Vintage Home and Farm

Last Christmas, my sister gave us three of these ceramic "The Original Apple Baker" dishes, one for each of us. I've been using the Basic Apple Recipe that's on the company's website. This is my favorite treat right now! The apples are so good baked this way. We bought two boxes of apples from Sunny Farms for pressing cider. I then hid about a dozen of the apples for making baked apples. The baked apples are really good with a scoop of ice cream. The ice cream begins to melt right away because the dish is still warm from the oven. In the middle of each Apple Baker dish is a post that you slide through the cored apple. The ceramic post's presence in the middle of the apple helps the apple bake evenly and keeps it warm as you enjoy eating your baked treat. Anyway, these dishes are so wonderful that I just had to share a note here about them. 

What a wet and rainy fall we've had here thanks to the Pineapple Express, which has caused "Atmospheric Rivers" to pass through multiple times. It sounds frightening, this latest weather buzzword. Whoever heard of rivers in the atmosphere before 2021? But here we are, with rivers running above us, dropping huge amounts of rain on this whole corner of the Pacific Northwest.  So far Morse Creek, which runs behind our house on its way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, has swelled and is rushing hard.  Since it has a big enough place to dump its water in the Strait, so far we seem to be okay.  But just in case, let's say a prayer, think positive thoughts, and knock on wood.  We still worry of course, as we are in what's known as a 300 year flood plain.  We are super thankful for our flood insurance policy, which gives us peace of mind at night when we can hear the rain pounding on the roof as we try to sleep.   I thought I'd put a few photos here to update yo...

What if we could grow our own tomatoes and summer squash outdoors year round?  Most people use a greenhouse or grow indoors under lights, but we've found that there are tomato plants that will keep producing outdoors all the way into January, if planted in just the right spot.  Last year, we had Matt's Wild Cherry tomato growing in the corner of our south-facing brick flowerbed, right next to the front door.  The silly thing had gotten tall and gangly, and was reaching inside the door every time we opened it. I can't tell you how many times I had to tell it, "You stay outside," and tuck it's vines back out the door.  The poor thing got pinched a few times in the door in its eagerness to get inside our house. The amazing plant was producing new flowers and tomatoes, too, all the way into January, even after many days of hard frosts and snow.  Matt's Wild Cherry had appeared there as a donor plant after I'd put compost in the flower bed in the late summe...

Here are a few photos of how our garden is shaping up for fall and winter.  I'm only part-way done planting garlic.  Since we had an enormous harvest earlier this year, I'm thinking about planting around 1,000 bulbs of garlic.  Maybe I could sell some next year? My back is aching from pulling weeds and digging little trenches for planting the garlic.  I've been at it for a few days now and there are several more days to go.  Last night, I ached in weird places, like the tops of my feet, around my thumbs, my forearms and my elbows.  Probably from all the tugging. Who knew weeding worked so many small muscle groups? I fell flat on my arse multiple times yanking noxious weeds from the ground.  A hoe and shovel come in really handy to loosen things up. The pollinators hang out in our garden where they can find blooms here even in the middle of fall.  We've got purple artichoke flowers, giant orange marigolds, the white flowers of peas and beans, ...

There are numerous old fruit trees on our property, including apple, pear, cherry and plum. The trees' enormous sizes and moss-covered, gnarled branches suggest they are likely at least 40 and maybe up to 70 years old.  Each year since moving here, we have been blessed with fruit from all of these old, beautiful trees.   Yesterday, it was time to harvest the apples and pears. A few of each had fallen to the ground to be consumed eagerly by the deer.  So I took our ladder out there with several buckets and began working my way around each tree, avoiding spider webs (there were several with enormous spiders on them), and using a fruit picker (one of those wire baskets on a broom  handle).  There were only 22 apples on the apple tree, but all were giant-sized.  The pear tree was loaded, however, and generously gave us about 75 pears this year.  I brought the fruit inside and put the two ginormous containers in our mudroom next to the buffet cabinet t...

When tied with a ribbon, golden bundles of wheat make a beautiful natural decoration for your home.  Last spring, when there was a shortage of flour in the grocery stores due to the pandemic, we decided we'd experiment with growing wheat.  We came up with the idea when we were cleaning out our pantry and realized we had a small package of Bob's Red Mill wheat berries.  I was curious whether wheat berries that had been processed and packaged as a food product would be viable for growing in the garden.   Turns out, the wheat berries were indeed viable and we had a nice little harvest of wheat in late summer.  But by then, flour was once again readily available in the stores, and in fact we have been enjoying baking with the inexpensive and enormous bags of organic Central Baking Company flour that is now available at Costco.  In learning how to process wheat into flour, we decided that the wear and tear it would put on our food processor wasn't worth it ...

With Thanksgiving upon us, are you counting your blessings? While holiday activities draw everyone out and about, keeping us all busy with preparations and gatherings, it's nice to pause for a moment to ruminate on and share our blessings.  We've had ups and downs this past year, and have faced a number of challenges --  but even so, we have much to be thankful for!  I am thankful for my family and friends, who are a tremendous blessing to me. So, are you ready for Turkey Day?  Despite the holiday falling a bit later in the year, it's still been a mad rush to get everything done so that it will be ready for the table at the big feast.  Hopefully you won't have to travel far, as we hear the weather is promising to be frightful for the long weekend across most of the country.  Here at Vintage Home and Farm, our family has two celebrations -- one at my father-in-law's house on Thanksgiving Day, where we will be bringing two pumpkin pies, dinner rolls and ...

When autumn leaves begin to fall off the trees and temperatures drop, it's fall baking time.  This is the season when I long for a slice of homemade, old-fashioned pumpkin pie.  Store-bought pie just won't do.  The wonderful fragrance of an old fashioned pumpkin pie baking in the oven makes our house feel like home. After putting the pie into the oven, I enjoy sitting in my favorite overstuffed chair, reading and listening to music while the pie bakes.  Baking makes a house feel warm and comforting.  And home-baked treats are much healthier than store-bought versions.  With a few simple, wholesome ingredients, you can easily make this pie for sharing with family or friends. This recipe for old fashioned pumpkin pie is a quick and easy autumn dessert that will fill your home with warmth.  The goodness of whole wheat flour in the crust makes this old fashioned pumpkin pie healthier than others, and wheat adds a crispness and crumb to the crus...