Garden photo and farm bounty

Beautiful photos of beautiful but cold days. This summer the weather has been truly odd. We had to buy a new blanket for our bed yesterday because the summer one we had wasn't warm enough and the winter one was way too hot. Strange year.

These are some of my favorite pictures of the last week:

Below is a basket of our local bounty. Honey from a bee farm that is about an hour away, snow peas, carrots, and beets from the farm I work for and eggs from my chickens. Even the peanuts behind it in the basket are from just over the mountains, from a wonderful organic farm that sells right behind us at the Seattle Market. Since starting this job, about 90% of our food is now local. Of course, we still use olive oil, and buy olives, maple syrup (which we get from just above the Canadian boarder about 400 miles away), and purchase quite a few things dry that come from farther away... but so much of our things coming from local farms and that warms my heart. Esp considering I know these farmers now. It has been fun getting to know them, and know their products. I have even found a new local soap person (which is wonderful, because I lost my local soap person about two years ago). I am enjoying stretching my locavore wings. :)

I spent the evening blanching beets, carrot slices, and snow peas. Tomorrow we will go down and pick up the first bunch of apples and the day after I am buying 4 boxes a peaches to can when they ripen next week. It will be a busy week (esp considering blueberries will be ready this weekend as well), but well worth it. I am getting really good at gaging how much we need each year and storing that much. Every year I learn so much about where to get things and how to preserve our bounty that we do get. It is a great feeling!

This may sound strange, but these little coon friends we have don't know what chickens are. They are city coons, through and through. You leave cat food on the back porch for two days in a row and they are on it, put garbage out the day before garbage day and they are in it, making a mess and a ruckus... but I have had chickens in my back yard for a year and a half and they haven't even noticed the chickens and the eggs that are practically bounty at their feet.

Cyan was very thrilled to know that the littlest baby (the one next to mama in the first pic) made it back with her mother after her excursion up our tree last week. She is sweet, and rambunctious, and holds her own with her much bigger siblings when it comes to food. The fact that she is so spunky will really help later in her city life. Hopefully, she does not stay around. I can picture her being the one that figures out we have sweet eggs in the backyard. lol... (I really don't know of she is a she or not... but it seems that she has a girl attitude.)