Megan's Car

Granddaughter Megan got a car today. Congratulations!
She thought this day would never come. Yet daughter Jeni, she said she "hoped" the day would never come.

Now, if only there was time for a road trip . . . to visit grandma . . .

Apples and Plums

In the drizzle the orchard appeared even more plush and beautiful and I carefully climbed onto the ladder to pick that first apple. They were yellow transparent apples, malus domestica. Said to have originated in Russia and introduced in the United States sometime during the late 1800s, this variety is often found in old family orchards or in old farm fields but are not that common in orchards today or at the farmers market. Transparent apples, maturing in mid-summer rather than the fall, make absolutely the best applesauce, and are said to make a great pie filling too. They really are quite the summer treat!
The orchard was well established and filled with many other varieties of apple trees, prune, pear and peach trees and several different kinds of plums. Wet from the rain, some branches were so heavy with fruit that they drooped to the ground and I knelt down on the wet grass as I filled bags with juicy ripe plums for making into jam later.Running along one side of the orchard is California Creek. Several miles in length, the creek flows into Drayton Harbor. Beautiful even on a rainy day, after picking the fruit we walked down to the shore where I was invited to return another day to paddle their canoe for a closer look at the creek. Later, in my kitchen, I took a look at all the fresh fruit I had harvested and knew I'd better get to work.
Starting with the apples, I made up a large pan of applesauce. Cooking up fast into a rich and creamy texture, these yellow transparent apples probably made the best applesauce I've ever tasted. Filling several tubs of applesauce for my freezer, I also enjoyed a bowl while it was still slightly warm. Its flavor, naturally sweet yet slightly tarte. Yum! Next I'll try a pie, then make more sauce with the rest of the apples. After that, I'll be making plum jam.

Here's a quick photo tour of the orchard and creek.

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Yellow Transparent Apple - Applesauce

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12 Cups chopped apple pieces (approximately)

2 Cups water

1 Cup sugar

1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon

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Wash, peel, core and cut yellow transparent apples into large chunks. Place in large pan with two cups of water. Cook over medium heat for approximately fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apple mixture cooks down, becoming thick and creamy. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Serve warm or chilled. Applesauce will keep for up to one year in the freezer.

Sea Cauliflower

Exploring the beach at both Boulevard Park and Marine Park during the maiden voyage of a friend's new kayak, I found this cool sea cauliflower, officially called Leathesia Difformis, attached to a rock. Considered a sea weed, I expected it to be a bit squishy when touched, but instead it felt firm and started to break apart. Here's the kayak on the beach at Boulevard Park, ready to get wet for the first time.

From the Bellingham Cruise Terminal at the Port of Bellingham, you can see the Coast Guard ship docked with Fairhaven as the backdrop.

More kayakers off Marine Park with a Lummi Island backdrop.

More pics!

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Blooms in the Garden and the Lake

We all like blooms in the garden and know that soon after comes wonderful fresh vegetables. But what about blooms in a lake? And what if that lake is your water supply? After weeks of record setting heat, a severe algae bloom developed in Lake Whatcom and the water filtration system became so clogged at the Water Treatment Plant making it impossible to produce enough water for our community. First voluntary water restrictions were imposed and then manditory.

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Consequently, even though we're back to voluntary water restrictions, maintaining two gardens has become rather challenging. The little Cordata raised-bed garden is fried, toasted. The garden spots there are small, like raised flower beds and a new garden to the community this year. Initially the beds were filled with too many layers of cardboard and then several inches of a poor quality soil. In spite of all the hard work the neighborhood has put in, as with all new gardening efforts, it will take several more growing seasons for these gardens to become established enough to produce a healthy vegetable crop.

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Some of the gardeners put in plant starts from local nurseries or those that they had started at home earlier in the season, and others started their gardens with seeds. Regardless of how their plants were started, most of the little gardens at the Cordata Gardens have grown extremely slow with many plants suffering some sort of strange dwarfism. Built with treated lumber, the soil in the beds may even have trace amounts of wood-preserving chemicals leaching into the soil as well.

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The plants there, already stressed from just the general conditions at the garden, hardly had a chance once the weather turned so extremely hot. Add the extreme algae bloom in the lake with first a voluntary and then a manditory water restriction imposed, it's really no surprise that the Cordata garden is pretty much finished for the season - already! Other gardeners there have expressed that they have experienced similar results, and for many of us, it really has been a rather disappointing experience.

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Yet at the Happy Valley Gardens, in spite of extreme hot temperatures and water rationing, all gardens seem to thrive. Even by watering my garden spot there only one time each week during this period of extremely hot summer heat and imposed water restrictions, my garden remains healthy. Planted one month after I planted the Cordata garden, my Happy Valley garden continues to grow fast and produces more and more vegetables for my table each day. This garden is a success!

The pea vines are absolutely loaded, and soon I will have way more peas than one girl can possibly eat!
Full of blooms and baby cucumbers, I should have an abundance of garden fresh English cucumbers to share before long as well.

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More pics from the Happy Valley garden today.

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What's my plan to help my Happy Valley garden continue to thrive if there is another algae bloom at the lake and we have another mandatory water rationing? I cleaned out that recycled olive barrel that's been sitting there in my garden spot and filled it full today.

What's being done to protect Lake Whatcom? Contact People for Lake Whatcom to find out.

Cruisin

Remember Huey? And Gwenneth?

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Cruisin, I love it!