Give me land, lotsa land
Hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend. I think many of you kicked it off as I did, by sitting in traffic and cursing your fellow citizens, but eventually the tail lights and bumpers gave way to scenes like the above, snapped off Highway 97 in Central Oregon. Actually, this was snapped on Memorial Day Saturday because we finally gave up on reaching our destination Friday and spent the night at a motel in Madras. (Lesson learned: even if you're pulling up at 10 at night, it pays to make your reservation ahead on your phone because they charge you way more when you walk in the door cold.)
Oregon is a lovely state, and their farmers, too, grow some tasty food, but they don't know a thing about speed limits. In any one-mile stretch of Highway 97, the speed limit varied from 45 to 55 to 65 to 50 to 45 again. Murder on the cruise control. There was also something weird going on with the signage because, when we entered 97 from the Washington/Maryhill side, colorful placards announced the highway multiple times as being a "Journey Through Time." Whoopee! we thought. Bring on the dinosaur dioramas and cavemen stalking the rest areas. After all the sitting in traffic, a detour through the highway equivalent of Disney World would be welcome. No such luck. Apart from a few things being named after WWII training camps and such, we're not quite sure what time (other than the present) they thought we were journeying through. Blah.
But enough about Central Oregon travel woes. The other thing about Memorial Day Weekend, or any holiday weekend, is that it throws off our grasp on days of the week. Meaning, the Bellevue Farmers Market is coming right around again!
'Tis the season for plant starts
If you're putting in your tomatoes or other produce, Skylight Farms of Snohomish has plant starts for you, besides pastured eggs and fresh asparagus and greens.
And, speaking of fresh-picked, nutty asparagus, I also spotted it at Alvarez Organic Farms:
Along with fresh garlic and all kinds of dried chiles. And there was the asparagus at Amador Farms, as well:
One fun thing about passing all those farms in Central Oregon was deciding where we'd most like to be a cow. Who had the most access to endless green pasture or shade or even a water feature?
Well, in Washington State, Windy N Ranch invites all comers to their place out in Ellensburg, where their cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens enjoy roam certified organic fields.
Come for a tour--seriously.
As the Newhalls put it on their website, "Organize your group or family and come on out to see how clean, nutritional food can be produced in an environmentally sustainable ranching operation with the welfare of the animals as a top priority."
Having driven through Ellensburg regularly on my way to the Tri-Cities and, again, to speed-limit-challenged Oregon, I can attest to "Windy" being an apt word to include in any Ellensburg name. On the other hand, as you drive there, you'll appreciate how Washingtonians know a thing or two about managing speed limits. 70 all the way, baby!
See everyone tomorrow!
