Home Grown

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By melisse
Pick a little walk a little, pick a little walk a little,
Walk walk walk, pick a lot, walk a little more.

That’s how it goes out here. It started with the wild black berries in the Pacific Northwest, beginning early September. Though locals reported it was the end of the season, the bounty of these berries was stupendous all along the coastal regions of Washington, Oregon and northern California.

Then, upon landing at Ali and Bill’s eight-acre apple orchard in Sebastopol, the bounty continued to flow. If there’s any truth to the adage about an apple a day, we won’t be seeking the care of doctors any time soon. Sweet, juicy, crisp, tart, each variety with its unique flavor, color and shape. I’ve probably been averaging about five apples per day. There are probably tens of thousands out there. One could become a total apple slave, trying to preserve them all, but we don’t. We allow some to collected by a consigned company who sends them to market, while others return to the earth. We enjoy drying, freezing or cooking into applesauce or making brown betty. We do up a batch many but not all days.

Eggs. The eight hens don’t lay like crazy but there’s a couple each day and I love to check the nest box for the treasures. The shell colors are subtle and soft, while inside the plump bright orange yoke is a sight to behold, and tasty too.

Tomatoes. They’re still coming on great gang busters. The little orange ones are sweet as sugar. The yellow ones, though not terrific eating fresh off the vine make the most delicious tangy golden sauce, accented with a generous amount of basil. It’s perfect over spaghetti squash. They make delicious little morsels when dehydrated too.

Grapes. There is much to be said about grapes; way more than I know about. They’re everywhere, big business, especially in some parts of Sonoma, like where we used to live. Wine, wine and more wine. We walk along vineyards each morning on our walk. The grapes are beautiful to look at. The ones we pass are very sweet but we resist eating them as they don’t belong to us and because they’re sprayed with nasty chemicals.

Honey. Our friend and neighbor Jim, who lives on this property, keeps bees. It’s quite an undertaking to do so. There’s so much to know about and tend to. The honey he harvests is most delicious and changes color and flavor dramatically depending on the flowers in bloom.

Yum’s the word.

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