Hazelnuts, Highlands, and Heat

June 7 – 14

by Eliza and Erin

Hazelnut Haven June 7-8

This farm was in Oregon. Our hosts were very sweet and hospitable. The older lady even baked us hazelnut rolls and cookies:)) While here we visited a monastery and got to walk around the museum there. We were there in time for their midday prayer and got to witness their lives in that way. It was interesting to learn how the monks live and work. It was kinda drizzly and rainy while we were at the hazelnut farm, so one afternoon when mom was at a prayer retreat thingy we got to watch a movie (this is a special treat for us). Of course the boys desperately wanted to watch car crashes and “skidding around corners” as Lev calls it, and I wanted to watch a baking show. We finally decided on Shaun the Sheep, which is one of our favorite things to watch. Very nice stay!

Gather and Feast Farm June 9-11

At this stay we mostly just stayed around home. There was plenty to do with feeding the cute Nigerian Dwarf Goats and petting the adorable Scottish Highland Cows! The cows were just the CUTEST!!! We fed them (and the goats and the pigs) apple slices. One night after supper we were feeding the pigs and they started racing around and literally playing tag!! Then they would flop down into their mud hole huffing and puffing and then one of them would nudge the other one and off they would go again! They even butted heads sometimes! Lol!! Mom went to a homeschool conference around here too. I think she really enjoyed it. It was about Latin. I’m not quite sure how she had fun doing Latin, but I guess it might possibly be possible.

Ol’ Macs Farm in the Dalles June 12-14

Our host here, Judy, was also very kind and welcoming! She gave us a thrilling ATV ride up and down and over rocks with much speed! We also enjoyed walking/biking around on the trails in this grassy wilderness. This landscape was very different from the others we were just at. There was rolling hills with gray rock formations, very dry, yellow grass everywhere, and probably the most stunning, snowy Mount Hood in the background. And if you didn’t catch it from the title of this post it was HOT!! Thankfully Judy’s son told us about a great beach that was a sandbar in the Columbia River. Even though it was incredibly dry here, people manage to grow things here! Judy’s family raises beef cows. The cows were in open range right when we were there. That means the they are just roaming around on their own for months and there are even real cowboys! Mom and I went to the one and only Azure Standard store in the small town of Dufur. I’ll let mom tell you about it since she is such a devotee of Azure and its mission:)

Erin, here. Six or so years ago we overhauled our diet after experientially recognizing the impact that food has on health. While trying to find healthy, organic, economical options for bulk pantry items, I came across Azure. As we’ve placed orders every couple months since and I’ve learned more about Azure’s beginnings, its values, and its systems, it has become a bit of a legend in my mind. I felt not unlike an artist at the Louvre or a baseball fan at the World Series when I swung open the door to this simple, orderly, and well-stocked store on a very plain and regular street of a sleepy, unassuming town. It totally lived up to my expectations, but in a very approachable, this-could-be-done-elsewhere kind of way. If only our passing through coincided with the Azure Harvest Festival later in the summer so that a farm tour would also be possible…