Monday, May 17, 2010

Eating Local on Orcas


Ken and I are doing our best to eat locally. That's why we garden and raise chickens and rabbits. We believe in sustainability and taking responsibility for what you are eating. That meant last winter we pretty much lived on venison. Too bad it was a tough one. Our solution was to cook it... sometimes all day long, at a low tempeature; 285 degrees. I generally saute some onions, or chives which I have tons of in my garden, add some store bought celery and then brown the meat. We have this natural clay pot from mexico that for some reason cooks so much better than any others we have, and I put all these things together, cover with water or broth and slow cook. About an hour before eating I add carrots and potatoes. This winter we'll have our own potatoes! Ken has planted about 25 pounds of Yellow Finn potatoes..our favorite!
One of our favorite meals is braised rabbits. We cook our rabbit pretty much the same way as the venison but for about 2 hours, but we always add bay leaves. It has a very subltle sweet flavor, not at all gamey and very tender. There is something about the food that we raise or grow that is so satisfying. We are never left wanting something else or eating too much. It's as if the body can tell that food is truely nourishing and it's all it needs.


 Sometimes we eat it with mashed blue hubbard squash from our garden. This squash keeps really well and we were still eating it  a few weeks ago!


Isn't this the most glorious color. These were stored on the steps to our attic... very forgiving.


Some mornings I try to eat mainly from our garden. Here I have chives and beet greens for an omelet, and mint for morning tea.

Living on an Island gives us opportunities to forage for oysters. If you do this too, always check the red tide hotline and be sure to harvest ones that are away from any marinas or potential contaminants. We generally just broil them till they pop open and eat them right out of the shell!
 These guys were huge and meaty!  Yum!  Happy eating!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Living Lightly on Orcas!

I have always wanted a yurt. I can't tell you how many times I have said.. 'Well, we can live in a yurt!'. Truth be told, that sounded like fun to me. The difuse light, low impact on the earth, hearing the night sounds, close to nature, living simply..

So, when a chance to help a friend by buying his yurt came up.. we jumped on it. Our young friends Jay and Megan, who had lived on our farm a few years back had been saying to us how they just wished they could move back to our place.. They were such great help with the horses.. so Jay and Megan will help us on the farm, and live in the yurt.
It was such fun watching the yurt go up. The hard part was building the platform. Ken was very resourceful reusing some 4X4's that had been used for composting bins in the past, and using salvaged concrete form pannels for the flooring. Nice and stiff, and good slick surface! Those came from cleaning up a dump area on a property we sold.
I love the open weave of the basket that forms the yurt. It's like a giant play pen~!

 If the kids are good, we will let them out from time to time!


The first thing on is the roof.. It's like a flower. 
 

Then you wrapped the walls around the frame.. it takes a few hands. 

 
The high side was the most challanging. Must be easier on the Plains of Mongolia, where the land is more level. I do have a thing for those Mongolian horsepeople.. living on mares milk and traveling with their herds. The children riding before they can walk. And those horses.. not pretty and practically wild!

 
Now the lovely view of the Marsh will only be seen from the windows.. 




Ken built a sink.. of course no running water, but we will have a tank..and below a bucket!



And voila!  A home all set to go!

Now, I wish all our houses were this easy to build!
If you are looking for a home on Orcas, drop us a line! We're full of ideas and solutions!