Summer Ice Cream!

This time of year everyone is enjoying their favorite ice cream and favorite toppings. The variety of ice cream and toppings is endless. Everyone loves chocolate, what is your favorite? What’s your favorite topping, brownies, marshmallows, nuts, chocolate syrup, caramel, cookie dough, etc.?

Months ago on Instagram I met a wonderful person and an amazing artist, her name is Deb. We both had been following,  liking, commenting and admiring each others work. Through many emails we got to know each other and decided to arrange a trade. 

Deb decided that she like black walnut and wanted a nice size cutting board. She told me that she was in the middle of a kitchen remodel and I was envisioning how beautiful her kitchen was going to be.

My wife, also a Debbie and I love pottery. I had been looking for a couple of ice cream bowls to match our kitchen. Before I knew it we had worked out a trade.

Deb made me the most beautiful ice cream bowls, I love them and they do match our kitchen colors. The are on display in our kitchen, only when they are not being used!

Check out Deb’s post on the black walnut cutting board, Honey Lavender Lightly Frozen with Fruit. Deb is a very talented artist, check out her pottery on her blog and/or her Instagram!

I love my ice cream bowls and I am so glad I met Deb, maybe someday we will meet in person!

So, what is your favorite ice cream and toppings?

 

 

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Blue Flag Iris

This is Iris versicolor, it has many names, also commonly known as the ‘Blue flag’, ‘Harlequin Blueflag’, ‘Larger Blue Flag’, ‘Northern Blue Flag’, and ‘Poison Flag’.

I planted hundreds of these two years ago and finally this year they are really beautiful! From the looks of it I will be thinning these out at the end of summer. Do you grow this iris in your garden?

Enjoy your weekend!

The Land & Water Co. has posted the picture of Chef Ruiz food presented on one of my Walnut cutting boards on their website, photo credit is Carolyn Himes!!

Mountain Laurel & Rhododendron

Mountain Laurel grows wild all over the mountain and is in bloom. It is absolutely specular this year! The first and second picture I took today while on a hike of the Mountain Laurel, very beautiful!

Purple Rhododendrons are also in full bloom! I also took the Rhododendron pictures in our garden today.

Purple Rhododendron are beautiful but so are the pink! Check out the next few pictures of the Pink Rhododendron blooms!

can you spot the tiny ants and insect on the blooms?

So which do you like the best, the Mountain Laurel or the Rhododendrons?

Enjoy your evening!

Check out my handcrafted Black Walnut Feathered Crotch Sushi Board. The colors on this board are beautiful!

 

My Logo

Several months ago I create a new logo. Even though I was not quite happy with it I posted it in the header on my web site. It just wasn’t as clean as I wanted so I have been spending a lot of time cleaning it up. I think I have  finally finished it!

 

After getting the logo finished I decided to create oval labels that I can use. This label will be 3 inches long and 2 inch wide. What do you think about my updated logo and the oval labels?

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Easter Weekend!

Handcrafted Cutting Boards

Above photo credit Carolyn Himes, CarolynHimes.com

 

 

Dining Out San Diego Magazine

You might remember my post in early March about Carolyn Himes photographing Chef Rob Ruiz food for the Dining Out San Diego magazine, my post was San Diego Magazine. I am excited to write this post and grateful to Carolyn, Chef Rob Ruiz and all those at the Dining Out magazine that was involved in the process of the shoot and selecting this photograph, thank you! Carolyn emailed me late this evening to let me know that the Dining Out magazine is published as of this afternoon,  her photograph, chef Rob Ruiz food and my Walnut cutting board is on the front cover!!  Love it, Love it, Love it!!

Beautiful photos!

If you are interested in reading more, below are links to the story! 

Dining Out San Diego Instagram

Dining Out San Diego magazine digital issue, great article on Chef Ruiz!

Land and Water Company Instagram

Chef Rob Ruiz also posted on his Instagram as well, Chef Rob Ruiz Instagram

Carolyn Himes website; Carolyn Himes Imagery. Be sure to check out Carolyn’s website!

Thank you Carolyn!!

 

 

 

Milling Black Walnut Flitches

A friend milled Walnut flitches for me this week. You never know what is inside a log before you start cutting but this Black Walnut log was beautiful inside.

Each piece is stacked in the order they were cut, just like the shape of the original log.

The first cut of a log or “Flitching Line” is the most important cut as the location of the first cut dictates the grain pattern for the entire sequence of cuts. Only years of experience on where the flitching line should be on the log will unveil the best the log has to offer in grain and color. If you get this first cut wrong, you could have unusable lumber.

This Black Walnut log is absolutely beautiful, just amazing! I was so excited to see the beautiful colors and grain.

Each flitch is around 14+ inches wide.

All of these boards were stacked in order of the cut and will be slowly air-dried. The boards will be stacked 10″ off the ground on a stable base. So that air can pass over each board, sticker boards are placed between each board. The sticker boards are all the same size or it will cause warped boards as the boards would be unevenly  stacked. Once the stack is completed, each end of the boards will be painted with Anchorseal 2 to seal the ends of each board. Sealing the ends prevents splitting, cracking and lows down the drying process.

All of these boards were cut to a thickness of 5/4. It generally takes  about a year to dry 5/4 before it can be used. The moisture content was 100% when these were cut. The moisture content will be monitored during the drying process. As I monitor the moisture I will also make sure that the flitches do not dry too fast which will cause splitting and cracking.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how logs are milled!  These boards are going to make some beautiful pieces!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Walnut Cutting Boards

Photo credit Tricia Buice