Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

It turned out to be another unexpected lovely day off. I came to work to the clinic this morning, but was sent home due to erroneous double booking. I have been dying to go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival this spring. I couldn't go last year because Jacob was a baby, & it was just too much work to drive 1+ hour each way with 3 kids. My Mom didn't feel like going today, so I jumped at the chance to take Gerritt & Sophia there.

I checked the festival map & Attractions page prior to leaving which made my trip a lot easier. We knew exactly where we were going & it helped to have the exact addresses to type into my GPS. We didn't have time for farm & winery tours, art shows or museums, so I just focused on the main attraction - RoozenGaarde which grows & ships flowers all over the US.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place in Mount Vernon which is just north of Seattle from April 1-30 every year. The festival is designed as a driving tour since many farmers in the Skagit Valley raise tulips & daffodils as agricultural crop & multiple fields of blooming flowers are scattered throughout the valley.

I was glad I jotted down the address for the Snow Goose Produce market which sells delicious natural ice cream. Gerritt needed something more to look forward to than admiring flowers. I also packed rain coats & rain boots. Although it didn't rain, the rain boots came in handy since the flower fields were very muddy. My double stroller would have simply got stuck so, while Gerritt walked, I carried Sophia over the most wet parts. Thankfully, no one slipped & fell so I didn't have to use a change of clothes I had in the car just in case.

The gorgeous flowers, colors & scents were beyond my expectations. Lovely flower arrangements & large size can easily rival famous flowers of Holland, I am sure. Kids missed their nap again, but no one was sorry.

My First Cultured Vegetables

The inspiration

This year I've been gradually switching my family's diet to real & traditional foods. In addition to grass-fed meats, pastured eggs & raw milk, cultured vegetables play an important role in maintaining a healthy gut & immune system. I've been looking at the Cultures For Health website for the past few months, not knowing where to begin. Even though we consume kim chi on a regular basis, it is not favored by all members of my family. Three-year-old Sophia & 1-year-old Jacob happened to love its spice & flavor, but it's almost impossible to incorporate kim chi into my 5-year-old's diet. Gerritt has always been my pickiest eater, & the only cultures he gets come from drinkable yogurt, regular yogurt & a few teaspoons of kim chi juice I sneak into his soup.

I was able to buy 2 organic cabbages for only $6.50

I was shopping at PCC Natural Market & noticed the attractive jars of fermented vegetables by the local company Firefly Kitchens. I bought 2 jars to try - Classic Kraut & Ruby Red Kraut. Although the kraut turned out to be delicious, I found the price to be prohibitive. Cabbage & carrots are some the cheapest vegetables you can buy, so the price range of $8.79 - 11.29 for a 15-oz jar was definitely too high. When I sent an email to the Firefly Kitchens via Facebook, I got a reply that the price was reflective of organic vegetables. Luckily, I just happened to run across a blog post & video about making your own sauerkraut from the Healthy Home Economist. It sounded so easy, I tried the recipe the same evening.

The start of fermentation

I didn't want to delay the recipe by making my own liquid whey from raw milk so I've obtained it from naturally separated Grace Harbor Farms' plain yogurt I already happened to have in the fridge. Three days later the kraut was ready & it tasted even better than the one from the Firefly Kitchens (I prefer less salt). I am definitely feeling inspired.
Although I don't know the amounts, the Firefly Kitchens use the following ingredients in their recipes:

Classic Kraut - green cabbage, celtic sea salt
Caraway Kraut - green cabbage, celtic sea salt, caraway seed
Yin Yang Carrots - carrots, ginger, celtic sea salt
Firefly Kimchi - green cabbage, green onions, garlic, ginger, celtic sea salt, Korean red peppers

Finished product 3 days later

Additional Resources:

1) How to Make Sauerkraut by Homemade Mommy

2) Ack! My Sauerkraut Has Mold On It! by Northwest Edible Life