“Have you two met?” Jack asked.
“The fire girl,” Jillian said. “We met last week. How are you?”
“I’m Kaylee,” she said with a laugh. “I’m great, thanks. Is this stuff from your garden?”
“I’m a farmer,” Jillian said. “I have a few acres dedicated to heirloom vegetables and other organic stuff. They’re some little known varieties mostly used by restaurants as garnish. Also my sister is a chef and she makes a variety of sauces, relishes, and a few dressings and pastes. She’s a cooking miracle. She’s working on some soup starters as her new line—absolutely amazing stuff.”
“You oughta see Jillian’s place,” Jack said. “It’s incredible. And she farms year-round.”
“Look at those artichokes,” Kaylee said. “They’re huge!”
“I’d love it if you came by,” Jillian said. “I’ll give you a tour. Whenever you’re available. I’m just about done for the day if you’re free now.”
She glanced at her laptop, which hadn’t seen a lot of action today, and said, “I’m free.”
“Great! You can follow me home! I’ll take you around in the garden mobile.”
Kaylee did just that, driving down Highway 36 behind Jillian and then down a long road, through the trees and up to a beautiful Victorian mansion. After she parked she admired the house.
“Completely restored, mostly by Paul Haggerty,” Jillian said. “I found it and rented it and started a small garden, then I bought it and the ten acres it’s on and planned a farm. The house is wonderful; I’ll take you through it after we tour the gardens. Colin and I live here, but my sister, Kelly, uses the kitchen to cook. She has a commercial kitchen in Eureka where she produces her sauces. But she’s always trying new things, usually on a large scale, and this kitchen is perfect. Come in and meet her.”
Kaylee followed Jillian inside and met Kelly, who appeared to be up to her elbows in dough.
“Bread,” Jillian said. “I love it when she bakes bread. You can smell the aroma all the way to the coast. If you’re interested, we can see the gardens first, then the house.”
“Oh, I’m interested. I want to see anything you have time to show me.”
“Good, I love showing it off.”
Sitting in the garden mobile next to Jillian, Kaylee bounced around the huge gardens behind the house. They were like a quilt of many colors and textures, lush and looking tasty. Most of the outdoor gardens were picked clean except for the melons, pumpkins and some late squash. But there were several greenhouses in the back, filled with raised beds that held fruits, vegetables and flowers. “Mostly edible flowers that chefs like to garnish their plates with. I just started doing that a couple of years ago.”
“How do you get your stuff to the restaurants? Because unless I missed something, there aren’t a lot of restaurants around here.”
“You didn’t miss anything. These flowers and heirloom vegetables go as far as Seattle and San Francisco via FedEx. They’re tender little things that won’t last long; they go overnight.”
The back acreage was lined with fruit trees and berry bushes. “The berries come in in spring, finished by the first of August, but the apples come in later. I don’t rely on that apple crop for much, except to satisfy the deer. I sell them out on the roadside stands—we have two large ones now. Kelly uses the fruit and berries in her creations; she ships a lot of pie filling, jams, jellies and that sort of thing. I’ve added to the berry bushes and paid the price—the bears love berries. I have to scare them away. I have an air horn they don’t like. Having wildlife in the yard can be fun until you get a sample of their mischief. A mama bear with a couple of cubs will break into the greenhouses or turn a garden mobile upside down. I really can’t afford to be welcoming.”
“They don’t scare you?” Kaylee asked.
“Not really,” Jill said. “But I don’t get up close and personal. I’ve seen the size of their claws. And I’ve seen the evidence of their shenanigans.”
“Could you put up a big fence?” Kaylee asked.
Jillian laughed. “Have you ever seen a bear up a thirty-foot tree? There’s no fence to keep them out. We do have fences around some of our outdoor gardens to keep the deer out, plus I use a lot of bunny repellant to save my lettuces and root vegetables. The bears, I’m afraid, go where they please. Thus the air horn. It’s very loud.”