Just another Day on the Farm

Green Healing Salve #4 Recipe

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

5 average leaves of lovage (do not use if person using has liver issues)

5 small (around four inches-young) comfrey Leaves

10 Large leaves and flowers of Wild Voilet

8 young Plantain leaves with stem included (4 inches long at min)

5 tops of Nettle (going to the third set of leaves from the top)

6 tops (same reach as the Nettle) of Spearment

3 6 inch stem and tops of Jewelweed

6 dandelion Flowers

Ideally pick when dry early morning, if they are clean, no need to wash them, if you must wash.. gently pat them dry, cut them into stripes and then bruise them This is a hot process salve..

Into a pot and cover them well with.. equal parts Olive Oil and Coconut Oil on the lowest setting for your burner, I let it “simmer” for a full 60 min, I strain out all plant material, and then I measure the end amount an for a softer salve, use about 5 percent of beeswax to firm it up and for a firm salve, up to ten percent of beeswax.

the scent is a mix of wild voilet and jewelweed when it goes on. .if you want to you can add a single drop of Pepperment oil to the blend just before filling your jars to give it a more common scent, I personally don’t mind the green-lightly floralish scent.

If you use it in a small canning jars, it should self-seal, and I have kept the salves for 9 to 12 months, ( I have never had them get older then that because we use them) however having said that, I normally say, once its open and being used.. six to ten weeks give or take, but if you put it in the fridge between uses, it will hold even better

Posted in Life moves on daily | 16 Comments

Dandelion Flower Stems

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So this is a overview, you see on facebook and in a few books I have seen the idea of using Dandelion stems as a form of noodles..

Now I love Dandelion, I like eating the young spring greens in many ways.. here is a lovely pasta dish made with pigweed, Dandelion and fresh Walking Onion Greens.. I made it for a company an it was much loved..

Of course the flowers are amazing, Dandelion Jelly is just FAB!

and I made batter dipped and deep fried Flowers for a dessert that was snapped up with moans of.. So good.. Yummy and so forth.

and the roots are so good in so many ways, So when I say a way to use the stems and the dishes didn’t look to bad.. I thought ok..

Found a great plant that had lots of nice big ones, and washed, trimmed them top and bottom and into pieces they went

So I tried it boiled with noodles and butter and seasonings as they had posted, It was SPIT out worth.. Heck no.. bitter beyond bitter, it was just plain bad!

So I looked at it and went hmmmm

I took a onion and finely diced it, added a clove of garlic and finely diced it, I then did a mix of butter and olive oil in a pan and cooked them till the onion was clear with hints of golden brown on edges and on the side, I mixed brown sugar, soy sauce, seasoning salt and vinager as a dressing.. I then poured that over and let it simmer away till it got thicker and just a bit sticky..

My first nibble had the expected bitterness but far less and by my third bite of it, I could see that I liked the green ok when I made sure to get some onion-garlic in with it as well as a bit of sauce..

While I give this part of the plant a 2 out of 5 as a edible, I am pretty sure if I added in some pea pods, some sweet greens, and lots of carrot curls and stirfried it and served it over rice, that that hints of bitterness would be a nice flavour to the overall dish..

So, anyone got a recipe using these that they want to share with me? because the noodle one did not suit my palate at all.. but I am comfortable that I could work on making a stirfry with them that would be good..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Easting Dandelion flowers, Eating Dandelion, Eating Dandelion Flower Stems | 3 Comments

Garden Updates..

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So front garden area,straw garden rows

Row one-planted two kinds winter sqaush
Row two- planted- pumpkin
Row Three- Sqaush

Teepee- Back seeded the hot, beans, and the pea’s broud beans an greens are all up Back filling with cabbage plants..

Hay Bale Garden- the cold planted greens are up and doing well, the trailing started melon plants are transplanted in it now

The mini hay bale garden- planted out pumpkins

The big hugalbed garden (year six) the comebacks are doing well, the bed is planted into melons top half and pumpkins bottom half

The box garden is planted into sea kale and Giant Broud Leaf Plantain

The gate garden had peas, broud beans, rddish and spring greens, its been finished out, four green pepper plants 12 tomato plants another full row of beans planted

The tower garden has foot plus high peas and walking onions and now thirty broccoli plants in

Side Garden Raised Bed Rows
Row One- planted cucumbers
Row two- Small pumpkins
Row Three- Seeded out pickling cucumbers
Row four – cabbage Seedlings

Grape Vine Garden
Front row- rows of Giant Sunflowers
Main Row-planted winter sqaush
Back row- rows of Giant Sunflowers

Sqaure Front Garden

75 corn planted in a block
two rows kale starts
one row peppers plants
one row cherry tomaoes
already planted and growing
beets
turnips
raddish

The apple Tree’s are in full Bloom now.. Lots of Bee’s on the farm this year..

Main garden
Four more rows on climbers of bean seed,
skirrit rows in

All the cold planted are up but the carrot, the early plant pototo patch is doing great, but lots left to plant in main garden, only the top of main garden planted and back planted

Back garden

-25 pounds of seed potato planted
rasberry rows
strawberry rows
aspargus rows all doing well
jewelweed patch up an growing

the rest- unplanted yet

How did your planting go?

Posted in gardens | Tagged Garden 2016, spring planting | 3 Comments

May long Weekend

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Today is officially a holiday in Canada, but its also our typical last frost date for the gardening zone we live in, so its a great mix of gardening, friends and good times. Lots more gardening to go today..

That closest box is filled with skirrit plants, and there is Giant Turkish plantain and seas kale and 3rd generation cabbage crosses that overwinter in out area and a zone breed cabbage-kale cross and so much more

We boated up the river for some fishin, time with friends, a hot dog roast and don’t forget the marshmellows

The calf is learning come out of his pen and nibble the fresh pasture

Faith is so very pretty and Patrick is huge and such a purring boy..

marble is not just younger and short hair but he is so much smaller in build-bone an so forth, but he is so cuddly

While the two big fluffy fat belly kittens ran and played and leaped around the yard under our watchful eye, marble went and asked.. up please and then watched everything from high up

Te wee buckling are not so wee anymore and they are a month old and we will be moving into full time milk sharing at this point, they are also nibble grazing, crème above looking at you They follow their mother who is lead out daily to be tied out to graze the main yard

Rhubarb is ready for the first big picking..

played around with making a rhubarb- black current fruit butter.. its quite good

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Fitzroy park- Terraces Trail

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/fitzroy/activities

So yesterday was my first moderate in difficult level hike and it was clear that my easier flat hiking was helpful in getting me ready but It was also one heck of a workout.. narrow trail, some very good steep up and down trails.. some was easy and some was stop and go huh, how to get down and back up..

at no point did you just stroll along, watching where and how you placed your feet was needed.

So Worth it.. Enjoy coming along with us 🙂

the red and green limestone in the huge boulder like cliffs were just awesome

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged green limestone, greenlimestone, hiking, limestone, nature hikes, red limestone | 2 Comments

Dandelion Flower Jelly

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Until you try Dandelion Flower Jelly, you just do not know what you are missing, these plants are so wonderful and thought of so badly, when point in fact, they are so edible.. from greens, to root to flowers..

Pick a bowlful of clean and ideally dry flowers, by clean I mean know where your flowers come from and that they were not sprayed. Take a paring knife and cut-pull the flowers from the head itself..

the reason for all this fuss, is that you want as little green bits as reasonable possible removed from the flowers themselves, because they are what causes that bitter undertone and aftertaste..

Leaving you with a mass of lovely flowers bits.. Fill a glass jar, be it either pint or quart, boil your kettle and pour boiling water over the flowers, push the top ones down with a spoon and allow to sit overnight (you can do it for a min of four hours and go but I prefer to do it, cool and then store it in the fridge overnight) I strain the flowers out the next morning..

Measure your liquid, then get out your Powdered Certo box, find your basic Jelly Recipe and follow the amounts given.

The second way to make it is to make a simple syrup, which is one cup of sugar to each cup of flower water, bring to a boil, simmer at the boil a min of 3 min, Follow all regular canning rules, clean your jars, heat your jars, fill with just boiling syrup, clean the lip, put the lid and ring on, just to finger tight and then water bath can for 10 min before cooling and storing them.

The syrup works in many way, can be used to make a lovely flower tea, can be used in bases for salad dressings or used for meat glazes.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Dandelion Flower Jelly, Eating Dandelion Flowers, Harvesting Dandelion Flowers, Making Flower Jelly, Preparing Dandelion Flowers for eating | 2 Comments

Working in the gardens.. busy.. so

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

Enjoy the kitten photos and I will be back tomorrow 🙂

Magic Marble is the wee handle full of short hair tabby snuggles.. So tiny.. going to be a small cat but so sweet!

Above is Patrick, one of the two fluffy and fat belly kittens.. HUGE kitten, laid back and easy going.. playful and active.. everything a kitten should be.. and below is his just as fluffy sister Faith.. she is even more active, a climber and she loves her cuddles but four paws on something solid, please..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

Rhubarb Project- Spring Update

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

Hello Folks,

I know that I have a lot of new readers since last year and given how many post I have, I know that I can not assume that folks read back onto other longer term projects..

The “Farmgal” Rhubarb project started last year.. for the first time ever, I allowed my rhubarb to go to seed, and just like Grandma told me. Yes, it does impact the amount of rhubarb harvested in the end for sure.. I would never do as many plants as I did that year but as I wanted the best of the best.. I let 28 plants go to seed and then I culled till I have the very best left, I wanted as much crossing of the genes as possible to go into the seeds themselves.

Here is the full post that covered it in photos..

When they first came out with their first two leaves, not that much difference was noticed yet..

But then things started to change.. I had to go for 50 to 60 of the wee ones with their first set of true leaves into potting them up, I ended up with a selection of 20 and then they needed to start to grow, I was still trying to find and pot up clear differences in stem color, and or thickness and so forth..

Below is a great selection of the three main things I am looking at at the moment.. on the far left, green with big stalks.. in the middle.. smaller, but thick but many stalks, and on the right.. red stalks right into red veining in to the leaves themselves..

For sure my reddest plant of all them that made it to this stage in the culling..

I am looking at ideally culling to the point that I have a new row of 12 that I will be growing out to the two or three year mark for full testing and then culling down to my top five at that point..

I have a ton of rhubarb seeds left over so If I want to do so, I am easily start many more plants and repeat the process until I get what I am looking for..

Locally, the number one kind of rhubarb plant you can find is Canada Ruby Red.. so many kinds of rhubarb available in the world, and in the stores, we can find one kind.. I personally have three at the farm, plus the Chinese medical that is grown for its root mainly..

I am looking forward to working towards creating more plants from a different gene base here on the farm.. I saw in the newspaper this week that Ontario local rhubarb is available in the stores for 5 dollars a pound. that’s about five or six ten inch stalks give or take..

Which means that one large well treated rhubarb plant can easily produce 75 dollars worth of store bought rhubarb and I have currently 38 plants scatter around the farm gardens.

While I understand that rhubarb must be grown as a annual in the warmer states for anyone that has enough of cold in the winter for rhubarb to rest in winter, then it becomes a easy plant to grow and care for.

Do you grow rhubarb? What is your favorite way to use it?

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

Spruce Tip Vinager

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

O yes, it’s that time of year again.. Spruce Tip season.. so many things to do, such a small window of time to make it happen with the lovely fresh soft tips.. This is to my eye pretty much a perfect tip, it’s on the bigger side, but it’s still soft, light green and still tightly together..

Picked but need to be cleaned.. those paper caps need to come off..

Gave them a rub and then used the bowl and the wind outside allow with my breath to winnow most of it off.. and then hand-picked off the rest..

Now that is a stunning butch of tips.. I had lost the light and used the flash on this photo but the color in real life is outstanding..

Into the pint jar they went and covered in pickling vinegar, some years I use apple Cider, one year I tried it with white wine (that was interesting) and I have tried small batches with red wine and rice wine -play around with it.. place your jar into a cool, dark place and let it sit for at least six weeks, shaking it at least once a week ideally.. then start testing it to see where it sits with your taste buds.

The flavoured vinegar can be used in many ways.. but think of it as a northern Balstmic and you are ahead of the game in melding of flavours but if you tried some of the different wine or rice.. the basic under tones typically are citrus like..

I will do a few recipes with it later in the year.. now is the putting it up time 🙂

for more ideas.. check out my overview page on how to use Spruce tips 🙂

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged foraging in canada, Homesteading, spruce tip season, spruce tip uses, spruce tip vinagers | 9 Comments

Farm Sale..

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, my best buy was this full bedroom set.. the full sized dresser, matching mirror, two end tables and full bed set.. also picked up a sweet little white five drawers dresser as well as a awesome Food Warming box for over a cast iron stove, went pretty light to the sale and came home with jingle in my pocket.. O and I thought I bought a box of really great hats, caps and warm winter hats and it turned out to have a working oversized bread maker in it to boot LOL

This picture does not do it justice but it what I got.. it needs deeper in color in real life.. but its really well made..

All of them are solid wood.. Miss Magic Marble is showing off the mirror for you..

But now lets get to the sale itself, a 5 generation sale, and so much stuff for sale, these photos just show a smidge of what was there.. 11 loaded wagons an so many others.. its just a selection, this was a solid 8 hours of move it, move it sale..

Lots of amazing things for doing your own wool to yarn.. and so many sewing machines.. of all sizes, makes and models from over a 150 plus years of family life..

So MUCH STUFF.. there was so many collector things that was crazy.. some of it was in excellent shape, other was in ok and some was just poor at this point but all was interesting.. the prices where all over the place.. some things that I thought would go for a few dollars, went for hundreds and other things that I felt should go for 50 to 100 to 200 dollars went for two or five dollars..

This one of those pieces that should have gone for hundreds, it was stunning, no water damage, no rot, all turned and in stunning condition for its age, it was a amazing sideboard and it went for 55 dollars.. If I and a girlfriend had not already filled the truck we had come in and then called hubby to come and filled the second truck.. this beauty would have come home with me..

Now for some just old odds and ends photos.. I am pretty sure this was a iron wheelchair.. wonder what year that was the norm and wondered of course.. why did a family member up in it? I so often wish that the history of items came with them..

this one amused me, the tree had grown though the piece, they cut it and hauled in for the sale, stump and all LOL

Just loved this big old truck.. so many memories from my childhood in this one.. It was a sale that the weather put those that came for the day though it all, from warm and sun to cold winds, light rains, good rain and back to sunshine..

Do you farm sale? I am hoping to get to a few more for sure this year.. We really emptied out the house in a major cleaning and repair and painting when we redid all the main floors last year, and I need to fill it back up.. ah, such a hard task.. but I will be grateful to have more storage space..