Category — Gardening and Farming

“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

When I was a kid, chickens lived in barnyards. I was in awe of my grandmother’s fearlessness as she entered her long, white hen house and reached under each angry hen to snatch her egg. Those beaks looked mighty scary to me.

Looking back, I can’t imagine what it was like to have the 150 Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns, which she tended to every day. That is a LOT of eggs! Combine that with multiple crowing roosters and we’re talking serious (and noisy) poultry.

Pondering the age-old question: Which came first?

The Wall Street Journal reported about the urban chicken trend on July 8, article here. Now chickens enjoy city backyards and Vancouver is no exception. We love our chickens!

Roosters are forbidden in our city limits (thank you, City of Vancouver!) but hens are doing quite well. In fact, the chickens will be queens for the day on July 17 at the Coop du Jour Tour, which will allow us to look into their castles. A fundraiser for the Hough Foundation, the self-guided tour will feature chicken coops of various designs in Vancouver’s Uptown Village neighborhoods. The tour will be held from Noon to 4 pm.

I had the opportunity to preview one of the coops in June. “Coop” is WAY too weak of a word. This was nothing like my grandmother’s utilitarian hen house. The Mowats have created a stylish home for their brood in the Hough Neighborhood and will be part of the tour.

Much More than a 'Coop'

A Condo for Hens

My neighbors Caitlyn and Jerrad are inspiring new chicken owners. They have creatively transformed their daughter’s play structure into a handy coop, while preserving the swings, upper deck and slide for play. They will explain their architectural wonder during the tour. Frank Lloyd Wright would be proud.

Play Structure or Chicken Coop? It's Both!

Buy your tickets now for the Coop du Jour. They are available at Arnada Naturals and Mint Tea in advance (Only $10 per family) or on the day of the event. More info about the tour is here.

Grandma Moses reputedly said that if she hadn’t been a painter, she would have raised chickens. She would have enjoyed the Coop du Jour.

The year is 1903. Woodland resident Hulda Klager reads about Luther Burbank’s plant propagation work. Tired of peeling small apples for pies, she hybridizes a larger apple. From that work, she moves to lilacs and changes the history of the flowering shrub. After years of creating new varieties, she starts the tradition of annual open houses, sharing her plants with lilac collectors.

Thirty years later disaster strikes. Imagine that your life’s work is washed away. In 1948, a flood destroyed most of Hulda’s collection. At age 83, she started over. Many people who had purchased her many varieties came back with plant starts. She re-planted her collection and continued her spring open houses until her death at age 96 in 1960.

Today, the fragrant collection and the 1889 Klager home are maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. You can see the results of Hulda’s work, tour the Klager farm house and purchase plants every spring from mid-April through Mother‘s Day during Lilac Days . During the rest of the year, the grounds are open from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. Details here .

Here are a few photos of Hulda Klager’s floral legacy:

City of Gresham

Katherine Havemeyer

Chrystle

Lilac Sunday

Glory

“My advice to the women of America is to raise more hell and fewer dahlias,” said Kansas journalist and “the sage of Emporia” William Allen White (1868-1944). Why not raise both?

Dahlias may be the national flower of Mexico, but they thrive here. The American Dahlia Society reports that “the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala are considered the home of origin for today’s dahlia ancestors.”  Clark County has numerous dahlia growers. These photos were taken at Dahlia Daze at the Wynneshire Farms near the Clark County Fairgrounds.

Back to William Allen White, he also said “I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamourous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals.” We could use more people like him, and more dahlias, in our lives.

Where do eggs come from? How about bacon? If your children answer “Fred Meyer” or “Safeway” or if they haven’t fed a chicken or met a pig face to face, it’s time to take them out to Pomeroy Living History Farm.  

Welcome!

I love farms. With clear memories of summers and weekends on my grandparents Iowa farm, I was looking for some reminders of childhood this summer. They were there in form of gardens and animals, tractors and the smell of hay at the historic Pomeroy Farm. I fed the chickens and goats, talked to the snorting pigs (always my favorite farm animal) and made my very first cornhusk doll. Farm life in the 1920’s is on display. In 2010, it will be owned by members of the Pomeroy family for 100 years. 

“This house is full of memories,” Lil Freese told me as we stood in the diningroom of the original log home of her grandparents, E.C. and Adelaide Pomeroy who purchased the first 160 acres in 1910.  She graciously shares stories about 1920s log house at the farm, which over time expanded to 677 acres. Pomeroy family members started the living history program at the farm in 1988. Last year, 3500 school children visited the farm.

A spinner at work

On the porch, a costumed spinner turned wool into yarn while an “old time” band played. As I tried to churn cream into butter in the diningroom, I enjoyed the lesson but silently gave thanks for modern grocery stores. Upstairs, five bedrooms in the log house displayed the lifestyles of five different decades. Wandering through the farm, I toured the gardens, working blacksmith shop, historic barn and met the chickens, goats and pigs.

One of the residents at Pomeroy

A real oinker

Feeding the goats

October is a great time to visit. That is when Pumpkin Lane is in full swing including a mile long hayride past 70 “pumpkin people” and a stop at the Pumpkin Patch plus animals, children’s carnival games, entertainment and pumpkins available for purchase. Dates in 2009 are October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25. For the latest information including admission fees and directions visit www.pomeroyfarm.org or call 360.686.3537.

This is the the second year that we have bought a half-share of the Red Basket Farm, which is near Battle Ground. Every other weekend we receive a BIG basket of produce from Kate Rae’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. Deliveries start in late spring with greens, peas and other early vegetables. With the coming of summer, our bounty diversifies and increases. Our last shipment weighed 42 pounds! There are many reasons to join a CSA. Here are 10 benefits we have enjoyed:

1. Pesticide-free, ultra-fresh vegetables. This almost goes without saying but we know that our CSA produce is grown in a safe, sustainable manner and that it is harvested right before we receive it.

2. Supporting and getting to know a farmer. Not only do we know where and how are vegetables are grown, we know WHO planted and harvested them. Kate has been known to say our names as she plants potatoes.  It’s nice to know that there is a potato with your name on it! And her potatoes are fabulous when roasted with Red Basket Farm beets, carrots and onions.

3. Sharing produce with our friends and neighbors. We can’t eat all the produce we receive. So we share. Cabbages go to our German neighbor across the street. Spicy peppers go to a friend who is from Mexico. Vegetables build strong friendships!

4. Learning new cooking skills. Orach, kale, shisho greens, Swiss chard – we are learning to cook and eat in new and interesting ways. We still haven’t figured out what to do with mustard greens but we will get there someday! (See the Clark College  Easy Vegetable Meals class listed below.)

5. Visiting the farm. It’s great fun to visit the 70-acre Red Basket Farm. It’s a beautiful site filled with beds of our vegetables, flowers, fruit trees and assorted animals. The surrounding countryside makes for a lovely Sunday drive and Rusty Grape Vineyard and tasting room is just down the road. 

6. The BEST eggs in the world. It pains us to buy eggs in the store after eating the fresh green and brown eggs with such beautiful orange yolks. Kate’s feathered girls know what they are doing!

7. Meeting other CSA members. Each year, Kate has a beginning and end of  year party. It’s great fun to meet the other members and spend time at the farm.

8. Surprise! You never know what you are going to get. This is similar but not the same as #4. It’s an adventure to pick up your veggies and not know what you are getting or, in some cases, what you have received, once you see it. It’s all about learning and being flexible.

9. Flowers. Many CSAs offer flower shares and deliver gorgeous bouquets.

10. Buying local. We buy so many things that are manufactured or grown thousands of miles away. Buying local, fresh produce is a gift to us, to the farmer and, hopefully, to the environment.

Note: On Thursday, September 24, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Clark College at the new CTC campus is offering an evening class “EasyVegetable Meals” with Betty Hinkle of News Seasons Market. Class members will create:  Mixed Vegetable Grill with Spicy Peanut Sauce; Goat Cheese and Red Pepper Relish Sandwiches; Stir-Fried Japanese Mushroom Noodles; Roasted Root Vegetables; Gazpacho; Cauliflower Bake and Sweet Potato and Nut Bake. Cost is $85. For more information, go to Easy Vegetable Meals.