Monday, May 18, 2009

Mysterious Plant activity

This is a retired charcoal grill which we have been gifted and use as a planter in front of the store. Cypress and I started Nasturtiums indoors and watched them grow into hardy plantlings inside on the window sills. Then we transplanted them out to the grill and they began to spread and flourish. We hoped for cascades of trailing bright flowers in a few weeks. THEN SOME MEAN PERSON RIPPED OUT OUR LITTLE PLANTS!!
Stranger still, there were these pathetic little filler flower plants piled in the back portion of the grill. I was really mad...now I'm just perplexed and a little sad. Did one person take Nasturtiums and leave replacements? Or did one mean person take Nasturtiums and another kind neighbor saw and left replacements. Anyway, I planted the substitutes, and I'll plant more nasturtiums.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Tomatoes and Buns


Yes, we have Washington Tomatoes! We scored them at Broadway/Capitol Hill Farmer's Market from Kititas GreenHouse. I enjoyed my first very Israeli breakfast in about 7 months.(Bread, veggies and cheese) They're pretty darn tasty tomatoes and we're excited to be offering them on specials, and as a new component to our "Seasonal Burger".
We've added several options to the menu lately including a "Beast Feast Burger" and "Ultra Grilled Cheese" With Spring produce coming on strong, look for yummy specials which change every couple days.
Our burger bun saga continues. The Tall Grass Baguette we've been using is very tasty, but we've had too much waste since baguettes have a very short shelf life and don't freeze well, and they're considerably more expensive than buns, and well, people really want buns for their burger. So after recommendations from customers and other industry folks, and our personal taste trials we'll be using Macrina herb buns. ( If you're not familiar, Macrina was founded in Belltown in 1993. They have 2 cafes and bake lots of yummy stuff. They also do wholesale deliveries.) We'll also be using their Ciabbata for sandwiches, and bringing in a few sweets.
Running an artisan bakery is a really tough gig and we give props to all of the hard working bakers out there.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Planting


Very busy time. We planted peas and beans. Cypress and Dylan made this wall/trellis for the Peas. (We use last season's sunflower stalks for support and structure around the garden. It's almost like bamboo. One more reason to love the sunflowers.) Then these heavy rains came and washed most of our plumped seeds out and the pesky but beautiful Stellar Jays came and ate the seeds. Gotta re-plant the Peas and Beans.
Our neighbors at Market Street Traders had a drumming for fair trade on Sat afternoon. Lot's of fun, Cypress enjoyed a break from his Maitre d' job to go drum in the circle.