a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Author: theMan

  • Spring at Last


    A few days ago little patches of snow remained in the shadows. Today they are all gone. Late January daffodil buds which went dormant with February snows are in bloom now, as is the first plum blossom.



    The rhubarb are popping out of the ground. If any spring leaves need to get out of the ground and stretch, it is the tightly crumpled rhubarb leaves. They are so tightly bound up, they look like they are in pain.


    The ducks are having a good time checking out the bamboo leaves I placed on the paths between the rows in the gardens. The warm weather has the hens laying a lot of eggs, thirty-three today.



    Wednesday is the vernal equinox. It should be a national holiday like it is in Japan. There are five national holidays in Japan having to do with nature, the vernal equinox, the autumnal equinox, Green Day (May 4 this year), Ocean Day (the 3rd Monday of July), and Mountain Day (August 11). One national holiday a month celebrating an aspect of nature would be nice.

  • Along Friday Creek to Get Coffee


    Last night’s rain washed away nearly all the snow. Just a few patches remain, and with the forecast of warmer days ahead, it will soon be but a memory.


    The chicks in the nursery are doing well. They’ve bonded with their mother and have figured out when she is telling them she’s found good things to eat, and when there is danger. When she is resting, she doesn’t mind them hopping all over her. Since these aren’t chicks she hatched, I wasn’t sure if she’d take to them, or them to her.


    I don’t suppose there are that many people lucky enough to pedal along an idyllic creek when they go pick up their roasted coffee beans. It’s not a long ride to where I get my coffee, but the windy Friday Creek Road passes over Friday Creek six times in two miles. It’s hard pedaling over the bridges without stopping to see how the creek is doing.


    Friday Creek today was on a tear, flush with last night’s rain. On summer days, it flows soft and clear, skipping over pebbles, and laughing past the trees.

  • Let It Do Its Thing


    We get into trouble when we don’t let things do their thing in the time it takes for them to do whatever they are doing. You can make bread quickly by adding things like calcium carbonate, sodium sterol lactylate, mono-and diglycerides, mono calcium phosphate, calcium dioxide, soy lecithin, azodicarbononamide, calcium propionate, datem (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides, also E472e), sorbic acid, and other miraculous chemicals, such as many commercial breads use, but why would you?

    Or you can let it rest quietly through the night, and let the wild yeasts and bacteria munch on the dough until in the morning it is light and fluffy like a cloud from all their miniature burps. No odd ingredients needed.



    There is something pleasing about dough that wild yeast has fed on all night. It shapes easily, and feels so good in my hands.




    What comes out of the hot oven fills the house with such wonderful aromas.

  • What a Difference a Day Makes


    Yesterday the sun was out, and the snow geese gaggled up a storm on the open field, as I delivered fresh tofu to the Anacortes Food Co-op.


    Today the blue skies are gone, and snow is falling steadily as I head out to the cabin to make tofu for tomorrow. In the nursery, the chicks are staying warm with their mama. One of these days it will be warm and sunny and the chicks will be chasing bugs in the grass, just not today.

  • Is It Spring Now?


    The snow which came at the beginning of February is almost a memory. Just a few patches remain, and today, the pond is thawed, the ice of yesterday and this morning gone.



    The chickens are back on grass, and loving every minute of it.



    Their nests are full of eggs each day.


    Even the fig in the hoop house is budding.


    In 1999, we purchased this sauce dish in Hagi 萩, a small town far off the beaten path in western Japan on the sea of Japan. Hagi is famous for its earthy, subdued pottery. I haven’t used this dish much. I was perfectly happy letting it sit on its shelf and being beautiful. Recently I discovered that it is a perfect utensil for pouring eggs into a skillet. One, two, three raw eggs fit perfectly in it, and when the butter in the skillet is hot, the eggs pour smoothly into the skillet.

    Twenty years ago when I first picked up the dish, did it know that in the future it would become one of my favorite kitchen utensils? Did it know before I did that I would be living with chickens and ducks and need a handy utensil to pour raw eggs into a hot skillet? Is that why it called out, “Buy me,” in Hagi?