Uniquely Autumn 2009

Before I get to the rest of the PNW Farm tour photos I thought I'd share with you some of the 'unique' findings in my garden this year. I've tried to be outside for at least a few moments each day - even on the wet ones - taking in the wonders of this autumn. Such BIG blessings these gifts from God!

Bleeding heart-still blooming. I believe is is the variety "spring magic". I am not sure what it was doing in spring this year but I can vouch for its summer and fall activities.

Ha! Another spring name--'spring bouquet' - a viburnum. Also confused as to the time of the year.

A lingonberry--some berries are close to being ripe, others less so

and then there are those 'spring' blossoms.

Our magnolia. Not too long ago--after the normal blossom date much, much earlier this year--it had at least one new blossom (probably more but they were up high) and now these buds/seed bracts???that I don't remember seeing before.

Our gunnera, AKA leaf collector by me, being normal. But because many consider it a unique plant I am including it here. Besides it is ULTRA cool!

After the rose blossom...I thought this uniquely beautiful!

A forsythia blossom--one of quite a few amidst the red leaves of autumn and the green leaves from summer. Another spring bloomer. You know I should tell you that my gardener friend and I speak in hushed tones about the microclimates we seem to have here in the garden :)

After blooming (bracts) so much of our summer, the dogwood is now preparing for another year's bracts---maybe at a more usual time.

And some of our kiwi. I am including it in this 'unique' autumn post for several reasons: first the yellow leaves behind it are from a white lilac and yet are other one shows no signs of changing leaves. Second, because when I visited a kiwi farm recently he thought it rather miraculous that I had any fruit considering (blush, blush) I had not pruned properly for---um--the entire time we have had the two kiwi vines. And lastly I include it because they are--mostly--still alive and thriving. Shock (I say shock because apparently they are supposed to be watered rather heavily and well...). I am sure you get the picture; these are truly blessings!

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Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Blessings on this Sunday afternoon.

Aimee

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Not included is a salal --another so called spring bloomer and of course our famous fruiting blueberry!

Sunday Serenity

"When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:2, 3 NLT (© 2003 Ilumina software, Tyndale House Publishers)

This is for you my friend.
Blessings & Love Always,
Aimee
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Photo: rose

PNW Farm Tour: Berries, Veggies, Honey, Jam

Who needs souvenirs from a trip when you can bring home fresh produce?

Confession here! The farm owner's presentation of beautiful apples was a LOT more beautiful before I picked out a whole bunch to buy:) I've developed quite a liking for baked apples and these were fantastic to cook with! For a quick treat with not quite as many calories as a pie (although I love them too) I like to bake or microwave some sliced apples in an ovenproof/microwave safe baking dish with a bit of raw sugar (and/or honey), some apple pie spice and chopped walnuts. A very yummy and quick snack or dessert.

Now for a GREAT recipe for apple butter you might want to check out another Aimee's (momzoo's) blog: http://momzoo.blogspot.com/2009/10/apples.html

Aimee has an amazing attitude when it comes to food preservation/gleaning/gardening! :)

The farm/farm store owners were also kind enough to give us permission to wander down to their fields. The views were beautiful as were the veggies we found growing there!

Beautiful, isn't it? I LOVE rural America. Wherever I go -- be it in the PNW or elsewhere -- I am drawn to the country (and of course the mountains!)

Makes me hungry to think of baked squash; the ornamental gourds and corn make me want to decorate -- but I need to wait until the BIG project is done before even thinking of one more small project (except for Aimee's apple butter that is!)

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Now this reminds me of my teen years when our church group made an autumn trip to a farm nearby where we enjoyed a hay ride up the hill there and other fall activities. They offer those here too. Speaking of autumn activities, does anyone remember 'bobbing' for apples as a kid?

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One more picture--at least for now. A rainstorm has moved in and it's time to go eat anyway:) A big thank you to the farm owners for permission to post these photos here and for making us feel right at home while at their farm!

Blessings to you, your family and all whose lives are touched by you!

Blessings,

Aimee

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Farm: photos taken while at Koch Family Farm, 4745 Raybell Road, St Paul, OR. Besides the produce and ornamentals pictured above they carry green beans, tomatoes, peppers, honey and jam. They also have fruit in summertime.

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Note: If you are in this area you might want to stop by Champoeg State Park area nearby. Very nice trails through a forest and by a river....oh and they have yurts too! Also need to say I am not in any way associated with the farms I am posting or park either but just wanting to share with any readers some great places (and people) I've found during my travels in the PNW!

PNW Farm Tour: Autumn Produce

When my kids were smaller I used to enjoy shopping at a nearby market/farm where I could actually talk with the farmer as I browsed among his fresh produce and checked out the other foodstuffs he had brought in to sell. Unfortunately -- 'progress' arrived; the farm and market were replaced with something else and now I do most of my grocery shopping at a supermarket where honestly I don't see much that is 'super' about it. Yes, it has a great selection of fruits, veggies, meat, etc but it just isn't as pleasant as my old shopping experience was.

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During recent travels I got to relive a bit of that old time market/farm experience....and, yes, I loved it! So here is a little PNW farm tour for you to enjoy! Note: since we visited quite a few farms in this area of Oregon I may divide them into several posts to make it easier for me :)

I am really into squash & gourds this year;

they come in so many varieties and the colors make me think autumn!

Last night I baked a Golden Nugget squash--my first this autumn. Here is how I did it (although I am sure you all know how to cook one already.)

Wash squash and remove seeds (I placed these aside after rinsing them to dry in hopes of planting them next year). Cut squash in half -- the hardest part of the whole thing! Place the halves, cut side down in an ovenproof baking dish. I added a small amount of water to the dish and covered it loosely with a cookie sheet since the foil was no where to be found. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (no I did not preheat the oven). When fork tender I scooped out the orange yummy sweet flesh and pureed it, adding a bit of butter, pumpkin pie spice and raw sugar. It was very, very good and my house smelled very, very earthy!

We also had some of the potatoes I got from here, pan fried with some bratwurst sausage and tart apples. YUM! My son and I liked it but agreed that the apples need to be added closer to the end of the cooking as they soften too much for our liking.

Aren't veggies beautiful?

This farm had an amazing variety of squash, gourds, potatoes (even a purplish one), flowers, peppers and more! It was a pleasure to walk the fields there and browse through the displays of harvested produce! The farmer owners were awesome people and I thank them for letting me post the photos I took there on this blog! May they be blessed as they continue to work the earth they've been given and may those people who share in their bountiful harvest also find blessing in their lives!

Blessings,

Aimee

Missing You (& the rest of my out-of-state family)

Dear Baby Granddaughter,

Yes, it's true

as I do laundry in the bathroom, in a somewhat strange pose as of late -

with Grandpa's & my favorite new friend 'Irwin' always close by;

and the days pass since you spilled Pepsi all over your mom and I,
I find myself missing you more & more

(and that goes for all your family & dog family too)!

Love & blessings always,

Grandma Aimee

A Walk in His Gardens: A Day of Celebration & Thanks

Every day of life

whether cloudy and gray

or sunny and clear is a gift;

as is every year that we are given here on earth.

A gift of indescribable worth

given us from the Creator of life above--
gifts of love from HE who loves us the most.

And since life is a gift of such immense value and a blessing given us by God,

we should see each day as that priceless gift--

a gift far better then money or material goods.

We should seek to love as God's Son loved

and as the One who sent Him loves

(something not always easy for me to do I admit)

And we should especially seek to give to those who mean the most to us--

those family and friends that bless and enrich our lives.

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Several years back, I'm not sure of the exact date. something changed for me and I began to see the day of my birth in a different light;

I began to want to give to family and friends on that day instead of only recieving--

(after all, at my very great, totally advanced age I already have the things I really need and even a lot of the things I want)...

so I started something that year and I really liked it.

What I did was to ask family members who would normally buy me a birthday gift--or a dinner out--to instead donate that money to charity;

but this was in no way forced on them--it was only if they were OK with the concept. This idea gave me joy.

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And because I really LOVE to be out in God's gardens and could think of no better place to be, I treated myself to the only other gift I really wanted--a trip in the mountains and to the PNW coast

(since Oregon's weather looked better we went there)

Of course, since I also wanted to give and not just receive, I decided to surprise my best friend and treat her to a trip too! It was really a surprise because she didn't 'catch' the hint I dropped and arrived in

'grubbies' ready to do the work we had originally planned to do that day:)

No matter--one quick stop would solve that itsy bitty problem.

I SO LOVE spur of the moment trips and nice surprises!

(it was spur of the moment as we were trying to finish some work before the BIG project began and so didn't know if there would be time to make a trip until the very last moment.)

My DH -- aka "Farmer Boy" of course gave us his blessing -- he knows a trip in God's gardens always brings me great joy

(I should explain that technically speaking this gift of a trip was from him. That man knows what his Country Gal likes!)

So we set off towards the beautiful NW coast range

Once there we spent a bit of time walking along the river there,

gazing at the beautiful reflections of the trees and shrubs along the water's edge and enjoying the silence to be found there.

We passed vine maples - red now because of autumn

and areas where the river was very still--more like a pond then a river there.
Once at the coast we walked a bit along the beach after I treated my friend to lunch at a great restaurant there (salad, seafood, dessert). Giving was really a lot of fun for me!

The beach was SO nice and the summer crowds mostly gone! We saw a few people, the usual seagulls and a kite flying.

We saw several bays too --this rocky one

and one of my most favorite ones!

I LOVE this place!

We also stopped while at the coast to buy real, totally authentic salt water taffy and chocolate--a treat for us and for family back home (eek! I forgot to give the taffy to my family when they were over recently. Good thing it stays good for awhile and good thing tomorrow is the weekend! MY DH already ate his yummy gift from me as did I--sorry but I could not resist the fruit chocolates they had there)

Thank you Lord for the gifts you've given me--the ones that surround me everyday

and

thank you especially for the gift of another year of life!

Blessings,

Aimee

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- "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever."

I Chronicles 16:34 KJV

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"To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—that is indeed a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy." Ecclesiastes 5:19b, 20 NLT (© 2003, Tyndale House Publishers)

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"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17 KJV

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Photos:

Coast range of Oregon & Central Oregon coast.

A Walk in His Gardens: Early Autumn Palette

Less then one month into my favorite season and the colors are beautiful!

The white and purple of most of the lavenders continue as the night temperatures drop but the daytime highs have been for the most part quite nice. Our new mums are a mixture of white and purple too; we also have blooming roses still in a variety of colors including white, orangish and more.

Changing with the season are the leaves of the ash trees in a nearby town--

this photo does NOT do justice to the wonderful yellow of these!

Seed pods are still forming on the Japanese maples--some a light pinkish shade like on this tree; those on the red laceleaf maples are darker.

Also with red tones are the flowering cherry and dogwood, some azaleas, the barberry

and -- of course --the crocosmia.

I LOVE crocosmia (but then you already know that!)

I love red too--in fact I am hoping to add some more of that to our home in 2010. If I survive the BIG project that is :)

Red can also be found on two of our strawberries; this one is as big as a Hood berry--one of the NW June bearing favorites. Yum---guess I will have to force myself to eat it tomorrow; unless the deer get it before me that is.

YES, there has been a Bambi sighting -- again.

And yes I missed it -- again. Super sigh.

Reddish tones on an upright maple tree not located in our garden but no matter -- our two laceleafs are becoming more red as the days pass.

I love the contrast between the light bark and that beautiful, gorgeous red, don't you?

OK. Confession time.

Yellow (like that found on aspen and ash trees) and red are my favorite autumn colors

and yet this year I find myself

really, really loving the colors of the different gourds - winter squash and pumpkin

that I am seeing too! So pretty!

This photo was taken during a trip in NW Oregon at a farm there. They also had amazing apples, honey, ornamental corn and a LOT more!

(photos and info on the trip there and to some other farms to be posted soon).

I LOVE PNW farms; really I do!

Which reminds me I need to check out apple cider at our local farms soon.

Now actually this coppery color is NOT a good sign even though it was a beautiful sight! It means the plant really is tired and stressed out over our continuing summer weather and that this poor baby longs for a long, deep, good soaking. Poor plant--I am caught between hoping it gets its wish and loving our current blue skies and warm temperatures.

And the kiwi keeps growing-although they would have probably been larger had they received more irrigation this summer. I love the fuzzy brown amidst the green leaves and pretty vines! And today, when my sibling visited, they found another one I hadn't spotted yet!!

. I can hardly wait for harvest time which should be soon---I think.

Not shown but also adding color--and later food- to our autumn garden are: Concord & Niagara grapes (deep purple and green respectively), lingonberries (red with some white blossoms still), evergreen huckleberries (dark, dark bluish), Comice pears (yellowish with red blush) and a few prunes (you know what color they are, right?) Oh we also have some yellow raspberries left, a bit of baby reddish leaf lettuce and some really, really sad looking red peppers; I never seem to have luck with peppers. Sigh.

But the two never before seen surprises for color this fall have been

the forsythia which is happily producing its normally springtime lemony yellow blossoms now amidst the green and autumn red of its many leaves

and one of our blueberries. The one--always a spring bloomer, summer harvest berry apparently thinks its spring again too! Confusion seems to have reigned in our garden all of this past year. Kind of fun though!

This was September 21st

and this just the other day.

So what's happening in your gardens and what is your fav autumn color?

Blessings,

Aimee

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Photos:

As above.