Windermere Chambers Bay 253 Magazine March 2021

253

THE POWER OF WINDERMERE

The Personalized Service Of Windermere Chambers Bay

THE HISTORY OF

Corned Beef & Cabbage

Online Garden Design Tools How's the market?

Garden Layout Tips

MAR 2021

WHAT'S IN Corned Beef & Cabbage As Irish as Spaghetti is Italian

Before you plant

Online gardening design tools

5 Garden Design Layout Tips From rows & spacing to raised beds and trellis gardens

Home Values

How's the market?

Pierce County Market Statistics

Real estate is local.

See the market statistics for your area.

this issue?

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH While we remember and celebrate the women who have shaped history, take time to appreciate all the wonderful women in your life. You never know, they may be making history while being a part of your future.

As Irish as Spaghetti is Italian

With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner it is hard not to have beer, shamrocks, green clothing, and corned beef and cabbage on the brain. However, if you went to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day you'd be hard pressed to find a morsel of corned beef and cabbage in sight.

So how did this food become synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day? From early in Irish history cattle were not used for their meat but for their strength in the fields and for the milk and dairy products they produced. In Gaelic Ireland, cows were a symbol of wealth and seen as a sacred animal, and only killed if they had grown too old to work or produce milk. During these early times any beef was “salted” in order to preserve it, and only the wealthy consumed salted beef.

THE HISTORY OF CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE

The Irish way of life and diet stayed the same for centuries until England conquered most of the country. British conquerors changed the sacred cow into a commodity, pushed for beef production, and introduced potatoes to Ireland. Tens of thousands of cattle herds were exported from Ireland to England until the Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667. The Cattle Acts prohibited the export of live cattle to England and fueled the Irish corned beef industry. The halting of cattle exporting flooded the Irish market and drastically lowered the cost of beef available for salted beef production.

In the 17th century, at the height of the salted beef market, the British invented the term “Corned Beef” to describe the size of the salt crystals used to cure the meat, which were as large as a kernel of corn. Following the Cattle Acts, Ireland became the hub for corned beef production largely because their tax on salt was 1/10 that of England’s, and they were able to import the highest quality salt at an inexpensive price. With their large quantities of cattle and the high

quality of the imported salt, Irish corned beef became the best on the market, even supplying most of Europe and the Americas. The corned beef we know and love today is nowhere near what it was then, as it was much more salt than beef in a lot of cases.

Unfortunately, the Irish people who were producing the corned beef couldn't even afford beef for themselves due to the oppressive laws put in place by English conquerors. If the Irish people could afford any meat at all it was typically salted pork or bacon with the main pillar of their diet being the potato.

Around 1845, the potato blight broke out in Ireland, completely destroying most of the population's food source causing The Great Famine. The British government was not willing to provide help so most of Ireland's population was forced to starve, work themselves to death, or immigrate.

Nearly a million people died and another million immigrated to the US. To this day, the population in Ireland is still less than it was before the Great Famine.

Most of the Irish people who immigrated settled in urban environments creating their own communities to avoid prejudice.

The largest of these communities was in New York City.

The first generation of Irish-Americans were in search of the comforting tastes of their homeland, but the high prices of pork and bacon made it unaffordable for most of the immigrants. However, the cheapest meat was beef brisket.

At the time, New York was the “melting pot” for European immigrants and many members of the Irish working class in New York began frequenting Jewish delis and lunch carts as the Jewish immigrant population was more established in the area. That is when Irish immigrants got the first taste of the corned beef that their ancestors had been famous for 200 years earlier. The beef was cured and cooked much like the Irish bacon and pork immigrants would have eaten back in Ireland. Jewish style corned beef was the taste of home the community had been looking for.

Irish immigrants of the working class were making much more money in the US than they had been under the oppressive English laws in Ireland. This gave them the ability to have a full meal instead of just meat. While potatoes were available in New York at the time, cabbage offered a more cost-effective alternative to immigrants who were still trying to start their lives in New York.

Cooking the cabbage in the same pot as the beef added the salted, spiced flavor of the beef to the plain cabbage, creating a simple, flavorful, filling, low cost, and easy to prepare meal for families.

In 1762, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Dublin, but in the streets of New York City. In the next 100 years Irish immigration to the US exploded. As corned beef and cabbage took off in the growing community, it was even served alongside mock turtle soup at President Lincoln’s inauguration dinner in 1862.

The dish we know and love, and deem authentically Irish, actually originated in the US. Actual authentic Irish victuals include Soda Bread, Colcannon, and of course, Guinness.

Soda Bread has a distinctive flavor as it is made with baking soda. Traditionally it would have been cooked over an open fire in a round pot or casserole dish, or on an iron plate over the embers, which is why the loaves are round and cut into pieshaped pieces.

Irish-Americans brought this traditional

recipe to the US and began adding fruit such as currants which were affordable at the time. Soda bread with the addition of fruit grew in popularity and in some cases it began to be referred to as Irish Tea Bread.

Colcannon is another popular authentic Irish dish of boiled potatoes mashed with kale or cabbage, mixed with onions, and butter or cream. Colcannon gets its name from the Gaelic “Cal ceannann” meaning white-head cabbage. The “cannon” part refers to the old Irish “cainnenn” translated varyingly to garlic, onion, or leek.

Finally, Guinness: a stout beer which was first produced in Ireland but draws its inspiration from British influences. It is a dark beer known for its creamy texture and tangy flavor much as an English porter brew from the late 18th century. Arthur Guinness started producing the famous beer at St. James Gate in Dublin in 1759, but his beer did not make its way to the public until 1769. Six and a half barrels of the beer were sent to England where the drink took off.

71 years later, the ales made their way to New York. Guinness only grew in popularity and demand, and is one of the most famous beers across the world that we still love to this day.

Plan your garden with these online tools

Plan Before You Plant Designing and planning your garden is important to the overall health and production of your plants. Using a garden planner to create a design and layout for your garden helps you stay organized and utilize the space you have available. Plan your garden the smart way with an online planner.

There are a few options for online planners with various tools so you can make a plan of action!

Plan-A-Garden Plan-A-Garden from Better Homes & Gardens has great 3D drag and drop interface. You can add fences, benches, arbors, pathways, trees, vines, shrubs, bulbs, and much more. Start with a premade template and add what you’d like.

You can save your garden online to adjust it at any time.

Garden Visualiser The Marshalls Garden Visualiser lets you build your garden in 3D. You can specify how large your garden will be and you can even change the shape of the ground to make it match your own garden. You can add anything to your garden from plants, edgings, summerhouses, and even paving. When you are happy with your layout, you can save the garden online and edit it at any time.

Smart Gardener The Smart Gardener is a personalized vegetable garden planner. Build your garden beds and add your desired plants to them.

There isn't a detailed landscape but you can print a very detailed list of everything you have in your garden and the layout that you create.

5 DESIGN LAYOUT TIPS If you are ready to plant your vegetable garden but aren't sure on the layout, this is for you! Garden layout ideas based on soil, spacing, sun orientation, and design. The best vegetable garden layouts have a lot in common. The number one thing is planning. Make your garden productive, beautiful, and accessible. Here are the top five tips you can apply to your own gardening space.

1. Sun and Shade Location Vegetables grow well with full sunlight. Most vegetables are in season from early spring to late fall, and buildings or trees can drastically affect the amount of shade in sections of your garden. Select the sunniest location where plants will receive 5-6 hours of direct sun per day. In the northern hemisphere garden rows running north and south typically receive the most sunlight throughout the day. If you plan on having tall plants such as pole beans or tomatoes, be sure to plant them on the north side so they do not add shade to smaller plants such as onion or zucchini.

Get Happy 2. Garden Beds and Pathways

Vegetable gardens need a layout that gives you the option to get close to each plant. Allowing for a wide pathway around each bed will give you full access to each zone so you can check watering and production.

If you are unable to have access to all sides of the garden bed, limit it to 4 feet wide so you can reach any plants in the center without stepping on your soil. Raised garden beds or garden boxes are a great option for vegetables and can be built in any size and shape to accommodate your space. For the best results it is recommended that raised garden beds be at least 8 to 12 inches deep to allow for root growth.

3. Spacing your Vegetables

You can find the spacing requirements of different plants on a seed packet, or use the spacing chart provided here. It is important to allow each plant the space it needs to grow and that roots keep from being crowded.

Get Dirty

Vegetable Garden Spacing

4. Support: A Trellis or Structure

Trellises are tall garden structures that help your garden be more productive. Metal trellises are strong enough to support vining squash, melons, gourds, cucumbers, and pole beans. Adding a structure to your garden can help your climbing plants thrive. Another garden structure you can add is fencing to keep out rabbits and deer. The fencing can double as another space for climbing plants to grow.

5. Consider your Front Yard

With gorgeous front yard vegetable garden designs popping up, consider what space you have in your front yard that you could utilize for planting. If you have too much shade in the back yard but plenty of sunlight in the front, consider adding a bed of vegetables instead of flowers. If you have an existing flower bed you can always add vegetables to fill out the space.

Bonus tip!

Draw inspiration from others. There are many beautiful vegetable gardens with impeccable designs that you can pull elements from. If there is a garden design you don't think you have space for, pick the elements you like best and create it on a smaller scale. Look online, look in your neighborhood, and find what you like best!

Happy Planting!

It’s kind of hard to explain. It’s good and bad. We’ve reached that point where as Realtors we are not as comfortable with the market as we think everyone thinks we should be.

There are several things at play that indicate a real sign of danger looming if we are paying attention.

What Market Value Is According To...

Fannie Mae: Market value is the most probable price that a property should bring in a competitive and open market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale, the buyer and seller, each acting prudently, knowledgeably and assuming the price is not affected by undue stimulus.

Federal Tax Code: The fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts. [Federal Estate Tax 26 C.F.R. § 20.2031-1(b)] The Appraisal Institute: The most probable price as of a specified date, in cash, or in terms equivalent to cash, or in other precisely revealed terms, for which the specified property rights should sell after reasonable exposure in a competitive market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale, with the buyer and seller each acting prudently, knowledgeably and, for self-interest, and assuming that neither is under undue duress.

All 3 legal definitions of

market value should give us pause.

Undue stimulus... Under any compulsion... Under undue duress... All can be said to describe the market we are currently in. Due to the low inventory, buyers are competing for offers and using extraordinary means to purchase. This often means forgoing inspections or using the future equity to purchase by putting additional funds down to cover a low appraisal, essentially paying more than the home is currently worth.

So, what is the actual market value of a seller’s home? Is it the $100,000 over list price that one buyer was willing to pay to buy the neighbors house? Or is it in the range of 8 out of the 14 offers that home received at $15,000 over list price? As Realtors we need to be careful how we respond to this question. Every seller on the planet wants and expects to get that amazing offer once they know it could happen. The truth is they may however, if they list at that price, lose all of the buyers less than that and be left hoping there are 2 buyers willing to pay $100,000 over value to purchase a home in their area.

We are currently seeing real estate brokers pricing us right out of a market. If we are smart and have the common sense conversation about how those one-off purchases happen when the price is where is should be, not when you demand it, the market cannot continue to go up. It must level off. Maybe buyers will need to quit buying. Or perhaps sellers will need to understand that they may not get that crazy offer.

Are we headed for a bubble? No. A rude awakening? Maybe.

Seller best practices: Get a pre inspection and give it to every buyer.

This covers you in the future.

This makes showings easier.

List on Monday and review the following Monday.

Stop the feeding frenzy and get the buyer that is not desperate.

Hire a Realtor who has multiple offer instructions and protocol.

MUCH LIKE PEOPLE, EVERY MARKET IS UNIQUE. SOME MARKETS HAVE VIEWS, SOME LARGE YARDS. FROM HOMES BUILT AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY TO NEW CONSTRUCTION, EACH AREA HAS ITS OWN FEATURES AND TYPES OF HOMES.

Real Estate is Local

The Power Of Windermere.

The Personalized Service Of Windermere Chambers Bay.

Pierce County is a collage of hyperlocal real estate markets. Windermere Chambers Bay brokers navigate those markets with personal, firsthand knowledge of not just your city, but your neighborhood. Your street. Your home. No app or online algorithm can do that. There’s no need to rely on faceless data. Rely on us to serve as your human algorithm.

2700 Bridgeport Way W Suite F University Place, WA 98466 (253) 565-1121 Follow Us Online: @windermerechambersbay @windermere253

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The Power Of Windermere.

The Personalized Service Of Windermere Chambers Bay.