Barn Concert

This past weekend we had the most wonderful concerts in the barn.  Alicia's friend Jonie Qiuning Huang flew in from Shanghai (I know, right?) and joined us for a week of farm and music fun.  Jonie  teaches collaborative piano at the prestigious Shanghai conservatory and has an extensive private studio.  She and Alicia met when they were both at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.  This is Jonie's second appearance at the barn and we absolutely love having her here.  Her music making and collaborative skills are beyond description.  You just have to experience it in person because words are not enough to convey the emotion that both Jonie and Alicia present.

Here are a few photos of our latest Barn Concert performances.

Jonie rehearsing in the barn

She downloads music on her ipad and plays from it.  There is a foot pedal that she taps when she needs to turn the page.  It's a really cool piece of technology that many musicians, especially pianists, are using now.

When Alicia and Jonie finished rehearsing the pieces they were playing for the concert program, they would sight read music for hours.  It was so much fun to listen to!

The piano with a fully loaded ipad!

Grandma Jo always makes the best sugar cookies for guests that come to Barn Concerts.  Do they come for the music or the cookies?  Most likely both!

A shot of the concert hall.

Jonie and Alicia rehearsing and Reynald cleaning!

The following photos were taken by our good friend Nick Follger.  He has been photographing our family for decades and even when he comes to enjoy a concert, he can't help but take some images to document the event.  We are so grateful that he shares his skill, talent and art with us. 

Here I am introducing the performers.

Alicia spends a few minutes explaining each piece before they perform.

Visual of the performers.  What you are missing in the incredible music they are presenting.

The Barn!!

Sewing room time

One of the things I love about winter is that I get to spend extra time in my sewing room, piecing quilts.  I am having a hard time staying focused on one project, so have two going at once!

When I made my winter project list I discovered that the maple leaf fall quilt has been on the list for a couple winters!  I am determined to finish it this winter!

Making the four patches that go in the corners of the chain block.

A box of four patches!

Putting the chain blocks together.

Finished chain block.  There are 119 of these and the same number of maple leaf blocks.

Here's the quilt laid out on the floor of my room.  Next step is to sew all these blocks in to rows and then sew the rows together.  

This bright and happy yellow striped fabric will be a summer quilt.  I really had no intention of starting this particular project this winter, but then my best friend Beth got an idea.......and well, her favorite saying......"you know what you could do".......and there you have it!

Tomato Day

A couple weeks ago Lynnie and Beth came out with bucket loads of frozen tomatoes and sweet peppers from the bounty of their gardens.  Our goal for the day was to make stewed tomatoes and we accomplished that goal!  Everything that went in to our stewed tomatoes, except the celery, was grown in our gardens.  It smells so good once everything is combined in the large electric roasters and set to simmer for several hours.

While the tomatoes simmer, we eat lunch and then work on hand sewing projects and of course jabber non stop!!!

Roni Jo and David were home during tomato day so they got in on the action!  Here we see Alicia and Roni Jo chopping!

Celery is the only ingredient that we buy from a grocery store.

Lynnie, Beth and Alicia.

Onions and celery chopped and ready to add to the mix.

I was assigned to garlic detail.

Sweet peppers that were chopped and frozen this past summer.

A bucket of onions!

David entertained us while we chopped.  Love it when they are home!

Alicia made two different flavors of quiche for our lunch.  Both were amazing.

Filling pint jars after the sauce has stewed for several hours.  

Wipe the jar rims before placing the lids on.

Lids and rings on the jars.

Jars in the pressure canner.

And keeping a close eye on the pressure of the canner.  

The final count on processed jars is 124.

Time Marches on....

I didn't realize it has been such a long time since I've done a post!  My apology!!

This past weekend Alicia and I drove to Olympia to attend the Cascadia Grains Conference.  This is a group of people that are trying to revitalize the grain industry in Western Washington.  They are kind enough to include Eastern Washington as well!  The focus of the conference is to bring together growers, bakers, brewers and end users.  The emphasis so far, has been on small producers, niche markets, heritage grains, mircro brewers and bakers, millers etc.

It was all stimulating information and we met interesting people that were presenting some thought provoking ideas.  We're not sure how any of what we learned can or will translate to our business, but we were happy to have spent time learning.

Friday afternoon we both took a cooking class taught by Courtney who has a micro bakery in Portland called Wyld Breads.  She uses whole grains and natural levins exclusively.  She taught us to make sourdough English muffins (amazing) and salted chocolate chunk cookies (double amazing!).

Folks gathered for the baking class Friday afternoon.

Kneading the sourdough English muffin dough.

My favorite baker in the class!

English muffins cooking on the griddle.

Finished muffins.  We added rosemary and cheddar cheese to our dough.  

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  We each got to eat one.  The rest we had to save for the conference lunch the next day.

The conference was held at South Puget Sound Community College.  Lunch and dinner were served by students in the culinary arts program, focusing on whole grains and locally produced vegetables.

One seminar on Saturday tasting beer made with two different varieties of malting barley.  There was a distinct difference in taste, though I didn't like one better than the other.  They were just different.

Close up of the beer.  You might be able to see that the glass on the left is slightly more cloudy than the one on the right.  

Dinner Saturday night featured two different conference attendees food.  Flour tortillas, chips and salsa from one business and the other provided corn tortillas.  All products were made from heritage grains.  

Best conference take away was this nifty tote bag!