Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Haines Fair



I'm headed to the Haines Fair to be a vendor thisThursday through Sunday! It's my first time, so I'm a little nervous about being unprepared, but it should be fun. I didn't make nearly as many skirts as I had planned on, but that's how it always goes. Here are some photos from my last fair at the JAHC Sunday Market:

I think I need a bigger sign!
Skirts and purses
Porcupine quill and hemlock earrings

   
Poetry clothes pins














Peace Magnets
Art Cards

Wool and hemlock pins
 
Doorway prayer flags     
Snack bags

Produce and sandwich bags      


So hop on the ferry, head on over to the fairgrounds, listen to some live tunes, drink some brew, buy some handmade stuff, dance, eat some delicious food, and have a great time!


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Family Time

We just spent the past few days family gillnetting, which is always a blast. I'm not much of a sport fisherman (except for ice fishing), but I just love picking wads of fish out of a quarter-mile long net! The gnarly 'gater teeth ripped a hole in my rain pants at the knee, the brailer bag hook ripped a hole at the back thigh, and my jacket zipper, corroded from our trip a few weeks ago, gave way. Luckily, I was having so much fun I didn't care that I was constantly wet!


My son is amazing. We've raised him in a completely reality-based environment, and his understanding of the world is astounding. We've taught him through example and through outright discussion. He reasons with remarkable power and is able to construct logical solutions to problems. We include him in our daily adult lives and always explain things without "dumbing them down." When he asks why buoys float, I tell him it's because they are less dense than water. When he asks why it's not dark at night, we get the globe and a lamp out. He's seen one cartoon in his whole life, (and that was the doing of an unknowing uncle), and I think that has had the biggest impact on his world view. His brain is full of the world, not of other people's imaginative drawings and conversations. I realize that I am a complete radical on this, but I truly believe that television is a giant obstacle for children. It may not actually harm them, but it certainly isn't doing any good. At the very least it takes up valuable time that could be used for an actual experience, like taking a walk, observing worms, or erupting a sand volcano. It's always been apparent on the school playground Huck's perception of a game is quite different than the other children's. One day he came home and said he played Batman. I asked how to play and he said, "One person pretends to be a bat and chases the other kids." He was imagining an actual bat, while others were imagining a man in a costume. Things like this happen with him all the time. My favorite one is when his friend said she was going to be a fairy for Halloween he responded that he was going to be a skiff. Clearly he was picturing her in a ferry costume. Anyway, enough of my neurotic parenting ideals..... We've been mostly fishing, eating lots of fresh and homemade food, picking berries and playing outside. It's been a fun couple of weeks!

Running the hydraulics to haul the net
Watching the bouy as he drives
Atlin verbally coached Huck through his first jog up to the bouy. Huck was stoked on getting use the clutch without help!  
Dog salmon are the bulk of our gillnetting catch. 'Gaters are spawned out Dogs. They are the meanest looking salmon you'll ever see!


I love 'gaters!

 After three full days of fishing on the boat, we came home and crashed hard. In the morning, Huck wanted to......go fishing in the canoe! After the majority of a month on a boat, Atlin wasn't too keen, but Huck's enthusiasm won. We trolled around a bit with no luck, then hiked up a creek and landed a cut throat trout. Atlin set the hook and Huck reeled her in! It was a great (and sunny!) day.




And since fishing is the lively hood of our family, I couldn't pass up this t-shirt at Salvation Army. I combined it with a plaid cotton shirt tail to make a cute just-above-the-knee flared skirt. It's destined for the Haines Fair next week. I wish I could keep every skirt I made!




Saturday, July 7, 2012

Garden Eats

Growing up, I always loved eating salade de jardin, also known as garden salad. It's super simple, delicious, and varies the summer salad fair. This year I grew a patch of green leaf lettuce specifically for this dish! I just sprinkled a packet of seed over the bed (2x3 feet), raked it over with my hand, then patted it all down and watered. It comes in thick, which is what you want. You just grab a handful and snip off the tops of the plants with scissors, leaving about an inch so the plants can continue to grow. In Maine you can buy this stuff fresh by the yard! You don't have to grow it this way--it just works well and the leaves tend to stay small and tender. It's also handy since you have lettuce starts at hand to uproot and plant elsewhere in the garden when you harvest radishes or onions.



 Salade de Jardin (Garden Salad)
salade (green leaf lettuce)
onions (green onions)
crème sur (sour cream)
sel (salt)

First off, you will need to harvest about twice as much lettuce as you think you need. It's mats down considerably so don't wave off this advice. Wash each leaf of lettuce to remove debris and hiding slugs. Drain well (muy importante!) and hand shred into pieces like you would any salad. Chop the bulbs and greens of the onions. Place all in a bowl then plop on a wad of sour cream, salt it, then mix it all together with your clean hands. You really have to work it to get the sour cream to completely coat everything!  It should be tangy and slightly salty. Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to eat and enjoy it.



Monday, July 2, 2012

Eating locally

We're so lucky. We've always had at least one local food a day, and usually one at each meal. We're always grateful for eating locally, and many times we're humbled at how many local things we're eating. Saturday's example of our own ingredients:


Breakfast: 2 ingredients

Waffles and rhubarb sauce (eggs and rhu)

Lunch: 3 ingredients
Beany noodles and arugula pesto (arugula, onion greens)
Tea  (mint)

Supper: 15 ingredients

King salmon (Atlin caught)
Herb bread - homemade with (garlic, chives, rosemary, oregano, and thyme)
Salad (2 kinds lettuce, two kinds of kale, totsoi, radishes, onions, and arugula dressing)
Crisp (rhubarb and blueberries)

So that makes for 20 local ingredients today. And this isn't out of the ordinary--this is what every day is like spring to fall. Winter is a little more sparse, but still plentiful compared to most.


 

Arugula Pesto/Dressing

Ingredients: arugula, olive oil, walnuts, rice vinegar, water

Chop arugula coarsely and put in a blender with olive oil. Drizzle in enough to make the leaves wet and get the blender going. When it's bright green and the leaves are all finely chopped, add chopped walnuts and blend a bit more to break up the nuts. Serve on noodles, rice, or whatever you'd like. To make it into dressing stir in rice vinegar to taste, then add water (or more oil) to adjust thickness. It'll keep well in the fridge, so make a big batch and enjoy!