Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
In the Bookshed: Backyard Bounty
Backyard Bounty
Linda Gilkeson
New Society, 2011
Often when I’m reviewing gardening books these days, I am called to reflect on just how completely off-base I was in my early gardening attempts in the mid-nineties. For example, when Linda Gilkeson writes about double-digging and deep digging, “they have serious disadvantages, not the least of which is that they are a daunting amount of work…… In our cool climate, any kind of deep cultivation buries the community of topsoil microorganisms down where it is cool…. it doesn’t make sense to set them back this way,” – I shudder to remember how I cajoled a passel of friends into a weekend of roto-tilling and then double-digging a whole East Van backyard in an effort to establish my first kitchen garden. Then again, back in the mid-nineties, I didn’t have a proper gardening library and it was nearly impossible to find good books on edible gardens that were focused on our bio-region.
Fortunately, veggie growing is in again and there are far better beginner references now than I had access to during my first garden adventures. Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest is one such book – an all-around how-to for the first-time gardener, and a handy reference for those with dirtier (more experienced) hands. With sections detailing garden planning, soil preparation, organic fertilizing and composing, seedlings, winter gardening, pest management, and a year-round garden calendar – Gilkeson aims to provide everything one needs to know in order to produce at least some food out of the garden year-round. As a Master Gardener, she works to banish the guilt many new gardeners feel about not following the “ideal” composting techniques and soil recipes – allowing that each of us develop our own styles and shortcuts in making our gardens produce.
Particularly useful to me is the A-Z vegetables and fruits directories in the back of the book…. which I know I will be referencing this summer when something or other isn’t working the way I’d like it to, or when I’m looking at a different storage technique for a particularly abundant crop of something. I have other books with A-Z references, but none specific to my growing climate – and really, there are big differences to how we do things in different parts of the country. A decent resource section and index round-out this book, making it easy to find what you’re looking for while skipping the stuff you already know. If you’re looking for a single decent reference for your Pacific Northwest garden – I would definitely recommend this latest offering from New Society Publishers.
Finding a peaceful spring break.
Today is a day for arranging and rearranging as I sort through my complicated schedule and try to fit some of the dropped pieces back into the whole puzzle before they get lost. But also checking in about some travel anxiety and working on some new plans too.
See – for some time now, I’ve been planing an early-April trip to Death Valley to hang out with some US friends; a mighty long drive from Vancouver (2 long days if not more), I figured it would all be worth it if we got to hook up with our peeps and have a few days of hiking and hot springing – I could overcome my driving deep into the US fears, if only those good folks were going to be there.
But as it turns out so much of the time when I try to schedule with these particular people, one of them dropped out for some reason I’m not entirely clear on (though I suspect it was that his partner isn’t much into camping), and the other one is having some life issues that cause me to suspect his fidelity to the trip we had planned. Which perhaps isn’t fair – this casting of doubt – but realistically watching his life from the outside I know if it was *me*, I wouldn’t be able to make a firm commitment to this either.
Given that there is a long drive and desert-motel reservations at stake, not to mention my only chance at a spring holiday, I’ve been going through an internal check-in process for the last week to figure out exactly what I should be doing about this situation. Brian being willing to support whatever wacky direction I think to take us next….. And this morning, I went ahead and booked five days at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon – about 20 hours north of Death Valley. Still totally accessible to my friend(s) should they change heart and decide to join us – but if they can’t? I won’t feel I’ve made a big time sacrifice without the friend-payoff I was hoping for.
Not only that, but this plan feels a lot more like a break to me – three vegetarian meals a day are provided, with hot springs, hiking trails, yoga and meditation classes as part of the bargain. A chance to unwind in the Willamette forest with lots of opportunity for being outside, and a private cabin to retreat to as the cool spring night descends. A little less work than camping, anyhow. Especially if it does just end up being Brian and I.
I had no idea how much this vacation-stress had been weighing on me until this morning when I made our reservation at Breitenbush. Now instead of dreading a long drive and possibly being stood up at the Nevada border – I am excited about my spring holiday again. Though I feel a bit bad about bailing out on the original plan, for my own peace of mind I am going ahead with what feels safest and most possible at the moment. So it’s Breitenbush-bound in April, and a whole lot going on between now and five unconnected days in a little hippy resort down south.
Willows Inn on Lummi Island: Oh heavenly bread!
I would have taken a picture of every dish we had at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island if I could have. But given lighting and my desire to enjoy rather than document my dinner, I am left with only one visual memory of one of the best meals of my life: the marinated cheeses we started the night off with.
To backtrack a bit, I will say that I booked our night away at the Willows Inn B&B before a New York Times article declared it one of ten restaurants worth taking a plane ride to get to…. which it turns out was lucky because not only did I already have a reservation to what has become an impossible-to-get-into inn, but I got a room/dinner deal that was being offered early this winter for Sunday nights. It was a whim, really – I had picked up a copy of some travel magazine which had Lummi Island listed as an easy drive from Vancouver and a place worthy daytripping to. So our timing was good, and we certainly felt lucky to have stumbled onto this place!
The Willows Inn is on one of Lummi Island’s high bluffs, with a view of the ocean and some of the other San Juans. Like many of the Gulf Islands, it has small-community pictaresque hands down as we passed by miles of fields and beach on our way from the ferry to the inn. The main lounge is comfortable, with a fireplace and several comfortable chairs, a bar and coffee service – and our room was decent – modest and clean, with a comfortable bed. But really, we were there for the food. And in that regard, our expectations were well met with fresh ingredients, local to the island and surrounding environs, and prepared with great attention to detail.
After our pre-dinner hors d’œuvre in the lounge, we were seated in the small (ten table) dining area and treated to a number of “tastes” over the first hour which included smoked salmon in a bentwood box (served over smoking cedar chips), potato chip with saurkraut and black cod, a bread and browned butter bite with foraged greens and herbs, and pickled oysters with sorrel served on a plate of frozen beach rocks. And then the bread came out – a wheat/rye with an intense crust from baking in a wood-fired oven, served in a basket of warmed rocks to keep the heat in…. giving Brian breadbaker’s envy as we both swooned over the perfection that bread can be.
After this fabulosity, the main meal began and was served over an hour and a half with many replenishments of wine and bread. The dishes included sliced beet with seeds and tarragon, weathervane scallops with cabbages and mussel sauce, potates with havarti and whey, olympic peninsula steelhead with radishes, celergy and mustard sauce, and green apples with a buttermilk and licorice ice. We had decided to add on the wine pairings on offer with the meal, which meant that each course came with another round of fine wine – leaving us giddy with food and drink by the time coffee was served at 9:30. Not to mention completely sated with one of the best food “events” in my life.
For Vancouverites – Lummi Island is just a short journey away, about twenty minutes from the border crossing. The ferry ($20 roundtrip with car and 2 passengers – make sure you have cash!) runs until around midnight, which makes the Willows Inn dinner a possibility without staying at the B&B (though I wouldn’t recommend the wine pairings if you were planning on driving back home afterwards!) It’s not a cheap meal, but easily one of the most spectacular you will find in the Pacific Northwest.
Sunday Bees.
I’m hoping that this activity around the mouth of my top-bar hive on Sunday means that my bees are settling in and doing what they are supposed to be doing in there. I’m nervous at the moment – it’s pretty cold still and I’m not sure they are starting the comb-making process yet…..
The lights of Lummi Island
Went to Lummi Island in Washington State overnight. A full report on the fabulousness of that journey tomorrow.
Red Cedar 