Last Fruits

Day 363: My everbearing raspberries ("Heritage") have been a delight this year. Bambi left them pretty much alone except for browsing the fresh tops in mid-August and somewhat limiting my late-season harvest, but there have been plenty for my personal grazing as I made my daily patrols to the mailbox. The jays ignored all but the ripest ones, surprising me with a generosity which does not extend to the grapevine. The plants are not yet mature enough to yield enough for jam, and it's possible that two vines will never produce in sufficient abundance given my poor soil and intermittent husbandry even if I could suppress my taste for a snack of sun-warmed berries plucked in passing.

The blueberries did not fare as well. One bush has disappeared. Whether it was eaten by deer or overwhelmed by grass, I do not know. The second produced only a small handful, all but two or three gone for jay food. I think I'll write blueberries off as a bad idea, but I might be tempted to fill their space with two more raspberry vines.

Spice It Up!

Day 362: "Caraway, cardamom, celery seed, chili powder...wait a minute...caraway, cardamom, celery seed...where the hell is the cayenne pepper?" That outburst you heard was me, and I was standing in the spice aisle at the grocery store, looking for one of my cooking essentials among the house-brand jars. Cayenne was missing. There wasn't even a shelf tag for it where it should have been, c-a-y following c-a-r and before c-e-l. Nor was it under "pepper, cayenne," something I tried because I couldn't believe my eyes. A second store yielded up similar results, although I did find it among the specialty spices with a prohibitive price tag. I glared at the dollar signs and left the store empty-handed, thinking I might find it in bulk at another location. Nope, no cayenne. I was too far from home to swing by the Olympia Natural Foods Co-op in the hopes of finding it in their bulk section, so tried a third major chain store. I found it there, and although it was still pricier than it should have been, it was about 2/3 the cost of the specialty brand. I can't cook without cayenne. I bought it.

This experience put me in mind of another spice which has disappeared from the shelves: ground rosemary. You can buy the leaves, but not the powder. I ask you: do you like finding pine needles in your stew? I don't. I find the powder much nicer to use, and it's a primary ingredient in my homemade "sheep spice," ground rosemary, garlic powder and paprika. Why isn't it offered in stores? The Co-op doesn't carry it. It's the very devil to grind at home, even in an electric spice grinder.

Ground rosemary, cayenne pepper...what's next? Garlic? If that disappears from shelves, I'm going to give up eating.

Wet Or Dry

Day 361: These two patches should be the same color, but after absorbing eight hours of steady rain, the one on the hat I was wearing today is looking a little waterlogged. Waterproof outerwear did a pretty good job of keeping me from getting totally soaked to the bone, but rain eventually penetrates anything which isn't absolutely water-tight. Still, I stayed warm as long as I was active.

So why was I out there during Washington's first major storm of the season? Today was National Public Lands Day, one of the biggest volunteer events at Mount Rainier National Park. We had an astonishingly good turnout in spite of the weather and accomplished all of our major goals with respect to the restoration of the historic Longmire Campground.

It's not the first time I've been this soggy, and it probably won't be the last. When you live in Washington, you just have to accept that you're going to get wet if you work in an outdoors profession.

The Taste Of Summer

Day 360: With drenching rain on the roster for the weekend, I picked every decent-sized tomato on the vine today and put them in the windowsill to ripen. It's taken almost a week for the first ones to redden up completely, but tonight I sliced into one of them and found it to be absolutely delicious. I have had a better yield, pound for pound, of full-sized Oregon Springs than I ever had from Sweet Million cherry tomatoes. If not quite a "beefsteak" variety, they are close enough for me.

Sundews, Second Location

Day 359: Oh, I am so excited! I don't know how I missed them, especially since I've done several supposedly thorough surveys of the log where I found these today, but yes, I have discovered a second microecology where Sundews are flourishing (if not in the same number as on the primary log). These appear to be the same species superficially (Drosera rotundifolia), but the tentacles are much brighter red than those in the main location, making me wonder if the type of wood supporting the colony or some other environmental factor affects the coloration. These timbers appear to be old-growth cedar as opposed to Doug fir at the principle site. The two locations are approximately 150 feet apart, but the exposure is identical.

Mycology 101

Day 358: It's autumn, and the wild mushrooms are springing up everywhere, so I want to post a warning for any of you who are thinking of gathering Nature's provender for your dinner table. There are many species of 'shroom which are very difficult to tell apart, and a mistaken identification can kill you, or make you very sick either now or in the long term by causing organ damage. Some are so lethal that a single mispicked mushroom can contaminate the edibles in your basket, so be sure you know what you're doing when you go collecting.

I don't mean to put you off mushroom hunting. In fact, there are a dozen or so delicious "beginner species" which can hardly be mistaken for anything else, and I'll put my Chanterelles up against your Portobellos or Shiitakes any day. They fry well, and make a delicious cream of mushroom soup. That said, if I'd found one growing alongside this Amanita, I'd have left it right there in the interest of living long enough to enjoy another season of picking what I know to be safe to eat.

It's Just Not Fair!

Day 357: Oh, those jaybirds! It's been a week or so since I checked on the grapes, and the first thing I noticed was that the rampant sprawl of vine which normally covers the back side of the garage had fallen from its supports, undoubtedly brought down by the recent rains. I peered into the jumble of leaves expecting to see one or more of the two dozen bunches of small green fruit in the tangle, but no, there were no grapes among the greenery. I searched more deeply and found one bunch, a dozen grapes, no more, and the work of the jays was evident in a neatly severed stem. They'd left me nothing but a nominal tithe as thanks for my cultivation. "It's just not fair!" I said. "You stinkers cleaned me out again!"

In all honesty, I'm laughing. A human being wants the sweetest fruit and therefore waits for the first frost to set the sugar. The jays are not so choosy. Even the lightest touch of sweetness is sufficient for them, and a pleasant addition to their diet. These few were still a bit tangy on my tongue. Yes, I could foil my corvid cousins with a net or bits of flashy foil, but my taste for grapes can be satisfied by a trip to the grocery store; they don't have that option. I grow grapes for jaybirds, and should be more appreciative of the size of my allotment.