In Progress

Nettletown restaurant is starting to come together - sliding all the little pieces into the crazy puzzle that is a restaurant.

planing the beautiful salvaged wood for the bar top


sunny days make work a little easier


Jason is creating the bar to highlight the character of the salvaged wood

new custom bar shelving!

Jared hard at work smoothing down the rough spots, notice the old linoleum floor - now you see it!......

...now you don't! Freshly unveiled concrete floors and a new wall in the kitchen!! Thanks to the Choi family crew for all the hard work scraping and sanding that old tile off!

the kitchen is starting to come together

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 2/13

Totem Poles in Vancouver Canada

Happy Lunar New Year!!!!!! Happy Olympics!!!

This weekend at the markets

Yellow Foot Chanterelles

Nettles

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 2/6

The warm weather is bringing in more greens and mushrooms than we usually see this time of year. It is always a hopeful feeling to see the first crocuses popping their pretty heads out in city yards, and it's the same feeling as seeing the first tender nettles poking out to get a move on their long season of prickly take over. Nettles and crocuses are some of the first new green growth here when the weather tilts its head towards spring. Early daffodils are on there way. Chickweed and other tender greens are sprouting in mats soaking in the moist soil too. I think I will have a real garden salad tonight.

chickweed and wood sorrel in my yard

At the markets this weekend:

Black Trumpets - only available at Ballard Market

Yellow Foot Chanterelles

Hedgehogs

Nettles

Watercress - only at Ballard

Nettletown is expanding!!

I am finally able to post my BIG NEWS- I am opening a restaurant in Eastlake! Nettletown the restaurant, is taking over the old Sitka and Spruce space in the lil' unlikely spot in a strip mall on Eastlake Ave. Sitka and Spruce is moving to a new bigger spot on Capitol Hill in the Melrose Project building. Matt Dillon, the owner and chef of Sitka, is passing me the torch but will still continue to have a part in the Eastlake space with me. Matt will be my partner, and because many good partnerships are born through friendship, I am overjoyed to have him as a strong support and anchor while I launch into the restaurant whirlpool. I will be heading the kitchen and everyday affairs and Matt will be there to egg me on. The opening date is slated for the end of February.

Nettletown will be a casual cafe with lunch and brunch service to start with and we will add dinners once we get into the swing of things. The food will be eclectic comfort food with influences from my culinary heritage(Chinese, Swiss) an and our collective Pacific coast geography. My boyfriend Jason's description - "Thoughtful creative yummy menu inspired by wild and pacific northwest ingredients at reasonable everyday prices." The menu will revolve around a base of dishes available all of the time along with many daily specials to take advantage of seasonal bounty. A few menu sneak peeks - Crab or fish(depending on availability) cakes with celery seaweed salad and aioli; nettletown noodles-egg noodles with roast pork, seasoned wild mushrooms, tea egg and toasted garlic; brioche french toast with ginger butter and huckleberry sauce.

What does this mean for Nettletown blog? Honestly, I am not sure exactly what this will become in this new era. I plan to continue use this as a place to celebrate wild and seasonal foods, though now it will have more of a focus on the new restaurant. I predict I will have less time for long features but will learn to post the short and sweet. One thing for sure, Foraged and Found Edibles weekly market posts will start up again very soon.

Check out this interview series on Voracious, the Seattle Weekly food blog, about me and the restaurant. Part one- culinary musings, part two- the lowdown on Nettletown, part three- two razor clam recipes.

Before - at the Sitka closing party
Before - Matt, one week before Sitka leaves its Eastlake location

During - Jason is a saint! he is doing the remodeling for Nettletown
During - The new "dragonfly" blue
Recarving the bracket for the chalkboard in its new location above the bar

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles and the New Year

Hello Dear Readers,

Times, they are a changin'! How?!? I am not able to disclose the news yet, but it will be good, and it is very exciting for us over here at Nettletown. Stay tuned!

I would like to put out a little apology for being MIA for the last couple weeks. Excuses are never very becoming but all I will say is three things- XMAS, Work, and New Ventures!

Happy New Year!! Nettletown wishes you a big full basket of whatever your heart or hands find or forage this year!!!!!!



This weekend at the Markets:
It is a light winter week

Dried mushrooms and frozen goods will be available at both markets
Black trumpet mushrooms will be available at Ballard Market

New News is Good News

One - Illustrated Wild Foods Calendar Giveaway!!
A lovely local blog called Are You My Ghost? is having a calendar giveaway and all you have to do is post a comment and you may be picked! So awesome, so easy. Thanks Renai! Ends Tuesday afternoon, December 22nd.

Two - Its gift time, and it's almost 2010. It is time to move these babies! - The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar is on SALE. At the farmer's markets or online on the Nettletown Etsy Shop - 2 calendars for $20! Now you don't have to wonder if you should get one for yourself when it buying as a gift for someone else! Just do it, someone once said.

Three - Emily Counts and I have put our friend powers together and formed an alliance of lovers of time, art, and food. Please join our The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar Fan Club on Facebook!!! TIWFRCFC for short. I am kinda tired of typing out the name of the calendar, what were we thinking!?!

And a final blurb that really isn't news - A special thank you to all of you who have supported my calendar venture and this lil' blog called Nettletown. In this new year arriving soon, we hope to get better and bigger and to grow under the the warm wing of your continued interest and support!!!

This Week at Foraged and Found Edibles 12/12

It has been a week full of glorious clear days, intense winter sunsets, and .... icicle temperatures. Unfortunately these crispy frozen days are not the best for mushroom season. Frozen mushrooms are not to fun to pick. Once it thaws though we should see some new growth.

We do have chanterelles this weekend and will be starting a special on the the Wild Foods Calendar. It is also a good time of year to stock up on dried mushrooms. They are nice to have around for impromptu soup and stew nights warming up by the fire. Keep your eyes peeled for a tasty dry mushroom soup recipe coming soon on Nettletown.

This weekend at the market
Chanterelles
Recipe Calendar Special - 2 for $20
Frozen White Truffles

I just started a fan club for the calendar on Facebook - please join us!
The Illustrated Wild Foods Recipe Calendar Fan Club

Also check out these two recent articles by local food writer Rebekah Denn.
This is someones writing you should follow if you haven't already found her. In my opinion she is one of the best local food writers with more focus on regional local food producers and politics, and less on the restaurant fluff. She wrote an award-winning article a number of years ago about Foraged and Found and Jeremy that really blew me away. "Out of the Woods - Forager Faber is a Master in the Wild" from the ol' PI. It drew a accurate picture of the business from field to restaurant and she truly captured Jeremy's nutty personality.
Rebekah has a great blog -eatallaboutit.com

One short and sweet and one long and thorough -
"Washington Businesses Break Ties to Industrial Food Chain"
Seattle Times
Very interesting article about local food producers and their challenge to source high quality food and to know where it is coming from. A few of them were hit by the massive countrywide peanut recall and had to rework their systems of procurement and production. Caveman Bars, CB Nuts and Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream are featured.

On the lighter side....
"Is there a better word for "foodie"?"
The Christian Science Monitor Blog
I have always struggled with this word myself. It is such a stupid word but it happens to perfectly encompass exactly what many of us are.