Last week was my birthday and Riley and I have been SO sick. We didn’t even get to celebrate yet since we have been down bad with the flu for 10+ days. Mustering up the energy I have to get a newsletter out!
✦ Pellegrini Beans
One of the best birthday gifts I got this year was a handful of special beans from my family friend Jen Gallop. They come with a cute little backstory.
Angelo Pellegrini, an Italian American immigrant, first received the original seeds from Robert Mondavi’s uncle and grew them in his Seattle garden for nearly 50 years. He shared them with neighbors and friends, who began growing them in their own gardens, and by the 2000s the beans had a tiny cult following around Seattle Italians. They’re considered a true heirloom variety, and so unique in color, shape, and flavor that when seed experts evaluated them, they couldn’t find anything comparable in their databases.
Today, Angelo’s son Brent, The Herbfarm, Vashon gardeners, and a small circle of growers are still keeping them alive. You can purchase them through a small family run organic seed farm in the PNW - Uprising Seeds, but this variety has survived primarily through personal sharing and care, a living heirloom passed carefully from hand to hand.
I am very excited to plant in my garden this spring!
To read more here are a few great articles on these little wonders!
✦ A Folk Art Shelf
Last week (pre-sickness) I painted a shelf for the spices in our kitchen.
I have been really inspired lately by American folk art designs, especially early 1800s quilt motifs, and I wanted to add a bit of whimsy to our kitchen area.
I didn’t trust myself to freehand it, so I designed a pattern in Illustrator and used my Cricut to create stencils for painting.
Here is the final piece! When I feel better I plan to take better pics with my camera and to share a little video of the progress. The next part I plan to work on is custom spice jars to match the design of the shelf! Thinking something like this? LMK your ideas.
Get your flu shot!
