Bologna

An Italian farm

old olives



makeshift works to organize sheep movements across the hills of Umbria



Sardinian sheep transplanted to Umbria, by Sardinian humans.



The nursery for newborn sheep of mothers who've perhaps lost the instinct.

A walk in an old town

The shepherd of Umbria

2012 in pics

kiwi

Fuzzy Kiwis!
Not sure how old the vines are. We have a photo that looks like its from the 1980's showing them as full grown. This pair of vine-bushes produced 300 lbs this year. We don't usually prune it back 90% like we are supposed to but the fruit are large and plenty. Most of them will soon be sold then resold as kiwi sorbet at one of Seattle's ice-cream parlors.

Winter storage basket

Jen and Whitney put together this storage basket, loaded with preserved farm goods, for the school auction. It weighed in at 20 lbs and sold for $150.

Credit for these super cool labels goes to Whitney.

The chestnuts

Chestnut blight fungus, introduced in 1904, destroyed more than 4 billion American chestnut trees. These are probably hybrids of European (sweet) and American or East Asian.





Chestnuts are apparently good nectar and pollen producers for honey bees. Our PNW pollinator guides don't mention this but chestnut honey production seems to be alive and well elsewhere.











Double and triple layer drying system. We don't dry them for long,two to three days, then store them ventilated at a refrigerator temperature, which is in the mudroom these days.

and its leaves