Yarrow days

I spent my teen years in a town about 1.5-2 hours (depending on traffic) from Vancouver called Yarrow.  It's a pretty little town with Vedder Mountain on one side and the Vedder river on the other.  My parents still live in the same house so this place holds lots of memories for me. Most of my summers as a teenager were spent at camp, babysitting, working at an apple farm picking apples, 'studying' for music theory exams by the river with my very good friend Kathleen, or tubing down the river with friends (and almost drowning a few times).
Last week my boys spent the week with my parents in Yarrow, going to a kids morning camp in town, taking  horseback riding lessons for the first time and going swimming.  They had a great time while I worked hard in the studio trying to finish up some orders.  My birthday was last week so I managed to have a low-key day at home while the kiln was cooling and then we had a little cake with family when we picked up the boys on Friday.  I'm slowly creeping towards 40 and must admit that I almost forget how old I am sometimes... is it 36 turning 37? or 37 turning 38? 
It's crazy to think that this is now the view from the backyard of my parent's place now.  That field used to be filled with hazelnut trees that fell ill to disease and were recently cut down.  Such a shame...here's a photo from this past spring where you can see how big the trees were.

Ponies and grapes

It's the season of bounty and we are gathering, making and storing for the winter now.  My boys are at the stage where they are eating more then me and seem eternally hungry (ie asking what supper will be while they are eating lunch).  I don't buy all organic all the time (too expensive!), but am conscious of where my food comes from and how it was grown.  It's such a tricky balance where it seems like a luxury to afford what is good and wholesome for hungry boys.  And this fall I'm trying to think as creatively as we can to make healthy, relatively inexpensive meals for our family that both satisfy and nourish their growing bodies.  Part of this includes going directly to the farms or farmers to buy our food. 

 The grapes in the vineyard behind my parent's place aren't quite ready yet.  Last year was a bad year- mice had nibbled away at the roots of many of the vines and there hadn't been many grapes, so we felt like we missed eating these grapes.  This year it looks like a bumper crop, except that we need about a week of sun to ripen the rest of it.  We'll be making grape juice and then also grape jelly out of these grapes that lasts us for about a year.  It's so amazing to be able to make and bake out of what grows around us, isn't it? 

And the ponies were just an added bonus.  How cute are they. 

Studio Visit: Ted Driediger

Last weekend, while at my parent's place for Thanksgiving, I visited Ted Driediger's Pottery studio and thought I'd share it here with you.  Now, I spent my teenage years in this small, rural town of about 2000 people.  It's a town with a couple of restaurants, 3 gas stations, a small community bank and post office, 1 elementary school, about 4 churches and a wack of potters nestled in between the Vedder Mountain and Vedder River.  Back when I lived in Yarrow, there were only 3 Potters in town.  Ted Driediger was certainly one of the first- having been potting there for 40 years now.  Yes, you read that right, the man has been making and selling his pots to the community for a very long time!
He doesn't have a website or even an email address.  His 'marketing strategy' is printing off a postcard twice a year and snail-mailing them to his mailing list to advertise for his Spring or Winter Pottery sale.  He doesn't sell his work in any galleries or shops.  Yup, he's old school.
I have a deep respect for what Ted has done over the years.  The humble potter lifestyle that he began back in the 70's and has been able to maintain all these years was something I dreamt about when I was first starting my career.  To wake up in the morning and walk outside to a shed-like studio, start the gas on a reduction kiln, sit down at the wheel to start throwing and then chat with a neighbour who drops by to purchase a gift for an up-coming wedding- how great is that.  He raised his family making pots in his studio by the house. 
I'm making pots in a really different generation that Ted has done, starting my career where this kind of lifestyle doesn't quite seem realistic or possible.  And I'm not really sure that it's how I'd like my career to be anyways.  It's so refreshing, though, to visit someone who's not really concerned with much in internet land.  He's got his glaze tests out, his tried and true methods, he's still eagerly making work (and lots of it), he works hard, and at the end of the day, he's a happy man. 

The Grape

This weekend we drove out to Yarrow to pick up the boys from my parent's place and, of course, we had to pick up more grapes. We've already made grape juice from 20 lbs of grapes this year... and it's a lot of work... but when you see these grapevines full to the brim of these juicy concord organic grapes it just makes you want to do something with them.
You might just be asking what we are doing with all this juice? Well, we usually manage to make a couple of batches of Grape jelly for the year with a few extras to give a way to friends and family. But also, the grape juice is really amazing. It's like eating a bunch of fresh grapes, it tastes that fresh and delicious.