new faces on the farm

July 12, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in farm time, My life Tags: farm animals, farm life, goats, sheep 40 Comments

We’ve been so enjoying the summer. I’m especially loving the feeling of warmth into evening. That’s maybe the only thing I miss about my home state of Florida, the sleeveless shirts worn into the evening. Although, rare is the day I wear a sleeveless shirt and I can definitely live without the sweltering heat of a day in central Florida. We did have a fantastic visit last month to my sister’s in South Florida- nice family and beach time. I also tripped down memory lane and toured Chloe around my high school. The instant we discovered my graduation stone, we looked at it, then at each other and tears welled up. A sort of cosmic connection that ventured outside of real time. She felt, for that moment, standing in front of my high school, connected to who I was at 18. A glimpse of recognition that I too have been there. It was bittersweet. My best friends Melissa and Kelly- and who we liked/”loved” at that time. Little did I know at the time that my good fortune would bring me an amazing son only a couple years later. Thanks “J”.

And now our new farm friends:)

We have real live livestock. We put up a big fence. Built a goat shed and got ourselves three goats and two sheep. We love them! They are so sweet, funny and curious. We are all getting into a new routine and getting to know each other. The plan is to breed both goats and sheep in the fall and start milking in the spring. And here they are…

Meet blue eyed Dinah. She is a cross of La Mancha and Nigerian Dwarf. A total sweetie who craves attention. April 8th of this year, my birthday, I happened to be in the store filling in for someone. My mood lifted when I met Sherwin from Mountain Lodge Farm. Within minutes I learned she was a goat lady. I quickly stalked her farm and found there was an upcoming open house in May. Ollie was happy to go. I left out the part of the story of her four starter goats turning into over a hundred, supplying the milk for a full on dairy operation. Point here is, Dinah is one of her babies. It was fate.

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writing at wendyellenthomas.com

June 16, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Writing Tags: writing process 20 Comments

I often hesitate when asked to go outside of my normal blog routine. My days are often so filled that making another commitment to something, albeit not too difficult and even fun, I still quaver. But how could I pass up a chance to participate in this little tour that taps into how we go about this whole blog thing. I’ve enjoyed reading the process of other’s and felt inspired to articulate mine. Deliciously Nell over at I need a feed invited my to participate. You can look forward to hearing from Karista at Karista’s Kitchen next week. And it simply goes like this:

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Time for lamb (and a little fish on the side)

May 23, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Fish, Lamb, Side dishes Tags: fish, lamb, Meat, Seattle Cider Co 28 Comments

Although I am completely consumed with planting vegetables in the garden, watching berries develop by the day, and still do the occasional juicing, I’m also working on keeping up with the meat in the freezer.

So before you get the onslaught of garden posts (haha- lest you think 1 or 2 posts/month is an onslaught!) I’m going to throw out a few of our dinners as of late. These are all real time. No props or primping or going out of my way to edit much. Just some solid dinners to inspire you cause let’s face it- my blogging calendar sucks. I could have stretched these photos into months but ummmm… that’s not happening.

When you can buy meat in bulk locally, it is a chunk of change up front but still more economical with far superior quality. Last year we were fortunate, as I’ve mentioned, to purchase from Coffelt Farm located about 15 miles from us, a 1/4 of a cow along with a 1/2 of a pig, 1 lamb and a dozen chickens. We also purchased a second lamb from our neighbors. This has kept us fluid in proteins for the past year. We will be getting ready to purchase more starting the end of May. We have also finished one 10# case of salmon steaks, one 10# case of salmon filets and one 10# halibut filets.

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A year in sourdough

May 2, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Baked Goods, Bread, breakfast, Fermenting Tags: Ed Woods, Sourdough bread, sourdough starter 43 Comments

I’d like to start with a story of my one hundred year old starter, passed down from generation to generation but alas this is just not so. It started with this little packet of freeze-dried magic from Ed Woods… who I assume was a real person but I’ve no personal connection to except for our http://www.com encounter. I ripped open the packet and followed the instructions to start developing my newbie starter. It took a mere five days if I remember correctly. We have had a relationship for about 18 months now so the beginning is a little fuzzy.

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Compost and pre- gardening

April 14, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Gardening Tags: compost, Gardening, landscape, spring 19 Comments

It is a busy busy busy time. And so beautiful. The winter veil has lifted and spring shines with sun and heat-well the Pacific Northwest’s version in the high 50’s and 60’s at least. Not like what I grew up with in Florida! We have been busy in the garden and I’ve been ordering loads of merchandise for the bricks and mortar Chez Chloe. Boy is that fun. Like consumerism on crack, I’m sure I’ve used that line before. And now we are in CA for spring break. Party on garth (that one too). We will spend two days in San Francisco and then head to Santa Cruz and La Selva beach. Once back to Orcas we will be in full on garden mode so I’m making this one long post!

Flowering currant and forsythia

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sticky orange and almond cakes {gf}

March 28, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Baked Goods, Brunch, dessert, Fruits, Gluten Free Tags: almond, almond powder, eggs, gluten free, orange, orange cake, Paris 57 Comments

These little orange and almond sticky cakes and me go back.

Way back. Back to my time in Paris working in and out of a kitchen that I think two people could maybe stand in… if one of those people was a child at least. I’m going to have to dig out some pics of that adorable little kitchen that served me and my two kids well for two years- and quite a few others for whom I catered.

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kimchi bacon fried rice and eggs

March 14, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Asian inspired, breakfast, Brunch, Condiments, Fermenting, Vegetables Tags: bacon, Brown rice, eggs, fermenting, Firefly Kitchens, Irving Street Kitchen, kimchi 36 Comments

So this is far from Irish… but I’m not so on top of the calendar:)
Spring is so near I can practically touch it. The sun and cold do their dance like a strip tease that excites and taunts. You don’t know what’s coming next. I picked delicate new spinach and arugula leaves from plants in the greenhouse creating a bed for my baked salmon lunch today. This first minimal picking sparked a little excitement for the coming growing season. What I realize too, is I don’t mind the winter break and it almost takes a strong nudge to get me in the growing mood. Fresh garden food does not arrive without somebody’s hard work. My first little seeds, planted last weekend will become the seedlings for the first of spring planting. Brassica’s, lettuces, peas… the tomatoes and peppers will grow longer in the glass house.

What we relied on this winter besides store bought veggies was our fermented foods.

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cold brewed coffee with homemade vanilla almond milk

March 5, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in breakfast, Brunch, Drinks, Fresh and healthy, Gluten Free Tags: Beanilla, coconut sugar, Cold brewed coffee, vanilla almond milk 46 Comments

As much as we are enjoying our latest indulgence of cold brewed coffee and vanilla almond milk now… I can only imagine making this by the gallons in summer.It started with ummmm, let’s see, maybe an article from one of my magazines and/or just a few blog post readings such as Food 52 and The Kitchn. These are for iced coffee. I’m saving the ice for summer and just having it cold.

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new york city 2/14 last day

February 27, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Chez Chloe, NYC Tags: Abc Home, Brooklyn, Dean&Deluca, Eataly, new york city, Pfizer building, Williamsburg 22 Comments

The final installment of new york city Feb 2014. I’m literally regurgitating (i mean that in a good way) the final long and productive day of tromping ten hours from mid town to Brooklyn and back with a few trains in the middle. You saw this one before- the day started with a little snow.

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new york 2/14 second part

February 17, 2014 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Chez Chloe, NYC, Travel Tags: Chez Chloe, Couleur Nature, Izola, new york city, The French Farm 34 Comments

My first morning of NOT sleeping in and having brunch at 1pm meant getting myself up and out at 7.45am in this. I had the challenging opportunity to stay calm and carry on… but maybe not the way I had planned. Life’s like that right?

And then here I am two weeks later…trying to find a chunk of time to sort through photos. A general, oft said statement and a valid dilemma in the day and age of digital photography. Not only sorting the bigger trips and excursions but the daily snapshots that are sometimes almost too easy to capture. My poor, only eighteen month old computer shouts daily “start up disk almost full” or when its pants are really in a wedgy “start up disk full”… and I have to force quit and clean out a corner.

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