TULIP FESTIVAL

Okay, so the actual Skagit Tulip Festival begins next week, but most reports indicate the fields are filled with color now, so rather than fight the mass of people making their annual pilgrimage to the fields next week, we went early, and were rewarded with an awesome day, with less people. Instead of a few tulips gracing a flowerbed, there are miles--well, actually acres--of rectangular blocks of color, reds, pinks, stripped, and blues dazzling the eyes. The sun cooperated by lighting up the sky to impress the blooms to show off all their glory. Even though we were a week early tour buses and groups of people strolled through the rows of plants. One little girl was having a difficult time not to pick the bright red flower in front of her while her daddy was attempting to get the right image for a family memory of the outing.
One farm had a large garden of tulips with gravel paths winding among the flowerbeds. For those uninformed persons--like myself--the tulip is a member of the lily family, and has a stem about foot long with a juice glass shaped bulb on top. Only one flower sits on top of the stem, but the richness of color is worth all the effort.
The Skagit valley is north of the Seattle area and is a rich farming area. For those interested, a number of cheese producers are located in the valley and worth a visit to their farms.
If you get a chance sometime head out to the tulip festival and explore Skagit valley.

Gouda Cheese

This winter I have run into more Gouda cheese than ever before in my life. Now keep in mind I was raised before the little cheese producers began popping up all over the place. In the old days, all you could find in the stores were cheddar, Swiss, and few other cheeses. In south Texas, forget the imported cheeses--after all Swiss was imported, even if it did come from Wisconsin--and no goat cheeses; only cheddar, Longhorn, Colby, and the Swiss were available.
Now in the supermarkets feta, blue cheeses, provolone, along with a whole bunch of others, from all over the world are stocked (even in the small towns). Small cheese producers live within easy driving distance and frequently their cheeses are sold in the supermarket you shop in.
Now the problem is we have too many choices. As I discovered in the last few months, a wide variety of cheeses are being made, and much of it from goat and sheep milk instead of cows. Also the types of cheeses can overwhelm the novice--like me.
Enter my encounter with Gouda cheeses. It has been a delightful experience and one I intend to pursue further, because the Gouda is a delightful mild, creamy taste experience. Instead of the slightly tart taste of cheddar, Gouda leaves a little buttery, and milky taste. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not about to give up cheddar for Gouda, but I have found a new best friend. With all the other cheeses around I will probably have to add many new friends in the months ahead, as I discover more about cheeses.

Have you any favorite cheeses we need to know about?

wine and chocolate

Yesterday Lois and I drove over to Port Townsend, WA just to get out to enjoy the sunshine, and stumbled onto the Wine and Chocolate tasting event. A group of six wineries joined together to feature their wine and pair it with chocolate. At the first winery you can buy a card listing all six wineries and get a free wine glass. The glass and ticket are good at each site, which allows you to taste their wines, one of which is especially featured to go with chocolate. We found two of the wineries. One winery had good wine, but none of the wines had any real character. It was smooth tasting, and would be good with a meal, but none of their wines were outstanding. The second had plenty of character--in their wine, and in the people working there. The wine was flavorful and caught your attention with each sip, either tickling your tongue with tartness, or subtly playing with your taste buds. Lois and I both enjoyed their Meade. The honey brew was every mellow and enticing--have to be careful not to too much, too fast; it was that good.
We plan to head back that way next week to discover the other four.
In our travels we stumbled on to a cheese store. I can not resist a good cheese shop, and this was a little hole in the wall, with some exciting cheeses. I'll get more into cheeses in the coming weeks. Also we got to explore an underwater war museum operated by the Navy. There were submarines, divers, and some interesting technical stuff, but more about this later this week.
The fun thing about making little pilgrimages is the unusual things and people you get to see, and you don't have to go that far. Well have a good day