Growing

One very real reason we’d love to move to the Pacific Northwest is because things grow there.  When we were driving in town Jeremy noticed a sign that said “Weed and Blackberry Removal, Call . . . ”

Seriously?  Food is considered a weed?!

I get it, I really do–you can’t have your whole property overrun by the huge thorny canes, but still. . .

Huge patches of wild free food.  You can go and fill your freezer full to use throughout the year.

We did end up finding another mulberry tree this spring, closer to home that we were able to harvest from, but the masses of blackberry canes in Washington were impressive.

Hiking on a nature preserve trail, I kept noticing these flowers.  They seemed so familiar. . .

And they were growing so large and profusely along the trail.

Then it dawned on me–Chamomile!

Yes, the little plants that I have been babying all spring, trying to get a single bud on.

There it is–my first chamomile blossom, a single one on a single stem, right before we left on vacation. I’ll be lucky if I get enough blossoms for one full cup of tea to enjoy this fall.  It was thoroughly discouraging to see how profusely the wild chamomile was growing in Washington.

I’m just ready to live somewhere where I don’t have to fight quite so hard to try and get anything to grow.  That’s why it is my dream. The Pacific Northwest is my dream.

Driving around we saw yard after yard with garden beds, and chicken coops, and signs for farm stands and places to u-pick.  We want that.  These are the things that are important to us, and I really hope that when we’ve completed our time here that the Pacific Northwest is in our future.