Persephone Farm CSA

Since we are not great gardeners, yet we love to eat healthy food, Gregg and I decided to try something new this year: we are joining Persephone Farm's CSA (community supported agriculture) program. The best description of the CSA is in their own words (from the Persephone Farm website):

"From the first week of June through the end of October, subscribers receive an armload of fresh-picked seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers from our farm. In addition, subscribers can choose to receive eggs from our happy hens as well as fruit, fresh–baked bread, cheese, wine, salmon and berries from other local producers. We aim to foster a deeper connection with all the foods we offer, through recipe sharing, seasonal celebrations and lots of neighborly conversation at our weekly pick-ups."

Persephone is a farm on 13 acres in the nearby town of Indianola. Of that, two acres are under cultivation, and they have an orchard, berries, free-ranging poultry and beautiful open fields, punctuated by grand maples and surrounded by tall trees.

We visited tonight for the opening of the CSA program, and an orientation for first-time members. This included a tour of the gardens, a light buffet of delicious hors d'oeuvres, artisanal cheeses, bread, local wine, beer and talks from the owner, an intern, a local beekeeper and the provider of cheese and bread.

It felt like the best kind of school - hands-on, outdoors, in the sunshine, right in the midst of what they were teaching us. I felt happy and blessed, listening to joyful, passionate people discussing their love of nature, good food sources, healthy agricultural practices and their daily work.

We bought a half-share of produce, and a weekly share of artisanal cheese, which is going to be plenty for the three of us. The cheese-maker (and bread-maker) is locally renowned chef and cookbook author Judith Weinstock, so you know it is going to be good. Every other week, we will also receive a bouquet of fresh flowers! Persephone grows flowers to encourage the bee population to pollinate their plants. Tonight, they gave us the gift of two tomato plants and a basil plant. The tomatoes are going into my parents' garden this weekend, because Gregg and I do not have "green thumbs."

Persephone's website states that biodiversity is the key to their success. They use crop rotation and homemade compost, avoiding pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The farm is not "certified organic," but their standards are higher than national "organic" standards. We are going to benefit from their practices by picking up our produce right from the farm each week. It will be fresh, local, varied and grown with love and care.

We are blessed to have Persephone Farm so close to our home. It is a leader in the field (pun intended), and has a respected internship program, with as many as 100 applicants for its four annual positions. Martha Stewart has even visited the farm; you can read about that event here.

There are still a few openings left in this year's CSA program, so if you are interested (and live in Kitsap County), follow this link to find out how to join!

Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse

Oh, Seattle. We are accustomed to a great deal of precipitation...but not to frozen precipitation. I will not share the many hilarious comedy sketches that mock our problems with driving in snow, but you can easily find plenty to laugh at on facebook and YouTube. Suffice it to say that it is not our forte here. We have so many hills, and our snow is so wet and heavy, that it's more like skating than driving, and for some of us, it's better to simply stay at home.

Our news media, apparently having very little else to report, has been running around-the-clock weather and traffic updates. They really get into it, calling a coming storm system by such dramatic names that we locals have started to make jokes about "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse."

Because we had a little warning about the snow, I bought a lot of food in case we got stuck at home. We always have a fire laid in our woodstove, as well as flashlights and a lot of candles around the house. The power often goes out in winter time here, due to trees and limbs falling on power lines, so we like to be prepared.

When it finally arrived, we got a total of about 4 inches of snow at our house, and we're at sea level. Some people had over a foot.

Gregg was ready with his new hat from R.E.I.

Gregg had his computer and mobile phone at home with him when the snow began to fall, so he has simply worked from here. It was a nice change for a man who has a three-hour round-trip commute every day. I work from home, so we shared the space and took walks in the snow when we needed a break. There was no way that we could have driven a car up our steep, long driveway, and even if we could, the roads were not plowed, salted nor sanded. In fact, our friends reported seeing a (rare) snowplow by their house, and it was stuck in a ditch. So much for help out in the countryside! The snow was beautiful, even though it really did bring everything that wasn't an emergency to a halt.

The view from our bedroom

A side street in our neighborhood

A beloved neighbor's yard art

The cats wanted to go outside, but shortly after they went out, they wanted to come back in. I regret to say that Latte caught (and killed) a bird while he was outside. He came up on the deck with the poor thing clenched firmly in his jaws. ICK!

Liger preferred to be indoors, but he did get a bit stir-crazy. He resumed his old pastime of finding Playmobil and Lego pieces and playing soccer with them all over the house. It sounded like a stampede, but it was harmless and quite funny.

Caught with a Playmobil cup

It is now raining steadily, and the roads are deep with slush and running water. It will be a pleasure to go out in the car tomorrow, but it's been fun to be "snowed in" with Gregg for a few days!

This, That & An Anniversary

We had a great weekend here. I hope you had a great one, too.

Before the weekend, on Thursday, David and I took a beautiful walk on our beach - for a couple of miles each way. It was a gorgeous, sunny & warm day. For you mid-western & easterners, that is obvious, but for us here in western Washington, I have news: summer has been one fickle guest. So it was a big deal to have sunshine on one of David's days off. It was lovely to spend that time together.

David also accompanied me to go shopping for a new phone. He knows more about technology than I do, as he's 18. Those of you who have mobile phone plans will understand this story: I was due for a FREE new phone. Awesome. I've always taken the offer of a FREE new phone to heart (and wallet). But this time, there was a decision to be made: dumb phone or smart phone? - because now, we have a choice. The difficulty is that dumb = free, while smart = I pay for the phone itself, and for extra service, each month. Frankly, that doesn't sound smart at all, to me. Yet I did the dumb thing, and got the smart phone...a phone which is a whole lot smarter than I am, at this point. I'm still learning how it works.

On Saturday, we hosted a party. I don't like to talk about parties because I think it is bad manners, when obviously all of you (especially out-of-towners) can't join us, but party is what we did, so it shows up here on the blog. We combined neighborhood friends with old friends, friends from different circles and parts of our lives, and it was great fun. I love to host gatherings, especially with 20+ people, especially in sunny weather.

The photos that I took turned out to be awful, but Paul Dudley of Paul Dudley Photography took these, and as usual, he worked magic with the camera:

Miss Ellie (my mom) & me

Me & my dad

Because I have a horror of running out of food, the new ways of society (let's call it the looseness about RSVP's) make me a little nervous when hosting 30-some people. My way of coping is to buy too much food, and host potlucks. People brought salad or dessert & wine; we provided everything else (& some wine). Right now, I am making split pea soup with the leftover bones and meat from two of the three hams. My in-laws are coming over to eat dinner with us and share the bounty.

While I was chopping, sauteing, juicing and stirring, my heart was with our friend Allegra, who is a chef de cuisine and who once owned a restaurant on the Oregon coast. How I wished she was standing beside me, sharing the wisdom of her experience! Allegra is recovering from chemo right now, and I am sending her love and healing energy. You are invited to join me in that.

I have to say that I am a bit stymied right now as a blogger, because one of the richest veins in the Mother Lode of my writer's brain is filled with parenting stories, and I cannot share them with you. I respect my son's privacy, but I tell you, my mind is overflowing with things that have happened here. I am sure they are normal in the larger picture of life, but I would say it's been colorful.

Four years ago today, Andrea & Mike got married and granted Katie's great wish to be a bridesmaid. It was a huge gift for them to move their wedding up 6 months in order that Katie could be part of the day. A week later, she was paralysed from the waist down (and could no longer walk); a week after that, she passed away. So you can see how important their invitation - and the timing -was.

Happy Anniversary, Andrea and Mike! - you have our love and gratitude FOREVER.

Bellingham Weekend

Gregg and I went up to Bellingham this weekend to see Mike & Andrea. It was such a treat to spend quiet time with them in their wonderful town. Bellingham has SO MUCH going on, all the time: it's a college town, a port, has incredible views over the water to the west (and the San Juan Islands), has a thriving outdoor athletic community, beautiful lakes nearby, fun shops and restaurants, breweries and lovely craftsman-style and Victorian architecture. We did a lot of walking, enjoyed their dogs and cuddled their cats (two of each), laughed and talked and caught up. Thank you for your hospitality, Andrea & Mike!

On the way up, we stopped in the town of La Connor, to see what everyone always talks about as an art destination. It was raining, gray and - sadly - a bit on the depressed side, economically (many empty storefronts), but we had a good lunch at a little waterfront pub and an excellent cup of coffee from a local roaster. I hope things will pick up for La Connor during the tulip season, for which the Skagit Valley is famous.

On our way home, we took the scenic route along Chuckanut Drive. We stopped to take a few photos, and to enjoy the view.