Baby Trees and Lasagne

Last Sunday started with a flurry of activity prior to the shared meal.

Joanne has been volunteering with the after-school program at Taft High 7-12, helping to develop the youth garden and greenhouse work. As a fundraiser, the program will be selling tree seedlings to the City of Lincoln City for their distribution to the public. The city is embarking on many initiatives to help reduce our carbon footprint, and distributing the trees for planting is one.

Having picked up about 700 trees from the Oregon Department of Forestry, the gang (Kate, Duane, Joanne & Ren) gathered at the school to unpack and "heel-in" the little hemlocks and red cedars. Duane was busy fixing the door on our tool shed so it would resist popping open in the wind.

We also enjoyed a brief visit from our friends who live in Seattle and keep a beach house in Roads End, who were able to stop by and view our progress and tour the garden. Unfortunately it was pretty wet for most of our time at the garden but we still accomplished our task and had a nice time... then it was on to dinner!

Joanne had prepared that morning a vegetarian lasagne, just the standard whole-wheat pasta with ricotta, sauteed mushrooms & onions, Italian cheeses, spices etc. Kate made up a batch of tasty foccacia bread, one with onion, and a lovely Caprese salad of tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. This easy make-ahead menu (except the salad) was a welcome sight after a morning of wet and dirty work, requiring only a heated oven to bake the entree and warm the foccacia.