Category: Farm Life

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” –Nelson Henderson

One of the pleasures of winter is eating roasted chestnuts. Sometimes we can find them fresh at the local market. Several years ago there was a family growing and selling them locally, but they retired from nut growing and I don’t know what happened with their trees.

So I was happy this winter when I saw a posting from Dunbar Gardens in the Skagit Valley, saying they had Chestnuts for sale and were willing to ship us a couple pounds.

Once they arrived Rick and I rationed them out, roasting a few to eat in the afternoon or evening. As you probably know chestnuts should be stored in a cool place, they are not like other nuts that can cure and hold for a year or more. They must be stored in a cool humid place, cooked before eating and used in a reasonable length of time- before they mold or dry up. We put ours in a perforated bag in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.

One afternoon when we were snacking on the nuts, I mentioned to Rick that it would be nice to have our own trees. He reminded me that we’d planted a couple back in the late 80’s and they didn’t survive. And so we discussed planting them again.

Well, the Chestnuts must have agreed, the next time Rick pulled out the bag there were a few seeds with sprouts! There are now three of them growing in a plastic pot in our kitchen.

How long until we have our own nuts to harvest? Hopefully, in this lifetime. We’ll invite you over for a tasting!

Do you have a well loved kitchen tool or gadget, one that would be hard to live without?

One of my early home investments was to purchase a Kitchen-Aid mixer. I had used one at my first restaurant job and found it to be a workhorse of a tool.

Rick and I had moved to Leavenworth for the winter to work and save up money to fund our farm habit. Okay, my desire at that moment was not on making the land or tractor payment. I used that first paycheck earned working at a pie and sandwich shop, to buy the mixer.

Purchased in 1983, it is the same machine we have now. At that time you could also purchase an attachment kit that contained a meat grinder, a shredder, and a fruit or veggie strainer. They all seemed like necessary items so they went in the shopping cart along with the mixer. Each of them have been used, used up, but never replaced.

Everyone who came to our early sausage fests and the early farm workshops had a chance to push stuff through the grinder. Who knows how much ground meat that grinder produced?  Pigs, lambs, goats, it is always up to the task, except for the time we wanted to make hamburger from our old milk cow, there was so much sinew we gave up on that task! (and started dreaming about getting a commercial meat grinder)

Each fall the veggie and fruit strainer comes out for tomato processing season and later for getting the peelings out of the applesauce. The roto shredder wore out from grating hard aged cheese, it stripped the metal where it attached to the hub!

This old Kitchen-aid mixer has been a powerful helper in my life. Yes, it seems to be temperamental, sometimes it just won’t work. Wait a while and it comes back to life. I won’t trade it in for a new one, even though she has a lot of rotations under her belt. I have heard that the new Kitchen-aid mixers are not made as well and cannot holdup to the action that this old girl has endured.

What kitchen tool do you have that shapes your dining experiences?

Verjus (or sour grape juice)

If life doesn’t give you lemons, make verjus!
Chef Becky Selengut

Our desire to use local seasonal ingredients has us seeking replacements for citrus products.  During our workshops we use the sour juice of green grapes to add the sharp snap of lemon juice.

Verjus is the French name for the juice of under-ripe grapes used as an acidifier and flavor enhancer for cooking or in salad dressing.

The grapes we use are cluster thinned from vinifera vines that are grown here at Quillisascut. At this stage the grapes look like green peas. You can put the under-ripe grapes  through a juicer and refrigerate the extract  until needed.

Or what we do is put them through  a meat grinder, drain the juice from the pulp through a cheesecloth, pour all the juice in a large glass jar and when the sediment has settled to the bottom, siphon off the clear juice and freeze in pint size tubs.

If using semi-ripened grapes that are sweet the juice may start to ferment. To store the juice for an extended period of time freeze in ice cube trays and keep frozen until needed. One ice cube is approximately one ounce.

Have you heard the term sour grapes?  That’ what we’re talking about!

3 A’s of Awesome

Attitude- grieve and move on

Awareness- see the world as if for the first time

Authenticity- be yourself-follow your heart

In real life we forget to pause and enjoy our life. We tend to get caught up in the drama of the moment and forget to be awed by the beauty around and in us.

Have you read this book? 1000 Awesome Things

And of course watch this video and see if it helps you rediscover the awesomeness of being alive!
Neil Pasricha Ted Talk

What do you do to make life Awesome?

Sometimes I forget. Thank you Joanna for the reminder!