Just another Day on the Farm

Gooseberry Vanilla Jelly

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

O what a great year for the gooseberries.. my best harvests yet, despite the fact that they need pruning and I really need to clean up and feed around them, the comfrey leaf feeding from last fall showed this year.

Last year, I did a straight cut and drop of large comfrey leaves around the gooseberry bushes.. wow, even with the drought year, they were fab! I will do the same this year, if you have never put cut comfrey around them, give it a try..

P1080108 Well, because the berries were ripening at different rates, we picked and froze until we did the final picking.. which is why some of the fruit appears frosted and some fresh.. After about 70 percent was ripe, we picked the bushes clean.

I wanted the pectin from a percent of the under ripe gooseberries and after a pick though into the juicer steamer them went, o the joy of not topping or tailing them!

At this point, I was left with skins, tops and tails and amazing juice, I measured out the amount of juice and made it very simple one to one in measurements.

however, as I wanted to add vanilla, I split open one vanilla bean and scraped out the middle an added it to the juice and sugar, I stirred till sugar was fully melted an then gently boiled till it passed the jelly sheet test on a cold plate from the fridge and into properly prepared 8 oz and pint jars it went and into water bath for ten min to finish off the process

So far I am the only taste tester but yum!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Gooseberry, gooseberry jam | 2 Comments

Raspberry Crumble

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Its been a odd year for rasberries in 2016..

The very early season ones that where planted out last year, all 75 canes, all but 8 winter killed.. sigh.. I will slowly work my patch back from those eight but it will certainly take a good number of years to do so.

The early season canes got hit by the drought, they curled up, whimpered and did nothing..

but the Mid-Season, o they were covered in blooms and I watched and waited and the rains came at just the right time.. and we have been picking, and picking and picking.. huge bowls of them came in every two days, fresh eating, some gifting and sharing, and many many medium cup bags went into the freezer.. each bag has enough for a full batch of jam in it..

We have often talked about the fact that I will freeze berries or fruit or tomato’s etc and process them at a later point..in this case, I will also be using some to make a mixed fruit blend for a few things and am waiting for apple season to get here as well. there are at least 2 plus dozen bags put away at this point..

So when we picked yesterday, and realized that we are in the final push for the mid-season and I have no idea yet what the late season rasberries will do, it seemed like a good idea to make a huge Rasberry Crumble.

In my biggest cake pan

16 cups of fresh Rasberries
1 cup of sugar
1/3rd cup of flour
1 tsp of ginger powdered sprinkled on top

Topping

3/4th cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar (brown or white your choice) 3 cups of flour, and 1 tsp of salt.. cut in into flour and them rub it thought till its finely crumbled in..

Bake in 350 oven for approx. 55 min till bubbly and golden brown.. serve hot with ice cream or cold as is or with a bit of cream on top..

I will only be having a little of it but my dear hubby will take care of the rest quick enough!

While I hope that my late season rasberries will come on line, I am very pleased that my staggered and planning has made sure that despite the drought that we were still able to bring in a good crop on one of the types.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged bare root rasberry canes, Fall Rasberries, Rasberries, Rasberries crumble recipe | Leave a comment

Blue got stepped on

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Wee Blue Kitten got cheeky and while he normally has a healthy respect for the horse’s and they are quite good with the smaller critters.. he jumped in and went after a fly on the back of one of Caleb’s feathers on his front left leg while we were waiting for the farrier to arrive.

Caleb lifted his foot up and the kitten slid down and under and he put the foot down.. thankfully, he did not put his full weight down.. but my heart was in my throat and I was like O NO

(Yes, his third eyelid is up but that is not uncommon when they are feeling unwell)

So far we have had two trips to the vets, meds and lots of careful care. as grace would have it.. he is very badly bruised, no broken bones, but in effect blunt force trauma, now that we are past the first few days, the odds of him being ok, are looking better all the time.

I am grateful for the help from friends both close and far over the past couple days. Only one single person (who is not a close friend) said, well, its a farm kitten, this happens..

Now, I am not saying that I have not lost farm kittens, I have had a kitten get taken =by a fox, I have had a kitten get hit on the road, these things do happen.. but that does not mean that its just a farm kitten.

My farm cats are indoor-outdoor cats.. some are barn-outdoor, some are outbuilding-outdoor and some are house-outdoor, but what NONE of them are is a feral outside cat. (sometimes I have a feral show up, but that is a stray)

I think most farm cats while different then a indoor house cat are held in good stead, they get worming meds, they get their vaccines, many get altered (many of mine are) they get cat food daily and heated water bowls in winter or its set up to allow them to safely drink from the heated large livestock tanks.

They get bales stacked just so, to create warm kitty sleeping spots for the hard part of winter, or they winter box’s made for them, layered in with warm dry straw stuffed.

They get cat doors or this or that cracked open so they can freely enter and leave as need, and lets own it, even when we have a litter of kitten, most of the time if not like me, that raises them in the house, they seem to get put in a stall with a bed, a heat lamp and they get fresh warm raw milk, kitten food.. scrambled farm eggs and such..

They are not just a farm cat or a kitten..

Not on my farm! they are part of my purrpot pride.. and I truly hope that blue will be with me for many years to come..

He needs to watch what he is doing.. because he only has eight of the nine lives left!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged farm cats | 1 Comment

Golden Needles Harvesting

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

or in common terms, picking and drying lots and lots! of unopenned Day Lily flowers. Ah, the common, humble daylily that most of us call, tigerlily’s or Ditch Lily’s are so wonderful to have in the kitchen, the little root bulbs are good eating, with a taste like a mix between a regular an sweet potato, the greens are useable (but I don’t find them worth it unless very early spring eating) the open flowers can be added to salads for color or stuffed for little nibbles.

“Wild Parsnip is slowly but surely pushing into my wild forage patch that I tend to do my huge harvesting on, this means that I will be prepping a area in gardens in this fall of 2016 and I will need to dig out dozens of clumps from the wild patch, and then fill the holes back in with compost and move them to the farm.”

But the darling for me of this plant is the unopened flowers, the big ones are awesome for fresh eating, my favorite way is to just quick stirfry them with a little butter and lemon, or to cut them up and put them into a fresh veggie side dish.

A dozen large unopened tiger lily flowers cut into three bites, 6 large mushrooms, Garlic greens and 3 cups of fresh baby green pea’s, lightly stirfried together.

For fresh eating, I recommending picking the flower that is do to open tomorrow, and for drying, I pick both the flower to open tomorrow and the next biggest at about 2 to 3 inches in length, if you pick carefully, you are only taking the flower bud and not hurting the rest of the coming flowers or the plant itself.

We had a great picking session and both filled our big bowls within 20 min or so of picking.. now on to the drying trays. They will dry to a light brown color and will be used in different stirfries in winter, a couple more good pickings and I will have lots put away, with tons left over for freshing eating thoughout the summer. Happy Harvesting.

Do you havest daylily’s for fresh use, do you dry them for later use? Have you ever bought them at the chinese market in fresh or dried form? Do you order them in your favorite dish? I love the sweet crunchy pop the fresh ones add to a dish.

Posted in frugal, gardens, wild foods | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Garden, Wild Foods | 4 Comments

Ladies Only Camping Trip..

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

This trip was a ladies only camping trip for myself and a few girlfriends..

We enough tents, camping box’s and amazing homemade food, that at least in my mind, we moved from camping to glamping.. something I have never really done before..

It was fun and relaxed, there was one thing to be said for all the ladies that came on this trip, the goal was to relax, chill.. in two cases this was the first time that they had ever left their toddlers with dad home alone for the whole weekend, since their babes have been born..

This was our swimming spot..

We went out to a good ways, at least half way to the island, and we got to watch the eagles fly overhead..

It was nice to have others on this trip that love to swim as much as I do..

The fire ban was in effect and so we were only allowed to have a fire from 6pm to 11pm.. we were glad to have it but would have liked to have it for much longer

We did some very baby hiking, as one of our party had to be very careful on her foot, due to injury!

and then we took a boat cruise..

It was a couple hours on the water, the castle island was totally the highlight, the rest was nice but you need to like looking at other people’s houses on waterfront 🙂

Hope you are all finding time to get out and enjoy this fine weather, with friends and nature! So far I am really liking my “camping” summer of 2016..

A big thank you goes out to my Dear Hubby, for holding down the farm, but for above and beyond that.. for working hard for days, the gardens, the picking, the prep work and putting things in the freezers, for coming home to a tidy house, and clean dishes in the sink, for coming home to kiss’s and a hot meal.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged camping trips | Leave a comment

Just work’in away

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So many rasberries need picking every day or two.. perfect

still piking the last of the peas, they are almost finished and the beans are in bloom now!

the red current are almost finished but the black and white are still giving some and clove currents are still turning color yet

The steamer does a outstanding job of anything that needs to be juiced.. and the red current jelly and pancake syrups are so sweet-tart

our blueberry season came and went in about ten days 🙂 the jam is outstanding, yes, I know I need to wash them and take the rings off before putting them away

Sour Cherry season is on us,, jam and pie filling is done for the year..

The spring beets are coming n and being processed

and we are starting t plant now for the fall crops as we are taking out spring crops.. the farm kittens follow us everywhere now, they come out with us to do chores and come back in the house to nap and spend the night..

Blue has settled in and is considered part of the kitten pack now

Going to a gathering an make fresh buns to take with.. wel, had better get back to it.. how is your soft fruit crops going?

Posted in gardens | Tagged Canning, canning fruit, canning jam, Garden, red current jelly, soft fruit, steam juicer, this an that post | 5 Comments

Blue Pod Capucijners peas-overview

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Blue Pod Capucijners (pre 1800)

A beautiful heirloom pea that is pretty enough to grow as an ornamental. Tall vines grow 5-6’ and the flowers and pods are purple. The very young pods can be used as a snow pea and the large olive green to brown seed is excellent in soups

Despite the drought, these peas were up in a row, other peas, did not come up or less then 50 percent came up, and in some other cases I replanted twice.. these had outstanding percentage of being up!

So pretty flowers, very heavy producer..

they are never more purple then when they are very young, we harvested then half the size shown for salad raw eating an they are good, we harvested and cooked them at this size, they were good but they tasted like young green beans, not pea pods.. odd, tasty but true

the older pods first get some green streaks to them and they slowly turn color, the third harvest was excellent, the average pod has eight but many had ten and at least 10 percent have 12 peas per pod.

The top brown pods were vine dried and are next years seed, the rest is mature seed that will be dried for soup use.. overall this pea plant on year one gets a solid 4 star rating.. and a 5 star for being a drought star and a massive producer

it looses .5 star for have pea pods that taste like a green bean, not peas, and it looses .5 star for not attaching as well as it should to the climber fence, you had to really help it train to grow where you wanted it..

Posted in gardens | Tagged Blue Pod Capucijners, drought year plants, Gardening on the homestead, growing peas, harvesting peas for seed | 3 Comments

Broad Bean Harvest 2016

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I still have a black Russian Broad Beans to harvest yet but they are growing at a different rate and I am looking forward to seeing how they did.. we have had a odd mix of a crazy drought and high winds and hard, hard brief rains.

Just a few of the plants in the bigger row.. starting to turn color, these were planted very early, I planted them almost six weeks earlier then other folks did.. it worked out well for me this year.

I was worried about the pollination on these plants, they were in full bloom right after the corn got sprayed and BAM, I lost a ton of my wild bees.. but we still had some and then it poured rain.. I sighed and went.. it will be, what it will be..

My fears were founded, while I did pick 5 gallon buckets worth of bean pods, and we did have some nice pods, many of what should have been a five bean pod, had two or three.. does not seem like much but when its that many pods that way.. it adds up on what was missing in the end..

But as I have friends who’s plants are still only four to six inches high and not producing at all, I will still take it.. that’s for sure..

So what did I make as my first thing with my fresh bean..

Had a great fresh feeding and then put the rest away in bagged portions for winter use.. I simmered the pods till tender and soft inside their little skins, half of them were popped out, mashed and made into a amazing Broad bean hummas type dish.

the other half were taken out, after done and then fried till the outside skin was golden brown and crisp, while hot, mushy and bursting with flavour on the inside.. its a taste from my childhood!

The timing was great, this whole row came out, just in time to be replanted into another crop for the fall.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged broad beans, early spring planted gardens, gardens, harvesting | 2 Comments

Friendship, new and old..

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

I am sorry, for the delay in writing this, but time is flying fast at the moment, I am always in awe and amazed that farm blogger s keep up in the summer time, I sit down and think.. I should x and I am up and off again..

See off-topic again.. So this trip was long time in coming, I was looking though some photos of my many camping trips over the years, and realized that since we had come to the farm, unless I was on a “away” trip I was not exploring Ontario like I should be able to.

So said to hubby, I want to camp at least five times in the summer of 2016, he looked at me and said, then do it..

That is the sum up in so many ways how things start in my world.. I look at hubby or he looks at me and we say.. we should and then the other blinks and says..

Well, what’s stopping you.. if you want to do it.. then do it..

So simple and yet they have been the start of so many things, some amazing, some ok and some I shake my head at and GO…WHY… but I would not be me if I had not done them.

So I started with a trip for us, as a couple, and I got a farm sitter for that one, I planned it carefully and found a mine hike for hubby.. great fun..

I wanted to go to bon eco, and have since I moved to this province but its to far for a day trip and its one thing to get a farm sitter for one night but another to plan for a couple over the summer, so I planned to go alone.. then I said.. I am going to bon eco and said friend went.. Sounds like a blast..

So I went with said friend, she does not like her picture taken, so I am not going to get myself in trouble and post an face photos of her on the blog.. but she was great fun.

She is a full of life as they come, she will try anything, she is tough and kind all in one.. so I had booked us a walk in camp site, and it was stunning, it was also not clear that it was nearly as far or as hard of a trail..

WOW, what a trail.. it is fair to say that we would have packed quite differently if we had known.. I had booked a walk in site with hubby and we parked at the top and walked down a nice trail to our site.. pleasant..

A lot of things can be said about the trail to that camp and pleasant is not one of them LOL

But now comes the old.. a dear friend of mine.. a old friend of mine, I meet her in my collage years, she was the reason I was planning on going to Yellowknife, the reason I meet my husband, and she was my only bridesmaid at my wedding, I am honored that her daughter carries my daughters name..

time has moved us across the country, we have lived end for end, we have moved at different paces and we have caught back up.. but as fate would have it.. she would be less then a hour away from where I was camping while I was there.. she had made the trip from goose bay for family reasons and I got the pleasure of her company for the day!

We swam in the lake, we visited, and eat good food and played card games, we laughed and we got to visit in a way that girlfriends do when we are alone again.. I know, I know, we love having our hubbies and our little ones around.. we do..

But there is a freedom when its just girlfriends, take off that other hats and remind ourselves of that core of who we where and who we are out!

I love many of the photos we got of the three of us, but as I need to follow my girlfriends photo rules, this is the best photo of the three of us.

I love it.. A grounding, a old friend that I have known for more then half my life an a new friend that I have known for a few years now.. a great melding in many ways.. younger me, with the older me..

I came home tired, sore and at peace in so many ways!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

A Taste of Bon Eco Camping trip..

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

I snuck off the farm for a camping trip, I will do a detailed post.. hubby held down the farm and I had a girls only hike in camping trip..

cheers to the view from our site, outstanding! the one below was taken from the tent in my sleeping bag, now that is a great way to wake upthe rest of this post will be lake and the rocks the other post will be about the adventure and the people!