The National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa

I still remember the first time I saw a Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog. My aunt had given it to me along with a gift certificate for a birthday gift when I was in my mid-20s. After all these years, Baker Creek is still my favorite seed company. Every winter I  love to curl up with their colorful catalog and dream of my spring garden.

Last year, I desperately wanted to attend the National Heirloom Expo that Baker Creek sponsors every year in Santa Rosa (about 2 hours from my home), but with a colicky 3-month-old baby, it just wasn't feasible.

This year, we finally made it to the Expo, and it was so much more than I expected. Imagine the State Fair meets Farmer's Market with a dash of Woodstock, plus a series of speakers on various food and gardening issues. It was Kid's Day when we went yesterday, so we got in free for bringing our daughter with us- hooray!

Let's begin at the entrance of the expo. There was a large presence of those supporting food industry transparency and promoting the labeling of GMOs...

Amongst other political ideas (obligatory "legalize pot" dude not pictured)...  I thought this game was pretty funny.

 

Petaluma Pete tinkled the ivory near the entrance, and...

 ... this guy was carving a massive pumpkin right next to him. I'm not sure what that sign means, but whatever!

  It took us forever to choose what to eat for lunch because there were so many excellent local  food vendors present selling their wares. (We did NOT end up splurging on the $14 burger below. It just felt wrong, especially with no side dishes.)

  My daughter loved looking at the long-haired sheep and goats on display-

  - while I was fascinated by this woman using traditional methods to make yarn from the wool.

  There were so many amazing vendors featuring fun gardening themed products! Just a few samples:

 

  

 Have you ever been given free Strauss Family Creamery vanilla bean ice cream? After this, I can say that I have! Best free ice cream I have ever eaten!

  I mentioned there was a dash of Woodstock at the Expo, meaning there were hippies and live music. Instead of rock bands, the stage was dominated by bluegrass bands, and some pretty good ones at that. I love me some bluegrass, and my daughter loved playing with the display squashes and dancing to the music.

  There was one area devoted to a display of biodynamic gardening, including composting, rain barrels, and compost tea-making. I especially appreciated the sheet mulching demo, as we are preparing to convert our ugly half-dead lawn to something more drought-tolerant and (hopefully) attractive:

Finally, the main exhibit area boasted the tallest mountain of squash I have ever seen...

 Watermelon carving and an heirloom watermelon taste testing:

Prize-winning pumpkins weighing over a thousand pounds!

 

 And just hundreds of varieties of heirloom melons, squashes, tomatoes, and more. There were also rare fruits, school garden and composting displays, and more. I found a lot of information that I hope will be useful as I participate in starting our local school garden in the coming year- even better!

 

My only regret was not getting to attend more of the gardening lectures. I would love to have heard more, but my one-year-old can only be patient for so long.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how many freebies I walked away with when we left the Expo. Besides many samples of free food (all good EXCEPT the beet kvass- not my thing!), I also got a dial seed scatterer, a bottled supplement called Strange Brew, a bag of free compost, a free herbal tea mix, and a bag full of free seeds for kids. The vendors were interesting and unique- selling everything from butterfly water dishes to pickling devices to locally harvested seaweed and locally made tempeh.

I would love to go to the National Heirloom Expo yearly. It was a gardener's dream come true.

August Wasn't Too Shabby

"Let me 'splain... No. There is too much. Let me sum up."
-Inigo Montoya, "The Princess Bride" 

In August, I:

- Learned to sprout, not only alfalfa seeds as pictured, but nuts, grains and legumes. Also learned how to make sprouted wheat flour/bread and taught a class on it. Very fun and educational!

 

- Ate and cooked with loads of Santa Rosa plums from my parents' tree. Here is the second plum cake I made after the Upside-Down one I posted on the blog. This one was based on this recipe from Bon Appetit The bake time was about 5 minutes too long, but the slightly citrus-y flavor was great!

 

- Went to Lake Tahoe and learned to paddleboard.

 

- Hiked to Eagle Falls and got his view of Eagle Lake:

 

All in all, not a shabby way to wrap up the summer!

Peter Rabbit First Birthday Party

Just wanted to share some shots from the First Birthday Party. Thank you, Pinterest, for a million great ideas!

 

I took a picture of my daughter each month and made a banner display charting her growth, with twine and seed packets to go with the Peter Rabbit/Garden theme. The pictures on the bottom are her newborn picture on the left and one of her "gardening" at almost a year on the right.

 

 

Peter's jacket on display. Herbs from my garden and potted plants from my house made great decorations.

 

 

"Mr. McGregor's Garden Veggies" and "carrot" silverware.

 

Three kinds of tea sandwiches- chicken salad/croissant, raisin bread/cheese/apple, and cucumber/cream cheese.

Dessert: Carrot cake cupcakes and "Dirt Pudding" (pudding topped with crushed Oreo cookies and a gummy worm) in terra cotta pots.

 

 

"The Berry Patch" and "Carrots" (strawberries dipped in white-chocolate that my mom dyed orange) 

After lunch, we had a surprise visit from Peter Rabbit himself (some friends brought their beautiful bunnies over for a visit). The kids loved petting the bunnies. I do have the picture of the kids and family on my camera, and it should only take me about another 6 months to download those to my computer. :-)

Huge thanks to those of my family and friends who helped with the decorations and food! It was a great theme and a fun day.

My "30 Before 30" List

Hi. This is me, during our recent trip to Ashland, Oregon. My birthday is coming up before the year's end. When that happens, I will commence my 30th year of life. Inspired by several of my friends who have done "30 Before 30" lists, I decided that I would do the same and come up with my own 30 projects I want to accomplish before my 30th birthday next year. I feel comfortable sharing almost all of them - 29, to be exact. Not bad!

At first I felt indecisive about how to share them with other people. A note on Facebook with my close friends and family... who would probably quickly forget about them? Posting them silently on a wall at home where no one would know if I failed to do them? (Not enough accountability, I decided.) Finally, I decided my blog would be an acceptable place to share them with the world because I hope to share the results of these goals in this particular format over the next year. Some of these may make sense to you, some may only make sense to me, but that's ok. Ready, set, go!

1. Save up for Spain.

2. Practice yoga 52 times.

3. Bike Davis.

4. Hike Auburn trail.

5. Read 30 books.

6. Go to 3 new places.

7. Grow 3 new kinds of plants in the garden.

8. Beautify a public space.

9. Participate in 3 service projects.

10. Do something with the retreat in our house.

11. Attend a food festival.

12. Attend the Dickens Fair.

13. Attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in SF - April 13/20.

14. Go on a road trip.

15. See the Chinese New Year Parade in SF - February 23.

16. Go for 30 days without sugar.

17. Befriend someone new.

18. Sing in public 3 times (small groups, duets or - gulp-solo)

19. Take 12 self-portaits.

20. Invite 12 people/families over for dinner.

21. Host 5 book club meetings.

22. Attend the temple 12 times.

23. Connect with our neighbors once.

24. Read the entire New Testament.

25. Learn to use circular needles and knit 3 items.

26. Try 3 new types of food.

27. Can 3 food items.

28. Write a biography of my grandma’s childhood.

29. Donate (amount censored) to a charity besides church.

My Two Favorite Things About This Christmas

Merry Christmas to us!

1) After years of waiting, we finally got a dog for Christmas. A friend gave us a 4-year-old female chihuahua, very sweet and mild mannered. She is just starting to come out of her crate and follow us around the house, tail wagging. Her favorite thing is to curl up in a ball, nuzzle her face into a blanket, and fall asleep. What a great Christmas present!


2) I found a recipe for Praline Sweet Potato Casserole in the Sacramento Bee and made it to accompany my family’s traditional Christmas dinner of prime rib. Even the avowed sweet potato haters at the table allowed that it "wasn’t bad"; the sweet potato lovers gobbled it up. This dish tastes like pumpkin pie meet pecan pie - more dessert than vegetable or side dish. Not that that’s a bad thing! You might not even need dessert after this one.

Notes: I baked the sweet potatoes the night before and stored them in an air tight container until I needed them. I reduced some of the sugar and butter in the sweet potato layer, but you’ll want to kept the proportions accurate in the praline topping to achieve the proper consistency.


Praline Sweet Potato Casserole
Serves 8 - 10

Ingredients

6 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

Praline topping
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce each potato and place in a baking pan or dish. Bake until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Set aside until cool enough to handle.

In a sauce pan, heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Cut (or to taste) potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh into a large bowl. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes.

Stir in the milk-and-butter mixture. Whisk in the eggs, and continue whisking until blended well. Add the brown sugar and stir until thoroughly blended. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or pan, and spread the sweet potato mixture evenly in it. Set aside while making the topping.

Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Making the praline topping

Melt the butter in a 2-quart sauce pan over low heat. Stir in the brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cream and pecans. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is thick, about five minutes. Do not let the mixture come to a boil. Maintain a steady simmer until thick.

Remove the mixture from the heat in stir in the vanilla. Pour the topping evenly over the sweet potatoes and spread it with a rubber spatula.

Bake the casserole until the topping is slightly crusty and set, approximately 30 minutes. Serve while hot.

Signs of Life

To my amazement, even in the middle of winter there are signs of life in my yard. Not many, but just enough to keep my spirits up. Observe:


Alpine Strawberries. They actually fruit in cooler weather. So tiny, so sweet!

Lemon balm (right- it loves the cold!) and Cuban Oregano (left-a real trooper, this guy is hardy and neither cold nor heat seem to phase it).

Elephant Garlic - I bought this at the Sacramento Food Co-Op with dreams of plucking large, mild cloves of garlic from the ground next year. For a while it just lay in the ground, no signs of life. Now that the cold hit, it finally sprouted; I am amazed!


I know these don't look like much, but I had to share that I finally got my shipment of Blueberry bushes. I have one Misty and one O’Neal variety, both southern types that enjoy heat more than the kind that grow in places like, say, Alaska. They're just twigs now as they are in their dormant stage, but I hope in a few years they will be enjoying our climate and give me all sorts of berries. (The soil in Sacramento is too alkaline to grow them in the ground, so I have them in boxes filled with a special potting mix suitable for acid-loving plants.)

Family Cioppino Fest

My mom's family is 100% Portuguese. Coming from the islands of the Azores where the local diet contains significant portions of seafood, they enjoy the fruits of the sea. My grandpa occasionally invites the extended family over for a big Cioppino Fest, and this weekend we were lucky enough to enjoy this special treat.

This year, BBQ-ed oysters were also on the menu...

Served in the shell with a tiny squirt of hot sauce.

As the food was being prepared under the covering of a sturdy patio covering, we watched the rain pour down. Portions of the roads in his neighborhood were flooded due to the inordinate amounts of precipitation. But grandpa soldiered on despite the weather.

Do you know how delicious a huge pot of steaming Cioppino broth smells on a cold, rainy day? MMM!

It only gets better once you start adding king crab legs...

Mussels and clams...

Dover sole fillets...

Calamari...

And finally, the jumbo shrimp!

Now give it a good stir with a special Cioppino spoon...


Now ladle your Cioppino into the largest bowl you can find,
and enjoy with fresh sourdough bread smothered in garlic butter!

As you can see, my grandpa makes a mean Cioppino! Many thanks to him for a great weekend, and thanks to the Portuguese and Italian fisherman of San Francisco for coming up with the idea of this delicious, fragrant, filling stew.