Doing what you can with what you have I am a perfectionist. A lot of the things I want to do don’t get done because I am afraid I won’t do them perfectly. This is why I don’t have a few dozen of my own novels on the bookshelf: I instead put my prodigious imagination […]
apples
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Planting Apple Trees on the North Coast
Apples are the most accommodating and long lived of fruit trees, and they cope with our wet climate quite well. There are many varieties of apple trees to choose from, each with its own characteristics. January is the best month to plant bare root trees, so take the time now to research the best varieties […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Humboldt Apple Chutney
It’s fall in Humboldt County and apples and pears are in abundance. What to do with the excess (as in, what’s left over after the deer and bears eat their fill)? When I first tried preserving my fruit harvest in the 1980s, the American cookbooks I found did not address fermentation and fruit pickling very […]
Posted inEat + Drink
(Wild)Crafting Community and Hard Cider
I never would have called myself a wildcrafter before moving to Humboldt. The sprawling suburbs of Southern California’s desert valley where I grew up weren’t exactly foraging-friendly. But once you move here, nature has a way of enrapturing not only the curious, but the hungry and thirsty, too. I spent my first few years in […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Apples and Apples
Many of us wait expectantly for Humboldt’s annual abundance of apples with a plan for baking, canning, pressing or distributing them. I have encountered a rather remarkable number of people, however, who would like to do something with the apples growing on their properties but don’t know what. Apples can be used to make so […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Windfall Apples
When life hands the farmers and home gardeners of Humboldt too many apples, many hand the excess to Food for People. Last year they donated some 57,000 pounds of excess produce and meat to the organization’s gleaning program, according to Food for People, which redistributed the food to people in need. Some of that was […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Getting Covered and Putting up Apples
As the leaves turn color and pumpkins on the vine become more orange by the day, we welcome autumn on the home farm. Harvest season offers reward for carefully tending to the garden all spring and summer growing season: crisp apples, golden sunflowers and homegrown cannabis are soon to be harvested. Life in autumn offers […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hayrides and Apple Harvest at Clendenen’s
Bushels of fun were had this past weekend at Fortuna’s annual Apple Harvest Festival. Locals and visitors alike enjoyed pies and cider, a street fair, arts and craft vendors and live music throughout the weekend. And down at Clendenen’s Cider Works, apple-cheeked kids and adults alike sampled pressed cider and climbed aboard hayrides through the […]