My relatives were visiting this week, and I did quite a bit of cooking and dining. We had some delicious Ethiopian with the injera I bought in Portland, burgers, little hard rolls stuffed with sirloin, garlic, mint, onion and tzatziki sauce, early corn on the cob and green and wax beans slathered in local butter, local tunafish salad, etc., etc. We also made vinegar pickles and sampled my new recipe for bright green half-sours.
Finally, seeking respite from the inland heat, we drove out to the coast. We all enjoyed tidepooling and the lighthouse at Heceta Head, but I was far more fascinated with starfish eating mussels and the ripening salal, a dark berry that does well in the salt air of the PNW coast.
And you better believe it that my kin and kith all but deserted me when I spied the potager, the little kitchen garden outside the Heceta lightkeeper’s house, which is now a B & B. Everyone went to go do something else and left me with my camera and dreams of such a beautiful little space. But you wouldn’t desert me, would you?
I had no idea vegetables could grow so well in the damp chill of the coast. Maybe it’s just that the innkeepers, both formerly executive chefs, know some vegetable magic. True, the brassicas, lettuces, and artichokes were doing especially well, but nasturtiums, herbs, and squash were also outperforming mine by a mile. Impressive!
