduous hike in. The one bright spot was a tiny convenience store run by a couple of women in parkas, which ended up as our main food source for the duration. We were able to get tea eggs, jerky, and ice-cold beer right off the shelf - no refrigeration needed.

Feeling moderately well fed, we set off on a three hour hike of great rigor and glorious beauty. We walked through miles of steep granite formations, twisted pine trees, and mist; feeling wonder and pain and vertigo all at once. The same wind that frightened us in the cable car kept up for most of our stay, adding to a feeling of precariousness. We're in good physical condition and hike a fair amount, but we found this one to be grueling. Just leaving our hotel to get to the main paths necessitated a steep five-hundred meter climb, and every day we were there we passed many tourists sitting by the side of the stairs, unable to even get that past that first leg without giving in to exhaustion. Of course, many of them had dressed wildly inappropriately for hiking, as the Chinese are prone to do. There is no occasion too rugged to deter some Chinese from wearing dress shoes. We got back to our cold room just before sunset, tired and hungry, and confronted the reality that there was absolutely nothing to do at the hotel except sit in our plain little room and read. And eat our little snacks and drink our frosty beer. In bed, fully clothed, because it was so cold.

Huangshan City

2010-01-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

After leaving Hangzhou last fall, we went by bus to the mountain city of Huangshan, the gateway to the park containing the famous mountains so often depicted in Chinese art. I fell asleep soon after the bus pulled out, with my face on my knees, and awoke a couple hours later in Huangshan City, feeling refreshed and looking rather crumpled. The crisp, cool air was welcome after the sticky heat of Lishui and Hangzhou, and the city was largely free of the grime and pollution that afflicts much of China. We dropped our bags at the hotel, and spent a very pleasant evening in Tunxi, the ancient city center, with well-preserved architecture dating from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. It was filled with shops selling antique art, art supplies, inkwells and other items made from local black granite, ginger candy, and woven cloth. It was the only stop on this trip where there seemed to be a lot of dogs kept as pets, instead of for, you know.... It was nice to see the many dogs, mostly resembling chows and pekingeses, lounging around the shops and walking with their owners.

When I return to the area, which I plan to do in the next few years, I'll spend a little more time in Huangshan City and the surrounding villages, which include some that have changed very little for centuries. This time, however, we were focused on getting into the mountains, located about an hour away from the city.

Well, it wasn't easy.

From Whence I Came III

2010-01-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

Recently my mother sent this email to my sisters and me, reminiscing about some of the bucolic joys of farm life.

Besides the cows, horses, and kids, I forgot about Junior, the bane of my existence. Junior was Katy's bull calf from the previous year, possibly the ugliest and most obnoxious animal we ever owned. He was of mixed Jersey, Tarantais, and Shorthorn lineage, with the worst traits of all. Red coat, both brindle-striped and roan, crooked horns, Jersey eye-rings, sleigh feet and ham-hocked.

I wound up in the hospital overnight with an intestinal problem and had told Granny, when I dumped you kids on her at 5:00 am, to call Lee to look after the livestock, since he knew the routine.

At the time there was a California doctor who had a herd of registered Hereford cows pastured across the road by Coffey's barn. The next morning I was much recovered and wondering if I could parlay the hospital stay into another day of R&R when Lee came in, glared at me and said "I'm gonna kill that Junior, he was down there bulling in the doctor's cows." Junior had squat-jumped our five foot fence, got in with the registered Herefords, and, well, you can imagine. Lee and Mike Baker had spent a good part of the day getting him out, and they were both sore at me, as well as him. Anyway, I freaked out, jumped out of bed in my hospital gown (to Lee's maidenly distress) got dressed and signed myself out of the hospital. So much for R&R. Junior was safely in the freezer by the time the doctor moved his cows, but I always wondered how his calves turned out.Lots of hybrid vigor, no doubt.

love

Mom

Later, Mom sent an addendum.

Speaking of Mike, he had a real grudge against Junior, so when we had him butchered and the slaughterman asked me if I wanted the testes dressed out ("It's a real delicacy" he said) I said No at first and then Yes indeed, and duly presented them to Mike. He was pleased and said they were excellent.

Hangzhou

2010-01-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems I have a little catching up to do on my posts. And here I go.

Back to last fall's trip to China: from Lishui, we traveled via bus to one of my favorite cities, romantic and lovely Hangzhou. We couldn't stay long, but we had time to track down two of the city's culinary specialties, Dong Po Pork and You Zha Gui, both favorites of mine. Yes, that's a cube of pork belly you see there. As for the rest of our stopover in Hangzhou, Drew wrote a nice account of it here, so who am I to reinvent the wheel?

Speaking of the bus, I need to give a quick shout-out to China's emerging mass-transit systems. I found it had improved dramatically since I was last on the mainland, in 2001; at least on the east coast. We traveled several times by bus on this trip, and they were all clean, comfortable, and free of cigarette smoke. After a week and a half in Lishui, where men interrupt their smoking only to spit and sleep, the clean air and phlegm-free floor of the bus seemed like heaven. Better yet, the government is busily laying down some 16,000 miles of high-speed rail, which it aims to complete by 2020. Newsweek ran an interesting article on it last fall. In just two years, if all goes as planned, it will take only five hours by train to get from Shanghai to Beijing, faster than flying.

Urban Gardening

2009-11-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

Vegetable gardens flourished throughout Lishui, like this multi-acre plot near the Zhu home, planted mostly with bok choi, napa cabbage, and various other brassicas.

Family Time in Lishui

2009-11-24T22:28:00.000-08:00

We spent the first week or so in Lishui, Drew's hometown. We stayed with his parents, two brothers, sister-in-law, and our two and a half year old nephew, Yao Yao. This was our first time meeting Yao Yao in person, although we'd talked to him several times with Skype, and he even called us once by himself. He couldn't get enough of playing with his exotic auntie. My in-laws were very kind to me, as always. My mother-in-law accused Drew of hiding food from me if a dish was ever beyond my reach at the dinner table, and Yao Yao brought me whatever he thought I needed, from a hair dryer to a frozen sausage. The last night we were there Drew's brother Jun told me, in English, "this is your family." He said something similar to me last time I saw him, two years ago in Croatia, and both times made me tear up. I had a lovely time, and at at the end of it we all went to Hangzhou for a couple of days, then said our goodbyes.

Sweet Old Village

2009-11-22T00:24:00.000-08:00

This ancient village near Lishui has a nice display of old farming implements, and its own ferry! The river and mountains reminded me of my hometown of Bonners Ferry, Idaho. It used to have its own ferry too, but it probably wasn't as nice as this one.

Guerilla Gardening in Shanghai

2009-11-21T23:33:00.000-08:00

On our recent trip to China we came across this cucumber plant climbing on power lines in Shanghai. It was growing through a hole in the sidewalk, and someone had spread rotten vegetables near the base so it it had its own mini-compost pile to feed it. I would have loved to have seen the harvesting process!

Hasta la Vista, Baby!

2009-10-18T02:17:00.000-07:00

I'm packing my bags for the misty mountains, as Led Zeppelin or Bilbo Baggins or someone said. Steve Earle might have said it too. Tomorrow we head to Seattle for the first leg of a nearly month-long trip to China. The part I'm looking forward to the most is a trip to the Huangshan mountains, where I hope to do some serious hiking. Here's a preview. It'll be like nothing I've seen before and I'm practically vibrating with excitement.

We'll also spend some time in Shanghai as well as a week or so with Drew's family further south, where the temperatures will be in the low 80s - a nice change. I'm lobbying for a trip to Xi'an but Drew is resisting it. We'll see.

I made a last trip to the garden and saw that my befuddled strawberries that I should have renovated long ago are still flowering. Everything else, other than chard and kale, is over. So it's a good time to be leaving for a bit.

Crab Apple Season

2009-10-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

It was a good year for fruit, and the crab apples were especially prolific and delicious. I made a crab apple crunch a couple of days ago, using my rhubarb crunch recipe as the basis. I use the same recipe for sweeter fruits and decrease the white sugar amounts accordingly. It's lovely to have fresh and warm, but it always seems better the next day.

Showing a little side-boob to deflect attention from my limited skills.

Here's the recipe, the same one my family has used for years - but it's also all over the internet. Nothing unique about our take on it.

1 cup flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
4 cups diced rhubarb or tart apples
1 1/3 cups white sugar (use less if you substitute sweeter fruits)
2 tsp corn starch
1 cup cold water (use less if you substitute juicier fruits like blackberries)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until you have a crumbly mixture. Press half of the mixture into a greased 8-inch square baking dish (grease it well, or the bottom crust will stick like glue.) Set remaining crumb mixture aside for topping. Sprinkle fruit over crust, set aside.

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan, gradually whisk in water until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from the heat; whisk in vanilla. Pour over fruit. Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until bubbly and lightly browned.

It was nice warmed up the next day on the wood stove, along with some good oolong tea.

Cold Night

2009-10-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

We're supposed to have our first freeze tonight, so I harvested anything still on the vine. It was a beautiful Indian summer, but the hammer is coming down tonight. It's kind of sad, because there are blossoms on the strawberries and zucchini, and the roses look like it's June. I also have quite a few tavera beans. I still have a few strawberries, which is just weird, and one vine of snow peas is still producing, but tonight will likely put an end to all that nonsense. Plenty of chard, kale, and napa cabbage, but that's to be expected. The cold won't bother them, the bigger surprise is that they made it through the heat this summer.

I planted the garlic and the shallots, both from stock I harvested this summer. Found a few more spuds along the way. Most of the beds are weeded and mulched over for the winter. I still need to renovate the strawberries, but that's about it. The garden is just about done for the year. The kale and chard should over-winter just fine, and I really don't know about the napa cabbage. Most of it bolted months ago, but a few plants hung on and they look fine, so maybe with enough mulch they'll persevere.

Here comes the long grey winter. At least I have a pantry full of garlic, onions, and potatoes to comfort me. If I could learn how to distill vodka from the taters I'd be set.

The Dreadful Beast Called Mr. Squirrel

2009-10-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

I get along well with most of the animals on the property, including the Steller's Jays that enthusiastically throw debris from my rain gutters on to the deck, and the coyotes that eat my blackberries and then excrete them onto my driveway - they love dumping in the driveway! Sometimes they do it right in front of me! And I'm OK with the sapsucksers that drill the life out of my trees, even though I admit I felt a little thrill of satisfaction one day when I saw one had flown into one of my windows and dropped dead on to the barbecue grill, feet skyward. Then there were the raccoons that every September would sit on top of the grape trellis right outside my bedroom window and noisily eat the grapes, until we finally removed the vines last year. I would have little choice but to fling open the window and yell "bad raccoon!" over and over while shining a flashlight at them, which really upset Drew, who never heard the raccoon but was always awakened by me. Now all they do is raid the garden, which I can live with, and Drew sleeps a bit better.

I have quite a poor relationship with the numerous Douglas Squirrels around the house, however, all of which I call Mr. Squirrel. This dates back to when I first moved onto the property and thought I had one adorable little resident squirrel whom I named Mr. Squirrel, only to have to accept the sad fact that there are several of them, all defending their territory and chee-cheeing at me whenever I step outside. I would never hurt a Mr. Squirrel, and did not share in Drew's delight when a barred owl moved in right behind the house and the Mr. Squirrel population dropped - temporarily. Having said that, there are many things I find unpleasant about the squirrels. They like to cling to the window screens - the one in the picture is on the second floor - and torment the cats. One day this summer I walked down my sidewalk and was stunned to see one not three feet in front of me, dragging a dish towel-sized piece of landscape fabric across the path in front of me. He stopped long enough to give me a vicious stare, then continued into the woods. Later I saw where he'd dug up a corner of the fabric and gnawed it off. Sometimes when I approach the guest house, which one of the Mr. Squirrels firmly feels is his, he'll actually charge me. And sometimes they gallop across the roof early in the morning, sounding like a herd of elephants.

I can't help but feed the little guys, though. I leaned a branch up against an old-growth stump that I feed the birds on, and the Mr. Squirrels use it as a freeway to blaze up to the stump, deny the birds what is rightfully theirs, and motor off again like Taliban fighters after raiding an outpost. It's a nice life my little enemies have.

From Whence I Came II

2009-09-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

My mother and Pat, circa 1974. Pat and his partner Rube did a lot of work around the farm for many years. Well, so did my mother. Still does.

Himalayan Honeysuckle

2009-09-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

This Himalayan Honeysuckle, or leycesteria formosa, is one of my favorite plants here at Zhutopia. It needs very little care, is beautiful and elegant, and bees and hummingbirds find it quite sexy.

It's a nice plant for the Pacific Northwest. It dies back a bit in the winter but looks good for eight or nine months out of the year. It's both cold and drought hardy, and tolerates all kinds of soil conditions. It also reseeds itself, but not to the point, at least in this climate, of being a pest. I like using it in bouquets because the foliage is nearly as pretty as the flowers.

Boating on Liberty Bay

2009-09-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening we cruised around Liberty Bay with some friends, including Abby, the White Shepherd with super-model looks. She always makes the rest of us look bad.

Nights like this remind me of why I love living in Kitsap County, where it's so easy to do so many things that I love.

Saturday at Zhutopia

2009-09-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

My cousin Liz spent last week with us, and on Saturday we had a few other people out as well. It was a nice way to end the summer. Wine, sausage, kung-fu, blackberry martinis, frogs, dogs, family, friends. And the sun mostly shone.

Why, Google? Why the Condom Ads? Why?

2009-08-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

I think I have a pretty wholesome blog, but Google keeps putting Trojan condom ads on it. Their ads are supposed to fit the content, so what's up with that? Was it the rhubarb post? I'm afraid to write about my shapely zucchinis now.

Melancholy

2009-08-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the Poulsbo Fish Park on the way into work today for a walk, and ended up getting in an hour later than I should have. No one else was there, and I entertained myself by meandering along the boardwalks and charging up the little hills from time to time for a better view. It was a warm, sleepy day and the park was quiet with a subtle smell of decaying vegetation. A great blue heron and I stared at each other for awhile. I think he wanted to catch me. The decline of summer weighed on me. I felt like everything around me was either dying or going to seed or laying in supplies against the oncoming winter. In the lyrics of the beautifully sinister and deliciously melancholy Mark Lanegan, "Nothing to talk about, as another summer dies, and not a thing in this world to do, except be alone in it."

Chinese Scallion Cake

2009-08-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

This recipe comes from northern China. Some versions call for lard or sesame oil in place of butter, and I often substitute sweet onions or garlic for the scallions. Drew remembers a version filled with a fatty pork. These buttery cakes are chewy on the outside, soft on the inside, and are more substantial and filling than they appear. Because they are so dense and durable, I often pack them for long runs or hiking. You can also wrap up the raw cakes for freezing, and they'll do very well.

Ingredients:
3 1/3 C flour
1 1/4 C boiling water
1/4 C butter
1/2 C diced scallions
5 tsp salt
2 TBL sesame oil (to coat rolling pin)
1/4 C cooking oil
Directions:
Add boiling water to flour, stir with fork or chopsticks until evenly moist
Knead on floured surface for about five minutes, don't burn your hands!
Cover with a cloth and let set for about 30 minutes
Coat your rolling pin with sesame oil and replenish as needed. Roll dough into cylinder and cut into about 10 equal pieces (each piece will become a cake). Keep the pieces you aren't working on covered, and try to work fairly quickly, as the dough will tend to dry out
Roll a piece into a circle about 1/8th" thick. Evenly distribute about 1/2 tsp salt, 1 TBL butter, and 2 TBL scallions; stopping just short of the edge.
Fold edges up and pinch together so it looks like a dumpling.
Carefully roll out again into a disk. Don't worry if some of the scallions break through the dough.
Fry in plenty of oil over medioum heat until golden-brown on each side. As one fries, prepare the next one, and be sure to keep the pan well-oiled.
Cut into equal pieces and serve.

This Won't Happen This Year

2009-08-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last year we had such a late start to our summer that my tomatoes and peppers fell behind and never caught up. I had to harvest most of them green in September and bring them in to ripen. I had them all over the house for weeks. This year we've had plenty of heat and I'm already harvesting ripe tomatoes. The peppers don't look so good but where there's life, there's hope.

Suquamish Walking the Walk

2009-08-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

My colleague Jean Boyle wrote an excellent post about the Suquamish Tribe's recent hosting of the Tribal Journeys event, specifically about the phenomenal recycling/composting effort. I couldn't agree more with her challenge to other Kitsap event organizers to learn what they can from the Tribe's efforts to make the event as green as possible. The Kitsap Sun ran a nice article on it as well.

Also, I'm not the warmest & fuzziest person who ever walked the earth, but I have to say there was sort of a glow around the event all week. Intensely spiritual events usually make me uncomfortable, but this one just made me happy. There was a tremendous feeling of goodwill, and I almost invariably saw people treat one another, as well as the grounds, with great courtesy and respect. A lot of the older people were visibly moved, and I heard many of them say that they never thought they would see an event like this in their lifetime. For decades they saw so much of their cultural slip away; the language, the regalia, the canoe carving and crewing, the songs and dances; and here it was back in force. There was also an evident pride in how well the event went and impressed the guests were. The Makah have a lot to live up to next year.

Anniversary Feast

2009-08-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary, which we celebrated by eating ourselves to exhaustion, along with a modest amount of snuggling.

This morning we had coffee and the Husband's won ton soup, worked out, talked to family, then realized we wanted sausage. This led us to Sweeney's Country Style Meats & Seafood in Brownsville, where we purchased elk pepperoni, buffalo jerky, and various smoked sausages. Not yet satisfied, we continued down the road to Farmer George in Port Orchard and bought garlic sausage, ground bacon burger (I'd never heard of it but as soon as I saw I had to have it), and honey ham. Then it was off to Rite-Aid for beer (they have the best prices on beer & wine in our area - go figure) for a case of $9.99 St. Pauli Girl. We're frugal here at Zhutopia, except when it comes to sausages and boots and a few other key items.

We marinated some chicken wings and put a chocolate cake in the oven, and I made some guacamole with the first garlic, onion, and tomato from the garden this year to eat on baked corn tortillas. The appetizer was a plate of today's bounty of jerky and sausage with dill pickles and cheese, served with cold beer. The Husband took one look and said "the person who invented sausage must have been a genius." By the time that was done we were ready to deep fry the wings, and then we threw some zucchini slices into the leftover oil and deep fried it as well (I'm overwhelmed with zucchini this year. Eating it anyway I can. Soon I'll be making zucchini cocktails.) I heated up the tortilla rounds, slapped the fresh guac on it, got some sour cream to dip the wings in, and we were good to go. After cake we were so tuckered out from our exertion that we had a nap, then arose and brewed some outstanding Silver Needle white tea. The Husband is contemplating having some watermelon, but I'm done for the night.

It was a good day.

War Cake

2009-08-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not a natural-born cook. I once caught my shirt on fire while cooking noodles, and twice I've boiled eggs dry and had them explode. The second time I had to clean the bits of egg out of the popcorn ceiling. It was hard.

I'm less intimidated by cooking now, but I still avoid recipes with any hint of complexity. I like them to be relatively quick, easy, and made with ingredients I already have on hand. I'm also interested in simple, old-fashioned recipes from various countries; what you might call peasant food.

For all these reasons, War Cake is my kind of recipe. It's just a bonus that we also happen to be in a recession right now.

So here's the background: War Cake, also known as Depression Cake or Poor Man's Cake, became common during the Great Depression and again in World War II, when rationing limited the supply of many baking staples. It uses no eggs, butter, or milk; which makes it a good choice for those who avoid those items for dietary reasons. It makes a nice, moist cake that holds together well and is good with both coffee and whiskey, as modeled by the Husband below. My old family recipe uses butter in place of the shortening, so someone was cheating a little bit. Although in truth I often do the same, and add a little vanilla as well. This, however, is the unvarnished, true-blue recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups raisins
2 cups water
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Boil raisins in water for 10 minutes (if you use a medium sauce pan you can mix the whole cake in it & avoid getting a mixing bowl dirty)
Add shortening and allow to cool
Stir in dry ingredients
Pour into greased & floured 9"x13" pan
Bake for 20 minutes

Happy Hour in Zhutopia

2009-08-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

Stir-fried snow peas & a St. Pauli Girl. What's not to like?

Garlic Harvest

2009-08-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to pull up my garlic. This group is Early Italian planted November 12 of last year and harvested at the end of July. I planted it later than I should have - October is best - but no harm seems to have been done. Now it's going into the pantry to dry, with a couple of bulbs held back to plant again this fall.

Garlic is easy to grow here in the Pacific Northwest. The one possible pitfall is rot if they get waterlogged in the water. I plant mine in raised beds or containers and haven't lost a single bulb to rot. I put a layer of lawn clippings down to ward off weeds and give a little insulation in the winter, and hopefully by spring it will also have provided some nutrients.

Chillin' & Grillin' in Suquamish, WA

2009-08-10T20:00:00.001-07:00

Some scenes from Tribal Journeys 2009 last week in Suquamish, WA. 89 ocean-going canoes, some of which were on the water for two weeks, rowed by members of several dozen different tribes, pulled into town for the week. It was a beautiful event and the Suquamish did a heroic job of hosting. The Husband & I attended both as guests and volunteers and it truly was a pleasure to be a part of it.

Next year the Makah Nation at Neah Bay will be hosting and it should be magnificent.

For more pictures go here.

Rhubarb Recipe with Nudity

2009-08-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

I love rhubarb, and it's the perfect Pacific Northwest crop because it thrives in cool weather. It's also one of the very few perennial garden crops, which endears it to me. My mother recently e-mailed me the following rhubarb-related gem:

I just remembered another (sort of) rhubarb recipe. Several years ago I was shopping for produce alongside a large hairy tattooed and partially nude biker, and he said that rhubarb combined with pineapple made the best pancake syrup ever. I never tried it, since I don't make pancakes.

I haven't tried it either, but generally rhubarb pairs well with sweet fruits, so the biker may have been onto something.

Anise Seeds

2009-08-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

Aren't these beautiful? I don't cook much with anise, but when The Husband slow-cooks pork ribs, he throws a few whole stars in to add some sweetness.

From Whence I Came

2009-08-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is my family's farm in Boundary County, Idaho, circa 1970. My parents still live there, and it looks about the same. My mom & dad always have maintained a large vegetable garden and some fruit trees, as well as raising livestock and cash crops. I mostly farm horsetail and dandelions. Such is the sad fate of the Pacific Northwest dilettante gardener.

The Husband & the Tavera Beans

2009-08-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Fresh garden vegetables are generally best when cooked by some type of half-naked hottie.

Morning Harvest

2009-07-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Nearly every day from the end of May through about mid-September I walk out into the garden to pick whatever is ripe, and maybe cut some fresh flowers as well. Today I picked out these Black Beauty zucchinis, a bunch of snow peas (see yesterday's post), and some mixed lettuce (Allstar Gourmet Mix, a very attractive, delicious, and easy to grow mix that I've used for a few years.)

The fresh vegetables, however, were no match for the siren song of the Burger Bar at The Point Casino, where we ended up amid acres of fatty delights (the food, not the patrons), and cheap beer. The vegetables will have to wait until tomorrow when hopefully we'll be in a more wholesome frame of mind.

Mr. Rabbit

2009-07-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have lots of wild (or feral?) rabbits lolling about the property this summer. So far they haven't molested my garden, so all is well between us.

Snow Peas

2009-07-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

If I could only grow one type of vegetable, it would be snow peas. I love the flavor, they are easy to cultivate, and pea patches are charming. This year I planted Oregon Sugar Pod II from Burpee (left over from last year) on February 22, followed by Sugar Snow Sweet from Johnny's Seeds on March 14th, and more plantings roughly every two weeks afterward until July 15th. Although snow peas are a cool weather plant, I've had no problems succession-planting them through mid-summer. I plant the new rows in front of the old ones, and although that makes harvesting a little trickier, the old vines seem to provide enough shade to the newer ones that they do fine even in the heat of summer. I like both varieties I planted this year equally. The Oregon variety germinated more quickly than the others, even though they were planted in cooler weather, so they have a slight edge, but I would recommend either one for this climate.

Below you can see the patch, with the older vines turning yellow as they die back.

Salmonberries

2009-07-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Pretty, aren't they?

Salmonberries are native to our Pacific Northwest, where they are often found in shady spots and especially near streams, as they like it cool and moist. We have a large patch on our property and enjoy the berries from early June to the end of July. They quit producing around the time the blackberries get going. They have a pleasant, slightly tart flavor, and are mild to the point of being bland. They are quite watery and don't keep well, so I always use them the same day I pick them, and wouldn't bother trying to freeze them. Since they ripen around the same time as the strawberries, I combine the two often in crumbles, milkshakes, and other desserts. The salmonberries add a refreshing bit of tanginess to the strawberries. I've heard that salmonberries make good wine, and I think they would be tasty and attractive in a vodka cocktail. I hope to do some experimenting with the latter before they disappear for the year. Salmonberries have remarkable nutritional value. Four ounces, or roughly a cup, contains 60% of the RDA of manganese, 20% of vitamin K, 16% of vitamin C, 12% of vitamin A, and just 52 calories. (I extrapolated these numbers from data provided at www.nutritiondata.com, a great source for nutritional information.)