Port Gamble – A Washington Day Trip

Earlier this year, our time in the Seattle area was extended while we waited for delivery of a tonneau cover for our truck before venturing out on another road trip. Since we hadn’t planned for an extra three days and we’d just been there for two weeks at Christmastime, we were at loose ends trying to figure out just what to do with ourselves. I opened my Pinterest board for the Seattle area – which, to be completely honest, is mostly restaurants we/I want to try  – and found a restaurant in Port Gamble. I wasn’t sure hubby was going to go for the idea – it was a two hour trip from where we were, not including ferry waiting time. But the description sounded great, the weather was sunny, and he was ready to get on the road so a mini roadtrip was a go.

We took the ferry from Edmonds, a great little town in it’s own right, to Kingston and were pleasantly surprised that there was no wait for the ferry. We saw the last of the cars in the waiting area load as we were approaching the ticket booth and were stopped, along with another car, in the waiting lanes. Several minutes passed, I turned off the truck, and then we got the signal to load. Yay! The ferry ride was super calm and pretty as always.

Kingston is a little town surrounding the ferry terminal with a few stores and restaurants. I keep saying one day we will stop and explore it a little more but I think we are always waiting for that day when the ferry lines are really long and we have time to kill. So as always, we sailed right through and in no time were pulling into Port Gamble, greeted by the two large water towers.

This little lumber mill town was first established in 1853 and when the mill closed in 1995, it was the longest operating mill in North America. The town continues to be a company town and is managed by a subsidiary of a company started by the original owners. They maintain everything from the houses to the utilities to the public areas and have done a good job of preserving the historic buildings, most of which look like they are right out of a New England coastal town.

There’s lots of parking in Port Gamble so we found a spot near the restaurant I wanted to try, just in time for an early lunch! Butcher and Baker Provisions is in a old automotive shop which looks like it might have been an old gas station as well.

It’s a casual place done in a farmhouse style with communal tables, outside seating, and walk up counter service. In their words:

We are a locally sourced farmhouse restaurant, butcher shop and bakery that offers small batch provisions and dining. With the Butcher, Chef Adam Sawasy offering his artisanal charcuterie and traditionally cured meats and the Baker, Chef Patricia Horton specializing in pastries and baked goods, together the Butcher and Baker bring farmhouse food to your table or ours.

As the description states, in addition to the restaurant, they have a deli case full of specialty meats and cheeses and plenty of pastries and desserts to keep the sweet tooth happy. They also have a small area of beverages, pickled veggies, breads, and other merchandise so you can fill out a picnic lunch, take home some of that great hot sauce you tried or grab some logo apparel.

We decided we’d have something to eat, explore the town and then return to pick up some things to take back with us. There were so many things I wanted to try – the Shrimp Po Boy and the Fried Chicken Sandwich with pimento cheese were both in the running but in the end, we decided to share one our favorite dishes – Croque Madame.

This beautiful creation, served open face, had the traditional bechamel sauce, cheese, and ham atop a slice of rustic bread and they’d added spinach so I could pretend it was healthy. And of course it’s not Madame unless there’s sunny side up eggs on top. It was so good, we could have eaten our own but I was glad we shared.

Now satiated, we headed out to explore. It’s easy to do on foot – Port Gamble is just a few blocks square, excluding the old mill area. We poked into almost every shop in the historic buildings. Many have plaques describing the building’s history, like this one.

Most of the shops are filled with all manner of lovely art, clothing, and various artisan goods.

I love checking out small town general stores and the Port Gamble store didn’t disappoint.

They have everything from greeting cards to home decor to serving items and so much more. And if you wander towards the back, there is a small cafe/coffee counter. I made a note to stop here next time.

Eventually we’d wandered back towards Butcher and Baker and picked out a piece of cake to share. This was why we’d shared lunch because their baked goods are large!  It was a tough choice and surprisingly it was not chocolate cake but rather Almond Toffee Mousse Cake – a butter cake filled with almond mousse that was dense, almost like there was cream cheese in it, topped with chocolate ganache and crunchy-soft toffee bits. It was yummy!

Then we loaded up on some specialty cheeses and meats, bought some hot sauces for home and gifts, piled it all in our ice chest and headed back towards Kingston and the ferry home. On the way, a bit outside of Kingston, we stopped at one of those places we’d driven by before but never stopped – CB’s Nuts.

This great little shop is all things nuts with a peanut focus. They roast their own right outside the shop and package them up so you can conveniently take along a pack to munch on. We bought some double roasted peanut butter which turned out to be amazing and a bag of double roasted in the shell – just a small bag!!!

We happily munched on those peanuts throughout our month long trip and had plenty to leave for my father in law to snack on.  All in all, we were quite content with our mini roadtrip and I look forward to a future visit to Port Gamble.

 

 

Housesitting Adventures – Favorite Walks Around Parksville, BC

As a housesitter, absolutely nothing is nicer than having a homeowner ask you back to house/pet sit.  It’s an additional confirmation that they were pleased with how things went last time.  And when it’s somewhere you love to go with a wonderful pet, you find yourself leaping at the chance.  We’ve been fortunate enough to be asked back to care for Susie, the wonder Spaniel, in Parksville on Vancouver Island several times, always in the winter when normal people are fleeing for warmer climes.

January in the Pacific Northwest gets a much more mild winter than we get at home in Juneau, Alaska. It’s usually chilly but not cold, not as windy, and alternates between sunny and rainy but in three consecutive years, it has snowed on us during our visit – sometimes disappearing within a day, sometimes piling up for a several days.  The locals tell us it’s really rare but after three years of snow, I think they are pulling our legs.  But growing up in Southeast Alaska means I’m no stranger to cold, wet weather and we had a dog to walk so every day we bundled up, long underwear under our jeans as necessary, and ventured out to our favorite walks and a couple of new ones.  Here they are in no particular order: 

Parksville Boardwalk/Beach – This  beach and its accompanying boardwalk is “the” beach in downtown Parksville.  

It’s our go-to for a walk when we have other plans for the day as it is a quick drive and a satisfying walk that’s just long enough.  You can choose to walk on the beach itself, wandering out to water’s edge at low tide, or you can walk the boardwalk that separates the beach from the resort and park along the cove. The beach is littered with small purple clam shells and they tell me there are sand dollars farther out but we’ve never found them here.  We always start from the north end as it is closest to where we drop down from the house but there is more parking at the south end and it seems a lot of folks use that as their beginning.  The boardwalk is wide and stable, though it can be slippery when the temps dip to freezing, and turns into a paved path further along before ending at the point of the cove where you can walk around a spiral painted in the turnaround area.  You are sure to see other walkers and their dogs to exchange a “good morning” with.  Bonus is they provide a doggy doo bag station and a few trash cans along the way and there is dog water faucet and bowl on the boardwalk in front of the Beach Club Resort.  After your walk, you can stop in town for a coffee, lunch, or to grab some groceries.

Rathtrevor Beach and Campground – This is another popular spot with the locals just south of Parksville near where many of the resorts are located.  

There’s plenty of parking in the day use area but beware – getting to the parking requires drive through a minefield of potholes in the dirt road.  The day use has a play area for kids and a no dogs portion at the south end and you’ll find bathrooms just off the parking lot.  We like to head north on the trail that will lead you to the beach.   At this point you choose whether to walk on the beach or on the trail that parallels it in the trees.  We prefer the beach (because I’m all about the beach!) and walk to the end of the park before heading back up to the trail in the trees, looping back through the campground.  It’s a nice mix of beach with some shells to find, including sand dollars, and rainforest filled with big trees.

Moody Rathtrevor

Beach “Art”

There are some offshoots on the woods walk to tempt you into a few more steps but a reasonably straight course will bring you back to where you parked.  Once again, you are sure to run into locals walking their dogs and perhaps stop for a chat with one or two but they are spaced far enough apart that much of the time you feel like you are completely alone.

Englishman Falls — While not a beach walk, this is still a favorite both for its proximity to our housesit and the beautiful walk through the woods along the Englishman River.  

It can be a bit muddy after the rains but not so much that we are dissuaded.  This is also near a campground you can walk about but the river is the draw so we pass right by and head for the day use area.  There are the usual day use amenities – picnic tables, trash cans and restrooms.  The trail takes you through the rainforest along the Englishman River with bridges that cross the river in a couple places. 

I love to come here when it has been raining really hard as the water thundering over the falls is quite impressive.

The bridges give a great view of waterfalls.  I took these pictures when the river was swollen and the water roared over the rocks with water spraying many feet up in the air.  The bridge shook with the force of the water hard enough that the wonderdog didn’t like being on it but she wasn’t about to leave my side as I snapped picture after picture.  

And the lower falls brige has its own Locks of Love – just one set with a proposal carved (!) into the handrail.

There is so much moss on the trees here, the kind that coats their trunks and branches and makes it look like they are wearing sweaters.

There are a couple of areas where you could get down to the river during the summer when the water is lower and people picnic and swim in a couple of the water holes.  Perhaps someday we’ll do the trip in the summer to take advantage of it.

Little Qualicum Falls — While this a bit more of a drive from Parksville, it is well worth it.  Again, there is a campground and a day use area and since you are in the rainforest, the trail can be muddy or as was the case when we were there on our first walk, a bit icy from packed snow.

The trail meanders along the river and crosses it to give view of the waterfalls. 

They are spectacular but my favorite is when the water tumbles through deep gorge.  The water is an amazing blue green color when it’s not swollen from the rain.  There are several viewpoints along the gorge but beware that some are quite muddy in the rain. 

The forest is quiet, full of big trees including my favorite, the madrona, or arbutus as they call it here, with its red-orange bark and twisting form.

Someone has made a little tree art along the trail.

And the trees wear sweaters here too.

There is a fork in the trail up at the main bridge over the gully. This last time, we decide to check it out. It parallels the river and has several places you can get to the water but there’s nothing to really tell you where it will come out. We knew it was heading south-ish and figured we’d run into the abandoned railway tracks we pass on the drive into the trail or the Port Alberni highway if nothing else. I’m pretty sure even the wonderdog was wondering where the heck we were when we came to a bridge that crosses the river to the campground. A bit a of walk through the campsites brought us right back to our rig – just like I planned (Not!).

The abandoned railway in the snow

Cathedral Grove — This is even further from Parksville heading out towards Port Alberni on the western coast of the island.  You will pass the turn to Little Qualicum on the way and could do both walks in one day but we usually keep them separate.  

The drive is lovely and passes residential areas before the road narrows and winds along Cameron Lake which has a bit of a picnic area as well.  Cathedral Grove is a small area with parking for 8-12 rigs on either side of the highway which can be quite busy with traffic.  There are restrooms and trashcans.  The trails are flat, mostly dirt (or a bit muddy in the rain), interspersed with some boardwalk areas, and make their way through amazing huge old growth forest on both sides of the highway.

Each side had a loop trail and they are short enough to do both sets.  There is a river at the east edge which gives the wonderdog a place to wet her feet and snuffle in the water.  

There is something so peaceful about this area right off the highway and yet with a surprising lack of road noise once you head into the forest.  I can’t help but think of the Japanese word, shinrin-yoku or forest-bathing, when we walk here.

Top Bridge – This was a new discovery on a recent trip and what a find it was.  The start of the trail, or maybe it’s the end if you came from the south entrance, is quite near the housesit.  In driving to the end of a residential road, we found a gate closing the road so we had to park and walk down a bit of a hill to the start of the trail.  Once we descended, we found a suspension bridge over the lower portion of the Englishman River.  The wonderdog wasn’t sure what to make of this one but when Dan tried to coax her to leave me behind for pictures, she wasn’t having any of it.

The river goes through a rock formation and has carved and smoothed the rocks into the most amazing shapes and bowls.

I should note that this is actually part of a larger trail that starts up at Englishman Falls and ends at Rathtrevor, but that is long walk for another day.  We could easily have been content at this rocky outcropping with the river running through it but crossing the bridge, we found another parking area and a trail paralleling the river as is runs east to Rathtrevor.  The initial part of the walk is in the woods and there is a great deal of up and down over roots and some sets of steps. The trail alternates between mud, dirt, and gravel.  There are several places to access the river and fisherman do so frequently. There are also some amazing rock formations, some covered with ferns.  

The water rises with heavy rains and has carved away the dirt around nearby tree roots. Some of the trees have taken refuge atop rocks. The trees are a testament to the saying “nature finds a way”.

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The trail flattens out and runs under the main highway overpass, becoming more sandy than dirt and much wider.  Now comes the confession – we never made it to the end at Rathtrevor.  By the time we’d walked well past the highway, we were at least two miles into the hike and there was no end in sight.  I wanted to keep going – I’m an “end of the road” person and always want to see what’s around the bend but I was reminded that we had to walk back and still had chores to do so we turned and went back.  This is a quiet walk – while we saw people both days we walked here, they were few and far between.

Hole in the Wall – On our last trip, we wanted to walk somewhere different. I read about Hole in the Wall, an actual hole drilled through a rock to run a water pipeline into Port Alberni, on the west side of the island. Sounded cool and historic so we decided to find it. The trailhead is not marked and is actually just a little pulloff beside the highway just east of Alberni. The “trail” starts out as a gravel road. Not too far along, it splits and there is no indication of which way to go. We choose to go left and followed the narrowing track as it guided us down towards a valley. Then we came upon this “sign” and knew we were on the right path.

There was the constant reminder that we’d have to walk back up but I didn’t want to turn back. The road narrowed and was lined with washouts. We went from short alder brush into forest and ended up at the river. Again the trail forked so we chose to go right this time – and ended up at the Hole in the Wall!

There’s nothing left at the hole to show it once held a pipeline. If you hadn’t read about it, you’d have no way of knowing just looking at the hole. I really wanted to get into the hole but river was a little high, the rocks were slippery and discretion is the better part of valor. So we headed back to the fork in the trail and took the left fork this time. Along this trail were places where wire coils and what’s left of the wooden pipe are exposed.

Eventually, we came to a small dam – or what’s left of it. The water here is so clear!

We hiked back up the trail and where we had turned left, this time we took the right fork. This runs near what appears to be an old gravel pit and then gradually down into the valley towards the river. But this time, the last bit of trail to the river is a steep, narrow, path, complete with a rope to hang on to.

I really wanted to check it out so Dan went first to be sure we could get down and more importantly back up. I followed and made it the bottom without mishap. What a wonderful place this would be to camp in the summer. There is a dam to the left, and the river flows wide and clear. It would be a great swimming hole if only it was warmer!

We saw several rock cairns, including this impressive one.

Every time we return to Parksville, we seek out these walks and then try to find a new one. I’m grateful we’ve been able to housesit there and to have a great doggy companion for our walks. I’m looking forward to our next walkabout!

A Port Townsend Day Out

While out with friends on Whidbey Island one evening, I talked to a lady who had never been to Port Townsend.  I was somewhat surprised but my initial thought was that maybe she hadn’t lived on the island for long.  After all, Port Townsend is just a 35 minute ferry ride from Coupeville, which lies at about the island’s midpoint.  And given that Port Townsend is the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula for folks on the island, I kinda figured that alone meant at least a pass through visit was the norm for folks here. To say I was astounded when she told me she grew up in Oak Harbor, about 15 minutes north of the ferry, would be an understatement.  It can’t be just me that feels the pull of the open road, the need to see what’s lies over the water or the hill or the mountain???

I thought of her the next day as we were making a day trip to Port Townsend, something we do whenever we get the chance.  It’s just a perfect destination for a day out. and our petsitting buddy was happy to go for a ride – in his favorite spot on my lap.

As I said, the ferry is about 35 minutes and normally there are two ferries heading back and forth.  If you want to walk on the ferry, just arrive a little before the ferry is supposed to leave and you’re good.  But if you’re driving, it has gotten a little more congested, reservations are now recommended and need to be made more than two hours ahead of time, and they want you checked in at least 30 minutes ahead.

Leaving from the Coupeville side, the Keystone ferry as it’s called, you can spend your waiting time walking the small beach nearby or just watching the people come and go.

Once on the ferry, you can ride in your vehicle or head upstairs with the walk on passengers.  There’s a good view from the upper deck and there is our traditional cup of Ivar’s clam chowder waiting.  Really, we’ve been sharing a cup of chowder on most ferry rides since we before we were married oh so long ago.

The Port Townsend ferry terminal is a just a couple blocks from the downtown area so it’s walkable or there is a shuttle.  Once there, you’ll see so many beautiful older buildings, well preserved and filled with shops and restaurants.

Since we were house/pet sitting, we took our buddy for a walk first and found that Port Townsend is quite dog friendly – every few stores there would be a bowl of water waiting for the thirsty pooches.

Some of our stops this trip included:

The Clothes Horse – a lovely women’s clothing shop where I’m always sure to find something I must have.

Tickled Pink – filled with unique gift and home items with just enough nautical/coastal items mixed in to keep hubby coming back.

The Spice and Tea Exchange – full of the good smell of tea and spice.  We usually pick up a bit of Earl Grey tea and find some new spice blend we have to try.  And of course, there are the refills of some of our favorites – flavored sugars and salts for baking and popcorn seasonings to name a few.

Lively Olive Tasting Bar – right next to the Spice and Tea Exchange, this shop was new to us and had a great selection of oils and vinegars to restock my dwindling collection at home.  I will admit a couple new items made their way into my cart – the dark cherry balsamic was particularly enticing.

Conservatory Coastal Home – great selection of home décor items from rugs to bits of furniture to a great bag for the beach.

These are just a few of the places we stopped into this visit but there are so many more shops and galleries to visit and this just the downtown portion of Port Townsend.  We headed back to give our charge another walk, thinking he’d be glad to get out of the truck.  Turns out he was just as happy snoozing but was coaxed out for a stroll before settling back in for another nap.

It was a warm fall day so all this wandering was making us thirsty and we found just the place – Port Townsend Vineyards Tasting Room.  We didn’t remember this place from earlier visits – come to find out, they’d opened just a few weeks earlier, a sister to their tasting room farther out of town. Their space is beautiful with high ceilings and brickwork.  They serve wine by the bottle, the glass or as a tasting which is what we opted for.  It wasn’t too long before we had a couple bottles to add to our collection and a bottle of their Discovery Red, a mixed varietal they don’t bottle but rather dispense from a tap in their tasting rooms into your glass or into a bottle to go. We were also armed with information on Girl’s Night Out happening the following Thursday where businesses have snacks and beverages to tempt folks into their stores for shopping.  How I wish my girl tribe was here – they would love that!

After a lovely tasting and some conversation, we were feeling peckish (isn’t that a great word??) and headed back out to the sidewalk.  We were immediately distracted by Jane Dough, a lovely little bakery, ice cream, and tea shop.  While we weren’t up for afternoon tea, we did try some shortbread and tarts, the second being made from the owner’s grandmother’s recipe.  Both were excellent and a box of assorted shortbreads and tarts quickly joined the wine in our growing armful of shopping bags.  We would have returned here for ice cream but they close at 5pm.

We’ve enjoyed many a meal in Port Townsend and were about to return to one of our usual haunts but a quick Yelp search turned up Alchemy, a Mediterranean bistro a block off of Water Street next to the mermaid fountain.  We sat in the bar and were thumbing through the wine and cocktail menu when I spied a Ramos Gin Fizz.  This older cocktail is a favorite of ours and it is rare to find them, likely because they take a little bit of mixology.  We ordered two and were delighted!

They have a good selection of small plates and entrees and I had trouble deciding if I wanted a half Croque Monsieur and salad, the daily Risotto, or Paella.  But then I spied the Duck served in a fruity gastrique.   Hubby had no trouble immediately settling on Lapin Ivre – Drunken Rabbit in a fabulous sauce. Both were wonderful but we agreed we needed a bit of red wine to go with them so we chatted with the bartendress who said she would make us a Sommeliers Choice flight to share.  She took care to match the three wines to our meals and the result was outstanding.

After our meal, we hustled back to the truck and down to the ferry terminal just in time to make the 30 minute cutoff for the 6:45 ferry. The sun was just setting and the sailboats in the calm water looked absolutely lovely as we walked the dog and waited for our turn to head back across the water.

A side note…..

If you are a fan of the movie, An Office and a Gentlemen, you may or may not know that much of it was filmed in Port Townsend, much of it at nearby Fort Worden, where you can book a room in one of the officers quarters.  You can also visit the Tides Inn where they’ve marked the hotel room used in the movie and you can stay there if you wish.

There are many great places to stay in Port Townsend.  On another trip, we stayed at the Swan Hotel at the end of town near the boat harbor.  They have both a three story small hotel as well as cute little cabins, our choice for that particular trip.

Our morning meal  at the Point Hudson Cafe was amazing – they are just up from the Swan in the harbor area.   

And if you’re looking for something other than town wandering to keep you busy, the beach past Fort Worden is absolutely beautiful, complete with a lighthouse.  Or you can make the long hike to Seaglass Beach to find some treasures but beware – you need to start this hike on a low tide early in the day as it’s a long one and of course you’ll want time to find treasures.

All in all, Port Townsend has earned a spot in our regular travel wanderings and rightly so.  I’m certain we’ll be returning in the not to distant future.

And a final postscript….this little guy passed on earlier this year.  We consider ourselves lucky to have been able to be his “second parents” and miss his smooshy little face!

Cookbooks and Families

Hi, my name is Lisa and I am a cookbook-a-holic.

Part of it is that I love recipes, especially family recipes. But it’s more than that. I like to read cookbooks and I have three overflowing shelves of cookbooks to prove it….and that’s after I did a decluttering ala Marie Kondo, thanking the ones I could bear to part with for bringing me happiness at one time, not sharing with them that they were less joyful than others I was keeping and so I was taking them to the shelter for unwanted books, the local Friends of the Library store where I am sure someone else will love them.

I have old cookbooks, new cookbooks, cookbooks I bought, cookbooks I was given. I have my cooking “bibles”. There’s the Betty Crocker – not the big 3-ring binder one my mom has had since I was a kid but a smaller version that earned its place on the shelf. It stands by the Joy of Cooking, a first Christmas gift from my husband – lovingly inscribed with the sentiment “Betcha can’t make me fat”. I should have taken that bet! There’s the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum who words mentored me through many a wedding cake. (I love love love the recipe for white chocolate wedding cheesecake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting) Of course, I have the set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by the Julia Childs – inspired not just by my love of French food but also by her kitchen preserved in the Smithsonian and a bit by the knowledge, picked up in the Spy Museum in Washington DC, that she did a little espionage when she wasn’t whipping up a beurre blanc. And my collection includes so many specialty cookbooks on pickling, flavored vinegars, desserts, Christmas cookies, holiday recipes; just about any theme you can imagine is represented.

Every now and then, someone in one of those travel groups I follow will ask what people collect as souvenirs of their travels. And I always thought hard about the questions as there really isn’t any one thing I bring back from my travels (except that meaningful rock I had to have but that’s another story). Our home is small and less is more in my book – well maybe not in my cookbooks. In my cleaning, I realized it’s cookbooks – that’s what I bring back. I’ve tried to limit myself, tried not to bring too many home, but it’s hard.

I have one from my most recent trip to Cuba because eating and cooking the food is a great way to immerse yourself in the culture. There’s one from the Girl and Fig restaurant in Sonoma – a memento of that restaurant experience many years ago. I even have one from a short trip – the Fiddlehead Cookbook from a Juneau restaurant that is no longer open. I recently baked this rhubarb cream cheese pie from the Double Musky Cookbook, a memento of a few amazing meals and evenings shared with friends in the Girdwood, Alaska restaurant.

Double Musky Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie

A newer acquisition is Big Food, Big Love I grabbed during a brunch stop at the Tokeland Hotel in Washington State. I insisted we stop based on some reviews I’d read and the food did not disappoint. I was perusing the cookbooks when the lady behind the counter asked if I needed help. When I asked if any of the cookbooks were signed by the chef, she said there should be but if not, she’d be happy to sign one for me. Yep – it was Chef Heather herself manning the counter and after a great conversation with her and her husband who is from Alaska (!), I left with a personalized signed copy.

I also have a number of others that are usually referred to as community cookbooks. These are the books put together by groups, sometimes as a fundraising effort. You know the ones – they have that great salad recipe Susie brought to the potluck, the cake Jane always makes. The recipe is followed by the contributor’s name and maybe some notes on how it came to be. I think of these as family cookbooks because frequently the recipes have been in the family for some time. One of these books was 100 Years in the Kitchen, written by Mary Peters to honor Juneau’s centennial in 1980. I hadn’t picked it up in months, no likely in years, but I was looking for inspiration and spent some time thumbing through it the other day.

One of the first things I stumbled on was this recipe for “Extended Cheese“, a name that sucked me in to reading the recipe right down to the contributor’s name – none other than my grandma, Esther Kassner. I’m telling you tears welled up.

Essentially, it’s a pimento cheese recipe that has evaporated milk mixed in to make a soft cheese spread and “extends” a pound of cheese into a spread that will fill many bellies. Probably a good thing since there was Mom and her three siblings and then came the grandkids – my brother, me, and our five local cousins. I remember grandma serving pimento cheese on celery as a snack when I was a girl. I thought it was the pimento cheese that came in those little jars – the ones with bottom edge of semi-ovals that reminded us of elephant toes – the ones grandma washed and we used for juice glasses. I’m certain some did come from those jars but I had to know – had I had this “Extended Cheese” before?

The only way to know was to make up a batch. I read through the ingredients and decided I better halve the recipe – much as I love just about anything with cheese, a full pound melted and extended seemed like an awful lot for just the two of us. So off I went, melting the cheese in a double boiler, taking care not to let the water boil as grandma instructs, stirring in the finely chopped pimentos (the woman was the queen of fine chopping so I took extra care here), and finally adding the evaporated milk. Ok – I didn’t take pictures as I cooked and I’m sorry but frankly, I didn’t realize there would be words about this adventure begging to be blogged.

What resulted was a somewhat thin concoction that I poured into a dish before scraping the last from the bowl for a taste and forcing husband to have a taste too. Into the fridge it went to wait for happy hour. When I pulled it out, it was firm but very spreadable, dippable even.

I dispatched hubby to the backyard to pull some of the last of our homegrown celery but it was pretty small, definitely not up to the task. I managed to get a little on a stalk and pop it in my mouth. Memories – that’s what I tasted – memories of Extended Cheese and celery served on a paper towel that served both as a plate and as a napkin. It was like a food hug and reminded me of the saying “food is love”. In these days of gourmet cooking, it’s a rather plain Jane kind of snack – but that doesn’t stop me from loving it. I decided then to take a picture so I grabbed some pita crackers which proved to be an excellent vehicle for getting the spread to your face.

I’ve since returned to the cookbook for some additional reading. I read a recipe for Rum Trifle from Heidi Boucher and knew I had to share that memory with a high school classmate, Jo.

I was surprised to find a Cuban recipe contributed by local artist Rie Munoz, accompanied by a note that it was from when her family lived in Cuba on their sugar plantation.

There was a recipe from Jirdes Baxter for her Swedish Tea Ring. She’s been a fixture in my life as someone I worked with when I was first starting my career and as the mother and mother-in-law of friends. Somehow, in all these years, I didn’t realize she’d dropped the “G” from her name.

I found a recipe from a dear friend’s mother, Marie Devon, not her Scottish Shortbread recipe I was given and make at Christmastime, but for Salmon Salad – the jelled kind, not the sandwich kind.

And the final surprise was a recipe from that dear friend, Shannon, for Rice Royale Casserole. I think the real surprise here is that unless I’m missing it, there’s no rice listed in this recipe. Ummm, Shannon – can you help a gal out with this one???

The only question now is which recipe do I try next????

What It’s Really Like to Drive the Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway has mystique in spades.  When we tell people we’ve driven it, we are always peppered with questions, and rightly so!  The highway cuts through some of the most amazing and remote countryside.

Muncho Lake from the AlCan

I’ve lived in Juneau, the capital of the great state of Alaska, my entire life.  It’s a landlocked city so our only choice for getting out is a plane or a ferry.  If you choose ferry – unless you head all the way to Bellingham, Washington – you’re going to end up on the Alaska Highway either by taking the boat north to Haines or Skagway or south to Prince Rupert in British Columbia.  Suffice to say that I’ve driven the Highway many times, heading north for moose hunting or visits with friends and family or south for a vacation.

When I was a kid, we called it the Al-Can, short for Alaska Canada Highway. Makes sense since a good portion runs through Canada.  At some point, folks dropped the Canada part and just call it the Alaska Highway – well, folks except me because I can’t train my brain to think of it that way.  It was built during World War II to connect the lower 48 states to Alaska and keep supply lines open for the Alaska airfields.  You can read a bit about the history here.

The highway starts at Mile 0 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  Most people assume it runs to Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city, but it actually ends at Delta Junction, Alaska, south of Fairbanks.  Since Delta Junction is a small town with few services, most people are either jumping off at Tok Junction to head towards Valdez, Anchorage, or the Kenai Peninsula or they head north to Fairbanks and then loop back down to Anchorage, etc.

Mile 0 Post

However, when people talk about driving it, they usually include the offshoots getting on or off the highway.  If you are coming from Juneau, you might take the Klondike Highway from Skagway to the AlCan outside of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.   Or you might drive the Haines Highway from – you guessed it – Haines, to the AlCan at Haines Junction.  When heading south, if you want to end up in Vancouver or Seattle, you might take a shortcut, turning off the AlCan before you hit Mile 0 towards Prince George and down through the Fraser River canyon.  If you take the ferry to Prince Rupert, you’ll be on Highway 16 (also known as Highway of Tears but that’s another story) and could miss the actual AlCan entirely.

The road’s condition is legendary.  People would have you believe that it’s a narrow, windy, gravel road filled with potholes and wildlife, traveling through miles and miles of such remote wilderness that you’ll never see a soul. And back in the day, it fit the description – there was a time when we didn’t drive it without extra supplies – a couple spare tires, fan belts, headlights, full gas cans and tools.  Today, it seems luxurious compared to those trips though you’ll still find sections that fit the description.   There are always sections of gravel and mud where they are doing construction, usually in 20 mile swaths.  Hit one of these when it’s dry and the dust is blinding – drive thru during a rain and the mud is slippery and will cake your car until you can’t tell what color it is.   There are potholes and frost heaves  and just to keep it interesting, some are marked, some aren’t, and some are marked but have been fixed.  Bottom line – if you see a sign that says BUMP or DIP or spot an orange flag alongside of the road, pay attention and slow down. Another thing to pay attention to is the shoulders – there usually isn’t much of one and what’s there is soft gravel.  Stray off the pavement and you could be sucked in, especially if you’re towing a trailer.

There are sections of the highway where you drive thru a town pretty frequently but the farther north you go, the fewer and farther between those outposts of civilization become – you’ll see the occasional roadhouse, pull off or cabin but that’s about it.  If you travel in the summer, you’ll see lots of traffic including cars, RVs and big trucks.  Outside of summer, the traffic thins and by the time you get to winter, those remote stretches are practically vacant.  The big semis and the oil trucks – those are always there and you need to be on  your toes – if you are rolling slower than they are, they will pass you at top speed – I recommend pulling over if you can because there are stretches that are narrow and big trucks throw rocks.  And if they are coming towards you, they tend to ride the center lane or use your lane on a corner.  These guys also throw rocks at you – ask us, we know!

And then there’s the weather.  Summer can be anything from sunny and hot to rainy downpours – accompanied by mosquitoes, flies and other biting insects.  Winter might have wet snow compacting to ice, dry snow compacting to ice, wind driven snow creating drifts across the lanes, blinding blizzards, or bare dry pavement.

It can be so cold you have to keep your car running or plugged in when you stop.  The upside of winter is the snow tends to fill in the dips, bumps and potholes.  Personally, I’m a fan of fall when the colors are changing!

There was a recent time when we had driven the highway so much that we said we were done – we left our truck in Seattle and flew down.  Fast forward two years and we were happy to be back on the highway.  Besides the peace and quiet, the beautiful scenery, and the way nature makes you feel small, there’s the wildlife.   Moose, caribou, bison, wolves, coyotes, sheep, bears, gophers, and birds of all kinds.  You’ll want to be careful out there – especially in the early morning and evening hours when animals move more.  Bison stand in the road, moose love to dart out in front of you, and bears amble across your path.

Look for some future posts with some highlights (and lowlights) of our various AlCan trips.  In the meantime, you can check out an older post like this one with some pictures of our first post retirement drive south or this one about an adventure on the Klondike Highway, right off the AlCan on the way to Skagway.

Why Do We Keep Returning To La Push?

Some years ago, back when I had an actual career, an employee shared his vacation plans, telling me about this wonderful place on the Washington Coast where he would rent a cabin on the beach and spend the week relaxing off grid.  I tucked that nugget of information away for a later day…a week off sounded like a luxury at that point in my career and being off grid was a no go.

Fast forward several years to post retirement days.  A conversation with my father-in-law found him telling us about a place he thought we’d love where we could rent a cabin on the beach.  Turns out, they were the same exact place – the Quileute Oceanside Resort in La Push, Washington. Anyone who knows us knows we love a beach and if it has a cabin for rent so much the better.  This seemed like fate so off we went.

La Push is on the northern coast of Washington state, outside of the little town of Forks, of the Twilight novel fame.  We were up on Whidbey Island so we took the Keystone ferry from Coupeville over to Port Townsend, enjoying our traditional cup of Ivars clam chowder on board.  We’ve been to Port Townsend many times and it is worth a visit in itself but this time we breezed right through. We drove around through Sequim and Port Angeles and along Lake Crescent.  Do not let the mileage fool you – as Alaskans, we tend to underestimate how long it will take us to get somewhere by simply looking at the mileage.  Most highways in interior Alaska and western Canada are wide open with just wildlife, potholes, construction, and the occasional snowstorm to slow things up.   Down south (as Alaskans refer to anything south of Ketchikan), I’ve learned to check Google Maps or Waze to find the actual estimate and that’s a good idea here – there is much of the road that is two narrow lanes with no passing, particularly along Lake Crescent, and you’re sharing it with logging trucks and the occasional RV.

We made a stop in Forks to pick up take out for dinner, having been warned by Dad that there’s just one restaurant but knowing the cabin had a kitchen.   Then we were off.  If you’ve ventured into Forks before heading to the coast, you actually retrace your route back towards Port Angeles and turn off on the La Push road. Some ways down the road, we passed a sign that marks the “treaty line” and states no vampires are allowed past that point – a reference to the Twilight novels. But apparently the vampire threat was low when we were there….whew!

The signs are right by Three Rivers Resort and we made a note to come back for the Quil burger we’d been told was not to be missed.  Further down the road, we are first driving thru the Olympic National Park and then on the Quileute reservation, passing a residential area and parking areas to access various beaches.

At the end of the road is the Oceanside, the little town of La Push with a marina, and a Coast Guard rescue station. This is the only restaurant – it was the original Coast Guard station before they moved up the road. They have a limited but reasonable menu of the things you’d expect….eggs and such for breakfast, sandwiches and burgers for lunch and steaks for dinner.

The Oceanside is run by the Quileute tribe and sits right on First Beach.  There are luxury cabins, rustic cabins, A-frame camping cabins, a two story motel, and an RV camping area – all stretched along the beach.  We selected a rustic cabin – two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and a open kitchen/living/dining area upstairs with wood stove and a deck complete with log chairs for watching the beach and sunsets.

We settled in and went directly out on the beach.

When I say the resort sits on the beach, I’m not kidding.  You walk thru some grass and huge driftwood logs and you’re on the beach.  Most of the beach is gravel with some mud and sand when the tide is out.  It’s open to the ocean so the waves roll in and crash on the beach and against the rocks to the south.  There’s plenty of room to walk along and apparently if you know what you’re looking for, you can find some agates….or so I’m told.

Returning to our cabin, we settled in to watch the sunset over the ocean – and have a glass of wine we’d picked up at Olympic Cellars  outside of Sequim (trust me that this is a must stop if you are a wine lover).

The best treat was watching the Coast Guard boat make repeated training runs in and out of the mouth of the river (a feat I don’t wish to ever take on) – a special treat for my ex-Coast Guard hubby.  (Sorry about the pic quality – it was a bit dark by that time.)

After sunset and dinner, we lit a fire and spent the rest of the evening reading – there is no wifi except in the main lobby building, no TV, and no phone – just a lovely off grid peace.  However, it wasn’t long before we were heading to bed where we fell asleep to the sound of the crashing waves.

The next day, we decided to head to Rialto Beach.  You can see Rialto from La Push but to drive there you must head back towards Forks, turning on Mora road at Three Rivers Resort and driving through woods, part of the Olympic National Park, and past the Mora campground before finally arriving at a large parking lot.  To the right is the park’s paved lot with a restroom at the end.  To the left is a gravel parking area that is on Quileute property.  Both are separated from the water by huge amounts of driftwood logs. There was a picnic area but it’s been inundated with gravel from the big storms in recent years – there were tables literally up to their tops in gravel and sand though in the last year or so, some of that has gotten cleared out.  Most of the trees along the beach are dead – beaten into submission by the waves.

And those are waves you must watch – they might seem like they are a long ways out but they can run up the beach before you can turn tail – and I’ve gotten the wet feet to prove it.

The beach is made up of incredibly smooth flat rocks that just beg to be rubbed between finger and thumb and stacked in formation.  I’d love to have a truckload of them to surround my backyard fire pit.

After a long walk in the woods and on the beach, we head back, stopping for that Quil burger, big enough for the two of us to share, with fries and a milkshake, to tide us over on the next part of our drive.  And yes, it was worth the hype – be sure you stop here.

But wait, there’s more!  Since we just had one overnight on that trip, we decided we needed to return – there are more beaches after all!  On our next trip, we planned for two nights.   We made our stop in Forks, this time at Home Slice Pizza for a take and bake pizza.  These guys are great – they don’t do a thin crust which is what we prefer but offered to roll a medium out to a large, which was on special that day for $12, to make us a thin crust.  Fifteen minutes later, we were rolling out of there with a pizza balanced on the ice chest in the back.

When we got to the Oceanside, they were pretty booked and told us for the same price, we could get the luxury cabin rather than the rustic. Don’t have to twist my arm.  It was rainy and the parking area was very muddy but we managed to get our stuff out of the truck without getting too dirty.  The cabin was awesome – a nice living room and dining area with big windows facing the beach, a full kitchen, large bedroom open to the rest of the unit, and the best part – a soaking tub in a windowed alcove with a gas fireplace at the end shared with the living and sleeping areas.

I immediately planned for a long hot bath….but to make sure it was worth it, I decided that even though it was rainy and stormy, I would walk First Beach.  Hubby braved it with me and it was a short walk but the foam from the waves was incredible and by the time we got back, the spray from the now high tide waves was hitting the windows of our cabin.

After a $12 pizza served with a $40 bottle of red wine (because we are classy like that), I soaked in the tub until my birthday suit needed a good pressing.  Then we fell asleep to the sound of the rain, the waves, and above it all, the whistle buoy just off shore.

Since it was so wet, the next day we decided not to walk through the rainforest to Second or Third Beach but rather headed out to Rialto again to play chicken with the waves.

We’ve been back one more time since then, this time staying in a motel room as that was all that was available.  They are well-appointed rooms with kitchens and a sitting area and each one has a small balcony. I would stay in one again but the cabins do offer more privacy.

But they do share the same sunset!

This time we had a little company during our Rialto walk.

And since we still haven’t made it out to Second or Third Beach so I’m pretty sure a return to La Push and the Oceanside is in our future.

 

 

The Tree of Life at Kalaloch

I’ve been to Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State many times.  I’ve camped in the campground, stayed in a cabin on the bluff, and I’ve walked the beach, both the miles of sandy beach at Kalaloch and the other beaches on either side of it.

But in all that time, I never saw what is touted as one of the greatest attractions for photographers at Kalaloch – the Tree of Life.

I first saw a photo of it on a Facebook page where folks share their Washington photos and immediately Googled it to find out more.  You can check out the information I found for yourself at the national park’s website, Tree of Life. It’s also called Tree Root Cave and is located “just north of Kalaloch Lodge”.  Basically, erosion from a small stream and high tide surf has washed out all of the soil under the tree, leaving it clinging to the sides of a small sandy gulch, its roots forming a canopy or “cave top”.  Despite most of its roots being exposed to the sun and saltwater, it survives and one might even say thrives.

Maybe I just hadn’t walked this direction since the erosion had happened?  Maybe we didn’t go quite far enough?  Either way, I had to see this for myself so when we had a few extra days on our fall trip, we headed down the Washington Coast as we frequently do when between housesits or at the end of trip but not quite ready to head for home.

I made sure our schedule allowed for one night at the Kalaloch Lodge, going so far as to book a cabin in advance, something our wanderings rarely accommodate.

We drove down from Quileute/La Push, another favorite location outside of Forks, and despite construction delays around Lake Crescent, arrived in time for a late lunch.   I figured I better fortify the husband before I made him walk the beach for an undetermined amount of time and honestly, I was killing time, hoping to get the tree with the sun coming over my shoulder, maybe even in the golden hour right before sunset.

We dropped our stuff in our adorable log cabin that comes with a kitchenette, dining area, and a wood stove in front of a futon.  After putting away our dinner items and settling in, we put on our beach shoes and headed out.  About midway in the rows of cabins is short path down the bluff to a beach overlook and then on down to the beach.  I was pleased to see that they’d repaired the last few feet that has been washed out in winter storms a year or two before – that trip, the first 10 feet or so of the trail was missing so you had to haul yourself up from the beach clinging to a rope until you passed that steep washed out section.

The tide was on its way out and there were people dotting the sand.  I might have taken a few too many pictures of the driftwood and the sealife in the pools formed around large rocks but I was definitely on a mission.

We headed north, waded thru the creek that comes down past the lodge, and kept going, heads down, looking for beach treasures, rising only to check whether the Tree was in sight.

Just about the time he was ready to turn back, we saw it.

 

It looked just like the pictures I’d seen…its gnarly roots stretched over the stream, clutching the sandy banks of the small gulch with determination. I started snapping pictures – from far out on the beach, walking up closer, with hubby for scale.

I walked up to it but never actually ducked under the roots into the area eroded by water…while it looks solid, there’s a precarious feel to it, making you wonder when its going to collapse.  In fact, when I Googled it, there were some sites that rumored it had fallen during the big storms.  But there it was, still clinging to life.

Satisfied, we walked back along the beach to our cabin, stopping to watch a man surf fishing just like my father-in-law used to do.  And yes, he had a few surf perch already.

And of course, I had to take a many, many pictures of the sunset before the promise of dinner (a take and bake pie from Home Slice Pizza in Forks – the perfect place to grab dinner for a night in!) and a glass of red wine called me back to the cabin

But all during that time, I marveled at how tenacious that tree is and how true it is that life will find a way!

The Battle To Pay For Lunch

My father in law and I have had a long standing back and forth about money. His ideas were a bit old fashioned when Cabana Boy and I first married. He was surprised to find that I handle all the financials for our family from recordkeeping to bill paying to investments. It just ended up that way as a natural course of each of us doing what we are good at and seems normal to me as this is how it works for my parents. Besides, CB hates any kind of paperwork. I try to keep him up on the finances but he doesn’t really like dealing with it. So I press on, we make big financial decisions together and I handle all the every day stuff. And in my true organized fashion, I made a list of all our financial stuff and put it in a document labeled “If I die, READ THIS”.

But I digress…. early in our marriage, we took his Dad on a little fishing trip into Canada. Before we left, I stopped by the bank and exchanged some money as this was before ATMs were prolific and frankly, where we go, you still won’t find many. A day or two into the trip, CB said to me “Hey, can I have some money?” I had forgotten to give him some cash from the exchange and he wanted to make sure he had some in his wallet. His Dad was very upset that he had to “ask” me for money. No amount of explaining would convince him that he wasn’t asking permission to have some cash but rather than he was reminding me that I needed to split out some to both our wallets. To this day, we still say similar things to each other….”Hey do you have some cash I can have?  Hey can I get some cash?” Whoever has actual cash in their wallet these days gets hit up to spread the wealth.

In the last many years, there’s been very little discussion about money with Dad. I’ve found that most older people don’t like to discuss their finances and having watched my mom and her siblings deal with things after family deaths, I have to say I’m not a fan. Big shout out to my mom who has gone extra lengths to make sure I know what’s out there, who to contact, and made sure I could take care of things for them if it becomes necessary. But with Dad, we didn’t worry too much, figuring his wife would be able to handle anything and I had assured her during a girl’s walk one day that I was happy to help any time. Nuff said. Sadly, she passed away a year ago after a short bout with cancer. All of a sudden, we realized that we would need to be sure Dad had things in order for someone to help him out with finances, healthcare, etc. Those were not fun discussions, and they are still ongoing as we tackle one thing at a time. It’s not that he doesn’t know he needs to do stuff, it’s that it is all very overwhelming after a death.

But there’s a funny side to this ongoing money thing. We have had an ongoing battle about who will pay for lunch or dinner out. CB and I want to pick up the tab and we work on strategies. I once bet him $10 that he couldn’t pick up the check before his dad when the family met for lunch. As the hostess led us all to our table, he dropped back to talk to the waitress following. When he asked her to be sure that he got the check, she laughed and said she would but “that older gentleman made arrangements to pay the check when he called for reservations”. Good one, Dad! Well played!

We see Dad more now that we are retired and he’s alone. And it frequently involves lunch or dinner out. We go back and forth on the check. But for Father’s Day this year, we sent him a gift card from a local restaurant, thinking that he liked it a lot and may go there on his own, maybe meet some new friends. This fall when we arrived and headed out to lunch, I wasn’t surprised that he picked this place – it was his favorite. He then insisted he would pay for lunch….using the gift card we’d bought him. Did he realize that meant the funds for lunch were really from us?  I’m not sure but regardless, he got another gift card for Christmas and has already made lunch plans for our next visit.

We Be Smokin…Salmon That Is

There was an abundance of Coho salmon, or Silvers as they are also known, in the late summer and early fall this year. In fact, there were so many in the terminus areas where they school before heading up creeks and rivers to spawn that Alaska Fish and Game increased the catch limit in these areas.  We decided this profusion plus some good weather in the forecast meant it was time to restock our smoked salmon.  We took our boat out for a few hours one day and caught a couple nice sized fish and then hubby went with friends to their cabin and they limited in just four hours.  Now all we had to do is process all that fish. We – and when I say we at this point, it’s really the husband – gill and gut salmon on the boat and then keep them on ice overnight.  They rigor and then relax and then it’s time for fillet day.  For the record, I can clean and fillet fish but I don’t have to – he does it so often and would rather just do it himself.  Who am I to complain? We save the heads and filleted out bodies for crab bait.  That is true recycling – Alaska style! After the fish is filleted and cut in to portions – some into butterflies we’ll freeze for later dinners and the rest into pieces and strips for smoking – it goes into the brine of brown sugar and salt. We brine in an ice chest to keep the fish cool. Eight hours is the max time for the brine – go longer and it will be too salty.  And that wet slimy brine doesn’t have any additional water – just the moisture from the fish mixing with the dry ingredients. After the brine time, the fish is double rinsed.  It gets dipped into the first bucket of cold water and then into a second bucket of fresh water before it’s laid out on the smoker racks. It’s always a question of whether we’ve guessed the amount right to fill the two smokers we have.  Nailed it this time with four fairly large cohos.  The fish is brushed or sprayed with one of our secret ingredients and we like to sprinkle part of it with cracked pepper. Now it’s time for the fish to air dry and glaze over in front of a fan. Usually we plan to do this overnight so we were outside rinsing and laying out the fish in the early evening – just in time for the no-see-ums to satisfy their blood thirst on us. And finally, it’s time!!  The racks are popped into the smokers.  I know, I know – one of these days we’ll build our own custom-sized smoker but for now the Big Chiefs will do.  We use mostly alder chips and this year, hubs got the brilliant idea of soaking the chips in some spiced rum for a little different spin. And once again we wait – this is not a quick process so it’s important to plan your time right. Every few hours, the pans of chips are replenished to keep a good smoke going.  Tip … be sure your doors and windows are closed.  While it smells good outside, it will become cloying when you’re trapped with it in your house for hours. The question is always how long to smoke – that really depends on how cold it is outside and how big your pieces of fish are but plan for at least 8 hours.   In this case, it took 13 hours by the time all the fish was done – we removed some of the smaller pieces after about 9 hours.   And this would be the point where we were wearing headlamps in the Alaska fall darkness and resolve to cut the pieces smaller next time. Finally, all the fish is out of the smokers and into the fridge.       The last step is packaging it all up.  The Foodsaver gets a workout as it all gets vacuum packed and then into the freezer it goes.        When we head south, we take along a freezer box full for friends and family.  In our house, hubby will make his smoked salmon dip for most parties or holiday dinner – perfect with some wheat thins.  And we’ll pull out a package occasionally and eat it as is or with cream cheese and hot pepper jelly or capers and minced onions on crackers.  We have friends who eat it with Gouda cheese and pickled garlic.  The first thing I made however, was an Alaskan omelet – cream cheese, chives from the garden, and smoked salmon.  It’s perfect for a Sunday breakfast or a evening meal. But those strips – those wonderful belly strips where all the good fats make the fish so moist – those are just for us and are eaten right from the fingers with no embellishments!       

We Really Do Grow Apples in Southeast Alaska

There are apple trees here and there in Southeast Alaska but when we talk to a fellow Juneau resident, most (except old timers) are surprised to find out we have apple trees in our yard.  If they saw how small our yard is, they’d be really surprised…but I digress.

Some years ago, we planted a couple of Goodland apple trees in the back corner of our front yard.  I know – we’d never heard of that variety either but the tag said they were hardy and we needed something in that corner so we decided to go for it.  You have to have two so they can pollinate each other so we loaded a pair of saplings in the truck and took them home.

Fast forward ten or so years and they are both about ten feet tall and sprout the most beautiful flowers in the spring.

However, the spruce tree in the neighbor’s yard has been shielding them so they haven’t produced much fruit.  The first year we saw actual fruit, they didn’t get very big and didn’t ripen.  The next year they were oddly deformed and had black spots and checking with our professional apple growing friends in Washington confirmed they had a fungus infection.  We picked the fruit and cleaned up all the leaves and debris around the trees in the fall in hopes of controlling the fungus.

The next year saw some fruit but that year’s blight was of a furry kind.  I was just about to jump into bed when I saw the trees shaking.  I ran to the window and hollered.  Hubby jumped out of bed, grabbed his bathrobe and big flashlight (yep – a Maglite 3 D Cell is his weapon of choice) and ran out the door to chase off the marauding black bear who decided our trees were his buffet.

Each subsequent year has seen some fruit but the location has gotten too shady with all the trees in the neighbors’ yards so when we came across some apple trees at Costco, I had to buy one to try in our sunnier backyard.  Hubs quickly agreed when he saw it was three varieties grafted onto one tree – Lodi, Zestar, and our favorite, Honeycrisp.  By grafting them, the tree is self-pollinating and the varieties ripen at different times.

We’ve had the tree in our backyard for about 6-8 years now and it’s about 12-15 feet high.  Since he retired, hubby has taken command of the backyard – the “producing” side of the house vs the “pretty” side where I have all flowers and ornamentals.  And he takes the apple tree care quite seriously, giving me regular morning reports on its progress over morning coffee.

One year, he saw the tree shaking and was concerned a small bear was in the yard – even tho they would have to climb a fence or navigate one small opening to get there.  Running out into the yard, he discovered a porcupine attempting to climb the tree.  He got a length of old 2×4 and managed to persuade the porky to move along with a lot of prodding, from a distance!  He chased that waddling porky all the way around the house, thru the pretty side and out of our yard.  And then we waited for him to return – porkies are persistent and will chew a tree down to nothing given half a chance.  We hoped that if he did come back, he’d stop at the Goodland apple trees – figuring they are now the sacrificial apples for bears and other pests.  Fortunately, we’ve not seen him or a bear in the apple trees some years.

The backyard tree kept growing with a little judicious pruning.  The Zestar graft is still there but doesn’t do much – I think the graft is failing – but each year the other two have teased us with a few fruits.

A couple years ago, we ate some small apples late in the year but last year, it was so cold and rainy all summer, nothing ripened.  We left town in the fall without picking them and returned to find them hanging from the naked branches, frozen.  They looked like Christmas ornaments.

This year we worried from the get go.  It was still quite cold into May when we are typically planting annuals and seeing things green up.  The winter had been harsh – single digit temps with no snow cover meant the ground had frozen deeper than normal and we lost several perennials.  The lawn looked terrible and it seemed like it was forever before things finally leafed out.  Ever the pessimist, hubby’s reports on the garden were invariably gloom and doom.

And then it happened – the second warmest summer in history.  One could even call the days hot and in our backyard, it certainly was.  It collects the afternoon and evening sun and reflects it back to the plants.  The apple tree took off and the daily reports were of the number of blossoms it held.  All summer we watched as the blossoms turned into fruit – way more than we had ever had before.

And in late August, he couldn’t stand the temptation any longer and started picking some of the Lodi.

They are the first to ripen and resemble a yellow transparent – great for applesauce, apple butter or similar.  Those first few were still a bit on the tart crunchy side and we only had a few here and there.  We didn’t touch the Honeycrisps but they slowly colored, giving me a lovely view out the window with morning coffee.

The fall rains came and it absolutely poured several days in a row.  This is normal for September and we wondered if we would actually get fully ripe apples.  When we got a unusual reprieve and the sun came out, we found several Lodi on the ground.  That was it – we had to pick them.  So we had our own Apple Fest. 

We picked the Lodi, marveling at the ones that “looked almost like real apples” and a group that was so large we had put a support under the branch for fear it would break under the weight.

All in all, we picked a large overflowing bowl full of the Lodi, checked the Honeys and left them alone.

The rest of our day was consumed with processing.

I made Country Apple Fritter Bread in mini pans so hubs could take some on his fishing trip the next day and we could share with my parents.  The Instant Pot was key for making up a quick applesauce.  I asked if we should make chunky or smooth – turns out with the Lodi, smooth was pretty much what we got but it tasted awesome.  I also tried my hand at apple butter, again in the Instant Pot.  One thing to note is that you must simmer it uncovered after the apples are cooked to thicken it to “butter” consistency.  At this point, you will wish you had a screen lid of some kind as that hot sticky apple stuff bubbles hard enough to fly out of the pot!  It was easy to forgive the mess when I jarred up seven half pints of cinnamon appley goodness.

And now we wait and watch the Honeycrisps, hoping they will ripen in this last stretch of sun….