Baking at BelleWood

I have officially started working at BelleWood Acres in their bakery, it has been fun though very slow going for me as I am still learning, recovering and need to take it easy still. 

Today was a very special day because it was the Whatcom County Farm Tour - which included 13 local farms (plus the Farmers Market) that were offering tours and interactive educational displays of their farm and products. This included vegetables, wine, cheese, fruit, bison, alpacas and APPLES! 

If you ever stop by (which you are welcome to Sept 1 - Dec 31st every day!) make sure to say hello to Dorie - a first generation farmer! Then like BelleWood on Facebook! 

I only got to make one farm stop today as I was working, but it was a fantastic stop to make! This is a picture of the orchards early in the morning when I arrived - and right away we got to baking!!! 

8 dozen cookies - both chocolate chip and regular honey roasted peanut butter cookies! 

Pocket Pies - mini apple pies that are pretty much the cutest thing ever! 

Caramel Apples, obviously.  

With or without nuts. 

And apple turnovers!!! 

Apparently the goal is to make then look like sharks... I was fairly successful I would say! Da na.... Da na.... da na na na na na na dananananananananana! 

Eh-hem... Quality control. 

And the first batch of Apple Cider of the season!!!! 

The "Cider Man" was kind enough to share a sample - oh boy did it taste like fall! Delicious. 

We spent the afternoon bagging apples chips (just sliced, dehydrated and sealed!) Dana and Martha are awesome people to work with! 

You can pick them up at the Farm Store, Haggen, and I believe the Co-op as well. 

And this isn't part of the Bakery but a very sweet treat that cannot go without mention - apple cider donuts!!!! 

Uh-mazing. Ross is going to be upset that I didn't bring any home... next weekend honey, don't worry. 

One of the best parts of the day was that right when I got off my friends Sarah and Stead showed up! I decided to hop on the train and take an orchard tour with them, which was fun with the incredible view of Mt Baker and the sprinklers running to cool us off! It was HOT - Bellingham has had warmer weather in this first week of September than it has all "summer"!!!!! 

Then I drove home and took a 3 hour nap. Whew! I was exhausted, but it is amazing what sleep and a little ice for the nose can do for a girl. Ross and I are taking it easy with a movie tonight! 

Is really is getting to be fall, isn't it?!?!?

Local Love

Whew... almost done with week one of Summer Block and I am exhausted! It will sure be keeping me busy this summer! 

Week 1 of my Masters in Environmental Education summer school schedule: 

Meet and Greet and a Local Field Trip of the Lower Skagit and a weekend on a boat: the Indigo learning about meaningful watershed education. 

One stop included the one pictured above - Mt. Erie - is a great climbing spot, however, for today it was a place to view and a place to reflect. 

We enjoyed a nice morning drive down Chuckanut Drive and a stop by the Farm to Market Bakery for coffee and sweets! LOVE that there are food breaks included in the schedule! 

I actually ended up getting a sandwich instead since I haven't gone to the grocery store/recieved a CSA box in a while... it was amazing! Artichoke, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, romaine lettuce, and fresh goat cheese. It was so good that I didn't take a picture before I ate it all. 

We also stopped by Snow Goose Produce (Our Prof - John - certainly knows the way to my heart!) which is famous for its ice cream. I didn't know why until today... 

Homemade waffle cones and the most ridiculously huge portion sizes ever!!!! A classmate got sick from eating the "single" scoop of ice cream... but my "1/2" scoop (hardly) of coffee ice cream was delicious and the homemade waffle cones are to die for! 

I also picked up some local and organic strawberries! Don't they look beautiful?!?!?! They were wonderful. 

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In other news, our CSA with Cedarville Farm butchered their first batch of chickens this past week. Ross and I decided to buy two. "these birds are raised outdoors on pasture with spacious, open air huts to protect them.  They have ample access to the outdoors, lots of space to scratch and peck, abundant fresh air and water, and are fed a 100% organic grain ration.  They will be processed locally by a WSDA certified processor in Lynden.  Birds can be picked up the day of processing at the farm."

When we picked them up at the farm we not only received our fresh poultry but we also saw with our own eyes how these chickens lived. Thank you for transparency Cedarville! Now we know our food is good, clean, and fair. 

Going to be putting it in the crock pot to roast all day tomorrow while I'm on the boat! (Hopefully I'll be able to figure out my sister's old camera before so that I can take pictures on something other than my phone!) 

Try to support at least one local farmer this week! =)

Easy Quiche

This week has been long... it was week two of Lutherwood's Environment Ed camps which means 14 hour days working with mostly awesome (some not-so-much) 5th graders in the woods, which I love, but I am beat. I also really miss cooking and eating at home - even over a 2-3 day time period.

This Wednesday we received our first organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box from Cedarville Farm - and I was bummed that I had to to wait two days to really get to use the produce! The first box included lettuce, Asian stir-fry mix (mizuna, tatsoi, chard, red spinach, kale buds, broccoli raab & arugula - most of which I haven't heard of before!), garlic greens, Shitake mushrooms, leeks, red radish, and farm fresh eggs.

 I think I was hoping there would be more produce - but it is still early in the season and it has been an unusually cold, wet spring; that's part of the risks you take when you support a CSA. One thing I'm not risking - chemicals and toxins on my food!

Tonight I finally had the time to make dinner - an easy, delicious, local and organic quiche! 

Quiche is very similar to an Egg Bake, and though traditionally you actually make a pie crust, I LOVE the ease and simplicity of this recipe inspired by Michelle. 

Farm Fresh Quiche - Late Spring

4 whole wheat tortillas 

1 leek

3-4 stalks garlic greens

1 cup Shitake mushrooms

3 handfuls of Asian stir-fry mixed greens, chopped

1/2 cup feta cheese 

4 farm fresh eggs 

2 tbsp oil 

Salt, pepper, seasonings 

Preheat the oven to 375F. 

Start by chopping the leeks and garlic greens, 

then de-stem and coarsely chop the mushrooms. 

Saute the leeks, garlic greens and mushrooms with the oil on a medium-high heat until soft and fragrant. 

Then add the greens into the pan and cover, allowing to steam for a few minutes. 

While the greens are steaming, crack and whisk the eggs together. 

Place the tortillas in a pie-pan so that they cover the entire surface, and press in. 

Fill the tortillas with delicious greens! 

Top with the feta cheese, and then pour in the eggs. 

Bake for 30 minutes. 

And marvel at your meal that only traveled 6 miles to your doorstep! 

Lean greens, protein, and organic goodness!

Which we decided to accompany with a bottle of wine we bought back in December. 

This wine is from Snohomish and made with local Pears -the wine was reminiscent of a Chardonnay but perfectly sweet. I didn't know about wine with a breakfast food item, but it was all wonderful! 

What's a new food that you have tried lately? 

Mushrooms are not something I use hardly at all - but I really liked them! 

BelleWood Acres

Apples, Apple Cider, Apple Pie, Apple Syrup.... why didn't I go to this place when we celebrated Ross' 25th birthday Applefest style?

 This is Ross on his 25th Birthday - we played Apples to Apples while eating applesauce, apple fritter, apple chicken sausage pasta, and dipping apples in caramel. 

Anyway, to the Apple Orchard! 

BelleWood Acres is located on the Guide halfway between Bellingham and Lynden.

Here's a description from their website: "The first trees at BelleWood Acres were planted in the spring of 1996. The designing and planting were very much a family effort. We, John and Dorie Belisle, with family help, designed and planted the orchard.  Our goal is to grow the best apples in Whatcom County. We invite you to come out and see the farm. You will learn how we grow our fruit, pack it, store it and juice it! We also have pears, pumpkins, decorative gourds and corns, and much more. Fall is bountiful at BelleWood Acres."

Umm.... John is pretty much hilarious to listen to. But I can't repeat anything he said here... it would make you blush. 

It was after 6p.m. when we ventured out into the orchard - and of course it is winter so there isn't much to see. You'll probably notice that the trees look a bit strange and twisted. Well, they are pruned and twisted like this to keep the nutrients concentrated to lower branches, and they keep only the thicker branches. After all, a tree that is growing branches isn't growing apples, right?

Something that absolutely fascinates me about apples is that they are all grafted, or cloned. Apples reproduce sexually, meaning that offspring is a mixture of genes and the apple is completely different from the parent apples. Sometimes that's great and you find a sweet juicy variety, sometimes it means you get a small green turd. The red delicious, for instance, can be bought worldwide, yet all came from one tree.

If you want to learn more about the fascinating history of apples I would recommend reading The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, or watching the PBS film based on the book, or check out this website. It's a fascinating story, and tells the tale of Johnny Appleseed you may not be familiar with.

This is me and John in their industrial kitchen where they bake pies (I totally want to be the person that bakes pies!), dehydrate apple rings, and press their apple cider.

From September 1st until December 31st the farm is open; you can walk through the orchards, buy an apple pie, and celebrate the harvest. 

Some of their delicious offerings that you can buy at the Coop or Haggen: 

 sourcesource

Ross and I have bought their apple cider before and absolutely loved it. Oh, and their honey roasted peanut butter is to die for. The samples and hot apple cider ended the field trip on a warm and satisfying note. 

And you can become a Facebook fan!