Flora & Faunas Piglets

One of Flora's Piglets

Our two purebred Swallow Belly Mangalitsas had piglets.  Fauna on Dec23 and Flora on Christmas.  They are super cute, very healthy, both the piglets and mothers are doing great.

Some of Fauna's Pigs

Flora

Scenic View From Mt. Constitution

View over Mt. Pickett to Cypress, Guemes and Sinclair Islands, among others

A quick trip and hike to Mt. Constitution gives us a reminder of how truely scenic Orcas Island really is.  Still too early for any quantities of mushrooms, but with some rain in the forecast, that should change soon.  Hard to believe that the park only 3.5 miles from the Inn.

Spring on Orcas Island

Cool but very sunny weather.  Not warm enough to eat outside, but soon it will be. 

Another tasty Mangalitsa product.  Brined and then hot smoked ham.  Really delicious, quite juicy with just enough smoke.  Tonight we will serve it with slow cooked local duck egg and asparagus cooked in some of the smoky fat.

Blossoms

 Nice Head of Pirat Lettuce.  All greens are being harvested from our garden at this point.  We will see how long we can keep it up

Another nice sunny day, actually warm enough for the bees to fly, hopefully lots of successful pollination.

Finally Spring

A nice calm sunny day at Ship Bay on Orcas Island.  Finally a day warm enough for bees to pollinate, the plums are in full bloom, so hopefully we will see more fruit this year.  The plums always seem to do ok with fruit production.

All the greens for the restaurant are now coming from the garden, radishes, turnips, Loma, Arugula, Pirat, Ruby Streaks Mustards, Frisee, Broccoli Rabe and Sugar Snap Tendrils.

The warm weather plant starts, tomatoes & Basil are looking very good as well, but still are on the warm bed.

Cool Sunset from Ship Bay

 

 O.K.  crappy camera, but awesome view.  Taken before going home today.  The things that we take for granted.

I would say we are blessed, but more than likely we are just in the right place at the right time.

Judd Cove Oysters

On the way into town this afternoon, at the end of a beautiful sunny day. Low tide and Judd Cove Oysters.  Bill was out harvesting oysters, so I snapped a couple shots.  Bill and Char grow them in mesh bags and bring the bags in and then grade according to desired size.  The rest go back onto the beach to grow some more.  You can see the bags of oysters in the background, they are held off of the sand by racks.  It is hard to believe that many local restaurants do not even serve these incredible oysters, they prefer imports, or do not offer them at all.



Bill & Char are mostly selling in the Seattle area during the winter, but we will be sure to have them on the menu when we reopen the restaurant on February 11.

We are very lucky to have such an excellent oyster less than a mile from the Inn and there is no better time to eat them than during the cool winter months.

Here is a shot of one of the Mangalitsa Pigs.  He is getting chunky, bulking up.  The big ones are at around 200 #'s now.  We are happy to give a tour.

Not the best picture, but you get an idea of their size, they do love the mud.

First Day at The Farmers Market

Pizza and Flatbread making with the Wood Fired Oven at the Orcas Island Farmers Market.  We were well received,  and all went well.  With a few production adjustments we will increase our speed and efficiency.

Organic Cauliflower

Here is the first batch of cauliflower this year from Horsedrawn Produce on Lopez Island.  Ken and Catherine have a way with cauliflower (all produce) that we rarely see anywhere else.  We source most of our produce from Maple Rock Farm, a bit from Morning Star Farm and we love the duck eggs from Black Dog Farm, but we rarely turn away anyone with great fresh produce or mushrooms.


We are getting ready for our first day at the Farmers Market with the wood fired oven.  Just a flatbread or two and Tomato, Fresh Mozz and Basil pizza.

Spring

Not to rave too much about any one topic, we just had to show everyone the incredible marbling of the Mangalitsa pork. This is a piece from the leg, which was brined and seared. Truely awesome.

We had the good fortune to be taught some basic grafting technique from a local expert orchardist named Ed, he grew up in Holland and was kind enough to come over and show us how to top work some old pear trees. The tree was vigorous, but the pears were not good at all. We grafted an old heirloom, asian type that we had here, and several old varieties of keeper pears that Ed had in his orchard, including one named after his father, Suij, from Holland. The tree looks kind of rough, but as the grafts take, we will continue to remove the old growth. We also grafted several plum varieties into our healthy Italian Prune Plum trees, of which we have plenty. We will look forward to reworking these trees and it will give us greater diversity and let us ripen over longer periods of time. Some of the cooking pears that Ed brought us were from last year, and are really good. As it is now, most of our pears ripen at the same time, during our busiest period, late August.

Here is a terrine being lined with some of the nice cured Mangalitsa Lardo. It is very clean and white, great for lining duck or chicken liver mousse.

The sun has been shining, lulling us into a false sense of security. We all know that many weeks of rain could be in store. But spring is unstoppable at this point, the tomatoes are started and the fruit trees are begging to bloom.

Finally Open for 2010

After a two plus month hiatus, we have finally reopened the restaurant. It was our hope to keep the posts coming, but our intentions have not become reality.

The weather has been incredible, or even a bit weird. Lows only into the 40's, no frosts since December and the garden looks great. Chives, tarragon, tons of fennel, mache, several types of lettuce, trevisio, green garlic, parsley, and that is just the beginning. Have not opened in Feb. with as much local products as this year. The Orcas Island grown Mangalitsa pork and Coffelt Farm Veal are super tasty. The heat table is on and we have been germinating salad greens and snap peas are in. Basil & tomatoes are just around the corner and we are trying to figure out our 2010 pig program.

Inn at Ship Bay Menu
February 13, 2010

First Courses

House Made Charcuterie featuring Locally Raised Mangalitsa Pork, Chicken Liver Pate, Pork Terrine, Pork Heart, Lardo & Sausage
Local Greens, Blue Cheese, Toasted Hazelnuts and Red Wine Vinaigrette
Dungeness Crab Salad, Local Shaved Cabbage, Fennel, Citrus, Bacon and Spicy Aioli
Meyer Lemon & Garden Greens, Goat Cheese, Walnuts and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kamilche Sea farms Mussels, Toasted Chili Lemon Butter, Caramelized Onions & Herbs
Hood Canal Oysters on the Half shell with Citrus Mignonette
Orechette Pasta, House Cured Mangalitsa Guancale, Caramelized Onion, Reggiano & Herbs

Entrees

Troll Caught King Salmon with Creamy Polenta, Escarole & Roast Garlic Butter
Meyer Lemon & Saffron Carnaroli Risotto, Leeks & Fennel Salad
Weathervane Scallops, Yukon Potato-Bacon Hash, Green Garlic Aioli
Mangalitsa Pork Loin, Sibley Squash Puree, Pear Butter, Apple Syrup and Crispy Shallots
Coffelt Farm Pasture Raised Veal, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Garlicky Greens and Red Wine Sauce
Draper Valley Chicken, Potato Puree, Italian Plum Gremolata and Plum Reduction
Pan Seared Angus Beef Rib Steak, Spring Garlic Potatoes, Wild Mushrooms Sauce