Field Trips 
Explore the International District
Sally’s latest post gave you a first taste of our desire to expand our understanding of what it means to live locally. Eating local foods is an important part of that but so is taking the time to explore and appreciate the place we call home. I wanted to give you a closer look [...]
A Sense of Place
We’ve been thinking about our particular place on the planet, our region, our city, our neighborhoods, backyards . . . and decided that field trips aren’t just for kids. Once or twice a month, hopefully, Poppy and I will be heading out to walk and take pictures of our immediate world, stretching the [...]
A Beloved Brownie Lives On
Follow me and I’ll take you to Bert’s Brownies – it might be a circuitous route.
Roberta’s hugs were never obligatory or cavalier. She would take hold of you, look you in the eye with a smile and go in for the real deal, a long lasting embrace including whispered words of affection. For [...]
While on Orcas….Doug Fir Granita
Winter is the time of year to gather a couple of big handfuls of fir fronds on stems because once the weather warms up, the pitch starts running…. In a large pot, mix together 4 cups of water, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup honey, 3 T apple cider vinegar and 1 T black peppercorns.
January’s Healing Nettle Tea
It is said that the “sting of the nettle is but nothing compared to the pains that it heals”.
Immersed in mid-winter’s landscape, hibernation happening everywhere, I rambled happily through the woods this morning: stumps and boulders blanketed with piles of verdant moss, lichened branches overhead, paths underfoot cushioned with fecund layers of frosted grass and [...]
PC Fast Food @ Burgerville
The concepts of political correctness and a cheeseboiga don’t seem compatible. Oxymoronish maybe. But then there’s Burgerville, a fast food joint with sustainability at its heart. Go figure. If you’re traveling the I-5 corridor between Centralia, Washington and Albany, Oregon (also east on I-84) you can treat yourself to fast food that’s appropriately [...]
Roasted Garlic Soup + Chantrelles
When I was a young mother, I was always amazed at how easily I became connected with a community of other parents with children. No matter where we were, if there were other kids there, I felt connected, even if it were only by a smile of recognition. Now I’m finding food can provide the [...]
Fresh Shellfish and Yoga
And the connection is?? Orcas Island, of course. A perfect place to spend a quintessential fall weekend partaking in all the local specialties. We heard that Buck Bay Shellfish Farm was open for business and decided to take an excursion to one of my favorite parts of the island — Olga. Just around the bend [...]
Rocky Mountain Local
I’m in the Canadian Rockies right now where the bears have the local/seasonal thing down. They forage lower on the mountain in summer, lower still in late summer for the wild blackberries, huckleberries, buffalo and dogwood berries, moving to higher elevations again in fall for roots, juniper bushes and eventually winter’s hibernation. They live [...]
Eat Local on the Road: NC
Shortly after we arrived in North Carolina Friday evening, we experienced a southern style thunder-and-lightning storm. There were lightning fireworks and torrential rain on our drive to my sister’s home followed by thunder that seemed to shake the house. I remember these afternoon storms from my childhood but I’m told that lately they have mostly [...]
