Tag: summer

homesteading, Seasons

Beginnng the Harvest, or Free Onions!

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This may be my best year ever for onions. Check out these fine things: I ordered my onion starts from Dixondale upon the recommendation of Erica over at Northwest Edible Life (’cause, as far as this urban homesteading thing is concerned, Erica is everything I only wish I could be). I’ve never grown onions this large (which is weird to say, since I think that was one of the pull quotes on the literature that came with the starts. I guess there’s some truth in advertising after all!). My Long Day Sampler of onions included white Ringmasters, red Redwings and …

Seasons

Summer Journal: Berry Picking, Part One

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It’s not like I need the strawberries. I grew lots this spring and I still have leftovers from last year in the freezer, waiting for me to have two spare minutes to rub together long enough to make jam. But at this point it’s tradition. Caitlyn and I join some friends, we drive up to Skagit Valley, we pick too many berries and we finish with fresh strawberry milkshakes. This year, our late-June was packed. We didn’t make it up to the berry farm until after July 4th, only to discover that the strawberries were done. Spring was gorgeous here …

field trips, Seasons

Summer Retrospective: Geysers and Glaciers

 

There’s that cliche about folks and their slideshows of their vacations, inviting the neighbors over and boring everyone to tears with the endless photos, the snippets of stories that don’t quite make sense. Does this still happen? Or do we all just put our vacation photos online somewhere, assuming that somewhere there’s a person or two who cares? That’s a bit harsh. I know there are a couple of people who will at least not be too bored seeing these. Besides, I’m putting these up for myself. I don’t scrapbook, haven’t for years, although I like the idea, the carefully …

homesteading, in the kitchen, Seasons

Harvest Time

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These are not my tomatoes: Or rather, they are now. That is, I didn’t nurture these beauties. But my neighbors moved out and I rescued their tomatoes before the landscapers came through to ‘tidy up’. Isn’t it sad that productive vegetables aren’t considered a selling point in real estate? It’s harvest time in these parts. My tomatoes aren’t producing quite like these were, but I’m bring in a handful every couple of days. There are pumpkins on the vine and it looks like I might get a handful of green beans after all. (My garden is punishing me for going …