Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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While I'm a sorry excuse for a flower gardener, as anyone who's seen our landscaping would agree, I'm a huge fan of flowers in the vegetable garden. In fact, sometimes the flowers do better than the veggies. One of my favorite annuals is the tried-and-true marigold. There are so many colors, and you can even choose dwarf varieties that will easily fit into the smallest garden. You can also easily save seeds to plant again next year. Nasturtiums are a gorgeous option that gives tons of blooms....
I’ve found that in owning a restaurant, gardening, and life in general, many of the rules and clichés I’ve learned throughout my eons in the business world still apply. First, the 80/20 rule, which I wrote about recently, and another a former boss always touted and of which I was recently reminded: Don’t rule by exception! There are certain items on our menu at the café that we consider to be “rock stars” because they always sell, one of which is our crispy cod sandwich. Occasionall...
It certainly has been hot lately, not only is it bringing out the sloth in me, but it is also obliterating my garden. The combination of my heat-inspired slothiness and my normal forgetfulness has caused some unfortunate plants on the side patio to wither and die. No eggplant this year, I guess they thrive when they are watered. But, lettuce, not so much. I have four varieties of lettuce, all of which have gone to seed and turned into lettuce trees sporting beautiful royal blue blossoms. Like...
The garden is really picking up pace with the hot temperatures and full sun. We took a quick trip to the coast over the holiday weekend and came back to not so much a garden as a jungle. Weeds are a constant battle, and I spent a cathartic few hours pulling them as fast as I could before they could go to seed and cause 10x more weeds next year. The garlic, onion, and shallot beds were close to harvest and woefully full of sow thistle, so I opted to dive in and harvest everything. If you're...
In keeping with my love of old movies, I was recently reminded of: It Happened in Naples. I admit with no hesitancy that I am no Sophia Loren. But sometimes things happen at the Weinhard that are reminiscent of an old movie, and it doesn’t hurt to dream for a minute that I could be a little like one of the most beautiful women in the world. But face it, as lovely as Dayton and Waitsburg are, they’re not Naples. This past Saturday night, a lovely couple came to the restaurant for dinner. As we...
I am an old movie fan, and lately, the classic flick, The Three Faces of Eve starring Joanne Woodward, has been on my mind. Probably because, in a small way, I feel like my life is emulating that story. I know I only have one personality, but I have three "careers" happening at once, on overlapping days and two "start of the week" days. It can all make me a little crazy. Monday morning is the start of my Monday through Friday job as a Los Angeles insurance broker. I field questions from clients...
The dog days are close at hand, and with a record heatwave happening as we speak, what better way to beat the heat than to head down to your favorite swimming hole with "Rover" in tow. Few things are as rewarding as a romp in the river or pond with your pup, particularly the variety that enjoy a good fetch and retrieve. My setters are shy on the game of fetch, but a good swim is a home run when the temperatures soar into the 90s and beyond. One of their favorite spots is right in Waitsburg,...
I am now officially and happily the Ice Queen. Just in time for the brutal heat wave that struck this week, we finally have a functioning ice machine. Sometimes, the small pleasures in life (albeit this time an expensive one) provide much-needed satisfaction and relief. Relief that I don't have to stop to buy and then carry 40-50 pounds of ice into the restaurant daily. More importantly, I can generously fill our patrons' glasses with ice water, lemonade, or iced tea. This new modern machine...
It's weird to be thinking about fall when it doesn't even feel like summer has hit its stride, but here I am, planning what seeds I need to start to ensure I have cabbages and carrots galore. Gardens in Waitsburg are typically about two weeks ahead of my garden's microclimate; however, I start planning two weeks ahead of folks in town when prepping for fall. Around my garden, there seems to be some sort of cold spot in how the air settles at night coupled with a higher elevation. As such, I...
My mother, a very wise woman, taught my sister, brother, and I that "you don't kick a man when he's down." A lesson I remembered this week when we purchased a new ice machine for over $3,000. Three weeks ago, after our now-defunct ice machine lumbered to its slow, laborious death, I went online to look at replacement machines. I told Daniel that I found a replacement machine for approximately $2,500. He proceeded to lecture me on how much ice we (meaning me) could purchase daily from the store...
Every time I think I have the garden dialed in I'm reminded that I don't. Such is life. Overall, May has been kind to our garden with stable weather though a bit cold in our area (the last frost was May 20th). It has, however, been incredibly dry, and I'm thankful for drip irrigation on timers. One of the only upsides to the lack of rain is that the weeds aren't too bad yet. We haven't been subject to any herbicide drift so far this season which has also helped the garden flourish. But while...
In 2000, a new celebrity chef was born when Anthony Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential; Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly became a best seller. At the time, I was working as a “kitchen slave” for Daniel, the executive chef at famed restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles. Bourdain’s book divulged many truths about the behind-the-scenes antics in many restaurant kitchens. For example: No, kitchen staff doesn’t spit on food or add weird things to your salad as retaliation. If food falls on the fl...
Our jet sled bobbed near the infamous "Buoy 10" in the mouth of the Columbia River. It was a stormy September afternoon with angry Pacific surf bullying its wave action far upriver. Coho were the target, yet no one aboard complained at the prospects of landing anything willing to trounce the cut herring corkscrewing behind the boat as we drifted. Kicking back, we enjoyed the ride, and the experience of fellow fishermen jumping hurriedly for a bent rod, ripped from the complacency of a lull in th...
We’re all exhausted, my hands are raw, my nails are shredded, and my feet are so sore I can hardly walk. Somehow, we made it through the first two weeks as new Dayton restauranteurs. All without killing each other, burning down the building or poisoning anyone. We have had our share of chef tantrums (him), staff silent treatments (me), stare downs (both of us) and pizza lunches. Luckily, to balance out the opening kinks and tiffs, we’ve had many laughs, happy customers and great lunches pre...
We did it! We opened the café! I’m so glad we started with our “friends soft opening” last Saturday; it was a smart move. We found the kinks, what works and what doesn’t (the meat slicer). Also, since it was a private party, guests could bring wine which helped soothe and stall as we worked out various kinks in real-time. Daniel, Jaime, and I each ran a marathon as we filled glasses, turned in orders, and delivered food. We also used the experience to do a test run of our payment system w...
Seven apple varieties, previously believed lost or extinct, have been found in old orchards in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, according to a joint press release by The Temperate Orchard Conservancy (TOC) and The Lost Apple Project (LAP). The re-discovered apples include the Almota, Carlough, Eper, Iowa Flat, Ivanhoe, Kay, and Steptoe. A team of volunteers from the LAP collected the apples in the fall of 2020 and passed them to the TOC, who identified them. The two cooperating projects have now...
Well, it's officially go-time! Those of you in Waitsburg proper should probably be a week or two ahead of me in terms of planting. Living a bit north of town and in a slightly colder spot, we managed to get one very light frost the night of May 7 and still have a slight risk of it tonight (May 10). As such, I held off on planting most of my frost-sensitive crops like tomatoes, peppers, and melons to be safe. Good thing too, as the few plants I rushed into the garden without season extenders had...
My sister and I are good friends when she's not trying to run my life. Being petite and the middle child, she's decided it's the reason (excuse) for her bossiness. Luckily, we agree on politics and most social issues, one of which is the environment. I proudly give her kudos because she does put her money where her mouth is. She has driven an electric vehicle for years (starting with a Volt and recently upgrading to a Tesla), updated her yard many years ago to be drought-tolerant, and she has...
Have you ever had pet chickens? Neither did I until a few years ago. After a nasty bite from a vicious kindergarten class parakeet, it took me a while to venture into the avian world again. While I live a bit outside of town, I wanted to talk about raising chickens in town. It's relatively easy and completely manageable with a few considerations. I'll give a list of resources at the end of this article if you're ready to dive in. The Basics: All chickens need food, water, and safe living space....
Insanity doesn’t even begin to describe our recent business decision. There was a movie made in 2011 called “We Bought a Zoo.” Based on a true story, it stars Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of a widowed journalist who buys and moves with his two children to an animal preserve/zoo in dire need of restoration. There are setbacks, victories (and lots of money) that eventually make it all work out by the end of the movie. Now if life were only like the m...
Picture a portly, toe-headed boy standing along the muddy shoreline of a farm pond as the sinking summer sun casts a warm amber glow across the water. He wore pastel yellow jogging shorts and a Mr. T "I pity the fool" shirt, white socks with two red bands pulled up just below the knee, and navy Chuck Taylors. Wielding a seafoam green fiberglass fishing rod sporting a prototype Zebco 33 reel, he cast a bobber and small hook baited with nightcrawlers he dug from his grandpa's back yard. As the bob...
Pam was an Elder in the Christian Church of Waitsburg. Her husband Larry’s family helped build that church. I am not talking about the structure at the corner of Main and 6th Streets but the spiritual community within. On that truth, Pam and I agreed. And on many other things. When we agreed to call Pam as Elder, she balked. She was eminently qualified. She was not sure she agreed with the idea. Are women supposed to be Elders? My argument: you already are one. Still, she almost said no. She w...
Like beauty, organization is in the eye of the beholder (or doer). Daniel and I recently had a heated discussion about who is more organized. I think the issue is that we have different expectations about what the definition of organization is and what it means to each of us. We are both organized. We just approach it differently. When I was in elementary school, my mother expressed concern to my teacher that I was not organized. Of course, this distressed her because she came from a family that...
As I’ve come to learn, I cannot be confident that spring has truly arrived, no matter what the calendar says or how many daffodils, tulips, and crocus I see. Someone recently advised me not to plant anything until after April 15th, but I’m not convinced this is relevant to the weather; perhaps it’s the IRS, or; possibly, they are members of Daniel’s garden fan club and just want to delay my planting to support his victory in our garden competition. OK, I could be a bit paranoid, but this is...
Well, it's April, and I'm still rather behind on the gardening chores. No news, I suppose. Every year I print off a 12-month calendar from the web to keep track of the garden chores and notable occurrences in the garden and around the farm. Maybe it's the biologist in me coupled with a poor memory that makes the garden calendar so useful. To date, I'm working on year five of the calendar, and it's a surprisingly helpful reference tool. I often use the previous years' calendars to remind me what...
