Wandering Wednesday - Camp Joy

 It's only three minutes away, but it feels like another world, Camp Joy Gardens. We came for the annual plant sale to get our tomatoes, peppers, etc. but took the time to walk around too.

 The beehives were abuzz, you can see some of them in flight here.

 It's been a gloriously productive rose season for us, but wow wow wow x10 at Camp Joy.

 Single petal roses are beautiful aren't they?

 The grapes are just getting going. (I love the shadows and the veins on the leaf)

I've taken this very picture, I know I know, but it's just breathtaking in person. The smell, the sound of the bees, the light through the green leaves, the shape of the arbor - perfect.

Camp Joy

 I love the gate at Camp Joy, it's not complicated or super fancy or over-done, but it's unusual and beautiful.

 We were there for the annual plant-sale, they always have great selections of pepper and tomato plants.

 The beautiful and enormous farm-sized greenhouse.

This purple Salsify (aka Goat's Beard) is very striking.

 The wisteria sprawling around with controlled abandon.

 The sides of the wisteria/grape arbor. I like the old grapevines bent into circles.

 Grapes above, iris below.

 View from below the new rose arbor.

We were then under the gun to get the new garden beds made so we could plant out the new plant starts.

Re-visiting Camp Joy

 Mother's Day was great this year, I finally took my parents to see Camp Joy. They were impressed with the place after hearing me talk about it for so many years. We found all kinds of great plants at the yearly plant sale. We've been missing our weekly CSA basket, but they're letting a lot of the farm rest while the drought continues.Hopefully it will come back soon though (along with some rain please.)

 Reminder to self: Try growing some poppies next year. These flowers just make my heart do flips.

They look so amazing even when the flower petals fall away. I really want to carve a stamp with this image.

One goat remains after a mountain lion attack. I had heard the rumor and felt badly asking them about it, but they still amazed that it had happened after all these years with no problem.

Peppers and Pears

After all that studio touring yesterday, I'm back in the kitchen, trying to use up the end of season bounty from our weekly CSA basket. This pile of red peppers has been slowly diminishing as we eat them as snacks. There is enough left to try and roast a tray of them which I'll then make soup with. Most of them are quite sweet but every now and then one is surprisingly spicy.

The pears have been coming in at a good rate, but most of them are getting eaten. Tonight I'm trying a poached pear recipe with some kind of wine sauce for dessert, we'll see how it turns out.Pear skin is always interesting to look at up close, I'm planning to use this picture as a printout for a background in a collage.

Farming Joy

It was finally the first day of pickup at our neighborhood organic CSA farm, Camp Joy. We now get a weekly basket for 19 weeks of whatever they've got ready for us. If you've ever thought of trying a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) I really recommend it. You'll get in-season vegetables and fruits that are so fresh and lovely, plus the knowledge that you are supporting a local farmer who loves what they do. I swear you can taste that love and joy in everything they produce. A good alternative if you don't have a CSA available is going to a farmer's market if there is one near you. Just to get the super fresh fruits and vegies is worth that extra effort because they taste so much better. ie, tomatoes actually taste *gasp* like tomatoes!!

I always like to take my camera to the farm and have a bit of a walk around and see what changes they've made in the months since I've been there.

The grape arbor is lovely and shady and the grapes look plentiful this year.

Several of the pathway junctions are covered with woven arbors with climbing roses. Really pretty and much more in control than mine at home.

The rows of flowers are really gorgeous, and always make me regret not signing up for the weekly bunch o' flowers.

They really plant a nice mix of flowers, poppies, statice, cosmos, etc. I think this is a good way for them to attract and keep the bees that are an integral part of the farm's operations (not to mention the honey production part of the business).

I think those are alstromeria, but I could be wrong. I just like how happy they make me just to see them all growing so strong and soaking up the sun.

I like to check out the various ways they come up with to keep the birds away from the vegies, like these wire grids over the pepper plants. Sometimes it doesn't take much to deter the birds, but if you want your peppers to mature without little holes in them from bird pecks it is worth the effort.

The deep shade is such an eye-catching thing when you are out there with the crops on the sun-drenched hillside. It just screams out "Oasis here!" The people who work this farm are out there quite early and then take a siesta when the sun is at its peak. Smart huh?

Some of the plants are planted differently than just in rows, like these squash plants here. I guess because of their rambly ways it makes more sense to have a circular arrangement.

I'll have to try this next year! My pumpkins are in a row right now, they seem happy so far.

A Motley Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was kind of weird. My husband wasn't feeling well, getting a very rare for him cold, so he didn't do the usual corralling and orchestrating of the day. So I got to have a quiet breakfast I made myself, which was just fine by me.

Alex was busy for quite a while with his door closed and the sewing machine going, so I figured he was making me something.

Hey I was right. Instead of a Squabster(tm), I got an M. I love the tag that he made for it and sewed into the seam. He's getting really good at just making stuff, I'm glad that he isn't getting stuck and letting himself just be creative, screw perfection!

We made the usual pilgrimage to the plant sale at our local CSA farm, Camp Joy. I was so enthralled with the plants (as usual), that I handed the camera to Zach and said take pictures. So these are all his. Gosh that is nice to be able to do. He really loves taking pictures, and it is nice to be able now to trust that the camera will survive, and there will be good photos to look at.

The unibrow look here cracked us all up when we saw this picture large on the computer screen. It is a just a lock of his hair, Alex doesn't really have a unibrow (Pshew!).

This is me checking out the honey table, they had a lot of different varieties, but they weren't from Camp Joy, and we already have a honey jar almost full, so I didn't get one.

This is a great view of the glass greenhouse where they start all the seedlings.

There are a lot of random places to sit down, which is good when you are doing garden/farm chores out in the sun.

The bees were very happy and busy.

We got there kind of late, on the last day, so there were many holes in the offerings. But we got plenty of plants, which I still need to actually plant in the actual ground in the actual garden. That's a whole other story though, believe me.

After Camp Joy we went over to see my parents and took them out to see the excellent movie Earth. If you haven't seen it, go. It is inspiring and beautiful and moving. Yes, the narrative is a bit clunky and manipulative of your emotions, but that is easy enough to ignore with all the eye candy. If you've seen the BBC series Planet Earth, you'll recognize a lot of the movie. But it was super to see it up on the big screen.
Zach was so excited to score a helmet from Grandpa. I told him this picture should be his first album cover. We've been saying that a lot lately, (no pressure! Heehee). He is hoping to get a Vespa scooter at some point in the near future, so now he is prepared with a helmet at least. Now just to get the $$, oh and the license, and insurance, and the parental permission...

We popped into the grocery store to get some goodies for an early dinner and I took this spy shot. I think this is one of my favorite pictures of late. It captures something about my family that I can't quite put my finger on. And I love the orange in the foreground and on my husband, and the arrangement and expression of my boys.

All in all a pretty near perfect Mother's Day.

Creative Children, Beautiful Plants, Fabulous Parents, Family Together, Cool Movie.

Salad Ennui

A peek into the Camp Joy basket for Week 3. Several types of lettuce, loganberries, garlic with the stem/flower still attached, kale, plums, carrots and small zucchini.

The best salad I made this week had the leftover grilled tri-tip from the night before, with some juicy tomatoes and feta cheese. Yum

Wanting to improve my salad repertoire I went looking for advice and found a helpful page on Whole Foods, which had some really great ideas for combinations, ingredients you wouldn't usually think of and then of course my favorite, the Recipe Finder at My Recipes.com.

What is your absolute most favorite salad ever of all time?

Mine is Cobb Salad, but all chopped together and mixed up please.

Dyeing and Produce

Camp Joy Basket Week #2 - A cup of Loganberries, garlic, red potatoes, oak leaf lettuce, some kind of speckled red-leaf lettuce, carrots, rosemary, parsley, peas.

• The berries were instantly gone. Poof! Magick berries. We could eat pounds of berries a week if we could afford them! Is it the concentrated flavor? The beautiful intense colour? Or do we just instinctively know that they're terribly precious and oh so good for us?
• The garlic gets used as we go through the year as it keeps for quite a while. I use garlic in a lot of things (some critics say most things!) but Camp Joy gave us a recipe which I'll be trying for Skordozoumi (Greek Garlic Soup), which calls for a whole head of garlic! More on the success or failure of said recipe after I actually make it.
• The carrots were steamed and served with olive oil and cinnamon sugar. No one ever complains about those.
• The peas mostly were eaten raw but the few remainders were served up in stir fry form.
• The lettuce has been consumed in several salads.
• Still thinking of what to do with the red potatoes, maybe some type of potato salad without mayonaise. Now that I have two weeks' worth, there are enough to make a dish for four.
  

"I'll be dyeing in the laundry room, don't come in there for a while" I said to my son. His friend's mouth gaped open and his eyes were astonished. "no, no, no dyeing not dying!" Oops, those who aren't already trained don't know about this fine distinction!

Finally finally finally I cleaned up my dyeing space enough to get some things going. Mostly I worked on what has been soaking in the soda ash bucket. I keep a covered bucket of soda ash water going at all times, that way it is ready to soak the fabric or "items" to be dyed. For non-dyers the soda ash is what makes the dye decide to stick around on the fabric.

The things dyed here are just white square washcloths, you know the really cheapie ones that are 15 for a $1? Kind of loosely woven and very nubbly textured. I was curious to see what they would look like dyed. They were placed on top of the fabrics that I was dyed, so they soaked up the top part of the dye available. I like how they look, not sure what I'll use them for, maybe just as colorful washcloths?!
From left to right are the one yard fabric pieces that I also dyed, mostly with dye from DharmaTrading.

• I used some really old dye in Ecru to try to get some flesh tones for a self-portrait piece I'm working on. On one of the pieces I threw in some of the Chinese Red to get it a little pinker than brown. Those two are on the left.
• Next is Chinese Red which looks rather orange in this photo. It turned out nice and dark which was what I was going for.
• Chartreuse is next, I like how the mottled pattern shows the yellowy undertones.
• New Emerald Green looks kind of boring compared to the Chartreuse to my eyes, but it will be useful in the landscape-ish quilts I like to make.
• Cobalt Blue turned out super dark, but I think I may need to wash it out once more, this dye is getting weird on me, it isn't a superfine powder like it is supposed to be.
• Another old old container of Ice Blue, it still has enough punch to make a nice sky color.
• Finally, what is a dye session without some purple, in this case Grape?
  

I'm finally out of the bolt of white fabric I've been working with for more than a couple of years now, guess I better find some more so I'm ready to dye the next time the stars align and the mood strikes.

Trip to the Farm

It is finally time to start our weekly visits to Camp Joy, our local organic bio-dynamic farm where we are part owners. Well participants in the CSA anyways. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, you pay a lump sum before the growing season begins, enabling the farmers to buy supplies (seed,etc.) and then you get a weekly basket of whatever the farm produces over the season.
Camp Joy also has a flower share where you can get an organic bouquet every week, so far I haven't been decadent enough to spring for one. Mostly because I'm so self-deluded that I'll be growing *plenty* of flowers for as many bouquets as I want from my own garden, riiiiight.

The first thing you have to do when you walk through the gate is to go on the rope swing. Even recently turned 13 year olds still enjoy this activity. Boy does the tree branch ever dip now though, he must be getting too big!

There is the front porch where the baskets are set out, three left, one of which is ours.

The pomegranate tree is huge this year, with a lot of blossoms. It must not produce enough fruit to pass out though, as I've never gotten a pomegranate in my basket. Maybe this is the year??
The chickens are moved to a different spot every year, now they are under the apple trees and running free within the little fence. Jim the farmer tells me that the animals get moved around a lot because of the work that they do during the season, producing, ahem, manure, scratching it into the soil, turning the soil over, eating the bugs and all the weeds and weed seeds. I forget the term for it, it had layering in it, fascinating though.

Even the goats get moved around, unless they're in the milking pen. We once took a cheese making class here, where we got to milk the goats and then make the cheese from the fresh milk, man was that ever good! Basically a soft feta cheese. Made me want to get a goat!
Here's the big greenhouse with the plant sale table and sale plants in front. It is sooooo hot in there this time of year. They could sell sauna time in there!
One of my favorite views on the farm. Looking up from under the arch trellis and along one of the paths of the flower garden section towards the huge rose bower, with a chicken way off in the distance.

Finally, to the real reason we buy a Camp Joy share every year, the produce. Here is how it looks in the basket. They give us a sheet every week with poems, observations, interviews with the apprentice gardeners, funny drawings and recipes on how to use the yumminess!

And then here it is washed and on the counter. Kale, lettuce, dill, peas, carrots, garlic, dried chiles, potatoes and a basket of ollalieberries. Yum!