Our Quest for Pliny the Younger

Some may say that planning a mini-vacation around the release of a beer is crazy.  Those people don't know my husband and I, and clearly they don't know good beer.  Months ago we vacationed with friends in Bodega Bay and took a day trip to Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa to try one of our favorite beers: Pliny the Elder.  Soon after that trip we found out about Pliny the Younger, and that it would be released for two weeks in February.  A Triple IPA? Another trip?  Um, yeah, we're game....  and it was booked. 

"Fourteen Days of Younger" it is called.  I wish I could say we all felt younger after we left the brewery, but sadly the day after we felt like a bunch of Elders that tried to act like we were Younger!  Perhaps that headache was a reminder of why one should not partake in too many beers that boast a 10.5% ABV? Do we regret it?  Heck no, we're ready to book our next trip!

February 3rd through 16th. That's it.  Friends that went towards the beginning of those "14 days" waited in line for four hours to get a taste of Pliny the Younger.  This is a beer that is not available in a growler, nor is it available via a bottle.  Your only way of having it is in a 10 ounce glass, for $4.50, at the brewery itself.....  unless you just so happen to come across one of the few establishments that get it for San Francisco or Sacramento Beer Week.  If you want to get your hands on it next year, I recommend going the 2nd week.  Our wait was less than thirty minutes to get inside- on the 9th, during lunchtime (a Thursday!).    

And was it worth the wait?  Um...  that's my husband savoring his first sip (gulp?) after 30 minutes of waiting outside.  Pliny the Elder is a double IPA, Pliny the Younger is a triple- and I'd say that the Younger was twice the flavor that Elder had if that makes any sense?  So that would be a BIG FAT YES.

As much as we were there for the Younger, Russian River Brewery had 22 beers on tap when we were there.  They had so many beers available for their favorite customers that they couldn't fit them all in their beer sampler.  So many favorites available!  We recommend sampling Blind Pig, the Pliny's (both of them), Segel Select (if you like hops), Rejection (their Black Pale Ale- great for folks who like Pale Ales AND Stouts), and Supplication, Temptation and Consecration for you Sour beer lovers (which we are...they are yummy...stock up when you are here). 

Elder, meet Younger.  Younger, meet Elder. Of course we had to compare Pliny the Elder(left) to Pliny the Younger (right).  As much as I love the Elder, I have to admit that the Younger was totally worth a weekend away from Sacramento to go and try.  So much so that I will be on the hunt next week to try and find it here in Sacramento during Sacramento Beer Week (ahem, if you're going to The Art of Beer event, I'll be volunteering there! And if you're going to Sacramento Brewers Showcase or Capital Brewfest- we'll be drunk there!) 

Elder, Younger, Damnation, Rejection, Mortification (their Quadruppel Belgian, my 3rd fave of their offerings)....  Oh my... After a few trips here we've moved past the sampler pack- we come here and order exactly what we know we'll like.  And there are so many that we like.... 

More beers, 8 growlers To-Go of Damnation, Rejection and a whole lotta Pliny the Elder (Argh- I wish they'd fill the growlers with Younger!), a bunch of food in our bellies, and we were on our way back to the beach house in Bodega Bay. 

If you're ever in Santa Rosa, you must come here.  If you're ever within an hour of Santa Rosa, you must come here.  And to somewhat keep this blog post gardening related, if you are attending The Heirloom Exposition here in Santa Rosa (Sept 11-13th, 2012), you must come here!  See you in September!  You'll know where to find me :)

Best and Worst of the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo



This weekend is the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo at Cal Expo.  If you have an interest in going, the show is still going on tomorrow from 10am-6pm.  I normally don't like going to these types of events because I am allergic to salespeople, but my friend Kat gave me free tickets (and even dropped them off after midnight last night on my doorstep!) so of course I was going to go!  I brought my mom along with me because she's wanting to do some bathroom and kitchen remodeling this year.  I can swoon over the garden decor', and she could swoon over faucets.... it was a win-win for both of us.  Here are some pictures of my favorite and least favorite things, starting with the display pictured above from Verde Creations, Inc.  I'm actually disappointed that I didn't get more pictures of their display because I really loved it.  I was too busy checking out the patio space above and dreaming of ways that I could rip out more lawn in order to implement it.  I checked out their website once I got home and I have to admit, they have some beautiful, colorful creations- and I can't wait to see more from them. 



The garden pictured above I adored.  I couldn't tell you who it was by because the people working this garden didn't really approach me in any way.  As much as I say I hate salespeople, I do like to have someone approach me if I walk into a display.  Ask me about my projects.  Heck, ask me what I think of your display....  anything is better than silence.  One company that was great with communicating was FiveStar Landscaping.   I met landscape architect Karen Blanor at their display today and she was a great communicator- and asked a lot about the projects I wanted to do in my garden.  Another great company I connected with today was G&D Landscape Construction.  Greg Phelps spent a lot of time chatting with me about my garden projects.  At these types of events you often get designers that come in with these grand displays and they are a little overwhelming, and they kind of scream "I'm expensive!" and it scares me away.  I am more interested in the displays that scream "I'm practical!  There's no project too big or too small!".  G&D also gave me the business card of someone who might be better at giving me what I was looking for (Howard Ma of HM Design), and any company that is willing to say "I might not be able to do what you want, but I know someone who can" earns major points in my eyes. 



Taking a break from garden stuff and moving to home decor', Mad Imports had a very popular display, and I can't wait to visit their store.  Think of it as Restoration Hardware type decor, at half the price.  The pieces were fun and unique, and I can't wait to see what they have in their warehouse.  The hook set pictured above was only $27, and one half this size was around $14.  You can't beat those prices!  For directions, hours, etc, you can call them at (916) 599-0600.



Lets visit some things that I didn't like.  The doorway fountain thing pictured above looks cool, right?  I can picture it in a restaurant, but where the heck would you put this in your house?  And if you're the type of person that would put this in your home, that's just spending money where you don't need to.  It's over the top.  It's way too much. 



The same goes for this spout of water.  What a waste!  The best part of a water feature is the sound, which this had none.  I would agree that my 5 year old would probably love to have this in our backyard, but the practical person in me was thinking it's a waste of water, it's probably really expensive, and it's probably a huge pain in the you-know-what to keep it clean. 



The practical person in me would rather have this in my backyard.  This is dreamy....  This I would use.  I would use it every week!  A dual purpose fireplace that could also make yummy pizzas?  Um, YES PLEASE!  This was done by Gloria Landscaping, and if I could pick one item I wanted out of the entire expo, this was it. 



My favorite display award would have to go the Green Acres.  I loved the colors, how they had so many products, and edible plants in one display without making it look over the top.  It was beautiful.  I am already a huge fan of their nurseries (most of my citrus trees are from here too), but I was happy to be greeted by a friendly staff member that works at their Roseville location.  She reminded me that their Folsom location was opening soon and that it was going to be amazing! 



 The grand opening for the Folsom location is February 15th, but they have major sales for it going through mid-March. The best time to go according to their handout would be March 1-4. March 1st has classes on combining edibles and ornamentals. March 2nd is doorbuster specials, March 3rd they have gift bags for the first 300 guests plus free food from 12-2pm, and March 4th they'll have doorbuster sales and lots of free educational workshops. 



What was I saying about non-practical items being a no-no in the garden?  Yeah, that went out the door once I saw these.  The company is called Vin de Flame, and these are their super cool propane fire pits.  Made out of old wine barrels, and each on wheels, these are perfect for your evening parties.  The practical side of me says "but I'd only use them a couple times a year", well, thank goodness you can also just rent them for events (no need to store or maintain them yourself!  Awesome!). 



My last favorite thing at the show was the display from Executive Care Landscape Mgmt.  Arthur Navarette, President, was absolutely adorable running around with his camera and snapping pictures.  You could tell he was having fun, and you could tell he was passionate about what he does.  The above photo is a picture of his drought tolerant display.  He even admitted it was over planted, but he wanted to show homeowners how you can have lush color and use less water, and this was a great example.  You can see by his website that he likes to remove lawn and make the space more usable, and more beautiful. 



And last on my list was another one of those ridiculous designs, where you wonder where the heck would this be useful.  They tried by showing that it was a perfect family backyard, and even included a little sand pit off to the side for the younger kids.  The practical mom side of me immediately thought to myself that this was an accident waiting to happen for someone with small children (ladders to fall off of, lots of sharp edges, etc).  Fast forward 15 years for me and I'm thinking I'd be too old to climb that ladder, and storing all of those cushions through the winter is just a hassle. To summarize, this design is for people in their early 20's.  The ones that can't afford it.

It's great to go to these types of events and dream big about what I could do if I had tons of money, but I'd much rather see how I can improve the appearance of my garden at a reasonable price.  Why can't they just cater to the average home owner?   

The $29.99 IKEA Seed Starting Rack

Continuing on in my quest to organize the HECK out of my office, today I'm turning my attention to my seed starting station.  Well, prior to today I didn't actually have a seed starting station because the desk that I normally start my seeds on every year has been re-purposed as a .........wait for it..........desk.  My husband built me a fabulous garden shed in our backyard for me to move my seed starting mess outside of our family home, but one valuable piece was left out of his plan.....electricity.  So, the seeds continue to be started indoors until that project is complete. 

Since I have big hopes that electricity will be added to the shed soon, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy seed starting rack.  So, I went to my trusty IKEA store, where I can always count on finding exactly what I need at a reasonable price.  I ended up buying their basic GORM shelving unit for $29.99.  This rack comes with 4 shelves, but I bought a couple of extra shelves just in case for $5 a piece. While I was at it, I went ahead and bought a couple of the GORM clip-on baskets for $4 a piece.  I figured once I no longer needed this shelf for seeds I needed to be able to use it for something else, so buying the accessories now made sense.  Lucky for me I ended up using them.

After assembling the shelf (fairly simply, took about 30 minutes), I dug into my photo hanging supplies and grabbed a few hooks for the lights. They easily screwed into the top of the shelves for hanging the chains for the lights. As for the lights?  I have one expensive Home Depot grow light ($50), and a couple of cheap Wal-Mart grow lights that cost me about $10 a piece.  Look around, your lights don't have to have to be expensive. 

The extra shelves and baskets came in handy for all of the odd and end plant stuff that I had.  The bottom shelf is now dedicated to mason jars which I use for giving flowers to people, or starting cuttings.  By the way, these were all spaghetti sauce jars originally, but they are too cute to just toss in the recycle bin.  The GORM baskets that I bought are used for holding plant stakes (for once the tomato plants get too tall), twine, plant labels, and Moo Poo Tea. 

I used the SAMLA containers from IKEA for organizing my seeds and and got an extra container to hold my seed starting mix (much prettier than looking at a bag). 

So, technically this entire set up didn't cost me just $29.99, but you can see how using some of the items you already have and improvising can save you money when starting your seeds this year.  By the way, it's time to start seeds..........wait for it..............  now.

Winter? Ha! We Laugh in the Face of Winter!

Tomorrow we meet with my daughter's kindergarten teacher to discuss how disruptive she is in class. We'll go over how she acts bored, likes to talk a lot, and is somewhat defiant in a classroom setting.  Today, I feel guilt.  She is me. She is who I was as a child and she is who I am as an adult. And I like her, just the way she is. 

And then I look at my dog, who is only 8 years old but looks so much older....until you throw the ball.  Then she acts like she is two, and she looks happy.  She is me.

And there's me.  This weekend I officially entered my mid-thirties, and I caught a cold. I spent two days napping on the couch catching up on episodes of True Blood (don't judge). And all of the fun I had planned for myself kind of disappeared. But, I was still able to throw a ball for the happy dog, and I was still able to drag a couple of straw bales from our fall decor out to the front yard with the intention of using them to keep some of my plants warm for the hard freeze coming tonight.  I got as far as dragging the bales to front yard garden, then I stopped. 

My daughter may not be able to sit still in class, but put her in a garden and she GROWS.  Here she's cracking open dried pods from our purple hyacinth vines and collecting their seeds.  These have become her favorite to collect. 

And she told me to sit down.  She said, "I've got this! I'll take care of the hay!" and she ran around with chunks at a time, throwing it in the air, in my hair....everywhere.  And for once, I didn't care.

And, the mess she made is everywhere.  But I love her for her passion, her love of the outdoors, and how connected she is with nature.  Tomorrow as we meet with her teacher, I will be defiant.  I won't listen.  I won't sit still, and I will be bored.  Regardless of what anyone says, I've done something right. She is me. And WE are perfectly fine.

DIY Behind-the-Door Wrapping Paper/Ribbon Storage

Today I won the battle with my large collection of wrapping paper and ribbon.  My New Year's resolution for 2012 was to organize our office, specifically all of the wrapping paper and craft items I have. I turned to Pinterest for ideas, and came across this idea that uses behind the door for storage.  As easy as her design was, it didn't hold enough wrapping paper for me, so I drew my own design.  It just took a few hours to make, and can easily be made if you have a hand saw or circular saw. First I took inventory of all of my wrapping paper and ribbons to figure out how many dowels I would need to store all of my stuff.  I had 21 rolls of paper (yeah, you can call me a wrapping paper hoarder), and enough ribbon to fill a couple of dowels.  I had decided to make two of these since I had the space in our office, but these instructions are just for one, using 14 dowels.

Next step is figuring out your shape.  Standard wrapping paper rolls are 24 inches, but I had a few that were 30 inches, so I wanted mine to be wider than 30 inches.  If I had chose to stick with the 24 inch size, it would not peek from behind the door like you see above.  My door is 6 1/2 feet tall, but I opted to keep it at 6 feet tall just so that everything was easily within arms reach.  I went to Home Depot and bought two 2x2x8 boards, and had them cut them to be 6 feet tall.  Home Depot will cut them for free, so it saves me the work!  I picked up 14 dowels that were their 7/16 x 48" size (labeled green or "jade").  I chose this size because any smaller and the dowels would sag with heavy rolls of paper on them.  Any larger and some of the rolls of ribbon I have wouldn't fit on them.  Plus, this size fits perfectly with the standard 1" hook size, thus keeping the costs way down.  Attach your newly cut 2x2 boards behind the door.  I used #10 x 3-1/2" wood screws (3 on each side: 6 total). I pre-drilled holes in the wood and the wall to make it easier. 

Here are the hooks you want.  You'll need to figure out how many dowels you're going to use to determine how many to get.  Since I was making two of these it made more sense to buy a box of 50 to start with.  These are nice because when you screw them in, you don't need to pre-drill. I measured mine to be 5 inches apart, but you can probably put them a little closer in order to get more dowels in. Screw all of the hooks in to both boards.

Next up is cutting the dowels. I admit I didn't measure here.  I just placed one of the dowels in the hooks on the wall and marked where I wanted to cut it, where it was overlapping the hooks by about a half an inch.  I then marked the rest of my dowels at the same location, took them outside, and cut them all with a circular saw.  This can be done with a hand saw as well, but go with a circular saw for a cleaner, faster cut.

Last step is to load up the rack with your rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon.  I paper clip one side of each roll to keep them neat on the rack.

Ta-da!  All done! This was done for a little over $30.  Here's the cost breakdown with items being purchased at Home Depot:

7/16 x 48" dowels: $1.47 each (I used 14 here)
2x2 8 foot boards: $1.48 each (used 2)
#10 x 3-1/2" wood screws $0.98 for pkg of 2 (need 3 pkgs)
Box of 50 hooks: $4.21

Petaluma Seed Bank

Ever since Baker Creek opened up the Seed Bank in Petaluma a few years ago, I have made the drive there to pick out my seeds for my spring/summer garden.  This year I made the trip with my friend Amy from The Lamm Farm.  With handfuls of wish lists from our family and friends, we made the two hour drive to Petaluma.  The building alone is worth the trip- the historic Sonoma County National Bank building, located at 199 N. Petaluma Blvd.  Built in 1926, it has a beautiful 30 foot tall metal ceiling, and a lot of it's original ornate fixtures. 

Floor to ceiling windows bring in a lot of natural light, as customers browse literally thousands of non-GMO seeds that Baker Creek offers. 

The store is well organized.  One section has flowers, one section has herbs, and the fruits and vegetables are alphabetically sorted A-Z.  There is also a section bulk seed purchases, in case you have the room for 5000 squash plants....

The owners, Jere and Emilee Gettle, just released their first book called The Heirloom Life Gardener.  It contains all of the beautiful full color photos that you'd find in their amazing catalog, and information about saving seeds, their trips around the world to gather seeds, and how to grow most of the seeds you can find at the Seed Bank, organically.  This WAS on my wish list, but five minutes ago it showed up on my doorstep as an early birthday present from my friend Dan.  Yay!  Of course after I finish reading it, I'll probably be making another trip BACK to the Seed Bank!

There's not just seeds and books at the Seed Bank, they have a nice assortment of gifts and seed starting supplies as well.  I'm pretty sure this is the only place around that carries a Romanesco Broccoli candle!  How cute is that?!  Right now they also have discounted  items from the National Heirloom Exposition that took place in September in Santa Rosa.  I didn't go, and I regret it.  Next year, if it is still in Santa Rosa, I'll be there!

I kind of wish I had visited here BEFORE Christmas as they had so many cute gift ideas for all of my gardening friends.  I picked up some plant markers while I was there. And I really wanted to grab some of those wooden seedling boxes that they had too- hopefully they are still there on my next trip! 

A successful trip as usual!  My daughter had simply requested "Lots of different flowers" and I think I covered that with Zebrina Hollyhocks, and various petunias, zinnias, poppies and bachelors buttons. I'm going to take a stab at growing black beans for my first time so I picked up their "Cherokee Trail of Tears". I am also banking...err hoping.... that since our last two summers were COOL(according to my standards), that this will be a summer of HEAT, and I loaded up on various melons.  If my wish comes true, this summer we'll be enjoying melons like "Collective Farm Woman", "Oran's", and "Green Machine".  Before Amy left my place I also grabbed a couple of her Melon "Charentais" seeds (which have been on my wish list for a couple of years), and some of her "Blue Podded Garden Peas", too.  Noticeably absent: tomatoes.  I know, crazy right?  I had left my tomato and pepper wish list at home, and didn't just want to wing it.  I'll be placing an order it January probably (after I finish reading The Heirloom Life Gardener, of course).

For more information about the Seed Bank in Petaluma, or Baker Creek seeds, you can visit their website here, and be sure to sign up for their catalog!  You can also listen to a podcast from Farmer Fred from Get Growing that took place mid-December, where he interviewed Jere Gettle about his new book The Heirloom Life Gardener, and about the National Heirloom Exposition. 

Brrrrrrrr..... Baby it's Cold Outside!

We've had a couple of frosty nights here in Sacramento.  After the first night of frost the garden faired pretty well, but back to back (to back, etc) nights and my garden has turned to mush.  Early this week we had lots of wind to knock the rest of the leaves off the trees (like the Utah Sweet Pomegranate above left, and the bright yellow leaves from our gingko tree to the right), hopefully those leaves offered enough heat and cover for some of my more tender perennials.  Only time will tell.

Pictured above is the so-called "front yard" garden at about 9am this morning.  This side of the yard doesn't start getting sun until around 10am, so the frost tends to linger for a while.  The fence and citrus trees above are covered in C-9 Christmas lights and set on a dusk to dawn timer to provide some heat (and holiday cheer). 

As for things that turned to mush, we have some of the lovelies pictured above.  From left to right, Dahlia imperialis, Verbascum (I can't remember which one, and it's too cold to go outside and read the tag), and Iochroma cyanea 'Burgundy Wine'.  Just last week all three of these were green and perky.  All three should survive, although I'm thinking the iochroma is going to need a little extra protection than I was thinking it would.

The "I'm not afraid of a little frost- I'm too busy looking awesome" award goes to Athansia pinnata, pictured above.  This is one of my favorite plants as it looks good year round.  As you can tell by the photo above, its blooms laugh in the face of frost. 

The pictures above are of my Echium 'Mr. Happy'.  The photo on the left was taken on Sunday.  The photo on the right was taken this morning.  My other Echiums handled the frost pretty well, but this plant in particular just looks droopy and sad now.  I'm praying it recovers as it was growing to be one of the largest Echium "towers" I've grown yet.  Fingers crossed!

Guess what time of year it is?  Yep- it's citrus season!  I managed to get all of the trees wrapped in Christmas lights this past weekend and just in time!  Clearly I wasn't thinking how much energy it would take to keep 12 tree's warm. Lets just hope that my pummelo tree isn't robbed again....



The biggest disappointment I had was of my Salvia wagneriana.  I have two of them, one is a couple of years old and is huge, and one is only about 6 months old and still in a small size.  I have never seen it bloom in my garden!  Every year it gets close- then BAM! The frost comes and turns the plant to mush.  The plant returns every year without problems, but still I'd like to enjoy to the blooms at least once! 

There were still some blooms in the garden as of this past weekend, but I'm pretty sure most of them are gone after today.  The only blooms that seem unaffected by the frost were the hollyhocks (above).  I guess I should be thankful I have anything blooming this time of year, but it still makes me sad to see less colors. Speaking of color.....

.....in case I get too busy to post again before Christmas-  Merry Christmas from Us!