Returning from teaching in Italy is always a pleasure—we’re bursting with local here in the Pacific Northwest, as I write about in FoodWISE. Washington is one of the states with the highest percentages of direct food sales in the U.S. We’re particularly suited to grow berries, and Barbie’s Berries provides a bounty of the soft, fresh fruit.

As for our island fruit, we, too, had a bumper crop—enough to sell at the General Store and the farm stand, to freeze, to can—and to eat fresh. Delicious fruit—with not a mummy berry in sight (practically).

[Daughter-in-law Drewsy making a tarte]

Our sheep were in fine form, as you can see here.

Our son Ian’s magnificent light fixtures, using our own Alder and Montana stained glass, a marvel.

An auction item also got us Sally Vongsathorn’s homemade moussaka—creamy and spicy and delicious.