Scenery Sunday

Yesterday my mom and I went to an open house celebration for a 100 year old homestead just outside of Palmer. I know to East Coasters 100 year old homes are common, but for Alaska they are pretty rare. Anchorage was just beginning to be settled 100 years ago as a "tent city" and Palmer wasn't settled until 1935. The farm property is beautiful with amazing views, but can you imagine living here, homesteading this land 100 years ago?!  More photos than I usually share at once, but I couldn't leave any of them out!

peony, iris, lupine & trolius

Himalayan Blue Poppy

part of the milking barn

peony. These are about 8-10" across!

July flowers

Enjoy a couple of photos of my Delphinium!  Beautiful!

Playing Catch Up

Sunset from Lazy Mtn, looking over Palmer, AK. Mt. Susitna in the distance.

I don't know where the time has gone. Summer flew by in a flash. We are full on into fall here, leaves changing, rain, snow on the mountain tops (and rapidly moving down the mountain), and we had our first frost here last night.

Nasturtiums and artichoke showing the frost.

 
I hope to get back into more regularly blogging and getting caught up on things I had wanted to share...pictures, recipes, and I know I made at least one bento this summer! And just think of all of the dog pictures I have to share! With winter coming I hope to make more bentos so we can get out during the daylight hours and not spend a ton on eating lunches out.

Garden Shots

Just a few shots of flowers around my place.

Artichoke plants and purple Salvia

blue delphinium

hanging basket. red is geranium.

nasturtium and hyssop

rudebekia

ruffly sunflower

sunflower seeds

white delphinium

Flowers on Friday

Things are blooming here! Especially everyone's allergies. The rhubarb has started going to seed and the dandelions are taking over. The choke cherry tree has lost all of it's petals and the crab apple isn't far behind. We've had a couple of weeks of cool weather, rain, and lots of dreary days so the lawn is out of control. We have dandelions that are over a foot tall and are blooming like crazy. I've even seen cotton floating through the air (from the cottonwood trees). So much for getting a break from the allergens.

Chokecherry petals - or is it snow?!

A few years ago I planted a row of 12" tall lilacs that I hoped would one day be a hedge. Most of them have survived but are still going kind of slow. I think last year I had one blossom on one plant. This year I have three on one! I also have a larger bush up next to the house that is over 5' tall and has about ten blossoms this year! I went out today and cut a few to enjoy inside. Nothin' like fresh flowers.

Panda LOVES smelling the flowers and usually tries to sneak a taste.

Signs of Spring!

The last 2 1/2-3 weeks have been beautiful. Sunny and warm (warm for this time of year is mid-50s!) and almost all of our record snowfall has melted. There are a few stray piles around town where it was mounded up into giant piles 30' or taller but they are melting quickly.

Here's what I found on a quick walk around my yard yesterday.

My choke-cherry tree (aka "May tree") is budding! And see in the background there isn't any snow!! In about 2 weeks this tree will be covered with clusters of tiny white flowers and then a few days later the wind will blow a little and it will look like it is snowing because all of the tiny petals will be everywhere.

This is some columbine coming up. Can't remember what color the flowers are when it blooms, and that will be a ways off, but it is nice to see it up!

Rhubarb makes an appearance! I love how the leaves start out red and wrinkly. By the time they are gown they are nearly 3' across!

And I have a tulip almost ready to bloom! I have some other things up and about but they are still sort of covered with last year's leaves and I didn't want to disturb them yet. We're not out of the woods with potential for a freeze at night until almost Memorial Day so best to keep them covered for a bit longer.

And there you have it! Spring has sprung in my part of Alaska!

Alaskan Fireweed Jelly

Growing up in Alaska I thought fireweed was "our weed." (note: first photo of bouquet was taken at about 8:45pm - our sunset is still after 11pm at this time in the summer) It's everywhere here, I just didn't think it was anywhere else (yes, I need to get out more). On a recent trip to Washington state I found it grows there too. Then I found a review of a book that talks about wild edibles and mentions it grows in Canada too. This all makes perfect sense I just hadn't thought it through. It probably grows in other Northwest locations, I just haven't taken the time to look that up yet.

The fireweed here is about 3/4 through blooming right now. It starts with a green stalk with long leaves and usually grows a couple of feet high before it starts blooming. The blossoms start 6-12" below the tip of the stalk and bloom from there to the top over a couple of weeks. All over Alaska you'll see fields of bright pink fireweed. You'll also see it growing along side the highway, or in a yard or garden, or in the park. Go to an outdoor summer wedding and you'll see vases of freshly picked fireweed decorating the tables. Go to the farmers market and you'll find fireweed honey and jelly. I also found this blog that talks about eating the shoots when they start to come up (that will have to be next year). Even the big box stores and chain drugstores here sell fireweed edibles, lotions, teas, and candles in their souvenir section.

Short on time, but always with a long list of things I want to try, I knew if I was going to make fireweed jelly it was now or never. Not really never, but I would have to wait until this time next summer anyway. So last night I picked a bunch of fireweed. Then I thought about how I probably didn't have enough, so I picked a bunch more. The second batch I picked at my nieces house and found that she has some fireweed along her driveway that is over 6' (yes feet!) tall!

It took about a 1/2 hour to remove the blossoms from the stalks, and another 20 minutes or so to boil the blossoms into this beautiful deep purple stock. I refrigerated the juice overnight simply for time sake. It was late by the time I had gotten to this point. The juice refrigerates well and can also be frozen for a later date. I love the progression of color loss in the petals as it cooks out. The strained petals have almost no color left in them!

My jelly came together quickly. I haven't made jelly before and was surprised at how simple it was. I can see a lot of homemade jellies in our future. :-)

I found several very similar recipes online, but ended up using this one from food.com. It was quick and simple. I've already made 2 additional batches of juice, including one with lavender buds added to the fireweed blossoms. I'll post a pic of that one when it's done. The straight fireweed jelly is fantastic. It has a very subtle floral flavor, something I haven't had before and can't really describe well. I hope the lavender doesn't overpower the fireweed in the other batch. I think I may enter one or both into our state fair that is coming up in a few weeks.

Fireweed Jelly
original recipe from Food.com
makes 4 half pint jars

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups fireweed juice*
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon butter
1 (1 3/4 ounce) packages dry pectin - Sure Jell for best results
3 cups sugar

Directions

*For fireweed juice:
Harvest about 8 packed cups of fireweed flowers. Rinse thoroughly and put in 2 quart pot. Add just enough water to make water level just below top of packed flowers. (Juice should be a deep purple color when finished. If too much water is used in boiling process, juice will be a brownish color. More water can always be added after flowers are boiled to increase amount of juice.) Boil flowers in water until color is boiled out and petals are a grayish color. Ladle juice into jar through cheesecloth to strain.

For fireweed jelly:
Warm fireweed juice, lemon juice and butter on stovetop.
Add Sure-Jell, bring to boil and boil hard for one minute.
Add sugar and bring to full boil for one minute. Skim top of jelly.
Pour into pitcher(makes it easier to fill jars)and skim again.
Fill sterilized jars leaving 1/8 inch space at top.
Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Remove from water bath and cool completely at room temperature.

Scenery

Here are some photos from a few weeks ago. I love the patterns the clouds make in the sky here. They always look like they're going somewhere (which I guess they probably are) or trying to direct you somewhere. This was taken a few miles from Palmer as I was driving home one evening. My guess on the time of day would be 9pm or so. Even into August we have sun & light late into the evening.

These next two photos were taken at the City flower & veggie garden. It's not very big, but they grow a wide variety of plants there, mostly perennials, and a few veggies. This year I noticed they had some yummy looking (you're not supposed to pick them) golden raspberries.

This first one is clematis. I believe the second one is echinacea.

Blogging from my porch

Still hot summer wherever you are? I happened to find a moment to sneak out to my porch and have an afternoon coffee in the sunshine. This is one of the nicest days we've had in a while so I had to take advantage of it. The first photo is my porch glider - all decked out in SUNSHINE! Can't contain my giddiness I just love the sun. The other two photos are from my drive this morning. Big clear skies & big dark mountains. Hope you enjoy!

A much overdue Thank You!

First let me start with the overdue "Thank You" to a bento friend for sending a sweet little Mio box for my slowly growing bento box stash. (Thanks Judy!) I love this little box! It's the perfect size for a snack. For this inaugural snack I had some black grapes (really hard to see in the black box) and some of my new fave Weight Watchers mini Ginger Snap cookies. They have a nice little spice to them and are fantastic with coffee.

This next shot is a variety of columbine growing in my garden. I love how they look like little clusters of fireworks. This year this columbine is about 4 1/2 feet tall! Speaking of fireworks, I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!