This time of year, the land is like a heaving chest; all breath and moan with the heaviness that is harvest. It’s in the air. The perfume of ripe grapes seems phony it’s so overdone. Drying hops can’t help but spill their scent from the many hot kilns that dot the roads. The aroma of … Continued
Ironically, we at rooted are not big fans of the term “farm to table.” While at its heart it means well, it has been overused and abused to a point that it makes us forget that all of the food at our table comes from a farm somewhere (unless your table is laden with funyuns … Continued
In the between of the hilly area connecting Wapato to Moxee, Washington, lies a spot known as Konnowac Pass. It is an area inside the hills, with fertile and willing ground showing an almost vain representation of agriculture. The contrast of the arid yellow of the hills and the cool orchard greens is more striking … Continued
The sky is the inky blue of first dark, the color that lingers just before the heavy lid of night is dropped overhead. One by one, cars are quietly turning off a country road to crunch their tires up a gravel lane. Shelley and I fall in with the caravan and turn off the road … Continued
We have hit that point in the growing season where things are really beginning to flourish. Out in the fields of the Yakima Valley, the crops are like unruly children, fighting against the roots that hold them to the ground, trying to push out into the world. All in all a splendid time for us … Continued
*DISCLAIMER I am not a wine expert of any kind. I drink it. I like it. Tasting notes mostly serve to make me feel inadequate as I have never had a hint of burnt toast, fig or cardamom in any wine I have ever had. I can tell that my palate has grown up in … Continued
Nothing says agriculture like alfalfa. While not the sexiest of crops, there is something positively archetypal in the image of cut rows all lined up in a field; stripes of green on green as they curve over a hip of hill and meet the blue horizon. It’s the classic American picture of a farm: sunshine, … Continued
The long stretch of solstice sun across the sky last Monday officially put a check mark next to summer for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Standing on the rim of Cowiche Canyon Wednesday night, Aileen, Shelley and I were soaking in the descent of this new season sun. It was a perfect summer … Continued
After walking the fields last week and seeing the bright red clusters of cherries flaunting their color from under the thick green leaves, we began thinking about the journey the cherry makes once off the tree. Brix counted, plucked from the branches at just the right moment, and placed on trucks, where do they go? … Continued
Sitting on the edge of our strawberry patch picking berries with my daughter, it dawned on me. Summer is near. Yes, we’ve had many hot days in the last few weeks that should have been the tip off, but in the business of late spring, that visceral sense of the changing season just hadn’t hit … Continued