Fall Food & Beverage from the garden

 We have been enjoying our home made beer- We actually grew the hops and our friend came over to brew and we cut the hops, measured and bloosh! right into the hot wort!






Here's a view into the hoop house- the last of calendula & tomato land. The calendulas are going to seed or are coming back from being cut way back, and I already have a few lettuce seeds sprouting up! I also have lots of chard seeds, onions, and pak choi to plant.

Wangari Maathai- RIP you will be missed

I went to see Wangari Mathaai in 2007 at the Paramount Theater in Seattle with a friend who served some time in the Peace Corps in Africa. I was so impressed with what she was able to accomplish with the help of women and plants (and a little money). She basically educated the women in plant propagation and set up small edible plant nurseries for each woman. She was required to raise the trees and also to teach the next woman how to do the same.  They used grey water from cooking and washing to feed the plants, and eventually the trees got big enough to plant and harvest from. The women were able to harvest the fruits and provide more nutritious food for their families as well as sell the excess and buy other supplies for their household. It is such an easy plan, but it took time and education and lots of people. The trees also provided much needed shade for the people and animals of the household, and the soil started to become more workable between the trees. 

Seriously, she was a genius and her Noble Prize was much deserved! After the speech, in the afterglow of good will that happens after a great person has moved you, we all were just smiling at each other with hope. The woman next to me told me that her mom had been one of the recipients of some of those trees! Wangari Maathai had literally changed her life. She felt like her family had been raised up from this movement, and that was the reason she was able to go to school in the US. It was amazing to be in the presence of such hope and greatness. I am eternally grateful for her work. May she rest in peace and may we continue with the forward thinking projects that would make her proud!

How to make comfrey compost tea

Here is a video explanation of making Compost Tea from Comfrey plants.  You can put the leaves in a bucket to ferment for up to 2 weeks, then dilute the mixture 1 part fert to 4 parts water (you can guess). I just dip my watering can in and scoop some up then add water to the top of the can. It does get quite funky, and you want to use it quickly so mosquitoes don't hatch in the standing water. If they are unwieldy and you have more than you need for the fertilizer, you can cut the leaves and use them as mulch (just put the leaves on the ground to dry). Be careful not to let them root at the joining stems or you will have extra plants soon enough.
I know the quality of the video is not the best and I need to speak louder; I was using a tripod and since I cut the plant down to talk about it, I couldn't do a re-take!
I hope to make more videos about growing and making products from herbs soon, so subscribe to my channel on youtube if you would like to learn more. Enjoy!

Hops Are going crazy!

We dug up these hops last year from friends who have cables running up to a 3rd story balcony to support theirs! They did ok last year in my garden, but this year they are showing real vigor! It seems like each year you could dig out the peripheral roots and plant yourself a new patch. My housemates are particularly excited about these hops and plan to make a beer with them when they ripen.

Create Health Right In Your Yard!

If you want me to come give you a quote, call soon, my Spring is starting to fill in! I can offer a free quote, or a 1/2 price consultation if you book before April 1st- get to it Gardening Fool!

I create edible gardens and use herbs to create a living medicine chest in your yard. You decide what you want to eat this year, and I will plan your menus to come from the garden. Kale, chard, spinach, and other greens can live and be harvested from in the winter, and you can be the first on your block with peas for dinner! I once planned a solstice dinner backwards- deciding what we would need for the dinner and counting the days it would take for each vegetable to be harvested.

I can tend the plants for you, weekly-as much as harvesting, washing and putting them in your fridge, or as little as once a month to help with the more difficult gardening tasks. I even have one client who leaves me piles to clean up in the garden- she can weed, but not lift much. Each garden is custom to the location, and the time is variable and controlled by how much time you and your family can spend in your garden.  I will leave you with a garden map of your new plants and how to care for them. I use organic seeds and plant starts, and use heirloom varieties of vegetables almost exclusively.  I can even give you recipes on how to process the herbs into medicines, teas, and refreshing beverages through the year.

I have an herb farm on Vashon Island and own a natural remedies company (sistersageherbs.com). I am a former board member of Seattle Tilth, a non-profit teaching people to grow food sustainably, and WA Tilth Producers, the state farmers association.

Vegetables keep coming

Yum, Dinner!
Well, We are getting plenty of squash of all kinds out of the garden, and cukes and leeks, and green tomatoes. I forgot to take a picture of the fried green toms we made. I just cracked an egg and added a little water to whisk it up, then dredged it in flour with a little salt and pepper, and a little Thyme. I think one of the secrets to the toms is that you have to cut them really thick, and fry them for enough time for them to be cooked all the way through. The spices could have been better, but I finally got the texture right. I think we will be having a lot more of these!

Our friend brought us 2 king crabs that were caught and cooked that day on the San Juan Islands! We ate those up one day, then cooked up the shells at a soup base. We used that and these veggies to make a great soup for dinner, and froze the rest in 2 serving containers. We will see if they ever come out of the freezer, but I would add more cream and potatoes and it will be even better the second time around!