Vintage Home and Farm

 During our walk today, we noticed the Osoberry trees (also known as Indian Plum) are budding, and those closer to the sea are actually in full bloom. Spring is not so far away. The daffodils have come up, although their flowers are not open yet. Crocuses are blooming, as is the heather. On the bluebells, the flower buds are forming down inside the plant and getting ready to rise up and bloom. Some of our irises have bloomed. The delicate crocus is the first flower to appear in the new year, braving frigid winter temperatures to bring us cheer. We planted heather for our honeybees so they would have something to forage in the winter and early spring. The plants are still quite small, though - it will be a few years more before the bees can gather much from them.   Our honeybees survived the 9-degree low we had in mid-January. I credit the extra ventilation we put into the hives. In the photo below, notice the round hole toward the top of the hive as well as the square opening ...

One of the questions that I get asked from time to time is how we preserve our harvest.  When we first started preserving food, even before putting things in the freezer, we chose to can as much as possible.  We started off pressure canning, and then later on, I learned how to water bath can as well.  Today, our food preservation includes not only canning and freezing but also dehydrating and curing food. Above, you'll see some of our home-canned food and most of our teas and herbs stored in this hutch that was built by my father-in-law, Richard. We've got both herbs we foraged and those we've grown, dehydrated, and stored in glass jars in the upper part of the hutch. On the countertop, tomatoes are  ripening from our summer harvest. We've also got a tub of quinoa that we harvested and winnowed a while ago. And, of course, in the ceramic jar are bones for our dog, Mojo.  Finally, the wooden chicken holds medicines and supplements for the chickens, ducks, cats an...

Our good friends Dan and Debbie enjoy foraging for chanterelle mushrooms. Yesterday, on Dan's outing into the Sol Duc forest, I felt very fortunate to be invited along. I had been hoping to have an opportunity to experience mushroom foraging out in the forest, as until now the only mushrooms I have foraged are the horse mushrooms that grow in our pasture . Safely identifying wild mushrooms in a forest is quite a different experience. Before going, I researched how to identify chanterelles in the Pacific Northwest as well as how to avoid picking similar-looking mushrooms, including false chanterelles and the more toxic Jack-O-Lantern mushrooms.  There are many great articles online with photos to help identify chanterelles ( here is one from Practical Self Reliance that I found especially helpful ), but even with photos and written descriptions to refer to, I was ever so grateful to be able to have an experienced forager there to verify.  While most of the online photos of...

My mother was known for offering folk remedies whenever anyone in the family was ill.  At times we teased her for it, but the truth is, my mother's lemon and honey concoction worked wonders at soothing my own childhood sore throats and colds.   My mother's recipe involved cutting up a whole lemon and cooking it in a saucepan full of water on the stove for a few hours.  Once it was finished cooking down, she'd use a fork to press out as much of the pulp as she could from the lemon and then discard the rind.  Then, she'd add honey - a LOT of honey, perhaps half a jar - and then this lemon-honey syrup was refrigerated.  To serve, she would put a couple tablespoons of the lemon-honey syrup in a mug and then fill the mug the rest of the way with hot water. While my mom's remedy was great, as an adult who is feeling ill, I usually need a lemon-honey concoction immediately and don't have the energy when I'm sick to cook a lemon into syrup. About a year ago, I bega...

The other day I had the pleasure of a leisurely drive along Highway 101 with a friend. We were headed out west to Forks, where we participated in a beginners' cedar bark basket weaving class taught by Quileute Tribal Elder Phillip Ward.  When we signed up for the class, I was imagining a very large basket woven by my clumsy hands, and came prepared with several big plastic bags to carry our baskets home in (it does rain a lot in Forks and I didn't want our newly-made baskets to get wet).  I was a bit wet behind the ears myself, as it turns out these were tiny baskets that we made. They were so small that we could tuck them into our pockets or purses.  I was enlightened as I discovered how difficult baskets truly are to weave and I have new respect for the craftsmanship and art of basket weaving.  These little baskets took a lot of concentration and just under three hours to weave.  As we headed home, our little baskets looked quite lovely sitting on the das...

There are wild horse mushrooms growing in our south pasture. It is strangely appropriate that these are called horse mushrooms, not only because they are unusually large for a mushroom, but also because they are actually growing in a horse shoe pattern across the pasture. At first I thought the mushrooms were growing in a circle, but there is actually an opening at one end. If you click the photo above, you can see a larger version.  Look closely to see the pattern of mushrooms growing across the pasture. We had never heard of horse mushrooms prior to moving here.  Last year, as soon as these enormous mushrooms appeared in the pasture, our neighbor came over to let us know what they were and to see if we were interested in sharing them.  He explained that they taste just like the white button mushrooms you buy at the store. Of course, we were glad to offer him as many of the mushrooms as he would like.  I'm not a mycophagists and until n...

The spring garden has been doing very well. There is so much lettuce that we will be eating salad with dinner every night for a while.  Today I gathered a giant bowl full of other veggies, as well -- spinach, Swiss chard, kale, radish, rhubarb and a few onion tops. Donor tomatoes from last year's garden are sprouting up near the onions, carrots and beets. It will be interesting to see how well these randomly rooted tomatoes do - I've decided to let them stay where they are. Corn and pole beans are growing side-by-side in two long rows.  I'm hoping the pole beans will climb the corn stalks and they will grow real tall together. Below is a portion of the lettuce that's flourishing in the garden.  I may need to give some to the neighbors.  I'd also like to leave a few heads of each kind to go to seed, for future plantings. The tomatoes that I transplanted outside a couple weeks ago are slowly starting to establish themselves. We are using a cattle...