To get to my Aunt Rita's house we cross two bridges, the spectacular arches of the St. John bridge then over the newly constructed Sauvie Island bridge. The island is surrounded by the Columbia River, Willamette River and Willamette Slough filled with many farms, nurseries and orchards. Her home a truly magical place with many fond memories of purple martens, fruit trees and grapevines. We went straight to work on picking spearmint to dry for loose leaf tea, picking apples, peaches, plums and grapes. We dehydrated the plums to make prunes and my aunts spent the night teaching me how to can making two batches of jalepeno jelly.
