Plant Starts, Lavender Lemonade, and Cookies at Sky Nursery

Who would guess Sky Nursery is a food connection? But with the currant gardening and cooking local craze, Sky Nursery is doing a booming business. And now that Sky Nursery has a huge brand new greenhouse, they've upped their organic vegetable plant starts. They also have a cool seminar room where they offer free weekly seminars in the spring and fall. (If you click on the store link and check out the Web site, you can get a $5.00 store coupon.)

First off, I have to say that I love that Sky Nursery is a longtime customer of Rent's Due Ranch in Stanwood, just northwest of Everett. They've been buying Rent's Due plant starts for years. JoanE McIntyre from Rent's Due Ranch is one of my favorite summer farmers and I can't wait for her to return to the U-District Market. I heard a rumor earlier this season that one of Rent's Due greenhouses caved in after wicked storm, which is sad because plant starts is a big part of their farm business. JoanE and husband, Michael Shriver sell most of these starts to nurseries and PCC Natural Markets.

The variety of organic local kales, lettuce, beets, tomatoes, and other vegetables at Sky Nursery is simply amazing. You can't go there without coming out with at least one box full of these garden treasures.

After checking out the plant starts, I headed over to the seminar room where my friend Kathy Gehrt was presenting a workshop on container gardening and cooking with herbs. By the time I arrived, there were hardly any seats left. Lavender lemonade and chocolate chip cookies were on a table near the back of the event and both quickly disappeared as more and more people showed up. Kathy shared lots of gardening and cooking tips. Check out Kathy's blog for her herb gardening tips.

Here is Kathy's easy lavender lemonade recipe from Discover Cooking with Lavender:

Lavender Lemonade

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup dried lavender buds or 1/2 cup fresh lavender blossoms

1 12-ounce can frozen lemonade

2 cups cold water

1. Add lavender buds or blossoms to boiling water and let mixture steep for 20 minutes.

2. Strain mixture to remove lavender buds or blossoms, then set aside the lavender infused water and let it cool to room temperature.

3. Add the frozen lemonade and 2 cups cold water to the cooled lavender-infused water.

4. Mix well and serve.

It's so easy to make and the added flavor of lavender is heavenly. Check out Kathy's book Discover Cooking with Lavender for more great tips and recipes and look for her events at nurseries and bookstores this summer. Many independent bookstores, gift stores and some nurseries are getting on the lavender bandwagon with this great little cookbook.

Check out my other blog for some great book marketing tips.

40 farms, 201 Recipes and Countless Photo Rejects

Name droppers are so annoying, and now I've become one. After indexing all the people, farms and small towns, I realized every other page contained a farmer or farm name. These farm names were tucked in profiles, recipe headers and produce descriptions. Just how many farmers had I mentioned in 259 pages?

Twenty-one farm profiles, 40 farms mentioned, 201 recipes and a Northwest produce guide with 63 vegetables and 26 fruits. When I started this project, I'd wanted to create a cookbook with multiple uses. Some might like the recipes, some the profiles but the produce descriptions are something a person could refer to endlessly.

I also wanted this to be a book about farms and food not slick food photos. The publisher requested 50. I agreed before I bought a decent camera. I quickly learned, a good photograph wasn't just about clicking shutters, and when it came to getting 50 photos accepted, I begged and borrowed from farmers, beekeepers and friends for the rest. Luckily people came through and saved me.

Some of the "rejects" didn't make the final cut. I'll show you just a few.

The picture above was taken last winter near Skagit River, on the north side of Mount Vernon when the river had reached the top of its banks. I thought it was perfect at the time, now it looks lonely, a little sad.



This one below was cut when one editor thought too many dogs were in one chapter. Suzy Fry's dog, Zeus, made it in. But perhaps Buzz, this farm dog from Rent's Due Ranch on a giant compost pile wasn't exactly fodder for a cookbook.



Check out all the brown dirt behind Buzz--it's finished organic compost--the secret of Rent's Due Ranch's awesome produce. What I wouldn't give for just one truckload of this compost for my garden. Just gazing at this compost pile gets me thinking about the giant heads of cauliflower, crunchy romaine and succulent blueberries that show up from Rent's Due Ranch at the University District Market in the summer.

Another reject was this big bin at Rent's Due Ranch. The farm name looks like it's stamped over another farm's name. I love it because farmers make use of everything. The day I visited the farm, JoanE was braiding garlic to sell at the market and they were waiting for a produce pick up from PCC Natural Markets. JoanE told me PCC picks-up produce from them three a week during the summer.

This version of my book also includes Oregon farms and I drove to southern Oregon twice in the summer of 2008. What a kick it was just visiting farmers markets, sampling produce, looking for farmers to profile.

On the second trip, I visited Whistling Duck Farm near Grant's Pass. I found the farm from the Ashland Co-op produce department, and I met Mary Alionis at the Medford farmers' market. Vince and Mary Alionis partner with their neighbor Dr. Watson whose family took up beekeeping as a hobby. The bees spend time at Whistling Duck Farm, boosting the berry harvest in the summer. What's the beehive photo missing? A few bees maybe? I do think Josh Nettlebeck of Tahuya River Apiaries had better bee photos and I'm glad his were included.

Finally, these succulent huckleberries were also rejects. I recall standing in line for these and a very pregnant woman was in front of me. We traded stories, laughed, and both bought extra berries that day.

What inspires your photography?

Food finds in Skagit Valley: Rosabella's Garden Bakery and Skagit Valley Co-op

For a nostalgic autumn getaway, I head north to Rosabella's Garden Bakery at 8933 Farm to Market Road in Bow, Washington. Owned and run by Rose Ella Merritt, this barn-like farm store is like stepping into the past with aroma of freshly made apple pastries, cider doughnuts, and Rose's signature 5-pound apple pie. But the store wasn't always part of this farm's plan.

When foreign frozen juices from China and Brazil flooded the market in the 1990s and falling wholesale apple prices bit another chunk out of hard-earned profits, Rose Merritt didn't give up. This charming farm store was her idea for saving husband Allan Merritt's apple farm.

Allen Merritt grew up in Skagit Valley. He always knew he wanted to farm and says that when he was young, farms were everywhere. Farming in Skagit Valley was booming back then. Apple, berry, row crop and dairy farms defined Skagit Valley. Allen lived down the road from Judy Jensen who now helps run Golden Glen Creamery an artisan butter and cheese company that sustains her family's dairy farm. Rose Merritt said she traveled to other farms and learned what they were doing to help preserve their farms as wholesale food prices plummeted.

Once you pull into the lot and head towards the store, check out the variety of apples in baskets and bins on the old fashioned front porch before stepping inside. Once inside, I'm immediately transported back to the 1950s with the colorful green, orange and yellow Formica tables. Shelves and pantries are lined with pickled green tomatoes, country corn relish, quince jelly, gooseberry preserves and blackcurrant jam--most are products with the Rosabella's Garden Bakery label. The fragrance of home baked apple strudel, tarts, cider doughnuts wafts through the air.

I suddenly got a craving for pie when I spied Rose's 5 pound apple pie. It's almost too perfect to eat.

I couldn't resist trying one of Rose's apple tarts with steaming coffee. This day trip is the perfect ticket to cheer up the rainy day blahs. I browsed the store, checking out cards, cookbooks and gadgets. I bought Rosabella's jalapeno mustard, habanero salsa and a trio of berry and cherry preserves. I also got a couple bottles of Skagit Fresh sparkling blueberry juice.

Skagit Fresh, was started by Allen and three other local farmers as a way of selling more of their fresh fruit. Other flavors besides blueberry include: blackberry, strawberry and raspberry. The three farmer company launched their sparkling juices in 2008, right before the stock market collapsed and the country experienced one of the worst economic years since the Great Depression.

Sales for the sparkling juices are picking up, with store after local store carrying it. (Get it at PCC Natural Markets in Seattle and the Bellingham Co-op in Bellingham.) Allan says he's learned how big companies like Pepsi pay more money and get better shelf space. Skagit Valley Co-op in Mount Vernon also carries it. I stopped there before heading home.

Skagit Valley Co-op carries lots of local products--produce from Ralph's Greenhouse, Mother Flight Farm and Gibb's Organic Produce to local bakeries like like The Bread Farm that makes the best breads in Washington. I'm crazy about their Skagit Valley potato bread. You can also get local cheese like those made by Golden Glen Creamery. The co-op's deli is always busy, and if you want to do your holiday shopping in one stop, check out the mercantile department on the upper level for more local products, including my book.

The revised edition, published by Timber Press and due out in spring 2010, includes a profile of Allen and Rose's farm and store and includes Rose's Apple Crumble Pizza Pie, as well as long-time Skagit Valley Co-op mercantile manager Cheryl Harrison's Nut Cake recipes.

Farmland is for food

I delivered some of my cookbooks Local Vegetarian Cooking to Nash's Farm Store (http://www.nashsorganicproduce.com/) last Friday. I love to read on the ferry and I look forward to seeing the familiar signboard right before I get to Nash's farm store. This time it welcomed community members to check out the "far out" produce this farm delivers. I smiled thinking of the tye dye shirts that advertise Nash's farm for sale in the rustic store. They're planning on moving the store to an old dairy building on their property not far away, hopefully next spring. The store has a rustic charm. Part of it is under canvas with a dirt floor right now and this time of year Nash's farmers are busy trying to keep up with the harvest.

It's fun to see what's new in the farm store, and this time I spotted figs on the front table. "Does Nash grow these too?" I'd asked. "No," said the young man behind the counter. "A farmer down the road grows them." Four figs for two dollars. I couldn't resist and I got two baskets. I like to look around and see the different things from other local farmers and artisans in their store.

In the outside room was a big sign about protecting local farmland and advertising a local farmland organization, Friends of the Fields (http://www.friendsofthefields.org/). Their goal is "To preserve and protect sustainable agriculture in Clallam County, Washington, ensuring the availability of local food and the quality of life that our rural setting provides." I donated on my way our and you can too even if you don't go to the store. Just go to the website and read about their goals and the farm they're saving. Nash Huber won the prestigeious "Land Steward of the Year," (http://www.farmland.org/programs/award/default.asp by American Farmland Trust, the premeir organization for saving farmland nationwide. Check out his story at their website, then click onto the Friends of the Fields website and help support them. We need to maintain our organic farmland for a stonger deep rooted food based economy.

Before heading home, I stopped at the Dungeness Creamery http://www.dungenessvalleycreamery.com/ just down the road from Nash's. I don't usually drink milk, not the pasturized overprocessed kind in grocrery stores, but I love the raw milk from this local dairy and always carry an ice chest, filled with ice to this farm-food destination so I can safely transport some raw milk home.



"No local chocolates," I said when I walked in the store. "We haven't had those for awhile," said the woman behind the counter. Oh well, I'm happy with the milk to make ice cream this weekend. "Nectarine ice cream," I'd said, thinking about my box of nectarines from my Rama Farm CSA. The woman behind the counter nodded approval. This photo of a cow and her new born calf was one I snapped at a previous visit to this great food destination. This is proof that local sustainable farmland is worth saving.