Summer Dreaming

As the temperatures dip down, some photos from last summer:

Cooper Mountain Nature Hike

Spring in the air, baby plants in need of potting, a garden in need of attention, and yet I have been lured away by the sunshine and blooming nature. We've been getting out for hikes and nature walks almost every day. Recently we checked out Cooper Mountain and saw some of these:

A squirrel checking out a pine cone.

Flowering Lichen. Isn't it beautiful? I had never seen it before.

This trail has some gorgeous Oak trees. Although we noticed a parasitic vine growing up the side of a number of them and found out that it is Poison Oak. I want to go back in the summer and see the trees, but we'll be very careful!

These are Oak galls. A type of wasp lays it's eggs on the leaves of the Oak tree and the tree builds this shell around the egg to protect the tree from the wasp. The galls can be found scattered plentifully along the ground under the trees at this time of year.

Market Day Mashup

Going to the market makes a Saturday morning pleasure as often as we can manage it. My kids take turns accompanying me as a market assistant. They enjoy it and learn more about food and farming. It's fun to see the different foods they pick out. The Portland Farmers Market opens every Saturday all year long, and Beaverton also recently started a winter farmers market. We'll go exploring there soon!

A couple treats from yesterdays market:

Oh My! A nutella filled croissant from Fresson, a german bakery in Portland. It makes me happy just thinking about this little pocket of lusciousness. You have to go early because they sometimes run out.

My sweet boy took me completely by surprise this week. He told me he needed to do something on his own and would catch up with me. When he found me he handed me this bouquet of daffodils.

Our haul for this week:

Decided to splurge and buy the big half gallon of raw honey. Lot's of greens, leeks, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, eggs, carrots, fennel, cabbage, goat cheese, a brie type cheese, honey sticks and pretzels from Fresson, plus yummy frozen soup from our favorite soup lady at Souper Natural. We love the tomato basil and this week are trying the potato bacon cheddar and caribbean stew.

I'll close with another sign of spring:

The tulip trees are budding!

Aquaponics Tour

Thanks to a homeschooling friend, we had the chance to visit Mountainside Lavender Farm just outside of Hillsboro for a tour of their aquaponics system. They have Catfish, Koi and Tilapia in their tanks. The plants in the green house were so lush and huge! However, the system seems fairly labor heavy with constant monitoring and lots of adjustments needed. It also requires an energy source to keep the tanks heated and the pumps working. You need a back up as well because if the power goes out for too long, you can lose your fish. I would love to have an aquaponics system someday but will have to seriously consider the requirements. Best tips: use a chop system, and bigger is easier (a 100 gallon system is better).

Here is one of the growing medium tanks. To the left, just outside the photo, is a big tank with fish in it. The water pumps through a filter into this tank and then on to others. The little balls are hydroton clay pellots. There are red worms and little snails living in this tank amongst the hydroton.

One of the fish tanks. Many of these tanks were built by hand.

Stacking herb gardens: some of these will be going to Portland restaurants filled with basil.

These beds are not connected to the system but are for root vegetables, like carrots, and others that need a place. They do get some of the nutrient rich water poured in by hand (if I remember correctly).

They grow a number of varieties of lavender here and have a gorgeous view of Mount Hood. We'll be going back this summer to pick lavender. Anyone can visit and tour the aquaponics system during the regular u-pick lavender season, early June through July. They also have some pygmy goats. http://www.mountainsidelavender.com/index.html

Adventures in Microgreens

Yesterday I enlisted the help of my kids to thin out the lettuce and kale seedlings, wash and trim them, and put together a salad for lunch. They also trimmed out the extra tomato and herb seedlings. For the salad, they chopped up kale and leafy green lettuce and tossed them with the microgreens. My daughter added feta and sunflower seeds, a honey lemon dressing and tossed it up. We loved it and it felt so good to see my kids eating a super healthy, freshly picked salad. Looking forward to more of that this year.

This job required concentration.

Plucking out the microgreens.

Washed and Trimmed

Salad!

Back Up and Growing!

It has been way too long! I'm feeling all my gardening energy coming back and I'm posting way too many pictures on Facebook, so I'm going to resurrect 42 Poppies. There are four trays of little seedlings growing under lights in my closet and a box full of seeds, sorted and ready to go, waiting in the garage. I'm feeling a little confused by the weather though. The garden is sprouting and growing as if it's March or April. As if it's spring already! Here are a couple photos.

My potato fairy has been hard at work.

The Creeping Susan is such a bright beautiful green.

Flowers blooming everywhere!

Fall is starting..

All the classic signs of fall are starting to show. The spiders are spinning big, thick webs outside and many are attempting to come into the house. The geese are flocking up and flying around in big formations. The potatoes and peas are well past their prime. My garden is vastly huger than I could have imagined it would become back in June.

This year our peas, potatoes, and onions did very well. The onions were a triumph for me because I kept planting them all the way under the dirt and getting small little onions. This year I planted some starts half way under and they are now gorgeous and brown and bulging out of the ground. I'm going to pull them out soon. I have a good cherry tomato and pear tomato crop coming and our blueberries and pears are having their best year ever.

It's time to plant the fall crops of kale, lettuce, carrots and beets. I'm considering plant fava beans all over for winter color, a nutrient soil refresh, and because I will be gone in the early spring and won't be fretting to have them out of the ground until I get back in March.