Gardening

Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair

We almost forgot that this weekend is Seattle Tilth's annual Harvest Fair, a wonderland of fresh veggies, workshops, informational booths and live music, all going on Saturday, September 12, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. behind the Good Shepherd Center (4649 Sunnyside Ave N). Says they: There will be free hands-on activities to engage people of all ages.  People can meet urban livestock such as backyard chickens, goats and bees, and ask their owners questions.  The art of canning at home will be taught…

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Wallingford Plum Soup

We couldn't stand it. Every day, we'd be out, strolling around the neighborhood, and there they were: two trees full of the brightest golden plums you've ever seen.  They ripened and ripened and eventually began to fall, big fat raindrop splashes of juicy plums, wasted windfall. We admit it: we wanted them! So this past Saturday, we got up our gumption and knocked on the door. Nobody was home, but we did notice a package waiting for pick-up, addressed to a…

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Fruit Robbers

Returning from our vacation this past weekend, we discovered the tomatoes to the right in our garden, clearly victims of the same burglar that spied on us in our hot tub and plucked cherries from our neighbor's tree: raccoons. These particular bandits aside, it brings to mind a thorny question: as any Wallingford stroller knows, we are thick with sidewalk fruit trees. What's the etiquette of partaking? If someone's plum tree is planted in their devil strip, and those luscious fruit…

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I Speak for the Trees

Trailing Stories from the Community Week into our second week, we turn the mic over to Nancy Merrill. We've mentioned Nancy (the Lorax of Wallingford) a number of times, most recently as she has rushed to the defense of Wallingford's trees in the face of our heat and drought-like summer. Here, she shares her story, from back when it all began: It started in 1992, with one little tree on the planting strip in front of my house in Wallingford. The…

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