Giving Thanks;

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Family, cooking, baking and a nice healthy dose of vitamin D made for a great time. The greatest part was getting to cook with my mom for two days straight. Cooking has become the main form of expressing creativity in my life, and sharing that with my mom was such a great feeling. My mom has always been an excellent baker. Growing up she could whip up a batch of cookies like they were nothing and on holidays she would make pies. It was so much fun to be together in the kitchen, her baking away and me knee deep in cooking. She made two amazing black & blue berry pies, one with lattice work across it, and another with hearts carved into the top crust.
Funny story: I woke up the morning before thanksgiving and told eric that i would do anything to eat one of the arkansas black apples I had left in our fridge back home. And much to my surprise when we went to the Ventura Farmers Market that afternoon there was a vendor selling my favorite type of apples! So, luckily I got to make a cranberry apple crumble, rye bread stuffing and of course our cider glazed turkey all with the arkansas black apple!!
I hadn't made a turkey before and my mom was more than a little apprehensive about us being in charge of the central dish of her favorite holiday. But I think we made an excellent turkey. We used my great grandmother's turkey oven, stuffed the bird with thyme, onion and apples & let her roast for 4 hours. In my opinion, the quality of the turkey comes out not only in the meat but also in the gravy made from the roasting juices. Oh! The gravy was divine. When testing it out I had eaten three tablespoons of it just to check, double check and triple check that it was as good as it tasted the first time.
A Big Big thank you to everyone in my family who came over and ate with us. I had such a good time cooking for you all and my only regret is that we didn't do thanksgiving up here at my house so I could hoard the leftovers!
PS. Check out my mom's amazing 1950's kitchen. I was coveting those cabinets every second...

Practice of Sustainable Agriculture

My class this year is called Practice of Sustainable Agriculture, or PSA. We spend two days per week working on the TESC Organic Farm and two days per week in class. This plus the additional required farm hours and work has kept me pretty busy these past few weeks. It's almost inconceivable how much I have learned and done! There is nothing I have done that feels so rewarding and important. I'm really focusing in on what I want to do professionally and food will be at it's center.
Within the class I am in the Annual/CSA group, so we're in charge of selling food at market, packing Community Supported Agriculture boxes, planting cover crops, planning for next year, harvest, planting and writing the CSA newsletter. In addition we will be redesigning the table we take onto campus to sell produce and building a new veggie washing station.
Friday, our class will be attending the Washington Tilth conference in Yakima, Washington. I'm planning on keeping this close to updated, so look forward to some interesting fodder.

It's been so long;

It's been SO long. Part of that is the start of the school year, another part is the trip to Ireland in mid-october and perhaps the most significant part is sheer laziness.
I've been taking a class on the campus Organic farm. & farm life has really transformed the rest of my life. Working and learning alongside such intelligent and motivated people has turned my intensity up Up UP!
Today in class we had Faith Hagenhofer give a guest lecture and train us on felting wool. Last week we learned how to use natural dyes and this week we felted the wool we dyed! As a class we felted two large tapestries and might have enough felt to turn them into slippers for everyone. Faith is a fiber farmer in nearby Lewis county and is a proponent of something she calls the Hundred Mile Sweater. It is her own spin (pardon the pun) on the local food movement. Her question is "why isn't there a local fiber movement?" & I completely agree. A good friend from class is going to teach me how to spin, which will add a whole new dimension to the process of making my own clothes. Thank you Faith, for giving us your time.

a string of successes is better than a string of pearls;

at least for my ego it is!
Well, inspired by Like Water for Chocolate, which I read yesterday, it's been all Mexican food. Two nights ago it was sopes with blue masa and chorizo con papa filling, last night it was a sweet potato salad from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food, and tonight we're making chile rellenos! Today I also made my own cheese for the first time. Right now I'm letting it drain but I can hardly wait to taste it! And wasn't it easy! Thanks to Natalie for the recipe, 2 quarts milk & 2 cups buttermilk placed in a pot and heated to 170 degrees over medium heat. Scoop the curds out with a slated spoon and place them in a strainer lined with cheesecloth. When new curds stop appearing, strain the remaining contents of the pot through the cheesecloth. It's so easy, I'm going to be making my own cheese very often.

mi cocina;

I think I started cooking for two reasons: 1) my good friend Liz came up to Olympia to visit and said to me "Cooking has become my new painting. the colors and textures are all there but with the added bonus of good smells and feeding people." (and boy did Liz cook me some good food, she really is an artist) 2) I decided that my hobbies needed a re-prioritizing. Between school and work, I really didn't have enough time to paint, or draw, or keep a sketch book, and I wasn't feeling good about not having any creative mission. So I decided to cut out any hobbies that aren't practical. This sounds brutal, but it makes a lot of sense. Why not enjoy the things I already have to do? This began with knitting (thanks to Sadie). I needed warm clothes + I couldn't afford to buy them + My mind was restless = knitting. With a similar formula came cooking. I am hungry every day + Eric is hungry every day + I want to do something creative + there are thousands of spices in the world + I don't have much time to paint = Cooking.
First it was a cast iron skillet, then a few sauce pots, then some bamboo spatulas, Erics cousin Erin gave him a wok for christmas, I have some aprons from my Nana, some table linen from my Auntie C, a pattern to knit washcloths/potholders from my cousin Linda, and it's still growing... My kitchen is now my studio. I am the master of this laboratory and Eric is the test subject. (and let me just say, that there are no complaints on the Eric side of this equation, unless he isn't full... then we have a problem)
When I took a break from reading Slow Food Revolution to go see Julie and Julia, I thought "What the fuck? I could do that." So, I'm now on a mission to become a better cook. With Eric as my enthusiastic side-kick & lab rat, the ultimate test on if there is enough food and if it's any good, Mr. Donahue the human garbage disposal and love of my life, along for the ride.

We can do it;

My inner Rosie the Riveter is coming out lately. I have a new job now, at the same place but now I'm a maintenance worker instead of a custodial lead. And apart from having one supervisor who's a sexist ass-wipe, I really like my job. It's gratifying to walk into a bathroom to find a leaking faucet and poor hot water pressure and have the tools and knowledge to make that space functional for the person who lives there next.
It helps that I'm really good at my job. My boss that's super-awesome says that I learn a lot faster than most of the guys on the crew and that it took one guy two months to learn what I did on the first day.
If fixing plumbing and electrical is easy and fun, fixing bikes is like ecstasy.
I'm in love with my new bike. I already took apart the brake levers and the shifters just to figure out how they work. And with that new knowledge I'm going to fix Eric's brakes tomorrow while he's at work.
So I'm really enjoying working with my hands, learning new (and practical) things, and riding my bike! (More on the bike soon)

Return to things I'd like to learn;

I posted a list of things I'd like to learn, and now I know some of those things! So it's time for a new list. The stuff I now know is in italics. The new stuff is in green.

I would like to learn:
how to crochet
more about my family history
how to identify every plant in my yard
why i always lose my head when the tree turns into a gem display case (more on this later)
how to bake apple pies
how to grow the most delicious vegetables
what deer eat
a lot about the olympic national forest
how to fix the sewing machine from 1926 that my mom gave me
how to build my own house
how to raise animals to eat
how to train a dog real well (so i don't end up with a Miles to the umpteenth degree)
how to design patterns for clothing in my head
how to fix a drywall patch
what type of bird is hopping around my backyard right now (i see a sparrow, a robin, a stellar jay and a mysterious yellow one)
how to teleport
how to make time to paint
more about gabriel garcia marquez
how to be a better person
how long it takes to ride my bike to school
and other things...
how to maintain my future bike
how long it takes to ride my bike from Olympia to Ventura
how to run a farm
how long it takes to ride my bike to the lake
how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
how to grow food year-round
how to make herbal medicine
how to play the banjo better
and other things...

Food, Bikes and other things;

One thing that I am damn near sick of hearing, is college kids saying they don't have money to buy good food. It's usually the case that people who claim they're broke are choosing to use their resources on other things. I hear people say, "I would buy organic, but I just can't afford it. I'm a college student." Well, most of you are at college because some kind person is helping you out. Be this your parents, a relative, a stranger, or the government, you're getting help from somewhere, and more often than not that help includes money for food. Or you have a job, and you're paying for food yourself. So really it's a matter of choice.
Choosing to spend food money on beer, or acid, or whatever you choose to do with yourself is very different from not being able to afford food. So I don't want to hear about how trashed you got this weekend and then see you in line at the food-bank. I don't want to hear that you live on ramen in order to buy new clothes every week.
And the reason I don't want to hear it, is because you're hurting so much. By supporting these companies you're hurting the local economy, your insulting the people that work hard to grow fresh, organic produce only miles from your home, and you're pumping bad stuff into your body. I guess if you're spending that money on alcohol or drugs, you probably don't really care what you're putting into your body, believe me your children will care, even if you never do.
But I guess it all boils down to priorities, and there isn't much you can do to change someone else's. I would think that Evergreen, which advertises itself as eco-friendly, and in a recent survey 96% of the school population said they were concerned with sustainability and the environment, at least that many people would be doing what they can.

Well, one rant down.

And now for another:
My car. She's a good car, has served me well, isn't a disaster, was inexpensive initially, and wasn't too much to maintain. My insurance. RIDICULOUS. It's criminal, what I get charged for being an unmarried 19 year old. The money I will save on insurance alone will pay for my new bike. And, I gave away the punchline. I'm selling my car to buy a bike. Which seems a little backwards to some of the people I've talked to, but makes perfect financial and ecological sense. I'm actually excited to get back into biking.
My (future) bike is pictured above. And boy does she ride sweet. I can only afford her after i sell my car, but with my insurance renewal fee plus monthly insurance plus gas equals a whole lot of money to deck out my bike.
Plus a little more money for good food. ;]

Lunchbox Culture;

So, I bring a lunchbox to class. I like to pack my lunch. I don't want to pay mass amounts of money for small amounts of low quality food. I don't want to make extra trash. I like my tuna-fish and pesto sandwiches. I like my lunchbox. ect. ect. ect.
Well, on the first day of class (which is scheduled to start at 9:30) I walk in at 9:15, only to see that my entire class is already there. It was like the college equivalent of the coming to school naked dream. There was one seat open towards the middle of the class, so I fought my way there, trying to hide my obvious embarrassment. My precious lunchbox slapped against every chair I passed! Oh god!
And now, due no doubt to that embarrassing scene, everyone in class talks to me about my lunchbox. It's just a lunchbox. We're taking a class on food. I like good food. I dont want to eat on campus. I think it's ironic when we're talking about how corn is ruining american soil, to see people from my class rush out to munch down on corn chips and corn syrup soda. I pack a lunch. My boyfriend packed my lunch. I like my lunchbox. How many excuses do I have to give? It's not like I have a tattoo of my lunchbox on my forehead. Do I have to be like the kid in middle school with the backpack on wheels, forever remembered for my accessory?
My solution: a lunchbox culture. I've seen those awesome retro ones, with wonderwoman or i love lucy or the wizard of oz. Hell, there can even be lunchbox sub-cultures, to underwrite the lunchbox culture as a whole. But this way, at least I wont be the only kid with a lunchbox...

Walt Whitman, "This Compost"

1
Something startles me where I thought I was safest,
I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
I will not go now on the pastures to walk,
I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.
O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
How can you be alive you growths of spring?
How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?
Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?
Where have you disposed of their carcasses?
Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?
Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat?
I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd,
I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through
the sod and turn it up underneath,
I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.
2
Behold this compost! behold it well!
Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person--yet behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies,
The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches,
The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves,
The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree,
The he-birds carol mornings and evenings while the she-birds sit on
their nests,
The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs,
The new-born of animals appear, the calf is dropt from the cow, the
colt from the mare,
Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves,
Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in
the dooryards,
The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata
of sour dead.
What chemistry!
That the winds are really not infectious,
That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which
is so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its
tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited
themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that
melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once
catching disease.
Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless
successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings
from them at last.

Things i'd like to learn;

In anticipation of the new quarter and the amazing class i'm going to be taking, i decided to make a list of all the things that i know i'd like to know. (Which is incredibly short, i noticed. probably because there is so much i'd like to know that i don't even know of yet.) So, here goes.


I would like to learn:
how to crochet
more about my family history
how to identify every plant in my yard
why i always lose my head when the tree turns into a gem display case (more on this later)
how to bake apple pies
how to grow the most delicious vegetables
what deer eat
a lot about the olympic national forest
how to fix the sewing machine from 1926 that my mom gave me
how to build my own house
how to raise animals to eat
how to train a dog real well (so i don't end up with a Miles to the umpteenth degree)
how to design patterns for clothing in my head
how to fix a drywall patch
what type of bird is hopping around my backyard right now (i see a sparrow, a robin, a stellar jay and a mysterious yellow one)
how to teleport
how to make time to paint
more about gabriel garcia marquez
how to be a better person
how long it takes to ride my bike to school
and other things...

Since sliced bread?

For the past week or so all of the bread we've been eating I have made. So i made these colossal loaves and we've been eating pieces off of them until we needed a chisel to get a slice off. (The small remnant will be sparrow food tomorrow) And while homemade bread has a tremendously better taste, is more rewarding, and lasts longer, I finally understood the meaning of that old saying about sliced bread.
Eric & i got off work today, completely exhausted, and stopped by the Co-Op to buy some bread and coffee. I haven't had the time or energy this week to bake any, since we've been doing a huge project at work. So, when we had whipped up some baked beans and sat down to eat them I finally understood the luxury of sliced bread. You didn't have to saw at it, reducing some percentage of it to crumbs that necessitate a kitchen sweep after your toast. You didn't have to do anything to eat it in order to make it consumable. I was genuinely excited about this small victory and was sharing it with Eric when he interrupted me,
"Honey, are you trying to say that it's the best thing since sliced bread?"

Yep. That's exactly it.

Butternut Squash Ravioli

You need:
2 cups of flour (i use organic pastry flower)
4 eggs
1 butternut squash
a few tablespoons of olive oil
some salt

First: Make your ravioli dough by mixing your flour with two whole eggs, and two yolks. Mix well, adding water as needed. Place in fridge to cool.
Next: Cut your squash in chunks and cover with olive oil and salt. Place it in a baking pan and bake at 400.
After the squash has cooled, scrape the innards into a bowl & pour the oil in with it.
Pull the dough out of the fridge and roll it flat. Cut the dough in rectangles and put a dollop of the squash on one side of it, fold the rectangle and seal the edges with your fingers.
Drop them into a pot of boiling water. Cook for 7-10 minutes and dress with your favorite sauce.
Enjoy!

Victory Gardens

Thinking about Spring (which will arrive, i hope) is making me itch to get out in the garden. Since I'm a beginner, I'm planning small and doing lots of research. I'm growing heirloom vegetables from Uprising Seeds, putting out rain barrels to water with over the summer, planning my winter crops, rotation and planting times, not to mention I've been building that compost heap for more than a year now. Before planting my first seed, I've been dedicated to this garden.
Going to alternative elementary school has had a big positive impact on my life. I recently found a little construction paper journal from 2nd grade that says, "gardening is my favorite center. i like to see cool bugs. i like to watch plants grow." & after a few years of meandering through literature, I'm right back there. I love the interesting bugs in my garden. I love watching plants grow. & now I've added to that list of what i love about gardening: touching dirt, eating what comes out of it, even thinking about seeds sends shivers up my spine (they're SO AMAZING).
I haven't felt such a stirring call for a long time.
& i think part of my life-dream that is shaping itself constantly (and voraciously) i owe to the fact that Obama got elected. I've never been excited about a politician before. When i read his speeches, and look at his initiatives I see a spark that is a roaring flame in my generation.
Almost everyone I meet, at school, or my brother's friend who started kids-vs.-global warming, is passionate about saving the earth. We weren't inspired by the "green initiatives" in the stimulus bill, but maybe people who aren't involved in helping to end global climate change, will be interested after reading them.
It is immensely satisfying to be close with the land where you live. To know it's smell, it's color, and it's fruits. & the people i have learned this from do not do it for any reason other than the stirring call of their heart.
BUT, a few generations ago, there were small gardeners who produced 40% of all the vegetables in the United States. & these Victory Gardens are a great inspiration for us now. When many people are out of a job and hungry, it makes sense to work directly for your food by gardening. Any excess veggies can be donated to your local food bank, to provide low-income people with fresh nutritious food.
I like to think of my garden as a Victory Garden for the earth. (I know it's cheesy. I can't help it, I'm an emotional person) Not only am i reducing my carbon footprint by eatings foods that are from my backyard instead of shipped halfway across the planet, but plants reduce the carbon dioxide in the air. Also, I'm supporting a whole healthy eco-system right in my own backyard. Also, I'm building muscle (weeding, anyone?) and regaining knowledge that many people have been forced to forget about, where our food comes from.
I'm really excited to plant my starts in the yard. Can you tell?

PS. Check this out!

Fishing Weekend;

We went on a fishing/camping excursion up to Wallace Falls and the Skykomish river. Here is where i saw an eagle swoop from the tree above Eric's head. The bird was so majestic, i felt very humbled by his presence.

Look how beautiful Wallace Falls state park is! I just couldn't believe how clear the water was there, having just melted from snow. We camped there friday night, slightly dismayed that the State Parks website had mislead us. There really wasn't anywhere to fish there.



Here we're at the Skykomish, watching the sun rise over the cascades. Didn't catch jack here. But met some really nice fishermen and watched the sky turn all of these lovely colors. I bought Eric a fly fishing pole for his birthday and just couldn't wait till the 23rd to give it to him, so after camping friday night in Wallace Falls we came back and FEDEX had worked a miracle. It had arrived!


Eric is using his new pole in the Skookumchuck.

Me admiring the Northwest light. Glorious weekend accomplished.

My first dress;

It's the first beautiful day in weeks!!

So... i decided a couple of weeks ago, in the dark snowy cold, that i wanted to start making my own clothing. I thought it would be a good challenge, plus i'm always looking for ways to dress up, you know me.
& i found this pattern from 1946 on ebay, which is so flattering and fun. Then i went to Canvas Works, in downtown Olympia & picked out a very cute fabric that i'd been eyeing for a few weeks.
Being a novice sewer, i was really intimidated to sew a full garment, but i ended up having only a couple of snags (so to speak). No doubt the women in my family were acting as unconscious patron saints, guiding me through the project.






I started sewing on saturday and finished this morning! As you can see there are pleats, darts and gathers along the front of the dress, that give it shape.
I'm really happy with it! & excited to make my next project, which is a pair of knitted slippers for eric.
Thanks to Eric the babytron, for taking the pictures!

the cowl;

since it's cold outside, i made this cowl. i'm going to make another in chunky yarn, for riding my bike. it only took a few hours to make, & i feel really satisfied. it also pulls up over my head, for hoodlum action.

the cuddle-fish

here is the finally finished, and as yet unnamed, cuttlefish that i started making for my boyfriend around christmas. i got frustrated because i couldn't find a pattern online and gave up, with only a few tentacles left... but yesterday we watched a documentary on cuttlefish and i was re-inspired to make him one. so here's the "cuddle-fish" as a valentines day present, he served well.
if you're looking to make one, i saw a pattern on etsy that is much cuter than mine. Happy knitting!

first list;

my parallel, generic
cooking
organic food
vintage clothing
aprons
playing the banjo
vegetable gardening
painting
i-ching
dao te ching
cactus gardens
my mothers 1940's sewing machine
my grandmothers typewriter
pin-ups
fishing
water
having babies (in the future)
knitting
making clothing
1950s dresses
trees
pearls
native plants
dancing (only after copious amounts of coffee)
leonard cohen
gabriel garcia marquez
pablo neruda
saul williams
patti smith
khalil gibran
roses
paper cranes