Skagivore

I went to a presentation on “slow food” in Skagit on Saturday, with Dean and Ruth Taylor, two awesomes. The presentation was called “Skagivore,” and was all about growing and eating foods locally. Everything in the picture to the left was picked that morning. The meeting was held in an old 1800s school house at Christensen's Nursery. I’ve recently been paging through a book called “Local Flavors,” by Deborah Madison, which is about shopping at farm markets and cooking seasonally, recipes included. It's inspiring. The environmental benefits to eating local foods seem obvious—something to work on.

I learned that you can grow all sorts of vegetables and fruits in the Skagit. Well, duh, but really....anything grows here. Also, there are male and female trees, and sometimes you need both, to get fruit. I guess I knew that, but I forgot. At the end, they gave me a leek and a purple vegetable that tastes like radishes and starts with a K. My Unknown Vegetable will soon to be sautéed in olive oil, with Italian parsley. I plan on signing up with Slow Food USA, and will try to keep this train rolling in my life.

http://www.slowfoodskagit.org/

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

I had a low key running weekend. I did a two and a half hour run/trek up to Raptor Ridge on Friday night. Raptor Ridge is a spur trail in the Chuckanuts. Take a left as you're running through Arroyo, and proceed up. I actually found some wheels for a little bit--I must be getting past whatever had me sick. However, I forgot my headlamp on the way to work, and so I decided to test the "itty bitty book light" for trail worthiness. It fit well in my back pocket, but didn’t do so well in the dark. I lived. Consider alternatives. I was also chased by Denali, the dog, again. He lives for that. On Sunday, I ran to Burlington. This is not that far--just across the river--but I like that it sounds far. On my run, I did laps around a Latino soccer game, got some looks, and then trespassed across a railroad trestle just like the kids did in Stand by Me. Train dodge.