Local Ecology

The Greening

May 22, 2014 · 1 comment

May is my favorite month, and green is my favorite color. thimbleberry bigleaf maple oceanspray and vine maple vine maple samara blackberries hazelbrush sword fern sword fern horsetail willow Oregon ash

{ 1 comment }

{this moment}

April 18, 2014 · 0 comments

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, moment. ~ Amanda Soule **inspired by Soule Mama’s (and Erin of Floret‘s) Friday reflections

{ 0 comments }

Maple Syrup Season 2014

January 29, 2014 · 13 comments

We made our own maple syrup from bigleaf maple sap for the first time last winter. You can read more about our experiences and thoughts here and here. Freezing nights and warmer days in the 40s are ideal for maple sap flow. As I understand it, the wider the day/night temperature gradient, the more pressure […]

{ 13 comments }

What: elderberry syrup Main ingredients and where I got them: Henry harvested blue elderberries (Sambucus caerulea) from the tree in front of the cabin. I used honey from our own bees. How much: just shy of 7 cups Recipe: I read through David Lebovitz‘s recipe and the recipe on the Mountain Rose Herbs website and then did […]

{ 16 comments }

Red flowering currants (seen blooming here) are a great early nectar species for both hummingbirds and bumblebees, and the flowers are wonderfully showy in the green-ness of Pacific Northwest spring. We have a bunch of them growing right around our house and down the driveway, which until yesterday, were heavily laden with bloomy, blue fruits. […]

{ 0 comments }

Here’s part two of our trip to the coast last week. We spent the morning hiking at Cape Perpetua Scenic Area near Yachats. Cape Perpetua has a great visitor center with information on all the forest trails and tide pools that are accessible from the main parking area. We didn’t make it down to the […]

{ 2 comments }

You might find the above photo disturbing. Yeah, so do I, but that’s just what horseneck (gaper) clams look like. It’s unfortunate. On Sunday night, we met up with friends (seen previously on the blog here) and stayed over in a beach house near Seal Rock. The supermoon produced some super low tides, perfect for […]

{ 5 comments }

Bigleaf Maple Flowers

April 20, 2013 · 3 comments

A fairly well know food blogger (up for a Saveur award this spring) posted a photo on Instagram the other day. There was a mason jar full of budding twigs with lobed leaves and dangling flowers. The caption read, ‘Just picked these honeys out back. No idea what they are!’ I took one look at […]

{ 3 comments }

Spring is here.

March 7, 2013 · 5 comments

This week has been so full. Full of doing taxes and thinking about money. (Do I make enough? Do I want to make more? Can I make more?) Full of barbecue baking successes and failures. (Good muffins, bad bagels.) Full of running around doing errands I’ve put off for way too long (My driver’s license […]

{ 5 comments }

Happy Birthday, Oregon!

February 14, 2013 · 9 comments

honeybees on meadowfoam Happy birthday, Oregon! I do love you so. (I also really love food and flowers.) strawberry harvest Oregon Coast canning tomatoes hydrangeas in Yachats Lumos vineyard Mosaic Farms Gathering Together Farm sea anemones Jersey dairy cow summer roses endangered Fender’s blue butterfly heirloom tomatoes columbine in a Portland front yard bigleaf maple […]

{ 9 comments }