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Winter Garden Food Tour

 

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This morning seven of us women started at Parsley Farm, had a good look around at the winter crops, and then mosied over to Mary’s who is also utilizing every square inch of her yard to grow food.   Mary shared her folksy water storage idea using plastic bladders from wine boxes.

We moved on down the road to check out Anna’s expansive first year garden, and learn her trick of digging her food waste right into her garden beds.  We crossed over to Val’s and learned about her goal of making a wildlife habitat and then ended at Annya’s place where she taught us how to pack in lots of fruit and veggies in a small space.

These kinds of informal, small scale, neighbor to neighbor sharings really make my day.

Even though it’s our time to rest, just like our garden beds, here are some resources if you get to thinking about next season’s garden.

Excellent organic seeds at a good price:

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/

King County’s Free soil testing program:

http://www.kingcd.org/pro_far_soi.htm

King County’s manure share program:

http://www.kingcd.org/programs-farm-manure.htm

Year round Garden Hotline:

www.gardenhotline.org  206-633-0224

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The Cleaning Cure

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Have you ever had the experience of waiting for those precious few days when your partner will be away, and then finally you are alone? This morning Craig left to visit Indian Bob over the Christmas holiday so finally I had the solitude I’d been waiting for to start rewriting the first chapter of my memoir.

Well, of course, instead of sitting down to write, I had to clean the space first.  That’s not too avoidant, it’s practically a norm for writers to clean their space as a first attempt to clear their head before banging it up against their subject matter. But when I decided to make DIY household cleaning supplies, I knew I was really getting off my mark.

The reality is I’ve been putting off making these simple, totally non-toxic, effective and inexpensive cleansers for about as long as I’ve been putting off rewriting chapter one.  As it turned out, spending the very few minutes it took to make an All Purpose Spray Cleaner and a Soft Scrub cleanser, using Seattle writer Raleigh Briggs’ very cool book, Make Your Place, affordable, sustainable nesting skills, triggered an all out, clean every white surface in sight siege.  Raleigh Briggs offers excellent non-toxic solutions for household cleansers so her book is a small and very worthwhile investment.  She uses basic and inexpensive ingredients like baking soda, vinegar and essential oils among other simple ingredients, and enough practical hands on tips to make all conscientious homemakers succeed at using non-toxic cleansers as a first choice.

This is my favorite recipe for making a soft scrub for cleaning bathtubs and sinks:

1 c baking soda

3-5 drops tea tree oil (other oils are fine too – lemon, eucalyptus, peppermint)

¼ c liquid castile soap

2 aspirins, powdered

Mix all ingredients together and add enough water to make a paste. Keep in a shampoo bottle or small Tupperware container.  To use, apply with a sponge, scrub and rinse thoroughly.

Now back to the clean white page.

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Birthday Buddies

Machelle and Ganga

I don’t understand the grand cycles, but I had an inkling that the combo effect of the end of the Mayan calendar and the winter solstice landing on the same date (December 21st) was significant.  However, on that day, I felt no great shift except that something extraordinary did in fact happen: a shopping outing with Claudia to Costco where I bought five new toothbrush heads for my Sonicare diamond clean toothbrush.  If that isn’t a defiant act of optimism on the day the world might end, I don’t know what is.  But I didn’t witness any collective transformation in consciousness as we waited in long lines to check out at Costco.

It wasn’t until the next day, December 22nd, which is the shared birthday of Machelle and Ganga that I noticed there might indeed have been some galactic gearshift going on.  The day started with twelve friends gathering at Margaret and Machelle’s for delicious homemade soups (dal and chicken noodle) and croissant sandwiches before we headed out to Cougar Mountain for a hike.  The early morning rainy skies cleared for the few hours we buoyantly bobbed along in small groupings on well-marked trails through a moist and gorgeous Northwest forest.

Later that evening that same crowd and more friends gathered at Ganga’s house for festivities: dancing, live music and non-stop laughing.    Even though December 22nd marked Machelle’s and Ganga’s birthdays, an official new year for them; it also felt like their joint celebration was somehow driving larger cogs towards a more joyful transmission as our collective New Year approaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihydca1stOE&feature=youtu.be

 

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A Real Gift

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Maybe many of you struggle like I do when it comes around to finding a good gift for your mother on her birthday.  Maybe you feel that phantom umbilical cord twist into knots in your belly as the date gets nearer.  Finding a good gift for a woman who has historically said she needs nothing has always been a challenge, but now that she is turning 88 years old and living in a nursing home, it’s even harder to find a gift that could bring some happiness. Because she is nearly totally paralyzed, whole categories of gift ideas just won’t work in her situation, and there just aren’t many exciting products on the market for severely handicapped people.  She, like many other elders, is holed up in her room, often left alone for hours, and without her own ability to manipulate anything besides her TV remote, phone and call button.

As her birthday was rounding the bend, with just six days from the due date, I decided on sending her (via Amazon) the first four seasons of the TV series, Curb Your Enthusiasm.  I remembered sitting besides her watching these early episodes as she nearly choked from laughing so hard at David Larry’s mishagas so I thought she might enjoy re-watching this TV show.  The one thing my mom can do without any help is laugh.

On the same day I ordered her gift from Amazon, I spoke with my mother by phone.  In the last month or so, she has been largely confined to her bed and reflecting on old friends whom she hasn’t been in touch with for decades.  A week ago, I goggled one of those friends who actually lived nearby in Florida only to find out she had died recently.  When I relayed the news to my mother, she said, “Too late.”

On this day, she mentioned Phyllis; a friend from high school who she thought lived in Connecticut.  My mother has always had a good memory for the details of people’s lives: how many children they had, their husband’s name and occupation, where they raised their families. I goggled her high school friend’s name and found a Phyllis living in Connecticut who was the same age as my mother so I called her.  When I introduced my mission and myself over the phone, Phyllis said with excitement, “Lynn Cutler, oh my God, I remember Lynn as clear as day.  We were very good friends!”

In the course of the conversation, I gathered some details of Phyllis’ life that I would later share with my mother, and found out that Phyllis’ birthday was on December 12th, a day before my mother’s birthday. My mother was equally excited to talk with Phyllis so I arranged for these two old friends to connect by phone on their birthdays with the help of a translator for my mother since her speech is impaired from her stroke.

Finally, I gave a real gift.  It makes me very happy that my mother can connect with an old friend who holds a memory of her as whole and healthy, and in spite of their current limitations due to age, the two of them can still celebrate their 88th birthday with each other.

Yeah, that’s great, but what am I going to get her next year?

 

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Double Happiness

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Amy and I have been meeting at Elliot Bay Book Company on Wednesdays from 10 am to 12 pm for over a year.  Each week while sipping Genmaicha tea, we critiqued a chapter from each other’s memoir until finally both of us completed our manuscripts in August.  Amy had a deadline of August 12th to complete her memoir; a year prior, at her wedding ceremony, she promised her new bride, Jeri, a completed manuscript on their first year anniversary.   Amy’s memoir,An Ex-Pat’s Wife, is about the year the adventurous couple spent living in London on an ex-pat assignment.

In An Ex-Pat’s Wife, Amy exuberantly embraces the wife role even though as a couple, they hadn’t yet sanctified their relationship with a private wedding ceremony, nor did they have the legal sanction to do so. Through all her daily devotionals, from vacuuming to making pumpkin bread to waiting long hours alone in their flat while Jeri worked 16-hour days as a corporate executive, Amy, as a wife, brings both dignity and credit to her female lineage. However, Amy, an emotionally fearless writer, also exposes her struggle to find self-value and worth in the traditional support role, a common struggle for straight and gay wives alike.

On the evening of December 5th, Amy and Jeri headed to the Seattle municipal courthouse alongside hundreds of other gay couples and applied for their marriage license.  They were 36th in line.  The media descended on these two celebrating beauties that night; photographs of them, with Amy in her original wedding veil from their private wedding ceremony in 2011 were routed throughout national wire services.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/washington-gay-marriage-law_n_2266574.html

http://www.theprovince.com/life/Supreme+Court+takes+same+marriage+first+time/7669809/story.html#axzz2EfaDHnu7

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/06/166662086/photos-in-washington-a-historic-day-gay-marriage-marijuana-are-legal

http://www.lfpress.com/2012/12/08/mass-gay-weddings-now-legal-expected-in-washington-state

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Gregoire-sign-gay-marriage-law-182281251.html?tab=video&c=y

A few days later, I was not surprised to receive notice that Jeri and Amy were having a flash wedding ceremony at 9 am on December 9th, the first official day for same-sex marriages in Washington, at Elliott Bay Book Company.  In the prior twenty-four hours, the wedding came together through the generous and spontaneous support of their Seattle community. Elliott Bay Book Company donated the use of the bookstore, Bakery Nouveau donated a wedding cake, Kan Flowers donated florals, Barrier Mercedes Benz arranged for a videographer, Jill Marie Denckla Smith donated complete make-up services and Cicada Bridal outfitted Amy with a dress.  Their officiant, Annemarie Juhlian, who had performed their ceremony in 2011, and renewed their vows in 2012, was the first to commit to the joyous celebration.

Of course, it was entirely appropriate to have their wedding at the bookstore because with the passage of Referendum 74, a new chapter is being written in history as same-sex marriages are legalized in the state of Washington.  And of course, Elliott Bay Book Company is the place where, week after week, Amy had the safety and comfort to continue her reflections on what being a wife means to her.  Her narrative is of enormous importance, because although she identified her sexual orientation in her teens, she came of age as a wife at a pivotal time in history when same-sex couples can be legally bound in marriage.  Amy and Jeri will not be excluded from the rituals and social benefits of having one’s union be affirmed by their community and state.  They are legal.  They are wife and wife.

As Amy and Jeri tearfully took their vows on the stairs of Elliot Bay Book Company, their guests wept with them.  Their love, mature and deep, sealed and codified, inspired everyone who witnessed them that morning.  Books are written of such powerfully loving women who stood on alters, platforms, stages or street corners to gain their civil rights.

After the ceremony, Jeri shared their personal call to action.  She and Amy, through being their best selves, want to improve the institution of marriage. With women like Amy and Jeri, same-sex marriage looks doubly durable and twice as adorable.

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Rice Currency

img.phpSouthend Sake for sale this Saturday (Dec. 8th) at the Rainier Beach Community Club Holiday Bazaar located at VFW, 6038 S. Pilgrim Street, Seattle, 10a.m.-2p.m.

A few years ago we came under the tutelage of sake master, Ten Ridlon.  Ten passed on all the technicalities and timing of adding the primary ingredients (water, rice, koji and yeast) over a forty-five day period.  When rice and koji are introduced gradually into the fermentation, at repeated intervals, the yeasts produce alcohol at higher concentrations than any other type of fermented alcohol. It took awhile for us to acquire our own mastery over these few ingredients, but now we are making consistent delicious batches of Shiboritate Namazake Genshu Nigori Sake.

Let me explain these Japaenese terms:

Shiboritate means that it was just pressed.  The sake we are selling on Saturday was pressed on Thursday night.

Namazake is a sake that has not been pasteurized.  It has a live culture of probiotics, which requires refrigerated storage and has a shorter shelf-life than pasteurized sake.

Genshu is undiluted sake.  Most sake is diluted with water after brewing to lower the alcohol content, but genshu is not.

Nigori is cloudy sake.  The sake is passed through a loose mesh to separate it from the mash.  It isn’t filtered thereafter and there is much rich sediment in the bottle.  Before serving, the bottle is shaken to mix the sediment and turn the sake white or cloudy.

Unlike beer, sake, fermented rice wine, tastes more nutritive, and its sparkly, clean disposition reminds you that it is very much alive. I only drink it in tiny sips due to its high alcoholic content however; Craig enjoys sake with most meals.  As grill master, he especially enjoys using it as a main ingredient for his moistening marinades for fish, pork and chicken.  I use sake kasu, or sake lees, the remaining solids that were pressed from the liquid sake, for pickling, and experimentally in cooking.  I also use it as a face mask.

In 8th century Japan, rice grains were traditionally used as a commodity, a means of currency.  At Parsley Farm, we would like to continue trading in grain and we encourage our neighbors to develop their own mediums for currency so we can have a very vibrant and alive marketplace in Upper Rainier Beach.

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Raw Sprouted Buckwheat Granola

tumblr_mejikgAR1Y1ra92m5When fall turns to winter, we all start looking for our sugar fixes.  We seem to have a physiologic insistence for heavier, denser food, specifically in the form of carbohydrates.  For Craig and I, that urge hit on December 1st.  For the most part, we eat the Paleolithic diet, which consists of raw foods, cooked vegetables and grilled meat.  I occasionally eat quinoa but generally no grains, starches, dairy or refined sugars. The benefit of this kind of diet is my lymphoma stays in remission. I also have no ups and downs in terms of weight gain or energy level, and have zero food cravings.  Reason enough to keep me on the straight and narrow, and feel good about it.

Craig has adapted well to this way of eating although he seems to have more carbohydrate requirements than I do.  He occasionally eats some flat breads and rice, but it is fairly minimal. But when I saw him return from a food-shopping trip with packaged pancake mix, I knew it was time to build more carbohydrates into our winter diet.  Lately, I also noticed myself prowling the kitchen on the hunt for a snack at night.  My usual snack of celery and peanut butter wasn’t cutting it.

Although there are fantastic raw food desserts recipes to choose from for a high protein/low glycemic sugar fix, I tend to make raw sprouted granola as my snack of choice because it has just the right heft and crunch factor for my tastes. After pouring myself a heap of granola into a bowl, I add coconut or almond milk and call it good. Craig, well, he might not be as easily satisfied with raw sprouted granola as I am.  I can hear him now crying out in his best grumpy old man imitation, “Where’s my pie?”

Why bother with soaking and sprouting grains?   Because when grain is soaked in water, it ferments which helps to pre-digest it.  And when the grain is sprouted, its nutrient (Vit B, C and protein) content is increased, and its enzymes are intact.

Raw Sprouted Granola

2 cups sprouted buckwheat (soak buckwheat overnight, drain and let sit in a colander until a sprout forms to the length of the grain.

1 cup almonds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

1 cup sunflower seeds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

8 – 10 dates (soaked and pureed)

½ cup coconut flakes (optional)

1/3 cup coconut oil

¼ cup maple syrup (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon

½  tsp salt

Optional: You can add walnut, cashews, and pumpkin seeds.

Mix all the ingredients together.  Dehydrate at 105 degrees until crunchy (12hrs). Add dried apricot or other dried fruits if you wish.  Store in a glass Mason jar.

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My Best Framer

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My best framer is my best friend, Anna Sher.  Since we were eighteen years old, I have relied on Anna’s discernment and emotional acuity to help define myself through the years.  Under her keen designer’s eye, I have become more refined, truer, and (not to mention) better dressed. Because my best friend, who lives just a few blocks away, is  an ornamental metal artist, I also enjoy the benefits of her skills at external framing.  She has created much of the infrastructure that gives contempory definition to our home: custom hand forged metal gates, custom steel table tops, picture frames, wall ornamentation and a spice rack for our outdoor kitchen. Over the years, Anna has always given me the physical fix on the internal and external design issues that felt incurable to me.

Once, while at a yard sale, I felt compelled to rescue the family photos of perfect strangers that were being sold in a cardboard box for ten dollars.  One particular bundle of photos of a Japanese family, perfectly preserved in their original heavy weight paper matting, pulled at my heart. On the back of each photo, written in pencil were the idenifiers: greatgrandmother, grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, aunt and uncle. They needed a home. It was Anna who returned the dignity of their lineage by building them a sancturary in a septych. This family now resides in my acupuncture office. By adopting this familly as my surrogate ancestors, I can honor the influence of Japanese style acupuncture in my work.

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Because I am more of an earth type, I have always been awed by Anna’s command over the elements, metal and fire.  How she transforms raw steel through heating, pounding and grinding into a form that offers function and aesthetic, is a marvel to me.

You can see Anna’s large commercial installations of her extravagantly wicked custom fabricated iron work at all the Matador restaurants.  Her many gorgeous and curvaceous botanically inspired gates and railings mark perimeters of residences and businesses throughout the Puget Sound area.  Right now, Anna is getting ready to show her smaller scale interior design work (custom picture frames, spice racks, etc.) and take custom orders on Dec. 8th. at the Rainier Beach Community Club Holiday Bazaar at the VFW on 6038 S Pilgrim St., Seattle from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

I will be sitting at the table beside my best friend selling homemade sake.    We’ll be there side by side, expressing our native, elemental natures…always best friends.

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