a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Author: theMan

Brown and Gold

The trees are going to sleep, shedding their leaves in ever increasing amounts, in a quiet ritual that has gone on for millions of years. When dreaming of autumn leaves, how many dream of asparagus with their golden feathery fronds?

It’s nearing winter, and yet there are still plenty of flowers in bloom; brilliant dahlias, blue rosemary, and white thyme. And this morning, more color came flying in from the north. We saw our first flock of white swans, flying over the valley. Many more are on their way to spend winter here, joining the flocks of snow geese which cover the fields like snow.

October 27, 2016
Skagit’s Freshest Tofu

It’s official. You can get Skagit county’s freshest tofu at Belfast Feed Store. Starting today, I’m delivering fresh tofu to them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which means the tofu you buy there will never be more than three days old. If in doubt, look at the label. The date I make the tofu will be on it.

Belfast Feed store is at 6200 North Green Road, Burlington, Washington. They are just off of Old Highway 99, south of the Bow Hill and Prairie Road intersection. We’re giving this a test run through November.

October 24, 2016
Fall Feathers

One of the maples has leaves that look more like feathers than leaves. From spring through summer, they are the feathers of a green parrot. In the fall they turn into rooster feathers. In a light breeze, you can see the feathers flapping, trying to fly away.

October 22, 2016
On Fire

All it takes is for the clouds to part and let the sun shine to set everything on fire. Next to the pond, the snowbell fruits dangle like Christmas tree ornaments. Paint them different colors, and you’d have an outdoors Christmas tree.

Nearby the snowbell tree, the holly trees are waiting for migrating birds to snatch their orange berries. One migrating bird can eat a berry and deposit its seed far, far away. Who knows, by now, this holly tree may have children hundreds of miles away.

In the garden the magenta spreen is growing like crazy. I’m running low on greens to take to the two remaining Alger Sunday Markets. This weekend I’ll have plenty of fresh magenta spreen to offer.

I’ve let a few Swiss chard do their thing. This one is big enough to feed an elephant. The leaves are so large, one leaf could feed a family. The spitzkohl, pointy cabbage, are nearly done. You won’t find a tastier cabbage than spitzkohl. I don’t know why the stores don’t have bins of them. Well, I do know. Their odd shapes make them awkward to pick by machine, hard to pack, and cumbersome to handle. Not being efficient and easy to process is a death knell for any vegetable. Our relentless striving to be ever more efficient will drive us all to extinction.

And once we are all gone, who will pause to enjoy the beauty of autumn maples?

October 20, 2016
A Better Mother

While making tofu this afternoon I saw MiAsa 美朝 bring her two month old chicks out to graze under the plum trees by the cabin where I make my tofu. It’s hard to believe that in late August, the chicks were tiny bundles of fur peeking out from underneath her.

Now they are half the size of her. The whole family snuggles up together in one of the nests in the evening. Many hens are done raising their chicks by the time the chicks are this big, but MiAsa enjoys being a mother and having her little ones around her. She must be a special mother because among her chicks is one half the size of the others. You can see it in the photo above. It’s the much smaller, black chick to the left of her. It is actually a chick born to another hen weeks later, but who decided that it would rather hang around with MiAsa and her chicks instead of its own mother. What did it see in MiAsa that it didn’t see in its mother?

If you live nearby and you’d like fresh, homemade tofu, let me know. It is best when it is just made, still piping hot out of the press.

I’m prone to procrastinate, but Washington State makes it easy to vote. There are no polling stations in Washington. Everyone votes by mail. Our ballots arrived on Monday. We filled them out last night and sent them off today. It’s a relief to get that out of the way. Now if everyone would vote like I did, the world would be a much better, kinder place.

October 18, 2016