Ahhhh ... I'm not the only one!

"Not-so-simple" simple lives, indeed ... although we are all trying! So, in tribute to Amazing Maniacal Annete, blog-hop-host extraordinaire, here is my snapshot (Sorry no pics today, too busy!)

5:30 -- Get up, stretch, yoga, coffee, shower ...
6:00 --Wake sleepy son by letting dog jump on bed. Breakfast: power shake with foraged blackberries, our neighbor's hand-pressed apple cider, and PCC yogurt, banana, flax oil, protein pwdr. Help son prep for science test.
7:15 -- Out the door to take son to school.
7:30 -- Home and a bit of blogging; work on paper due for mid-term; unload produce from last night's pick-up (biggets Blue Hubbard you ever saw); mow back half of lawn Oy Vey! Can't wait to plant out some more fruit trees in Spring so I won't have so dang much lawn to mow.
8:30 -- Leave for work. Yes, I got a new contract -- which is good -- and am still in school full-time -- which makes it interesting.
4:30 -- Head home, pick up son from neighbor's, clear out half of strawberry bed, pick day's Scarlet runner beans--mine are really late in ripening, and some are still flowering! Also some of the strawberries are flowering again -- strange! Harvest some collard and kale; and some funky little squash that I think are ripe because the vine is withering on one end (but putting out blossoms on the other end!!) Clip some chives to have on the table for din-din.
6:00 -- Dinner--home-grown greens cooked with lemons from my cousin's tree, rice (not home grown!), PCC pork and home-grown beans in BBQ sauce (not home made!) Well, you do what you can.
7:00 -- Help son with homework, possibly this involves a bit of card-playing. What! You didn't know playing cards is good for concentration!
8:00 -- Put son to bed, clean kitchen, work on book chapter that needs some spiffing up. Check email. Yawn!
9:00 -- Stretch, yoga,
10:00 -- Head for bed, do some reading for class tomorrow ... 

and so it goes!

Newbie starts to see -- and taste! -- the fruits (or, veggies)

Ok, so I'm brand-new to this, never thought I could make things grow, a slave to the organic produce aisles and airplane apples from New Zealand. But being laid off (ok, I laid myself off) meant I had time on my hands --- and as a result, this has been my first official harvest season! Compared to most of the blogs in this blog hop I will admit I feel completely inadequate ... STILL ... as I was grocery shopping yesterday it was so great to completely by-pass the produce aisles ... and the juice aisle ... and the bread aisle ... ok, so I still buy milk, eggs, cheese and meat, but one conquest at a time I say! (Would love to have a goat ... pretty sure I can't make that work even though I have the space, I don't have a good enough fence.)
Next year chickens for sure, though I am still stumped on the coop. I know -- I have to learn to build -- but will someone puh-leez come give me a lesson? I know -- I will organize a chicken-coop building party and feed everyone. Any takers? Or are you all still so waaaaay ahead of me on this ... ! :-))) Thanks as always for the inspiration!

Bleee -- as my son pronounces it

How do all those other moms do it? I'm overwhelmed... in school full-time, maybe that would be enough, trying to dig up some beds that were devastated by voles this summer to lay down hardware cloth so I can plant some over-wintering onions, then there is just SO MUCH green stuff to trim, yank, cut, dig up, and then stuff into yard waste bags or bins ... just getting over the blessings of harvest and feeling quite overwhelmed at necessary preparations for winter ... how did our grandparents do it? Deeeeeep breath ... one day at a time ... maybe I'll go take a walk in the garden ...

My piney grape tree

I've been at this house for 7 years now, and every year I've hacked back the two very old grape vines that live in our yard -- I didn't know how to build a grape arbor and they would twine up into our pine trees, which I thought was bad for the trees. Not so! Last year someone told me they don't hurt the trees at all, so I let them grow, and sure enough it was just fine. Around mid-September Martijn climbed into the pine tree and yelled down "Mom! It's a grape tree!" There were beautiful grape bunches hanging like ornaments from every branch.

So this year I let 'em rip -- the vines climbed all the way to the top, I would say 50 feet high. They're also in the maple tree, which is easier to climb, and Martijn harvested quite a few:

We tried juicing them but the skins made it too bitter. So I'm going to squeeze them through cheese-cloth, and see how that works. Anyone have any tips?

Asian Pear Pie --- MMMM!

Why did I think you couldn't cook with asian pears?  Very strange! For the past several years I've neglected these lovely trees in my back yard, and given most of the fruit away -- sad! But -- this year I've made wonderful asian-pear sauce (like apple-sauce), asian-pear butter and now -- an amazing asian-pear pie -- with crumble crust. Yow!! 

The Best Tomato Sauce You'll Ever Eat ...

Start with the freshest, juiciest, organic tomatoes you can find -- I was lucky to get in on the Amazing Annette's Bulk Produce Buy and started with beautiful purple heirloom.

Wash and slice 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
Layer on oiled baking sheet, drizzle oliove oil over top, sprinkle herbs over top: basil, thyme, oregano, whatever you like.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Bake at pre-heated 425 oven for 1o to 15 minnutes.
Scoop off baking sheet with spatula into bowl.

If you want to bother with removing skins you can do so at this point, but I don't Stir the sauce, ladle it over anything -- toasted home-made bread fior AMAZING crostini, pasta, steamed vegetables -- go for it! Add a little olive oil and parmesan if you like. I just ate it plain with a spoon!

What things lead to ...

(I'm sure my grammar is horrendous in that title, but so be it.)

It all started when ... I left my job in the corporate slaughterhouse I mean marketplace, and then took a course in Compassionate Listening, and then started writing children's books (more on that later), and then started my own editorial consulting business ("Word for Word" -- catchy name, eh?), and then I got sick and couldn't work ... and then ... well, this is the embarrassing part so I will probably post on it separately, under "Can we talk about ... G-d?" and then, I started building up a backyard garden ... first one little 8x5 raised bed, and I hauled in all the dirt myself from Cedar Grove compost (their veggie mix -- excellent!) and then I discovered that the raised bed I paid someone else to put in for me last year had bad soil! How did I discover this? By planting lettuce in my new bed, and in last year's bed, and seeing the lettuce in my new bed grow like gozongas (you know what those are, right?) and the lettuce in the older bed -- did nothing!!!! So then I got really angry I mean motivated ... and had Cedar Grove deliver 5 yards of veggie mix -- right in my driveway! -- and dug out all that bad soil, and had my farmer neighbor run his tractor over some of my other lawn, (I was too late to get in on the Great Sod Removal project organized by Cascadian Edible Landscapes) and dug out rocks ..... and more rocks .... and more rocks ... (I now have several lovely rock walls)

Deeeep breath ...

And I planted!!!! Corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, chives, peppers, onions ... we already had great strawberries and lavendar (don't ask me about the voles and my strawberries!!! I may blog separately on that.)

And then I found Christine Sine and her work on Gardening with G-d (there's that word again) -- check her out at Godspace. And the more time I spent in the garden, digging and planting and whispering to the little growing things, and watching the hummingbirds flit through my scarlet runner beans (you HAVE to plant some of these, check it out at wikipedia and some other links) the happier I am ... and the more time I want to spend in the garden ..

And I planted out my Fall bed with kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts and rutabagas, all of which are happily growing. I love seeing things grow!!! My son Martijn is also catching the fever, and now wants to go live off the land (he's reading My Side of the Mountain for the 3rd time and Making Big Plans). We also have a lovely plum and 4 "asian" pear trees, and I've planted a fig and cherry. Next Spring I'll plant about a dozen fruit trees, peach, nectarine, yellow plum, maybe even some apples. By the way -- for an amazing story, check out Piper's Orchard at Carkeek park.

And now -- it's harvest time! I can hardly believe it. I've already put up 60 ears of corn, probably have another 100 or so to go. Bad year for tomatoes so we got in on the Great Bulk Tomato buy: check out the Amazing Annete's blog, Sustainable Eats). And as I'm preserving my 40 pounds of gorgeous tomatoes (I'll try to get some pics up but I'm fairly lame with visuals--suffice it to say they are multi-colored--green, purple, yellow, and mostly red; and multi-shaped -- all sorts of wonderful whorls and curls, as well as the less interesting .,.. round ones ... )  I'm busy ordering books: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables" by Mike Bubel, and "Handy Farm Devices, And How to Make Them" by Rolfe Cobleigh, and "The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!" by Carleen Madigan, and "Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners" by Suzanne Ashworth, and "Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation" by The Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante .......

Deeeeep breath ...

So you see ... how one thing leads to another ... and another ... and it's so rich and deep and intricate and myterious and amazing ... and there is So Much Work To Do ...

Love ---

Laura aka "Natural Grrrrl"