My new home

I love my new home.

This was what I saw during dinner the other night:





And this was breakfast on my deck:



I am a lucky girl!

Update

I've been working for one month now. I've never been more exhausted and I've never worked as hard as I have than at this job. It's extremely dirty work. It's extremely unglamorous, and gritty. I've been bruised, cut, and burned. I've spilled pork fat all over me. I've splashed raw meat juice in my eyeball. I've had someone hand me gloves and say "if you don't want your hands to smell like butthole, you should use these."

I've also learned A LOT. I am getting faster at using a knife. I know how to bone out a duck, skin it, and render it's fat. I can make pork rillette, pate, and head cheese (braised head meats). I ran a kitchen for a week when the chef went on vacation and cooked through lunch rush by myself. I am learning how to cook and serve delicious, beautiful, local and seasonal plates.

Last Sunday Meredith and I cooked for an event called "The Incredible Feast." Chefs paired up with farmers and featured a dish that was distributed among foodies. It was an extremely long week with a lot of additional prep work, and when we were at the function I finally realized how idealized this whole food scene is. This work is hard. This work is dirty. This work can sometimes pay off, but usually it doesn't.

However, when I sit down and eat something that is delicious and beautiful to look at, and I surround myself with friends and feed them, I feel as though there is nothing more I am meant to do in this world. I am beginning to live and breathe wonderful, sustainable, delicious food. Food food food. And I love it. *

*sometimes I do hate it and it makes me want to cry.

new j.o.b.

hi! I got a new job! I'm going to be working for a farm on Vashon Island called Sea Breeze Farm. They raise their own animals and also have a restaurant in town. I will be the chef's assistant, butcher's assistant and learn about charcuterie, cheese making, wine making, sausage making, and cured meats! I'm going to learn so much! I'm so excited, scared, happy, nervous, pumped, inspired.

I really believe this is a step in the right direction for me. It's an extremely small farm with ten people working there total, and the restaurant is completely grass roots. Everyone loves working there, you can feel it when you're there, and you can see it from the products they make. They are beyond organic, they practice the system of grazing each different type of animal behind the other in order to maximize a fertile environment. They treat their animals so well, and because of that the products come out phenomenal.

For my interview I helped make head cheese and pate with the chef. Then I cut up a pigs head for guanciale (cured pig cheek) with the butcher. It was amazing, and I learned so much in just that one day. Just gaining the knowledge about butchery seems like an important life skill to me, plus my knife skill will get pretty precise. I want to be able to look at a piece of meat one day and say, that's whatever it is, and it's really great quality, or vice versa. I also want to be able to cook an amazing meal for 25 of my favorite people one night, like it ain't no thang, and I think I will be able to after I start working and learning about the art of farm to table.

AHHHHH I'm so excited!

Check them out here:
http://www.seabreezefarm.net

Plus everyday at work we eat lunch together, just something that the chef whips up from the restaurant and we sit outside on the deck and enjoy our meal together. It's so dreamy!

There's so much to learn!

Today I drew. I was going to upload my drawing, but then I forgot my camera chord when I went to the cafe. I drew my favorite flower that is growing in my garden. Then I squished it in my book so I could keep it forever. Then I noticed a really oniony scent coming from it. Then I wondered if it was edible. Then I took some of it and tasted it. Then I realized it was a chive flower. IMAGINE THAT! My favorite flower in the garden is an edible chive flower! THINGS JUST KEEP GETTING BETTER HERE!!!!!

Foraging

I foraged for the first time last weekend. I foraged for stinging nettles in the forest next to my house, with gloves on, and then made stinging nettle linguini. It was delicious, hearty, and most of all fresh. I was so excited and happy to do this!

I also have two new neighbors that I see daily. One is a beautiful bright pink and green hummingbird, who I call hummy. I hear him every morning, look out my window and see him flying around and hanging out on all the trees. He is really talkative, and likes to drink the nectar from some of the flowers in my garden. He's a funny one and really has his own personality. My other neighbors are a family of Eagles. I see them daily but less often. Maybe only once a day. They get really close to my porch and I just sit still when they fly so close to me because I don't want them to go away. They are ENORMOUS and so awesome!

I love my new home!

ummmmm

ummmm i just got an isolated cabin on Vashon Island for the summer that has a view of the puget sound, a terraced garden, and apple trees in the back yard. What?!

Life Goals

I have three new life goals to add to my list:

1. Buy a camper van and drive around the U.S. for an extended amount of time.
2. Hike the PCT for 5 months.
3. Motorcycle or Scoot down the 101.