Sustainable Crown Hill

The Himalayan Blackberry features nasty thorns and a well deserved reputation as an invasive, weedy, almost noxious plant. In the Pacific tier of states, the blackberry vine has secured its foothold and with no local effective pests, it will remain for many years to come. Gleaning and consuming the sweet fruit from amid the thorns remains one of the few pleasures of hot (what passes for hot around here) August afternoons. Setting home with scratched arms and faces, and pails full of sweet, soft, almost oozing blackberries is indeed a pleasure. Many of those very perishable berries are destined for pies, snacking and desert toppings.

Here’s my contribution to what to do with the proceeds of a particularly productive day of picking. Not so much a recipe, but a process.
Intense Blackberry Sorbet:

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Have you heard??  We’re going to have to start paying for our plastic habit at the grocery store.  You can avoid the hit to your pocket book, reduce your dependence on plastic and feel good about using something you made yourself.  Your bag will be a better conversation starter than your latest hairdo.

Join us on August 22, 2008 from 6:30 to 9:00 pm to make your own original bag (or 2 or 3) to store in your car or bike basket for your next shopping trip.  These one of a kind bags are made from fabric that was saved from the landfill and your personal *trash*.  The pattern is easy enough for beginning sewers and there will be others to help you out if you get stuck.

Bring a snack to share, your sewing machine, scissors, thread, rotary cutter and a cutting mat if you have one.  Also, if you want to incorporate a fancy pocket – bring a little *trash* goodie – something that shows off your decadence, your midnight indulgence, your organic-ness or whatever you just tossed in the trash can!

Hope to see you there!

August 22, 2008
6:30 to 9:00 pm
Abundant Life Church
9204 11th Ave NW
(in the church basement)

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In Seattle, we often wait quite a while for that first “real” tomato from the garden while our friends in California, Eastern Washington, and climes warmer have been enjoying fresh, homegrown tomatoes since early June. And cherry tomatoes really don’t count — try slicing cherry tomatoes for a sandwich . This year’s first tomato was plucked from the garden on August 8th. Finally, we can have truly local tomatoes when they are the sweetest and far better than even the Eastern Washington tomatoes available so far at “local” farmers markets. We have enough plants to can the surplus fruit we cannot eat as quickly as it ripens. There is nothing like opening a jar of homegrown tomatoes in the doldrums of February to cook into a marvelously sweet pasta sauce.

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Sunday, August 3, 2008
2:00-5:00 P.M.
9524-1/2 12th Ave NW

Come play in the mud and learn how to build with the oldest, simplest, and (I think) most beautiful technology in the world – cob! We’ll be firing up our
recently finished cob pizza oven for the Sustainable Crown Hill Meeting in the evening, while we continue work on the adjacent cob bench. Cob is just sand, clay and straw and it is mixed with your feet and built with your hands so anyone can join in the fun – kids are welcome and you don’t need to have any building skill or cobbing experience. Part of the fun is getting messy so wear you grubby clothes.

Below is a pic of a simple bench I built with some students at school. Hey, if
thirteen year old girls are convinced it’s fun, what are you waiting for! : >)
Come join us!!

Bert

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Sustainable Crown Hill Monthly Meeting
Sunday, Aug. 3
5-7pm (5:5:30 potluck)

9524-1/2 12th Ave NW
Heidi and Bert’s House

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Movie night this month night featured a local potluck before the main act. Fun and adventure, no rules, just sharing what we’ve learned. It was mid-July right? We should be getting WA state fruits and veggies in our local stores (or at least something from Eastern WA) Carol B was surprised to find most of the veggies whe wanted to top her ‘zucchini’ pizza at the PCC trucked in from California. Too late in the day for the University Farmers’ Market, she headed back to PCC for some Beechers Handmade Cheese. http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com She enthused “… the montery jack was soft but held together- not crumbly, and that it gave a bit as I grated it.” She urged everyone to give it a try.

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1. If you have fruit you won’t be using, let me know and when it will be ripe.
2. If you know a neighbor who has a tree that they might be willing to donate from, go ask them and then let me know.
3. If you’d like to join in on a picking session one weekday evening or weekend day in the next few months – you guessed it – let me know!

1. Put together a list of trees that need to be picked.
2. When one or more trees is ready to be picked I’ll send out a call to everyone that has said they’d be willing to pick to show up at a certain time and place if they’re able.
3. Make sure we’ve got the tools and supplies we need to pick, package, and deliver everything to the food bank.

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https://pol.moveon.org/donate/gorechallenge.html?r=3945&id=13269-3721707-LxxM4Zx

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Here’s a great way to meet your neighbors and recycle some of the “stuff” that’s been taking up space in your house/garage!! The Crown Hill Neighborhood Association is holding their Second Annual Garage Sale on Saturday, July 26th from 9AM to 3PM. Last year’s event had over 50 participating houses selling loads of cool stuff. All you need to do is click on this link here and add your house along with a short description of items for sale. CHNA will do all of the advertising for you. Keep the kids busy by having them set up a lemonade stand to win a prize (CHNA will have prizes for all stands). Just make sure to indicate on the entry form or e-mail that you will have a lemonade stand! Come join the fun.

Happy shopping!

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Now that Juneuary is finally over, the tomatoes have begun pushing beyond the confines of their cages, and the profusion of blossoms of the last few weeks have begun to set fruit. The elephant garlic flowers (scapes) are now over my head, and the hardneck and softneck garlic plants are yellowing, beckoning a harvest. The bean tendrils have just reached the bottom rung of their hastily constructed trellises (about a foot off the ground) and well beyond the reach of the slugs and towhees which hampered their early growth. It seems the plants in our little garden change each time we walk out, elongating reaching for sun and warmth, changing color, ultimately closer to our kitchen.

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