Saturday, November 5, 2011

Food Folly

The news these days can be downright depressing with the Wall Street protests, middling economic growth, reports of higher food costs and the birth of the seven billionth baby.  In this season of discontent, we sought refugee by traveling to eastern Washington to fish Lake Roosevelt.  The terrain differs so greatly east of the Cascades that it felt like Arizona more than the Pacific Northwest.

Lake Roosevelt is big.  It was created by the Grand Coulee dam and stretches 150 miles practically to the Canadian border.  The Columbia River is no joke either.  No wonder the federal government is spending billions of dollars trying to reform the Hanford Nuclear reservation given the enormous value of the river to so many.
Occupy Lake Roosevelt
Fishing Lake Roosevelt is not for the faint of heart or the cash poor.  We used a 24 foot aluminum hulled boat with a gigantic inboard motor.  There was a separate engine for trolling along with a downrigger and sonar.  Despite all of technology, we managed to land a solitary rainbow trout, which is probably the most expensive fish ever.  Chalk it up to experience and quality family time.
Meet my catch, Spruce Goose.
 Upon our return home, we resumed the final harvest which included quince and squash.
Quintessential goodness.
 
Our neighborhood apparently was once an apple orchard.  Vestiges of the orchard remain in heirloom varietals scattered over our neighbors' lots.  We were invited to a cider crush where two of our neighbors combined the harvest from roughly five trees.  The total output was close to 25 gallons of the best cider ever.  The juice was not quite as sweet or rich as store bought but the price was right.  More importantly, we were able to add to our locavore karma after the fossil fueled fishing trip.

Cider crush rules

Monster (apple) mash
Next stop, hard cider or a lot of vinegar