7-30-10

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN

DON'T MIND IF WE DO

SLEEPY EASTERN WASHINGTON TOWN

MR POTATO HEAD WELCOMES US

BLACKBERRY FORAGING

OUR SAVIOR

We left Twin Brooks Farm early this morning and sadly bid adieu to the west coast. There's no fooling now, our trip is nearing its end. If this blog were a text message, we'd insert a sad face here. Twin Brooks Farm overall was a great learning experience. It would have been better if Lorna and Carl were there last weekend, and we had an opportunity to learn more with them, but so it goes. Learning more about permaculture was thought provoking, but what was even more thought provoking was realizing making a living as a farmer only works when you have a sound business plan. After staying with Carolyn at The Garden Path, anything seemed possible; she was so inspiring and made us feel we could do anything, including making a decent living as farmers. But returning to Washington was sort of a reality check. Having acres of blueberries (or any crop) is great, but if you can't sell them, you're in deep trouble.

Driving east out of Washington took almost all day. The contrast of western Washington and eastern Washington is pretty stark. Once you cross the Cascade Mountains and Mount Rainier, everything goes from a lush, verdant, greenscape to a seeming desert. It was incredible the hundreds of thousands of acres of wheat fields we drove through in western Washington. It truly was a sea of gold. We also stopped in a sleepy town to hit up a farmers market in western Washington, that had only 4 stands run by very happy seniors, where we bought: beets, chard, garlic, peppers, and bread. This is what most people bring as camping rations, right?

Just before sun fall, we finally entered Idaho. Immediately inside the state border, we spied some blackberry bushes with ripe berries. We've noticed countless blackberry bushes all over the west coast with berries of a white to pinkish color, but nothing close to black. What a treat it was to spot rich dark blackberries on the roadside and stock up. Before we left Twin Brooks Farm, we picked some blueberries and raspberries and stored them in a container; adding blackberries to the mix was delightful. We drove on and on, with hopes of making it to Montana, but it never came to fruition. By 10pm, we were still hundreds of miles from the border and seriously concerned about finding a safe place to camp for the night. We entered the Clearwater National Forest praying to find a campsite with open space to pitch our tent, and were devastated when the first two we stumbled upon were completely full. That's Friday night for you. We pushed on, bleary eyed, knowing driving in pitch black after being on the road for 12 plus hours was not smart. But what was our alternative? Just as we were about to pull over and sleep in our car, we luckily stumbled upon Wilderness Gateway Campground, where we set up our tent in record time, and passed out just after 11pm.