Just another Day on the Farm

Canadian Wild Goose Bean 2015

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well, lets see, I can find pages of ..

Old, Rare, Heritage, been around for hundred year and so forth..

However, at least 25 percent show or tell of a different bean then the one I grew..

So I am going to do this instead..

Given to me by a girlfriend and with new genes bought at the local seedy Saturday, I am growing what is labelled Canadian Wild Goose Bean.

This bean is the size of a typical white navy bean, it is a mottled grey-white with a slight orange hue, they grew five feet high on climbers, the young beans with their purple mottling on dark green pods are so crisp and full of flavor, I had to force myself to stop picking so we would have dried.

Next year, I will take photos of the plants, the flowers , the pods and the seeds, almost all of my pods held six beans per, with maybe 20 percent or less having four or less.

I currently have a pound an half of dried beans with more coming in, just enough to try a few cooked and to put the rest up for seed.

I also have just a few of these much darker ones, all from the same two plants, I am going to see if I can grow them out alone next year and get more that look this way.. a fun little project. They have flipped to grey with white speckles

Butternut Squash Growout Wrap up for 2015

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

A good fall day to day you, I hope that you had a lovely Canadian thanksgiving weekend, and a great weekend, if you remember back in the spring, I planned to grow in the great butternut squash grow out being done locally

Let say first, I grow butternut squash yearly, I love it, and I grow a lot of it, so I honestly thought.. no problem.. NEVER do that when it comes to gardening LOL

The first thing was instead of popping in squash here and there on edges and in differnet beds and gardens, I decided to do a new hilled huge area just for this project, I have done the same method for five years now and when it comes to squash they love it

But! I ran out of certain compost spot, no problem right, grab from a different spot and mix it with well turned pig compost from the back barn.. Boy was I wrong..

Everything I planted in this mix struggled this year and I do mean everything.. but back to the story at hand, I got it ready, I got it planted and nothing.. I watered the hills, nothing.. around me, others where having 90 plus seed starting rates, in my other areas, squash seeds where up and growing..

(this should have been the clue to start again) but instead I reworked the hills, and watered and watered them, finally stunted fragile seeds came up.. and did nothing.. I weeded and checked and babied them, I watered, I finally had hubby haul a 55 gallon drum, my first extra water nettle tea, then I tried my green tea..

and time was moving on.. I was watching these plants in horror , I had been given a huge amount of seeds, I had given a huge amount of land to this and I had nothing to show for it..

I growled, and ripped it all apart, I was down to 24 seedlings, they had two to four true leaves and others already where in flower and running.. I pulled off a 3 by 3 section of 6 plus inch straw, I remixed the hills and put them on the ground, and I replanted them, will water feedings of comfrey tea and finally they took off

I shook my head and shugged the shoulders and pretty much walked away at that point, if any made it to fruit, it would be few indeed.. out of the 70 seeds, 24 made the transplant, 11 lived..

Yup.. 11 plants was all that made it to producing for 2015.. those 11 plants produced 41 butternuts, for a total of 106.6 pounds of squash.. I only got eight over 4 pounds but I will still take it, the average was three to four pounds.

I saved seed from the biggest, best shaped and with good skins, this was a good thing, as it means that I can send seed back but I can also keep back 10 or 20 seeds to mix with the ones sent to me for next years grow out.

I have placed the best quality but 3 pound ones into storage and the rest are being canned or baked and mashed and frozen up.

The flesh is paler then normal and very mild, I am interested if the curing time will help on this or if its just because the plants rushed to get these to turn for fall.

Its a good amount of butternut but certainly not my normal amount, am short about 200 pounds from where I wanted to be on these. I am grateful I got any and have seeds to send back, and I learned more about compost, what each critter gives or lacks in their poos this year, and was reminded that I do things for a reason..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Thanksgiving, High Bush Cranberry Jelly

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Only had a few heavy frosts, so very tart indeed but still so good when done, plus its our local way to make cranberry jelly.

into the pot, need to be cleaned, washed, water covered and then slowly simmered till they burst open, then strained and allowed to drip there rich goodness into the draining bowl.

Following the certo box, measure your juice, sugar and at the right time pecton, jar up into cute 8 ounce jars and voila, home grown cranberry jelly for 2015.

but you need to try it.. and foam is the best treat.. o yes..

A even better treat, sharing fresh jelly with your momma, who has not eaten this kind for many, many years

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in 100 mile diet | Tagged high bush cranberry jelly | 6 Comments

Ham and Navy Bean Soup.. (stick to your ribs)

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I cooked off a lovely ham while mom was visiting, and we had a big meaty ham bone.. and that means soup.

I took 2 cups of navy beans, covered them, brought to a boil for two min, turned it off and let sit for an hour, drained and ready to be put into the soup pot.

In the soup pot, I put the meaty ham bone, 2 large diced onions (peeled) and 2 cloves of garlic, peeled, cover bone well with water or white stock, added salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Add the pre-started white navy beans and simmer for four hours at a low heat.. then pull the bone, and demeat anything that did not come off in the simmer.

Then add, peeled, diced 2 large carrot, and 3 large potatos, 2 heaping tbsp. of tomato paste, 2 tbsp. HP sauce or homemade version of iit, 1 tsp of wostersauce, add any leftover ham diced to the soup.. check your spices, add salt, or pepper as needed..

Cook till veggies are done.. good hot, and even better reheated!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged fall veggies, Ham and Navy Bean Soup, Ham bone, Navy beans, Winter Soups | 6 Comments

The last of the sweet corn harvest oct 1st

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Our late planted sweet corn is awesome! so good, It was planted end of july and everyone thought we were nuts, no ONE plants corn that late.. but just look at this corn picked today!

I am for sure going to do double planting of corn from now on..one in the spring on time and one late season for a super sweet, super short season, this corn was ready in 58 days and it lived up to it.

Love this tool, it makes taking the corn off the cob fast and easy..

Once its all off, perfect for canning it up.. but do not throw out all those cobs, save some and make corn cob syrup, but that is a post coming up.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Pickled Green Beans Recipe

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

We are still getting lots of fresh beans in the house but not for long, the frosts are coming soon

Here is a nice basic Green Bean Pickled Recipe for you

Green Beans – enough to make 4 pints
1/2 tsp of dill
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup canning salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water

Put dill in each jar, one clove of garlic per jar, make your brine, fill your jars and process for ten min at water bath temps.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Sweet Potato Harvest.

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

A little Frost and they needed to come out..

The purples out did themselves this year..

Just some of the harvest..

and the vines all went as pig food, They are a total no waste plant, always love with the non people parts of plant can be critter food

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged cruing sweet potatos, feeding sweet potato vines to pigs, Harvest 2015, storage food, Sweet potatos, winter food | 2 Comments

Scones with Clotted Cream and strawberry Jam

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

My girlfriend make scones, they are delightful, she also went all out and made clotted cream, the left over milk-cream was used in the scones, and I can taste that they were made with butter, they are very rich indeed.

Farmgal Baking Powder

Half a cup of butter or magrine or lard (your choice)
Three cups flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp of Sugar
2 Tbsp of Baking Powder
1 cup of Milk

Take the first five and add them in a bowl, cut the cold fat into the flour mixture till its blended in to tiny peices no bigger then the size of pea’s, then make a well in the middle and add the milk and stir, it will make a soft dough if its sticky, add a little more flour, turn out on a floured surface and gentle pat down into a round circle about half an inch high, you can cut it with a glass, or a jar lid ring, or proper steel cookie cutters or you can take a pizza cutter and cut into sqaures or you can score lines and bake it as a solid peice

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Baking powder, Clotted cream, English style, Farmgal Bisquiets, Scones, Strawberry jam | 1 Comment

Still going strong.. photo update..

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

blurry or not my mom arrived..

so glad she is here..

Lots of laughs in the house an kitchen

New lino in bathroom, working on the paint next.. almost there now

living room, new flooring and then one wall painted so far.

new counter and taps in

Snuck for a few hours for the plowing event

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

Dining room is finished now..

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

The dining room which is the other half of my kitchen, in the oldest part of the house is done 🙂 and I just love it. We still have a few things in the kitchen to do yet but the sub floor, the lino, the painting and the new door is in and done.. will post when its finished as well

Its been raining on the farm for a solid 24 hours, such a blessing, we needed it, filled the rain barrels, the pond and the big horse trough and will do wonders at raising the levels on the well.

It was greatly need in the garden as well, the pasture is done for the year, but it will still enjoy the drink.

I am not so sure I am enjoying the muddy paw prints on the floor but boy can my new lino hide dirt well.. a good things really but also startling when you sweep twice daily.

Wishing you all a great sunday