Loons of Eastern Washington

February 4, 2016

Jeff Heinlen has been studying loons throughout Okanogan County for years.  A magnificent bird of the north, famous for it calls echoing across northern lakes and considered by many to be a symbol of wilderness the Common Loon is a regular breeder in Okanogan County.  Join WDWF Wildlife Biologist Jeff Heinlen as he discusses the life history of this species and it’s management in Okanogan County.  

Tonight at 5:30 pm, homemade vegetarian French Onion Soup and Mazama Store Sea Salt Bagette at the lodge and Natural History Presentation at 6pm in the Ecology Center classroom.  $7/person.

Thursday Community Soup and Presentation Series

Its that time of the year again!  We are looking forward to another great season of natural history lectures and good soup and company at the North Cascades Basecamp this winter!  Please join us for the following:

Jan 14,  Beaver Project- 10 Year Update, with Kent Woodruff, USFS. 

Jan 21,  Campfire, Song and Drum Circle, Celeste and Kip Roberts.

Jan 28, Why Grizzly Bears in the North Cascades, Joe Scott, Conservation Northwest. 

Feb 4,  Loons of Eastern Washington, Jeff Heinlen, WDFW. 

Feb 11, Wolf Predation in Livestock Occupied Areas of Washington         State, Gabe Spence, WSU.  

Details:  Each of these Thursdays at 5:30pm we'll be serving homemade soup and bread at the lodge.  At 6:00pm will begin our natural history presentation in the Ecology Center Classroom.  Call or email with any questions.

255 Lost River Rd, Mazama.  509-996-2334. Cost: $7/person.  

Our Growing Garden

The summer sun, heat, and long days have arrived in Mazama.  Our garden is loving this weather and is literally growing by the inch everyday!  Our peas and raspberries are producing a large harvest daily and it seems the cucumbers and squash grow noticeably larger by the hour.  We harvested our garlic scapes a few weeks ago (see our pesto recipe below) and are anxious to see how big the garlic is this year!
 
Here's a list of some of the things currently growing in our garden;
Veggies and fruits; arugula, apples, beans, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cherries, cucumbers, garlic, hops, kale, lettuce, nasturtiums, potatoes, snow and sugar snap peas, radishes, squash, onions, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes,eggplant, zuchini and yellow squash.
Herbs; calendula, cilantro, dill, parsley, oregano, basil, chives, mint, catnip, lavender,

With hot summer days here, it is often hard to imagine the cold winter days ahead.  However, we are already thinking ahead to winter, when our garden is resting and we depend on all the food we've stored away during this time of plenty.  Much of our garden bounty goes straight to the table, feeding our family and lodge guest.  The rest is processed and kept stored away- jams, pesto, salsa and such are canned; garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes are kept in dry storage; greens and berries go to the freezer. Happy harvest to all!

HONEY RASPBERRY JAM

3 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cups honey
Mash berries in sauce pan.  Heat to a boil and cook down for 15 minutes.  Add the honey and bring to just above boiling.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and beat with a wire whip for about 6 minutes.  Spoon into hot jars, leave 1/4 inch head-space.  Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Enjoy!   

NORTH CASCADES BASECAMP GARLIC SCAPE PESTO

6-7 garlic scapes

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Blend in a food processor til smooth and creamy.  

Use fresh or jar it up in the freezer for a cold winters night treat. 

Wild Foods Harvest



It is early fall, late summer in the Methow Valley.  Bears are roaming low and high on the valley floor and mountain country due to the ripening of so many wonderful foods.  BERRIES! 



collections of wild berry harvest



We setup a booth with help from the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project at the Mazama Farmers Market last week to describe to folks bear activity during the fall season, and how many wonderful foods (for bears and humans) are naturally occurring in our environment right now.  Huckleberries, strawberries, blueberries, mountain ash berries, elderberries, raspberries, thimble berries, blackberries, bitter cherries, apples, and more...  These are all foods that both black bears and grizzly bears depend on for their winter fat stores.  We of course, also love and cherish the harvest of many of these foods as well.  GBOP's website describes encountering bears while picking berries in the backcountry, "More often than not, the experience of seeing a bear grazing in an alpine meadow is one of the greatest thrills of hiking; just give the bear space to enjoy his lunch too. We all know how delicious those mountain huckleberries can be!"  At the Basecamp, we collect berries and use them fresh on top of waffles or in our homemade jams; dried to make healthy teas and additives for breads and pancakes; and frozen for winter treats in breakfast scones, muffins, and evening dessert cobblers and pies.So put away your trash cans and be careful with composts this time of the year~  remember those bears are searching for the goodness hanging low on the branches that we love as well.

bear food display at the Mazama Farmers Market~ Sept 2012

Thursday Soup and Presentation Series

It has been a fabulous winter season at the North Cascades Basecamp, and it would not have been as much fun without our regular and new friends that enjoyed the Winter Soup and Presentation Series with us.  Thank you to all our presenters for their time, energy, and expertise they shared.  Our crowds ranged from 35 to 85, and we never ran out of soup or homemade bread.  Thank you everyone for making us feel supported and loved at the Basecamp!  

Alex always smiling!

Holly the master of yummy soups

Oh How Your Garlic Grows: Part II

It's been a fabulous year for garlic in the Methow Valley, and ours were no exception.  Here we harvest 125 bulbs of garlic, perfect in shape and huge in size!  No chemicals, just good ole' manure, water and love.  What a treat to put away and use fresh between now and the end of winter.

Wild Food & Fish Foraging Weekend

June 24-26th, we hosted a Wild Foods and Foraging Workshop at the North Cascades Basecamp.  Through the lush summer greenery we tromped about, searching for and sampling the botanical bounty of the Basecamp.  Along the way we plucked greens, gnawed stems, and dug roots.  By the end of the day we eleven learners were all the more aware of the array of natural foods available to us throughout the time and place that is the Basecamp.  

Our menu for the weekend included:

Friday 6/24

Dinner ◦ Slow cooked ham locally grown and harvested ; ◦ Roasted garden potatoes and yams; ◦ Cabbage, carrot, apple slaw with sweet cicily roots; ◦ Emmer rolls; ◦ Rosehip & Mint tea; Dessert

◦ Vanilla ice cream with elderberry syrup

Saturday 6/25

Breakfast ◦ Egg strata w/ sautéed fireweed greens; ◦ Strawberries; ◦ Elderberry scones; ◦ Strawberry/Blackberry leaf tea

Lunch ◦ Wild rice with feta, cow parsnip stalks and wild bulbs; ◦ Salad of wild greens and flowers; ◦ Watermelon; ◦ Coconut-Chocolate Dibs cookies

Appetizer ◦ Salmon skin chips with herbed cream spread

Dinner ◦ Cast iron rainbow trout with foraged wild mushrooms, bacon and herbs; ◦ Smoked wild salmon with stinging nettle sauce garnished with miners lettuce; ◦ Nettle gnocchi; ◦ Asparagus and bracken fern fronds; ◦ Dandelion-Sorrel tea; Dessert ◦ Apple/ Rhubarb cobbler with gingered whipping cream

Sunday 6/26

Breakfast:  ◦ Emmer waffles; ◦ Homemade blueberry-applesauce; ◦ Yogurt, toasted sunflower seeds, syrup; ◦ Cantaloupe

 

Dana Visalli taught us mushroom identification, Steve Bondi discussed the ecology of Mazama and the wild foods we collected, and Becky Selengut discussed sustainable fishing with the group as well as demonstrated a fabulous culinary dinner on Saturday night with the foods we harvested.  

Edible plants (leaves, roots, stems, bulbs or flowers) found and sampled during our weekend workshop at the Basecamp

• Serviceberry
• Elderberry
• Chokecherry
• Thimbleberry
• Raspberry
• Sticky currant
• Balsalmroot
• Oregon grape
• Tiger lily
• Cow parsnip
• Sweet cicily
• Wild rose
• Wild mint
• Lamb’s quarters
• Salsify
• Lady fern
• Bracken fern
• yarrow

Salad mix

• miners lettuce
• stream violet (yellow)
• dandelion
• white clover
• plantain
• slender hawkweed
• pineapple weed
• cleavers (bedstraw)
• sheep sorrel
• wood’s violet (purple)
• sedum (stonecrop)
• rock cress
• oxeye daisy

Mushroom sampled:

• Black morels
• xxx

Teas

• rose hip and mint
• dandelion and sorrel
• raspberry and strawberry leaf

Others sampled and discussed but not seen on site

• Spring beauty
• Fireweed
• Chocolate lily
• Glacier lily
• Stinging nettles