Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, who ever you are, you need one.

Jane Howard

It’s Christmas eve; time for a festive lunch downtown for an intimate group of around 30 or so.  Granted, I don’t even know most of these folks, but they’re all part of “the Tribe”  - a tightly knit, at times loosely related, family that has graciously embraced my household as part of their extended own.

We’ve been a part of this ongoing party for the past 11 years beginning in 1998 when we were invited along on a post-Christmas getaway to Vancouver, Canada; Saturday we leave for our 10th such trip.  Our vacation routine has become nearly ritualized, or maybe it’s just pared down to it’s essence; an early morning train ride North, our now familiar welcome at the hotel where we always stay, lazing by the pool, lots of G&T’s, evening strolls around the neightborhood, movies, and a celebratory feast for the adults and the “big kids”.

Follow a tradition through enough years and you trace a very human history.  Weddings, births, graduation, awards, college acceptances, new jobs, left jobs, travel, and of course, separation, pain, illness and death.  Today at our annual Christmas Eve lunch, amidst the laughter, the reunions, the flying wrappers and many toasts, we’ll all be thinking of Big Dave - the loving Father of this tribe, whose passionate commitment to family and friends has cemented our place within it, bloodline or not.  The greatest gift of all, and one that lives on and on in his loving memory.

As I sit here in my snow bound office, scrambling to finish my last-minute holiday shopping it occures to me you might be in the same position; the days are clicking by, the hours counting down, the season slipping by. 

I know many a Christmas miracle can be had through the portal of online shopping - but my heart is heavy as it is for the many brick-and-mortar businesses for whom this ice-clad shopping season is already a 4th quarter disaster.  I’m trying to keep what little economic stimulus I have to contribute in my (frozen)neighborhood. The result has been some resourceful gift gathering and a wonderful exercise in flexible thinking.

Our little West Seattle hamlet has really grown up over the past 10 years and the pickings are anything but slim!  As I skid along the skating-rink sidewalks I’m discovering lots of little shops I don’t usually frequent along with my usual favorites.  All the same, I think I might have a hard time passing off a block of cheese from Husky Deli (however delicious and a West Seattle institution since 1933!) to my very artistic little 5 year old niece.  I could probably get by with a selection of handmade chocolates and pastries from Bakery Nouveau, and goodness - those of us in the know would be more than happy to recieve a loaf of their amazing walnut sourdough bread.  It would be perfect with our traditional Christmas cheese fondue!

Our little hometown mainstreet is all about good food.  I wonder how I can stuff a stocking with the absolutly transformational, molten macaroni and cheese from West 5; or a round of holiday libations from any number of our small dining establishments- the seasonal infused cocktails at Shadowland are delicious!

But then I got to thinking…all this cheese, chocolate, bread and cocktails can be hard a body.   Why not give the gift of time and my own good company?  The following is an excerpt from my December column for Angie’s List Magazine:

If you’re an expert gardener, consider offering a coaching session to someone who may just be learning their maple from their mulch. Pass along your particular expertise to a beginner by giving a gift certificate promising a days’ work spent weeding, pruning or generally tidying up. Such a gift will be warmly welcomed by anyone with more landscape than leisure time to maintain it.

More hands — the only tool a gardener never misplaces — and good company make even the most onerous garden chores a breeze. Arrive with a springtime load of compost, help spread it around and you’ll be a horticultural hero!

To read the entire article follow this link - Out in the Yard.  You’ll find all sorts of (granted, obvious) ideas from gift certificates to the local nursery, to a membership in a horticultural organization or regional publication that will open the doors to an entire year of gardening adventure and the opportunity to meet with like-minded geeks who don’t care if you want to spend all of 2009 discussing the garden losses from the “Great Winter Freeze of 2008, ” I’m afraid we’ll have much to commiserate about together. 

Just about now, anybody in our area - gardener or not - would welcome a visit to the local conservatory, where the day is always tropical.  Even the Zoo has an indoor desert and tropical rainforest to offer a bone-warming and  soothing respite from the hectic holiday scene. 

Me, well I’m already sort of the go-to-gal for all things horticultural in my expanded family and circle of friends; it’s sort of like having a doctor in the family, but less lucrative.  I can’t really get away with spinning my expertise as a gift!  So as the snow begins to fall - AGAIN - this day-before-the-day-before Christmas I’ve decided to surprise my circle with an adventure in the coming weeks to tour Theo Chocolates!  Theo is the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States - and it’s in our own backyard!!!  Tours are reasonably priced, informative and feature lots of tasting!!!  Of course I’m banking on no-one reading my blog or it won’t be much of a surprise now will it?  Things are hectic enough what with the snow and ice, let alone last minute shopping - I think I’m pretty safe here.  But, dontcha know, once this ice thaws it’s back to the gym for me!!!

Snow

I could eat it!

This snow that falls

so softly, so softly

- Issa

Now, say the above haiku in the lisping, sibilant sss’s of a downy-haired four year old.  My daughter’s favorite poem throughout her first big snow in 1990, we still look out the window and say “so softly, so softly.”  Happy first full day of Winter!

While many parts of the country regularly welcome winter - and snow - with aplomb, we Pacific Northwesterns are ill equipped to function.  And when Mother Nature continues to dump 3-5″ on us every day or so…things get really interesting!

Holiday festivities are being altered, reworked or cancelled altogether.  The snow, which robbed my household of our annual family reunion/Christmas party, instead gifted us with wonderful stories and memories from men and women who were, before yesterday, strangers.  With the cancellation of one party, I found myself able to attend the 101st (!!!) birthday party of Ray Wilson; Grandpa Ray to the “Tribe.” 

We celebrated with cake, champagne, sparkling cider and as many of the residents of the retirement living facility as we could fold into our party.  Amid the babble, chit chat and reminiscing we met Jean.  We were discussing Jim Whittaker’s book A Life on the Edge, memoirs of Everest and beyond (The Mountaineers Books, 1999) when Jean piped up, “I knew Jim.”  Jim Whittaker is a legendary NW adventurer.  We all grew up hearing of his exploits on mountains near and far.  As the book jacket reads “Jim Whittaker has lived a life of high adventure and rare achievement.”  Isn’t that what we all strive for?

It turns out Jean and her husband, a mountain naturalist, raised their children throughout many of the West’s National Parks.  She had wonderful stories of a sparky 4 yr old keeping bears out of the kitchen by holding the door closed; sleeping under the stars in Death Valley, and family adventures that involved snakes, lizards and beautiful forests. 

As is often the case, once you begin to ask questions the stories just get better and better.  Jean, an author, was educated at Mt. Holyoke, a prestigious women’s college in Massachusetts; her brother attended Amherst College nearby.  Jean told us of meeting Robert Frost, her brother’s English professor, which got some of the more learned of our gathering reciting Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening, Frost’s famous poem that ends with:

Jean, Jim Whittaker, Robert Frost and Grandpa Ray - collective years of adventure, family stories and lives lived fully. While the snow has many of us wondering how and if we’ll get around for our many planned celebrations this week, Christmas came early - I’ve already received my first gift! 

Paperwhite narcissus are one of my all time holiday favorites.  For years when I ran the nursery, it was a constant race to keep up with the demand for these fat glossy bulbs that quickly root, shoot and burst in fragrant bloom just in time for holiday gifts and decor.  Every year we sold hundreds and hundreds and yet, I have never grown tired of their heady sweet fragrance nor cease to marvel at how simple it is to get these beauties to bloom; it’s called “forcing”, but really, very little coercion is involved.

Getting them to stand up - now that’s a different story!  You’d think my years and years of experience would have granted even some small level of expertise or explanation as to why these plants persist in flopping just when they are in peak bloom.  HA! 

Such as it is…here are my directions:

3-4 weeks before you want flowers place clean gravel in a vase; I like to use clear glass vases so I can watch the succulent white roots emerge (isn’t it amazing what passes for gardening mid-winter?)  Nestle the root end of the bulb into the gravel and top lightly with another shallow layer of rock to anchor the bulb in place.  Fill the vase just to the bottom of the bulb with water and place in a bright but cool area to root.

Expert tip #1 coming up:  In a temporate region, like our beautiful Pacific Northwest, place pots and vases of planted paperwhites outside for maximum exposure to light and cool temperatures to produce nice straight, stout stems.  (I’ve even tucked a few bulbs in with mixed container plantings on the hope that we’ll have our usual mild weather.  These bulbs bloom and hold for weeks and weeks provided temperatures stay between 40-45 F.)

Onced budded, bring the bulbs into the house but keep away from warm drafts and heat to encourage the stems to remain upright; you can even move the plants back out onto a cool porch when you are not enjoying their fragrance in the house to prolong their show.

Here’s where my expertise starts to fall apart.  Some years I follow the above instructions and have a glorious display with successions of powerfully fragrant, pure white, snowflake-like flowers for weeks on end.  Other years… well, unless I mistakenly purchased the rare weeping form this year, this is my sorry result.  Heavenly scent but hardly graceful splayed all over the table; sad, really.

So I began to hunt around the net for a solution.  I came across the Cornell University Website - they’re smart folks and their horticulture department is one of the best.  From Floriculture to Nursery Crop Production, Soil Science to Plant Pathology - these are the real experts!  Their advice? Gin - that’s right, cocktail hour now includes “potted” plants!  “A dilute alcohol solution will curtail excessive growth and result in shorter, sturdier stems which won’t flop.”  Really?

So, here’s round two in the great paperwhite caper.  I’ve purchased 5 more bulbs and set them into the gravel.  Of course, now it is a brisk 22 F. outside so they can’t go out on the back porch this time; it will be a true test of the spirited Cornell theory.  Download Pickle your Paperwhites and play along at home.

Me, I’ve cut all my formerly flopping flowers and created a lavish bouquet that fills the rliving room with a heady fragrance. I think I’ll have a martini and toast the good folks at Cornell while I await my test results.

Cheers!

Sometimes I let the rules take over, I guess it’s that oldest child thing. 

If the rules for  Bloggers Bloom Day state that you photograph and record what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month, than by gum I’m gonna wait until the 15th.  So much for playing by those rules!  I was so excited to contribute this month along with esteemed garden bloggers like Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening  Idaho Gardener  and many more.  There are so many clever, quirky, irreverant, smart, sassy garden bloggers out there.  It’s a great big sandbox and I want to play!

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in the comments of May Dreams Gardens.

We’ve had a very mild autumn thus far and for the past few weeks I’ve been making a list of plants that are (were) flourishing and (did) look lively.  Autumn blooming tuberous nasturtium (see above) only just begins to bloom in mid November; its slender tubes of brilliant orange and yellow look like upside down flames dripping from the lobed, blue green foliage.  The crops of equally orange berries on the Iris foetidissima were a nice echo (note: I count berries on my “blooms” list). 

In another berried echo across the yard the Billardiera berries are (were) fat and fancy with a coat of shimmery iridescence, while nearby umbels of Dichroa febrifuga fruit dazzled in  dusky shades of pewter, pink, lapis and inky midnight blue.  I just love berries - the more otherworldly in color the better.

It’s an off year for beauty berry in my garden. In the big garden overhaul of ‘08 I tore out my Callicarpa dichtotoma ‘Profusion’.  In the past I was willing to forgive it  its awkward gangly form for its brilliant florescent purple berries every fall; that was until I discovered C. d.  ‘Early Amethyst’ a more compact and pleasing form with attractive foliage that emerges dusky purple in the spring and exhibits a glorious golden decline in the fall. ‘Early Amethyst’ berries are in tighter clumps than ‘Profusion’, put on quite a show against the fall foliage and persist well throughout the winter.  Anyway, my little one gallon plant was only installed this fall and I’ll have to wait at least another season for the effects to return.  We gardeners are forever planting but what we’re really cultivating is PATIENCE!

Anyway… it’s only the 14th but in a fit of rebellion I’m going to post my Bloggers Bloom pictures today while the lovely mantle of snow (!) is still fresh.  We hardly ever get snow in Seattle, and of course when we do everyone freaks out, weathermen flap their hands like excited geese, shoppers stock their pantries for the end times and drivers…well, the less said about Seattle snow drivers the better.  Remember, we have a lot of hills and it doesn’t take much to spin around and start playing automobile pinball.

So when I awoke to a winter wonderland this morning I rushed outside to snap some garden shots which I’ll quickly post before I get in my armoured snow vehicle and make the trek to the grocery store to stock up on provisions for the Big Blast of 08 - I’m sure the local TV stations each have their own storm logos by now along with various “parka boys” bringing LIVE reports every 15 minutes.

Winter blooming crocus…I have no idea which one.  I bought these corms probably 15 years ago at a local bulb sale and they’ve shown up every winter since.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’  This beauty blooms all winter and smells lovely when I pick a blossom to float in a shallow bowl by my bedside.

Here are my tuberous nasturtiums (left) and Iris foetidissima

…ah, the best laid garden plans and plotting.

 Billardiera longiflora  brrrrr… we’re not in Tasmania anymore!

Dichroa febrifuga  This plant looks like a recumbent hydrangea all summer with characteristic mophead flowers but the fall berries are the real treat - at least before they dessicate in the freezing cold.

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’  Usually I go out and pick the last straggling leaves off her, especially if I’m going to take a picture or cut some branches for a winter bouquet - but I think I mentioned - it was COLD out there!

Clematis cirrohsa ‘Freckles’  Cute, huh?  This little rascal blooms all winter…and spring and summer and fall for that matter.  Never a giant show but endearing and most welcome at any time.

Well, that’s my contribution to Bloggers Bloom Day December 08 here in Zone 8, Seattle, WA. 

Ah yes, the annual hunting and gathering for the traditional yuletide conifer to adorn the living room.  If I sound just the least bit…snide, in my defense I’d like to remind everyone that I sold Christmas trees for about 7 or 8 years in the very recent past; ok it was almost 10 years ago but I remain scarred by the experience! 

You twirl, spin, unwrap, sort, and stand several hundred freezing cold, wet, and HEAVY firs and then we’ll talk about my attitude towards this most highly regarded symbol of the season.  It rains here in the Northwest; it rains a lot.  Granted, that’s why they call us the “Evergreen State” but it tends to complicate working outdoors in the winter.  “Don we now our gay apparel…”  for me this meant full waterproof overalls, a parka, duck-yellow boots and oh-so-fashionable hat  and wet gloves.  But boy did I smell good!  And for me that’s the best part about the Christmas tree.  I would be perfectly happy to just have several naked trees, simply trimmed in plain white lights; a magical forest right next to my reading chair.

However, no one else in my household agrees with my simply-shod tree concept.  Now I should say right here that I’m not a true minimalist when it comes to holiday décor.  In fact I love my shiney-brite lime green aluminum table top tree at the center of my annual “ode to A Christmas Story“.  Each year we as a family add another trinket or gizmo that figures in the movie.  Other families can have their Grinch or Griswold - we love Ralphie, Randy and “the old man.”  I have quite a collection of treasures…plastic chopping teeth, a big bottle of Ovaltine, bunny slippers, a tiny figure of Ralphie complete with the Red Rider BB gun, and more.  This year I think I’ll add a big fruit basket like the one Ralphie gifts (i.e. bribes)his teacher  with to commemorate the college graduation of my daughter next weekend. A+++++++, Now she’s a teacher!!!

I digress - I just wanted to prove that I’m not a Christmas Crank, I just don’t love the tree.  So in a spirit of attitude readjustment this year I proposed that we go out to one of the neighboring tree farms and “Cut Our Own.”  I looked around on the net and found countless possibilities complete with Santa, sleigh rides, reindeer, etc - definitely NOT what I was after.

We settled on Fall City Farms, an organic farm with a varied list of crops which they offer U-pick style throughout the year.  Among my many beefs with Christmas trees is not the fact that they are “wasteful.”  Granted, everyone should recycle their trees post-holiday, either through municipal garden waste pick up or by cutting the branches to mulch the garden.  During my years vending holiday vegetation I met some lovely Christmas trees farmers; their hard work and year ’round efforts produced a “crop” of trees rather  than corn, or pumpkins.  I have no problem purchasing their crop - I just don’t want to spin it around and tie it to the top of your SUV in the pouring rain!

The day was cloudy and grey but not rainy; just a pervasive heavy mist that soften the line where the sky meets the horizon and gilds all the trees with millions of sparkly drops of water.  That’s waaaaaay different than rain!  Armed with our saw we set off to inspect 6 acres of beautiful, fragrant, living trees all “rowed up” like soldiers and priced by their red, blue, yellow or white tags.  Anyone who has ever done this (this was our first foray) knows the strange shifting perspective that overtakes you when you find yourself contemplating a magnificent 10′ specimen that stands about as much chance of fitting in our little living room as me fitting into…  Well, let’s just say its easy to get carried away under a big open sky.

I suppose it goes without saying that the lovely, 6-7 foot Grand Fir we finally chose was probably the first or second one we looked at before we appraised another  couple hundred.  But it is just right.  Grand fir (Abies grandis) is known for it’s broad, glossy needles and a heady scent that just screams “Happy Holidays!”  Plus, it’s the key ingredient for my Grand Fir infused oil which is heavenly drizzled on pasta, potatoes or creamy soups.   We took turns sawing the tree down in a ceremonial family effort but my husband dragged it back to the car and no, I did not have to tie it to the roof of our Subaru wagon.

It was a wonderful day, no reindeer in sight, and no  scary santas.  Just soft grey skies, glistening trees and us.  Just as we got in the car to head home the skies unleashed and it poured!!!

Grand Fir Infused Oil

Heat 1 cup mild flavored olive or other seed or nut oil in a shallow pan over medium-low heat.  Add in a good handful of clean, dry, Grand Fir twigs - no need to remove the needles from their tender stems just cut them to fit into the pan.  The oil will sizzle and the kitchen will fill with the sweet perfume of fir, kinda citrusy, kinda herby, very GREEN.  When the sizzling slows remove the fir twig from the oil taking care to not spatter hot oil on yourself.  Sometimes I add another batch and repeat the procedure for an extra strong foresty kick.  Do not let the needles brown or the oil become too hot or you’ll scorch the flavor. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the oil to cool to room temperature before decanting into a pretty glass bottle that will show off it’s emerald hue.  It is best to use this as a delicious condiment rather than as a cooking oil as heat will dissipate the flavor.  ENJOY!

Yes please!

It’s good that we have a national day for giving thanks…and stuffing more than just the bird.  I have so much to give thanks for and I try to remember that more often than on a single day in November.  But I will take this opportunity to declare thanks, “out loud”.

My past year “Planted at home” has brought me many blessings…good work, new friends, exciting opportunities and most of all, the privilege of being at home and present to and for my friends and family.  It’s been a year of travel, loss, adventure, health issues, stretching the comfort zone, and much laughter along with the tears.  The gift of time, at home - when needed - even when I’d rather be somewhere else, is precious beyond measure.

I am thankful for dear friends who support me, hold me up and cheer me on.  I’m rich beyond measure on my paupers pay.  Debra, Mary, Mary, Paula, Paula (yes, I have a lot of girlfriends with redundant names!), Sally, Terry - and the chance to reconnect with dear Lorraine.  Without getting too “running with wolves…” these people hold a place in my life and I trust them with my heart.

My family of 4 is together under one (tiny) roof for the first time in years.  Not always comfortable, peaceful or easy, oftentimes hectic, crowded and messy - I wouldn’t trade this experience for all the bedrooms and bathrooms in the cleanest house in the world.  To be all together at the dinner table when someone blows soup out their nose with laughter is my prize; with all our differences, we are so good together.

I’m grateful for the “rightness” of things that seem so wrong at the time.  From computers that blow up with deadlines closing in to caramel malfunctions.  In a serendipitous turn to last weekend’s Blue Skies and Betrayal, I discovered a delicious, albeit inadvertent recipe for salted toffee.  It would seem that if your (cheap) thermometer fails and you cook the sugar for too long…you get a lovely brick of toffee.

I’m still not ready to cut loose with my recipe, as I’ve clearly got some fine tuning to do, but steeping fresh bay leaves in the heavy cream before adding it to the molten sugar was genius!  In my frustration with the sugar-based building material that was my result, I had completely forgotten that I’d experimented in that way.  (I love bay-infused creamy desserts, rice pudding is another winner.)  The other night, I was working off steam and telling my woeful story (again) to my captive audience, i.e., my household, emphasizing my disappointment with a sharp crack on the counter with the parchment wrapped, (expensive) salt-laced brick of sugar.  To my surprise it broke quite easily - I had this stuff pegged as the next big breakthrough for NASA space shuttles repairs.  I tasted a small fragment and was further delighted to find I could actually chew it with my seriously-not-strong teeth…and, it was delicious!  Maybe I’ll have to add a small mallet to this year’s holiday candy basket and call it good.

One thing I never mess with - or fail with - is my Nana’s Texas Pecan Pie.  Brown, sugary, nutty and buttery - this is the HOLIDAYS for me (and my dad, and husband, and kids…)  It’s simple, soulful and reminds me so very much of the woman who loved me best in the world…until I had my daughter at which point she switched her allegiance to her!  This was explained to me politely, yet firmly some 22 years ago.  Nana has been gone since 2003, but lives on in her many, many family members.  Even today, as we grandchildren put together the annual extended family Christmas party our ideas must pass muster with our memories of Nana. 

Today, I’m thankful for pecans, butter, pastry and the love of a woman who made a wonderful pie.  Here you go, Happy Thanksgiving!

Nana’s Texas Pecan Pie

•  
  • 1 cup brown Karo syrup
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cube butter
  • 1 cup whole pecans

Preheat oven to 300 F.  Mix sugar, syrup, eggs and vanilla.  Add pecans.  Pour into an unbaked 9″ pastry shell (use your best all-butter recipe).  Slice butter thinly over the top of the pie and bake in the slow over for 1 hour.  Cool, cut and serve with barely sweetened, vanilla laced, whipped cream.

We have a custom in our house.  Every first day of school, the kids get their picture taken in front of the Blue Door.  Actually, most of the doors in our house are blue; “Blue Door Day” is code for Very Important Event.  School, athletic events, proms, finals, travel adventures - you know the sort.  There is generally much rolling of the eyes and impatient sighs…”mommmmm, I gotta go!”  But the real magic is when you line all the Blue Door shots up together.  Together they tell a story of the growth of a family.

This year we’re finding the Blue Door a little slippery.  My son is due at school (across town) at 7:10 AM!!!  To say that he is not a “morning person” is to call rain wet.  I’ve missed the opportunity to snap my BD shot these past two days as he’s lucky to even be dressed, equipped and mobile…feeding is optional. 

Today is my daughter’s first day student teaching.  Talk about the circle completing itself, from first day of Kindergarten to teaching!  We got the shot this morning.  (She was generous enough to have roommates take her BD pictures, minus the blue door, during the years she was off at college - see, she gets it!)  We’ll keep trying for the moving target that is Max flying out the (blue) door every morning around 6:45am!!!

I’m not what you would call a “helicopter mom”, ever hovering and orchestrating my kids’ daily lives - not even close.  In fact, I’m more apt to declare “stick a fork in her/him - she’s/he’s DONE!”  Well, Max is almost done, we do still have to get him out the door every morning for the next 9 months!!! 

It’s not necessarily an easy transition to watch your kids go out into an oh-so-flawed world.  It can cause a mother to cramp up with control (or lack thereof).  So, what do I do?  I go out into the garden, of course, where I can capture compositions of color and contrast and still a moment, caught in pixels, where everything works. 

In keeping with the Blue Door Day here are my snaps of garden blues:

A shade composition of Dichroa fibrifuga, or Blue Evergreen Hydrangea, and the finely cut, nearly turquoise blue foliage of Dicentra ‘Langtrees’, or Fringed Bleeding Heart.  The real WOW is still a month or so off when the blossoms of the Dichroa give way to 1/2″ metallic blue/purple berries that hold on the plant well into the winter.  A few dangling racemes of heart-shaped white flowers on the bleeding heart are still in bloom as they have been since early spring - now that’s a satisfying plant!  Note: Dicentra ‘Langtrees’ is apt to scuttle through a bed mingling and generally insinuating itself into the crown of everything nearby, as you see here.  Finally, the white leaf margins of Hosta ‘Regal Spendor’ brighten the dark green of the groundcover.

I’m all about the edibles…ornamental edibles are even better!  ‘Sunshine Blue’ Blueberry is a winner on so many accounts.  A dwarf plant, to about 3-4′, clothed in beautiful chalky blue evergreen foliage that takes on rich autumnal hints with cool weather.  Fat berries set in numbers - the plants are self-fertile - and taste like the sweet, tangy wild native blueberries of our Cascade mountains.  No bland, mealy berry on this star!  The plants have only been in the garden since May but already are earning their keep in so many delicious ways.  ‘Sunshine Blue’ was originally developed as a commercial crop but because the berries set underneath the canopy of leaves they were problematic to harvest and were not considered a success.  Factory farm loss is the homeowners win!!!  The berries are hidden from the birds and crop over a long period of time.  I can’t say enough wonderful things about this beautiful landscape plant.

Climbing Blueberry, or Billardiera longiflora, is not in fact a real blueberry but one can clearly see how it got the moniker! An evergreen vine to about 6′ that twines itself neatly up the railing of our back stairs.  Narrow dark green foliages remains clean throughout the year and shaggy, copious, somewhat nondescript limey-green flowers appear in May only to give way to these beauties in late summer.  Oh MY!  This is another one of those plants that, for all it’s relatively small dimensions, totally steals the show when it is in fruit!!!  Brilliant plantsmanship, clever compositions, vintage trailer be damned…  this little guy wins ‘em over every time.

Okay, technically more black than blue, but like I always say - a gal’s gotta eat!  The himalayan blackberries are ripe in the weedlots and greenbelts throughout the city.  Their perfumed, winey-tart flavor is our ONLY reward for fighting their wicked brambles and thorns all the rest of the months of the year!  A pernicious weed if there ever was one, thickets are quick to engulf empty lots, fences, and small buildings.  This is the Northwest’s Kudzu…only we can make a delightful jam from it’s fruit.  Truth be told, I would probably miss these thugs if we ever did erradicated them…which there is absolutly no chance of ever happening. 

The coming week promises to be sunny and warm.  Isn’t that always the way on the week the kids have to go back to school?!?  I think I’ll wander over to the greenbelt, pick some more berries and make some tarts, a nice treat to get us all over this seasonal hump.

I met the most wonderful blog the other day… Redwhiteandgrewblog.com is devoted to

“promoting the Victory Garden revival and other simple, earth-friendly endevors as bipartisan, patriotic acts in an age of uncertainty.” 

Go there - Go there often… In just one short week I have been inspired by the optimism and energy of this “growing” movement towards raising our own food.  It’s not just exciting - it’s of crucial importance and a simple act of independence and yes, patriotism in a country we can help to become.  The following definitions are from RWGblog: 

Meme:  “A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to MUTATION, CROSSOVER, and ADAPTATION.”  Source

Social Entrepreneurship: “A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society.” Source

So here’s my response to RWG’s challenge to talk about fall gardening (yeah, yeah, twist my arm!!!) 

Victory Garden Meme Questions

What are your favorite local garden resources:  Sentimental favorite - Emerald City Gardens, a tiny, quirky and passionately run nursery

What are your favorite books and magazines? 

1.  Northwest Garden News -  a regional resource for gardeners in Washington and Oregon. From publisher, Mary Guiterrez: “I want a love of gardening to be passed on to future generations. I believe that gardeners can, one backyard at a time, help to restore health to our planet. We can provide habitat for wildlife, restore lost trees, and create natural spaces for future generations to grow up in.”  full disclosure - I contribute on a regular basis
2. The Complete Guide to Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, by Steve Solomon: a classic for years now and one I always used to refer people to at the nursery for his clear, succinct and thorough explanation on soil science - the basis for ALL gardening success.
3. The Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord
4. The Art of French Vegetable Gardening by Louisa Jones - hey, a gal can pretend, right?

Truth be told, some of my best inspirational vegetable garden books are in fact Cookbooks. 

1. The Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld, former chef extraordinaire from the acclaimed Herbfarm Restaurant
2. Northwest Kitchen by Seattle cooking diva Kathy Casey
3. Unplugged kitchen, a return to the simple, authentic joys of cooking by Viana la Place - a delicious homage to fresh produce and seasonal eating.

(OK, now I’m hungry!)

What have you had success with growing in your (fall) garden? and When do you plant and harvest it?   Well, I’ve only just begin to plant for a fall garden.  What with our fitfully slow start to Spring this year, we’re barely into Summer!  What I have planted so far:

• Beets - beautiful in the ground (ever the sucker for ornamental edibles) and sweeeeeeet on the tongue
• Red mustard - again a beautiful plant that always bolts too quickly when spring planted but holds for months in the shortening, cooler days of autumn
• Arugula - again with the spring bolting, plus along with radishes (a favorite of our household for baguette and sweet butter sandwiches) you can’t beat arugula for instant germination gratification!
• Fava beans - of course - after harvesting my crop in late July I cut the plants back to about 12″ and added a fresh layer of compost.  The regrowth is already about 12″ tall, branched and flowering - can you say more, more, more!?!
• Black Kale - actually I sowed this seed some time ago between the rows of the Favas but it’s not been until the beans were cut down that the little seedlings have really put on some growth.  They should be eating size by late September and hold well into the winter.
• Kohlrabi - I always wonder when I’m moved to plant something I never even buy at the market but these are just too weird to pass by and in the course of my research writing The ECL Guide to Growing Vegetables (Sasquatch Books, due out in 2009) Kohlrabi just sounded too good to pass by, its’ taste a cross between a crisp radish and an apple (?) and perfect  for late summer sowing.

• Lettuces - I’ve really worked to keep some small cut-and-come-again crops coming on.  Usually we have lettuce for the world and then nada for the rest of the summer!
• Leeks - these have been in the ground since May but are sizing up and looking beautiful.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left leeks to flower - an amazing sight - and just bought leeks for the kitchen!
• Rainbow chard - spring planted transplants are still cranking out stems and leaves; a few plants are starting to bolt so I’m planning on cutting everything back fairly hard fava bean-style and going for a second crop that will produce throughout the fall.  Same goes with the sorrel plants.

What is your favorite gardening tip?  Grow it, kill it, know it!!!  I know it sounds glib but in spite of all the information I take in from books, magazines, and yes, blogs, it’s the hands-in-the-dirt successes and failures that stick and live another day to inform my next move.

• On a more practical level my friend Sally told me to regularly snip/mow my tiny patch of chamomile and use as an anti-fungal mulch my tomato plants - It works!!!
• Under “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘um”  - having long ago been handed down (red flag!!!) a division of  comfrey, and after repeated efforts to dig it up, bury it deep, or excavate the entire area to eradicate the beast (fail, fail, failed) I finally have made a tentative peace with the beast when I found out from my friend Willi on her weekly radio show on KUOW, our local NPR affiliate that comfrey also makes a great mulch in the veggie garden.  Check out Willi’s blog Diggin’Food.  I did a little more research and found that comfrey is as high in nitrogen as barnyard manure, with an NPK analysis of 8-3-20.

Why do you call your garden a _________ (Victory Garden, Peace Garden, Freedom Garden, vegetable garden…etc.)?  Definitely “Victory Garden”  I am a vintage ephemera nut with a definite retro streak so’ Victory Garden’ floats my boat on a lot of levels.  (check out these great public domain images from the Library of Congress and the University of North Texas)  I also think we do claim an independence and satisfaction when we produce for our own table and reconnect to the process and evolution of FOOD - I’d call that victorious!!!

So, there you have it my fair readers.  Plant one for the homeland!  I always say…

Plant the World, Grow Yourself!!!