Corner Lot

Siskin swarm

2011-12-10T14:00:00.001-08:00

We just had ~200 pine siskin swarm our back yard. The were drinking out of the pond, plant saucers and eating from the feeders. They were here, then left at 100 a time. They flew a block away to a large spruce tree and could be seen flying in one or two flocks from tree to tree.

Stovetech biomass cooking stove

2011-09-24T18:52:00.001-07:00

Sun golds and sweet 100

2011-09-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

These are from volunteer seedlings.

Desert king fig pizza

2011-09-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

With dry salami, mozzarella, sharp cheddar on top.

White Marseilles Fig

2011-08-22T15:26:00.001-07:00

A cool summer turning into a bumper crop.

Broccoli

2011-08-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

These plants were grown from seeds in place from seeds grown in place. Packman I believe.

Evening Grosbeak

2011-05-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

Digiscoped through celestron regal lx binoculars with iPhone 4. The cropped and screen shot for the final image.

Phyllostachys nigra Bory 2011

2011-05-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

10 big shoots in a couple square feet.

Popping

2011-05-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Growth

2011-05-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

First Poppy

2011-05-14T16:57:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung and summers around the corner.

$10 Load of chips

2011-03-19T02:00:00.001-07:00

First time I've ever paid but well worth it. Tree of heaven and a cedar. We had a wind storm last week.

Hellebore's in bloom

2011-03-06T21:00:00.001-08:00

Drosophila suzukii

2010-10-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

The spotted wing fruit fly on sweet million cherry tomatoes. This is a new invading species of fruit fly. They harm ripening fruit by injecting their eggs into the fruit. I learned of these on the news last summer and found them on a brown turkey fig tree one week later while gleaning fruit. I collected figs flies and leaves and sent them to OSU. It turn out it was the first documented time this fly was documented on a fig!

, commonly called the spotted-wing drosophila, is a vinegar fly—closely related toDrosophila melanogaster (the common vinegar fly). Native to southeast Asia, D. suzukii was first described in 1931 by Matsumura. Observed in Japan as early as 1916 by T. Kanzawa,^[1] D. suzukii was widely observed throughout parts of Japan, Korea, and China by the early 1930s^[1]. By the 1980s, the "fruit fly" with the spotted wings was seen in Hawaii. It first appeared in North America in central California in August 2008^[2] and is now widespread throughout California's coastal counties^[3], western Oregon, western Washington,^[2], and parts of Florida.^[4]

D. suzukii is a fruit crop pest and is a serious economic threat to soft summer fruit; i.e., cherries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, grapes, and others^[2].

From wikipedis.

Drosophila suzukii

Thornless blackberries

2010-09-07T01:52:00.001-07:00

Thornless Chesterberry

Figs 2010

2010-08-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

My 2010 harvest. We usually eat them cut in half skewered on Rosemary with a piece of aged white sharp on top wrapped in Prosciutto grilled till melted and slightly toasted.

Or similar mix of ingredients on a thin pizza (olive oil not tomato sauce) grilled or baked in a 500 f oven.

Top row:
Stella
Middle row:
Nigrone, Desert King
Bottom row:
Desert king, white Marseilles (extremely ripe)

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Descriptions from the web.

Stella™

Following a friend's advice, one green world found this wonderful new fig in a Southeast Portland neighborhood. Stella was brought here many years ago by an Italian sailor and is now cultivated and prized by his wife. Stella™ caught our attention with its large size, sweet, striking, purplish-red flesh, and its ability to ripen in our cooler climate

NEGRONNE [bordeaux / petite negri /violette de bordeaux] - This fairly hardy cultivar produces large, almost black fruit with very deep red pulp. The flavor is rich and agreeable. Breba fruit are pyriform with thick, tapering necks while the main crop fruit are spherical or pyriform to obobate often without necks. The eye is medium sized. Excellent fresh or dried but probably needs heat to develop the best flavor. The leaf has a truncate to subcordate base with the middle lobe being spatulate and the others latate. Well adapted to the South and Southwest. This dwarf and prolific cultivar is reported to be originally from Spain and is very cold hardy. It is also considered by some to be the very best tasting fig around.

Desert King
One of the best varieties for the Northwest, Desert King withstands fruit damaging, late spring frosts better than any other fig we grow. Desert King is very productive and reliable, producing abundant, yellowish-green figs with sweet and richly flavorful, strawberry colored flesh. Because it ripens in mid-summer, Desert King is a great variety for gardeners in coastal, high elevation, and other cool regions.
3100

MARSEILLES [lemon / lattarula / white marseille / blanche] - A fairly hardy, large, lemon colored, thin skinned fig with tender, white to light amber flesh. They are very sweet and have a high sugar content. An old, reliable variety, this fig is excellent in all respects and a favorite of those who grow it. Produces a small breba crop. The fruit are turbinate with or without short necks. They have very small but open eyes and will sour or split if watered too much while ripe. The leaf has a subcordate base, 3 to 5 lobes and a crenate margin. This slow growing, dense tree is well adapted to the South.

Figs 2010

2010-08-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Top row: Stella
Second row: Nigrone, desert king
Third row: desert king, white marseil

Yellow zuc and ducks eating grape vines

2010-07-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Thornless Chesterberry (blackberry)

2010-05-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Angel wing begonia

2010-05-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lettuce etc

2010-05-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Mixed bed of lettuce and interplanted arugula.

Speckled Lettuce. P0

Cos or paris island romane. F1

Raddishes grown from home grown seed. F1

Greens in full production

2010-05-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Salad and flowers

2010-05-17T20:17:00.001-07:00

Egyptian Walking Onions

2010-05-13T22:34:00.001-07:00

Allium cepa var. proliferum

I love taking pictures of the onions with their crazy shapes and beautiful color! I could not resist the morning light and dew.....

Spring

2010-05-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

Cos Romane Lettuce

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

These are seedlings from home grown seed broadcast on to the onion bed
in February. There are over a thousand most will be consumed as baby
greens. These are being potted up to plant around the garden or
freinds and familys gardens.

Starts

2010-03-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Dalhias: boobie woogie and windmill

2010-03-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Strawberry Harvest Begins

2009-06-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

We began the strawberry harvest a few weeks ago and are now in full throttle. Strawberry jam later this weekend and a few with rhubarb from the garden.

2009-06-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

The newest members to our household! 7 Ancona ducklings, 3 days old on Saturday. Only a few will stay with us and make our yard their home. Friends will raise a few on their property, soon we need to decide which ducklings will live with us.

2009-06-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

First strawberries of the season and potatoes. I was a bit crazy grilling small potatoes on the grill. A lack of foil or brainstorming another idea resulted in char grilled potatoes. We still enjoyed!

Spring Fling

2009-06-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

holy moly...it is well into spring and almost summer! We dream of ducks. For our 10 year anniversary (yes, together ten, married two) we decided this would be our gift to one another. We have been shopping for ducks and after visiting online and viewing pictures of a Seattle duck blogger, who can resist?

http://mrflapper.com/blog/

In our future is an adventure waiting to happen, Lebonon or Corvallis or Eugene for ducks? Time will only tell within the next few days. As I cook a tasty picnic dinner of grilled zuccs, potatoes from the garden, strawberry shortcake baking, burgers, and Fishtail Ale to complete it...D. is busy making noise, drilling, sawing- building a duck house and tractor. How time flies....

The yard is shaping up and numerous happenings with a new macro-lense this year..

Summer's Past

2008-12-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

What began as a grand idea to document our adventures in our yard, garden treats, and community eats, became a distant idea. The summer season suddenly became very busy and ticked along in a summerly fashion filled with long days spending as much time outside as possible. Little of my mind wandered to the computer, alas the lack of blog upkeep. I've decided now is the time to check the blogosphere, and continue posting. New year's resolution perhaps, though I have never spent much time paying much attention to resolutions. I am determined to do this blog-thing, from start to finish.

Summer was filled with many adventures inside and outside. We were busy making pickles, anti pasta veggies, salsa, strawberry jam, drying Italian prunes, tomatoes, and herbs, and freezing green beans . With winter upon us, we are eating a variety of food from our garden and urban scavenging adventures. Our little dog Solo continues to watch over the yard, mine for squirrels, and monitor the fence line for four-legged invaders.

Pickles!

2008-08-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

12 pickles, 8 pints

green & crisp

from our garden, planted seed from last year's cucumbers!

D. read somewhere that soaking in ice-water creates crisper pickles, so we did. I ate a cuc slice post ice-water soak, and it was rather crisp. So we shall see if this ice-water does have a little magic to it.

Planting continues

2008-06-05T08:03:00.001-07:00

Sweet peas planted! Last year we had an abundance of sweet peas and discovered how much we love them. This year we plan to spread the wealth of the flowers and plant throughout the front and backyard. In past summers we've given vegetables and flowers to our neighbors, Tex and Mary, and will continue doing so this summer. Last year we spent time with Mary, and learned about her English upbringing and her passion for flowers. Giving her a bouquet of sweet peas gave her a such a sweet smile, which only made Tex happier! We will wait with anticipation for the sweet peas to bloom. We received black mondo grass, so D. spent time splitting and planting in small pots. Later this month we will decide where to plant the grass, along with rhododendrons, bleeding heart, and numerous hostas. We are anticipating summer warmth for our veggies, and will soon eat the rhubarb!

Starting simply...

2008-06-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight we officially began the One Local Summer challenge, and with the hectic week behind us, we were lucky for tonight's meal. A garden salad with arugula, red lettuce, radishes, and green onion; salmon from a friend, and a delicious (first of the summer season) homemade rhubarb pie! Unfortunately being new to the blog world and OLS, I'm working on remembering to document our meals with pictures. I remembered the salad, but alas my stomach took over, and we ate the food before there was a thought to take a pic. Next time I will remember.

The lucky part was having dinner at my parent's house, and a majority of the meal cooked by my parents. I presumed this counts for OLS, but I wonder, does it count if you go to someone else's house and they happen to cook local? Or is it like going to a restaurant in a sense, but then on the flip side, it was family. That should count for something, right?

This week also brought our first strawberry (seascape everbearing) of the season! Hip, hip, hoorah! The potato barrels are in the midst of their second topping off. I believe D and I are both having potato dreams, and think about when they'll be ready to grill, bake, saute, cream, and eat! So until next weekend, more loads of compost will be moved for the potatoes and garden beds for topping off.

A dish of spring with a dash of rain & clouds

2008-05-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

Spring is here with summer around the corner! My husband and I have joined One Local Summer and with that comes the challenge of creating and cooking delightfully fabulous local meals. We will play more than usual to create, grow, and eat!

We have decided to document our little piece of paradise. Looking through past photos we realize how much has changed in our yard. The garden beds are full, a bit crazy with arugula, but compared to their first day, green with life, not brown with dirt. Thought dirt is a lovely mix of compost, life & love, and worms....

Now the yard is in blooming with life, the hostas are popping with color, flowers are out, the dahlias are leafing out, and the forget-me-nots are crazy as ever!! I'll upload photos for before & after...wait! I can't forget the buckets of potatoes we're patiently waiting to taste later this summer...