yard to table

Our kiwi is going to bloom for the first time this summer! We...

bizteachesprepositions — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:37:20 -0700

Our kiwi is going to bloom for the first time this summer! We probably won’t have fruit, since only the female plant has buds, but I’m looking forward to seeing what, exactly, a kiwi flower looks like.

Do you like plants? Do you like standing in line in the morning?...

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:07:06 -0700

Do you like plants? Do you like standing in line in the morning? Well then you must love the Seattle Tilth spring plant sale. (Also, you’re likely athletic, hirsute, and/or have a kid in you, on you, or under you.)

These are just the people who, like us, had 10am wristbands (had to get there by 9:30 for that).

Future plums and cherries!

bizteachesprepositions — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:42:28 -0700

Future plums and cherries!

Potato progress: all three kinds of potatoes have sprouted!...

bizteachesprepositions — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:36:06 -0700

Potato progress: all three kinds of potatoes have sprouted! (Look closely, they’re there, I swear.)

Buckwheat crepes via Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything...

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:38:47 -0700

Buckwheat crepes
via Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian:

Blend or whisk the following until smooth

1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup water
2 eggs

You will also need

2 tablespoons butter

(for cooking)

Let batter rest in fridge for one hour (clean up the kitchen, bug your spouse who is still in bed).

Heat a large skillet over medium (on our gas stove: low) heat with a small bit of butter.

Once pan is hot and you have coated the pan with butter, stir the batter. Use a large serving spoon to add a dollop of batter to the middle. Use a crepe tool, a spoon, or tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly. When the top has cooked through, use a thin spatula to flip the crepe, cook briefly, and then add to a plate. (The first one is usually lumpy and misshapen — eat it with your fingers as you make the rest.) As your stack grows, you may want to keep them in a heated (200 F) oven. Add extra butter as your pan dries out.

Toppings/fillings can be sweet or savory. We had strawberry jam, scrambled eggs, Field Roast sausage, cooked pear slices, and maple syrup.

Xerophyllum tenax flower. Most of the year the plant is a tidy...

bizteachesprepositions — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:13:53 -0700

Xerophyllum tenax flower. Most of the year the plant is a tidy little grassy clump (one of its names is Indian Basket Grass). In the spring it has spiky tall creamy white raceme, putting on quite a show. Ours are near the sidewalk, where people (kids) sometimes pick our plants, and I found this stalk laying on the pavement — a perfect size for a bud vase.

Buds and blooms in the garden today: interlaken grapes,...

bizteachesprepositions — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:58:01 -0700

Buds and blooms in the garden today: interlaken grapes, raspberries, bearded iris, thimbleberries, broadleaf sedum, western columbine, beargrass (which smells amazing!), sicklekeel lupine.

I figured out what the orchard bees were up to: packing in their...

bizteachesprepositions — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:24:33 -0700

I figured out what the orchard bees were up to: packing in their eggs!

The orchard bees were just hanging out of their holes yesterday...

bizteachesprepositions — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:07:07 -0700

The orchard bees were just hanging out of their holes yesterday morning — all of the blocks had one bee each just poking out and sitting there. Waiting for the sun?

Tiny French Breakfast Radishes! (I’m on a garden salad...

bizteachesprepositions — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:21:42 -0700

Tiny French Breakfast Radishes! (I’m on a garden salad kick — in the background that’s red romaine, butter crunch lettuce, arugula, cabbage, and Freedom lettuce mix.)

I ignored the garden this morning and got my butt up to Stevens...

bizteachesprepositions — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:55:54 -0700

I ignored the garden this morning and got my butt up to Stevens Pass for one last jaunt on my skate skis. That officially closes ski season and launches the growing season!

Here’s what the evergreen huckleberry was up to when I got back (and mowed the shaggy lawn and put in some Maxibel Bush Bean seeds).

They’ll be enormous in no time…

bizteachesprepositions — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:08:57 -0700

They’ll be enormous in no time…

Flossie and Bess acting womanly

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:15:28 -0700

Flossie and Bess acting womanly

All Blue Potatoes emerging

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:30:49 -0700

All Blue Potatoes emerging

We spent the morning cleaning up the weeds in the parking strip...

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:41:17 -0700

We spent the morning cleaning up the weeds in the parking strip gravel. The leeks, favas, and artichokes are looking robust too.

The Cascade hops are going gangbusters already. (There’s just a...

bizteachesprepositions — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:54:09 -0700

The Cascade hops are going gangbusters already. (There’s just a tiny little shoot on the Chinook hops.)

The homegrown morel was a) really a morel and b) a tiny tasty...

bizteachesprepositions — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:57:00 -0700

The homegrown morel was a) really a morel and b) a tiny tasty pre-dinner treat!

This wrinkly little mushroom was growing at the base of the...

bizteachesprepositions — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:52:00 -0700

This wrinkly little mushroom was growing at the base of the pizza oven. I hope hope hope it is what it appears to be: a morel! (Jackpot!)

Can it possibly be?

Multi-grain flapjacks (modified from Joy of Cooking) Whisk...

bizteachesprepositions — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:28:53 -0700

Multi-grain flapjacks (modified from Joy of Cooking)

Whisk together dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
Dash or two of grits/polenta corn meal
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Pinch of grated nutmeg

Whisk together wet ingredients:
1 3/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 large eggs

Pour wet ingredients into dry and combine until just mixed. Use a soup ladle to spoon pancakes onto buttered and heated griddle. Flip after bubbles form all the way through to the top, cook until brown on the second side. Keep flapjacks warm in the oven until ready to serve.

speakerforthetrees: rawlivingfoods: Seattle’s vision of an...

bizteachesprepositions — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:55:38 -0700

speakerforthetrees:

rawlivingfoods:

Seattle’s vision of an urban food oasis is going forward. A seven-acre plot of land in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood will be planted with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees, including apples and pears; exotics like pineapple, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, honeyberries, and lingonberries; herbs; and more. All will be available for public plucking to anyone who wanders into the city’s first food forest.

“This is totally innovative, and has never been done before in a public park,” Margarett Harrison, lead landscape architect for the Beacon Food Forest project, tells TakePart. Harrison is working on construction and permit drawings now and expects to break ground this summer.

The concept of a food forest certainly pushes the envelope on urban agriculture and is grounded in the concept of permaculture, which means it will be perennial and self-sustaining, like a forest is in the wild. Not only is this forest Seattle’s first large-scale permaculture project, but it’s also believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Read More

So proud!!!

I work for Margarett! She’s the landscape architect for the Beacon Hill Food Forest. I’m looking forward to checking up on the construction (it’s already under way)!