My Letter to the President

Here's the news article that started all of this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/europe/09food.html?_r=1&ref=world



Dear President Obama,
I know your assistants and interns are very busy so i won't be too long winded. You are the first democrat I've ever voted for. I've been voting Green Party since I was 18. I am sorry about the Kevin Baker article in Harper's, yet I have to admit a snicker. This is what I thought would happen. If you play the safe corporate way with US politics, it won't surprise me and I'll swallow it. We've been kneeling to corporate influence since long before my time. However, with this new G-8 food bill I am really asking that you do not make this a $15 billion paycheck for Monsanto and their monstrous products. Do you realize that indigenous plants are already healthy and drought resistant? These people need to save seed, non-GMO seeds and seeds that aren't reliant on expensive petrol fertilizers. I know Monsanto owns our Head of Agriculture and has purchased many in DC, but please for the sake of starving humans can we for once not give in to corporate pressure but truly feed these people? I know I'd be all supportive for restoring indigenous food, culture and plants to all nations. This will also open doors for self-reliance and dignity. If we refuse GMO seeds we are also opening doors for these people to sell produce, meat and goods to a European market as well as ours.
There are many fine books on this subject, feel free to contact me if you need titles. Dennis Kucinich probably knows a few good ones as well (he'd be the only one)!!
Thank you- you have a very difficult job,

Picnic at Lake Cushman

About 40 miles north from Olympia is Lake Cushman. It is so pretty. Yesterday we packed a picnic and brought the dog. It was the first time Ulysses went 'swimming'. This was just him splashing around, slapping the little waves and then full force jumping in a little deeper and swimming back! It was really cute.

The trail of mystery!! We only saw two chipmunks but we made big plans on how we'd escape a bear attack!

The view looking up.

I wish I had more than just my camera phone with me. The blue of the water is remarkable.

I don't know what to say about this one, running out of adjectives! This was a really great time, hopefully I'll post more pictures. Justin has the dog in the water pictures on his phone. I was in the water with the dog on leash!

Strobing

That's Justin lighting one of our strobe fireworks on the 4th. We had a good time but one of the penguin fireworks backfired and burnt my thumb. I always get an injury- totally lame. I was wondering though- what happens to the wildlife during the 4th? Do my squirrels get woken up or are the deer scared? What do animals do? I didn't see any running around so maybe they just tuck down for the night. Poor little guys...

Roasted Garlic

Who knew roasting garlic was so easy! I didn't even need to buy one of those fancy terra cotta pots. I made two batches yesterday to spread on our bread that accompanied radical homemade vegetable soup. Avocado sushi and miso soup was the original plan, but it cooled down to the low 60's yesterday so soup sounded much better. I think I'm the last to make my own roasted garlic but here's how I did it:

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Remove most of the garlic paper leaving bulbs intact
Cut 1/4 inch off the tops of the bulb and little garlic guys
Place on aluminum foil
drizzle with olive oil, salt and whatever else (cayenne pepper is good)
Cover it all up with the foil
Place on an oven safe pan (I used a ceramic pie dish)
Cook for 45 minutes

That's it! Then you just squish it out and spread it around.

Tongue of Fire

Look at these beauties!! My bush beans have come in, and there are many more on the way. This is an heirloom variety called Tongue of Fire sold by Victory Seeds in Oregon. I bought these seeds last summer but we moved too late to plant them. This year I popped them straight into the ground around April with some dwarf corn. It's working beautifully. I'll post pictures of my weird little garden spaces later. I am working on a theory I call 'hands-off gardening'. I know it sounds silly and I don't know too much about gardening, but I think letting a few weeds grow between plants and not keeping a sterile garden environment, my plants will be healthier. So far my plants are doing good but I notice they aren't as lush as some around town (I walk the dog to spy on gardens in the neighborhood). They're scrappers!!

Jammed

So the cherry jam turned out too soft. I'm not sure exactly what backfired but I have my suspicions. At least I got a cherry stoner out of the whole ordeal. That thing is pretty fun to use- but messy! I have a dozen half-pint jars of a syrupy cherry sauce. I need some good ideas of what to do with it.

Sweet Cherry Jam

Today I am going to begin my summer canning. I want to turn four pounds of cherries from one of my trees into cherry jam. I think they will make nice gifts. I still have four other trees, but they produce pie cherries and they're not ready yet. That will make pie filling in late July.
I love these projects. I am also hoping to make Strawberries on Top Jam and Strawberry-Lemonade Concentrate. That will be nice to gift in the winter. Last year I wouldn't buy lemons because they don't grow locally. It is hard to work without citrus of any kind, so I've sort of bent on that one. This year I've also given in to eating avocados. My last strong hold is bananas. I refuse to buy them~ Barbara Kingsolver has me totally convinced!