Just another Day on the Farm

Lent 2025

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

Well, i normally do give up something in honor of lent, something small but regular that makes me pause and think a little more deeply on life and how it should be lived, on what i am giving back to my community.

However Miss R kindly shared that she will be going meatless for lent, and i am not even sure she is going to allow fish, which with my upbringing was allowed. This is going to be a challenge for me as the main household cook.

40 days of making sure there is a shelf filled with pre-cooked/prepared high quality vegetarian protein sources, thankfully she is open to our farm fresh eggs (and we have 6 new ready to lay hens arriving to increase our flock size, as our older hens are coming three this year) arriving in mid march. The duck hens will start laying in march as the daylight hours get longer!

There is no way that Dear Hubby will go meatless, so i am trying to figure out rules yet, can i make her soups with bone broths or does the bits of meat that comes in them count and no and if not, i will need to make veggie only soup broths.

I have a full grasp on all the amazing ways to add protein to her diet menu, rice and beans, cheese/yogurts, spinach greens, Potato’s and so much more.

My plan at the moment is to create her a shelf in the fridge filled with different things that can be restocked, some homemade and some store gotten, a big salad style bar will be a very good thing indeed.

I do have a few cookbooks but not many that are meatless and i will dig them out, then i just need to decide if i am going to do some larger batch cooking with meat for hubby to make a choice on and or if it makes sense that i batch cook a roast, chicken breasts and so on a heat and add on can easily be done at the main meals.

I am sure the time will pass quickly and yet coming into it 40 days seems like a lot while its staring me in the face as i try and sort things out. With the respect given to this amazing young adult, i will show her my support by making these changes in our household menus.

Got a favorite meatless dish, you just adore? I am open to hearing about it! share the link to your own blogs site, or to a favorite cooking site or recommend a cookbook i just have to get, i am all ears, got a book on lent an meal plans???

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged cooking, fish friday, food, Lent, meatless, recipe, recipes, Respecting values, soup | 6 Comments

Hedgerow Snow Capture

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

Just as my own double hedge rows work in the summer for both food production and shelter, they act as a living snow fence in winter, there is a swale on the far side of them that drops down a solid three feet, excellent for keeping water in place and allowing it to soaking the gardens around it but also means that before the snow can come up and though. The winter winds get cut by the spruce trees, and then trapped again by the hedge in front before coming at the house itself.

Don’t let this photo fool you, you can just make out the pathway in the middle and if my Miss Fancy was using that path you would not even see here, that snow is a solid three feet deep on this side, and a solid five foot plus on the other side. This area is a haven for the small birds like sparrow’s, chickadee’s and junco’s

I remember the first year we moved here being surprised to see so many farmers left these stripes of corn standing but as the snows came i went ah.. then i saw them plant corn sections even when the rest of the fields were in different and went huh.. turns out they are paid to do so if their fields are by the right roads.

“Plant a snow fence

The City encourages landowners who plant corn to participate in the Alternative Snow Fencing Program.

In late summer, participating landowners leave six to 12 rows of standing corn parallel to the road and 20 metres from the road’s right-of-way property line. In December, landowners are paid an amount based on the market value per tonne of the unharvested corn, the yield of tonnes per acre, the actual acres standing and for spring clean-up work

In non-agricultural areas, landowners can plant trees 20 metres from the right-of-way property line.”

Ottawa City

I was very pleased to see that they are expanding the tree shelter belt program to three new areas, so great for land owners!

We have been working on planting hedge rows on the road side frontage, its more tricky on the farm sides as there are legal rights to the farmer due to tree roots and footage required as the land around us is tiled. So we had to do our side hedgerows into further back to keep to the footage required,

When we built our fences, i set them back for a bit of a spray zone protections, but when we redo them for what will be the final time in our lifetime, i am taking that two feet back for a few reasons including full fenced to the property line.

I am still not sure what to do with the large stripe between the cedar hedgerow and the farmers field , i keep thinking it would be lovely in wild flowers or a combo sunflower triple row and then wild flowers. we will see.. we will see.

Do they have living snow fencing in your neck of the woods, do they pay you to put in hedgerows and to keep them year after year.. do you live in a country where hedgerows are normal and expected, do you live in a spot where there are no hedgerows at all.

I grew up in alberta and for me, seeing hedgerows as a child the normal, due to the fact that they had millions and millions of trees and bushes planted into hedgerows after the dirty 30s as a huge province wide project for many years..

Sadly as new farmers came in, they took out the hedgerows and now are starting to see the results of those losses, they will learn they were there for a reason and will be need to be planted again.

Farm Buildings in Vermilion Valley, Alberta, [1920]. This photo shows the use of Caragana bushes as windbreaks around farmyards.
(photo credit: Library and Archives Canada / PA-101669)

What is your personal favorite hedgerow look? I loved Caragana as a child, those dense green big bushes with the pretty yellow flowers with the hint of sweetness and the birds loved the seeds so much.

It was never used as human feed that i remember but the chickens sure loved it and no doubt!

“The seed contains 12.4% of a fatty oil and up to 36% protein and it has been recommended as an emergency food for humans. More than just an emergency food, this species has the potential to become a staple crop in areas with continental climates. Young pods can be cooked and used as a vegetable.”

As a child that natural space under them provided shelter on a hot day and a good book reading spot! Many a game with friends was played under the hedgerows. One of the great things about these bushes is they are self filling and spreading due to the seed dropping and they are of a height that allows them to work under the power lines!

Do you have any on your property?

Posted in Friday Rambles | Tagged alberta, canada, caragana, Creating habitat, Garden, Gardening, Hedgerows, living snow fences, nature, Ontario, Planting for the birds, plants, roads, Snow, snow capture, snow fences, snow hedge, Wildlife, Wind, Wind blocks, Wind hedgerows, Winter | 4 Comments

Snow and more Snow!

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

The work required to keep the driveway and pathways open has been massive on behalf of Dear Hubby in Combo with Miss R a touch.. While we do have a snow blower, Dear Hubby loves to do it by hand and shovel.. each of the storms meant 20, 000 plus on the fit bit with over a hundred plus active minutes each day and there were multiple days and layers of storms, the drifts were brutal. Do you see the little grey commute car, the drift was as high as the car and it had to be dug out including under it.

Because we have such massive amount of land, those banks do not look near as big as they should in this photo, they are not having it as easy in the towns and cities, where they are in major clean up mode as they are running out of room on where to place the snow.

Officially we got just over 70 cm in a matter of days from the back to back storms or 2 and half feet of snow, which means that we just got side swiped by the storm as other areas got double or even triple that over the same time frame. Having said that for our local area, that was the most snow in the same time frame in the past 20 plus years so it feels like a lot.

It was the wind and drifting that made it a issue.. take a look at the back six foot fence line in the small pasture.. about a foot of fence post on some spots and less then six inches on others! Those drifting waves cut into the snow. Thankfully there is nothing out there to draw the horses to want to cut into that kind of snow, they are to be found at the hay feeder, the barn lean to or in front of the big barn taking advantage of the solar heating and the wind break.

The big dog yard is not a safe play zone as they can walk up and hope over the fence like its not even there! The little dog uses the shoveled pathways as her zoom zoom lol. The cats are in the house much more over the past week and or greet the humans in the barn snoozing in the beds that get extra warmth from the cat heat lamp area.

The weather has been amazing for winterfest coming into its 47th year and the canal skating, over 400 000 thousand folks have been out to the different events, the ice sculptures are always worth a stop as are the snow ones!

Otherwise its been a stay in and stay safe and warm, we lost power for a touch but not for long, we stayed off the roads following the orders that unless it was a emergency, to stay home and stay off them, others did not listen and we have upward of 70 car piles ups, on my last drive on the way home from a medical appointment with the snow and the drifting in the days leading up to the big storm, i watched as we came up from clear bare good road to a area that has bad drifting and while i slowed right now, as i drove carefully though this tricky spot, there were five vehicles that had slide out and were in the ditch, everyone waved me on and showed their phones, which was good but still i could not have stopped if i wanted to or i would have just joined them.

Many people were told to come into work and then reported having to turn around and head back home when stopped by four to six foot drifts, the crews worked their hours till they were maxed out and townships had to put out notices that they were shutting down for 8 hours in the night for mandatory rest before starting again at 4am.

We had a number of folks that got sick in their homes due to the wind and snow drifting covering their furnace vents and so on, and they didn’t know they needed to keep them clear and so they had carbon monoxide poisoning, thankfully no one died but over a dozen households needed medical help and treatment.

If you were in the storms path, i hope you came out the other side warm and safe with no issues, still we had to have a little fun with all the fluffy snow coming down..

Game NIGHTs!!!

So if you got caught in the snow, did you bring out the cards! The board games or the D&D night!

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged board night, D&D game, Drifting snow, Family, Game Night, nature, shoveling snow, Snow, Snow drifts, Snow Safety, Snowed in, Time well spent, weather, Winter, wood stove | 2 Comments

Taking Stock and Counting it twice!

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

While the 50+ peach babies have been moved up into their gallon pots and and even more lines of grow lights have been hung and fan is set up and ready for extra air movement, along with winter sowed seeds, we are still off by a solid four to six weeks before we want to start more for the garden.

Which means that i am in late winter cleaning, sorting mode. The big storage closet and the secondary dry storage Pantry on the main floor of the house needed a full deep clean, sort, check on levels of supplies, lists for re-stocking made.

As folks know i have been struggling with some health issues and while i am working hard to gain back strength, i had started having issues lifting some of the stacked heavier items on the top shelfs so we shift a number of them into the closet shelfs for better height pull out and carry, and put the big light weight Tupperware tubs filled with dried herbs an more up top till they are needed again in the big push in gardening season.

While i knew that with me making meals out of the pantry, canning cellar and freezers for the past five months without proper restocking happening as i have been dealing with illness, keeping the fresh food to standard fresh fruits we keep in the house, the salad and salad fixings and soup veggies, meant that we were using up layer after layer of the storage goods.

Still color me surprised that after this weekends sort and clean, all those tubs on the third shelf were empty, all have been washed, dried and placed waiting to be refilled and put back into the use. Each shelf is always two layers deep, that is a lot of empty tubs that are normally filled!

While the working pantry in the kitchen still has some of the items that are normally in the tubs on the third shelf it means there is no fill up back up in stock..

On one hand this is a total win! The whole point of a deep pantry is that you can go not just days or weeks but MONTHS making meals and there are in fact still many months of meals to be made from the staples in the house.

On the other hand, i need to do some stocking up, i will be feeling the price increases, a lot of these items gotten when they cost a lot less and came in bigger amounts. I will be feeling the inflations that is for sure!

Other things will have to wait till the gardens in full swing for me to prepare and dry the food or blends for future meals in 2026 and beyond.

Onward this week, i will tackle the front working pantry in the kitchen itself, at which point i will have a full handle on the shopping list for re-stocking for the dry goods. Then onward to the freezers (for a fast recap as i know what is in all of them but one) and then we need to do a final count of the canning pantry which will be a good thing for the rest of the garden planning!

How are you doing coming into the depth of winter? How is your deep pantry holding up? Having you ever needed to eat out of your pantry for weeks to months due to anything really, job loss, new baby, health related issues?

How did your pantry hold up? what was something you ran out of faster then you were expecting? Its been hard to find bulk 2 pound bags of my favorite dried soup blend of rice/peas/beans/barley in the store for the past while so i am fully out.

I am giving though to making my own blend of it, as it a favorite for sure.

Posted in dry pantry | Tagged buy ahead, cooking, Deep Pantry, dry pantry, Eating out of your Pantry, Frugal, Garden planning, Health, Meals, Spring Cleaning, Taking stock, Winter, Winter Prep, Working pantry | 2 Comments

Snow Day!

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

It’s a snow day here locally, while we have gotten four inches overnight and its still coming down heavy, with drifts we are seeing 10 plus inches, they got it far worse in other parts of the province for sure.

Still the whole area has had school closed, buses cancelled and highways and roads closed, county offices and so on closed down as well as a official statement that this is a travel only when needed due to weather event.

A few fun things to do on snow days, of course there is ..

Number one : Make a snowman, its old fashion and it has staying power because its so simple, roll the body and then make it your own! But don’t be limited to just snowmen, you can have some fun with different kinds of snow builds.

Number Two Make Snow Ice-cream!

Number 3 (for the gardeners) Move that snow for snow pack

Now is the time where we can if in good health move some of the snow to where we would like a slower melt out in the gardens, perhaps there is a micro zone that you don’t like to warm up as fast, perhaps there is a fruit tree that find tends to bloom a touch early, perhaps you have a favorite plant that is a little tender to freeze/melts, now is the time to shift that snow to your advantage.

Number 4 – It is mild out, which is is here, its snowing but its also very mild, compared to the bitter cold we have been having, consider taking your horse out for a walk on cleared road, almost no traffic, good footing and a fun little together time.. Don’t have a horse, take the dog! Don’t have a dog, take yourself LOL

Snow Storm, between the Black Bear Coat and Beard, True North Strong

Number 5 – Get the Camera out! This is the perfect time to get some wild bird photography at feeders, they will all be coming in for a snack, get those pink cheeked photos of your little ones make their snow man or your puppy romping in the snow.

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged birds, Garden, nature, play in the snow, Snow, snow day, snowman, travel, weather, Winter | 1 Comment

Park Garden 2025 -More Grapes!

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

We planted four healthy grapevines the first year we moved to the farm, so they are now 20 plus years old, we have been blessed with many harvests here on the farm and gifted away extras into the community. They make the best grape jelly and were a favorite with my late mother in law.

The time has come to add new grape vines officially to the “Park Garden” the birds gifted a baby of our current grapes on the fence line corner which is very happy there indeed, and i think we should give it a bit more help on its height and pruning this year as well.

While there are many places to buy your grape vines from, we have narrowed it down to three of the table grapes from WhiffleTree

I had shared these three on facebook and it turned out a fellow gardener has Canadice and has very kindly offered to gift me a few cuttings when she does her pruning this year, such a blessing indeed.

I think we have decided on Himrod. Has anyone grown this grape? if so, what you think of it? We are Zone 5a and this is a pretty open area yet, while we have hedgerows planted, they are not big enough yet to really offer winter wind protection which will be coming with time.

It will be lovely to have seedless fresh eating table grapes here on the farm as i find the kind we grow now to be to tart for fresh eating myself, others like them and respect that but for me, i have to eat the middle lol and leave the skins or i do the pucker power face lol

Do you grow grapes? if so what kind? Are you looking to add grapes to your garden this year and if so, what have your chosen?

Posted in Food Forest, Garden | Tagged 0 mile food, building your local food shed, Eat what you grow, eating local, food, Food Forest, Garden, garden zone 5a, Gardening, Gardening in Canada, gardening in the true north, grapes, Grow what you eat, Growing Grapes, Growing grapes in canada, homestead, support canadian company, Victory garden | Leave a comment

Canadian Eh!

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

On a cold day in Feb 2025 a ladder was climbed and hardware installed. The Canadian Flag was placed in such a way that anyone driving by or driving into our farm would be able to spot it.

When everyone else feels the need to keep up with the Jones, i am happy to keep to my own lane. Case in point, Dear Hubby and I have lovely plain gold wedding rings and have been together for over 25 years now but the odds of seeing us wearing them, rare, very rare.. first they were taken off for work reasons and then we finally looked at each other and went the purpose of these are to tell others we are married.. WE know we are married and the now they go on when we feel like it, a special date, or when traveling to remind me of him 🙂

In this same line, even on Canada day, i do not put flags on my car, when i traveled to EU a number of times, i did not sew in my flag on my gear, i don’t wear clothing with my flag on it..

I am quietly Canadian, i say sorry way more then i should, i hold door for folks, i let cars in, i help folks and i share my life with a man who any country would be proud to call their own. Someone who has worked for Canada on so many levels, while always holding himself to high standards, that i strive for.

So when he looked at me with fire in his eyes, and said, no buying USA made and lets make lists of what needs to be cut, removed, not supported and cheat sheets made to carry in our phones and wallets on where we can stop for coffee, meals, clothing and more.. I knew that that he had a full grasp of just what was here and coming in terms of “economic warfare”

Don’t let the 30 day mental game being played fool you.. Its on!

It was only a matter of days before for the first time in my adult life, the need to clearly and loudly share with those around me where i stand.

I stand with Canada and united with its Allies

I can only hope that someday soon ( I worry that soon will be a full four years) we will be able to count the USA government among those Allies again.

For those of us living on both sides of the border who just went what the “f*uck is happening, you are not alone.

Hug your loved ones, reach out to your friends, plant the garden, stock that deep pantry a little more, tighten your belt, put a little more away if you can, support your community, be the reason someone smiled, bring back the kitchen card parties, time together is well spent time indeed..

Keep the faith and share your kindness and light in the darkness

It is needed now more then ever!

Posted in CanadianEh | Tagged canada, Canadian, Canadian flag, Maple Leaf, Proud to be Canadian, Stand up and be counted, Stand up for Canada | 4 Comments

Burger and Corn Soup

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

Sometimes we just need a simple soup, a clear flavor filled broth with hints of sweetness from the corn, along with some good old fashion filling from the meat and pasta.

Beef Corn Soup Recipe

1 pound of ground burger (this was local grass fed and very lean)

2 cups of frozen sweet nibblet corn (could used canned) this corn went from picked to processed and into my Freezer mates seven months ago and its as fresh as the day it was done as that tub was packed so that no extra air was left in.

2 cups of shell pasta

2 quarts of beef bone broth

Salt, Pepper to taste

1 tsp of olive oil or oil of your choice

Add your oil to your soup pot, cook your meat till it is browned, add your broth, corn, and shells, bring to a simmering boil, stirring now and again, it should only take about 20 to 25 minute’s to make from start to finish.

8 Standard Supper Servings or could get even more if served with a side of bread.

Sometimes less is more and that rings true for this soup, its so simple and yet so tasty!

Soup Cost Breakdown

7 dollars for the beef per pound

25 cents for the corn

pasta 25 cents (the bag was gotten on a dollar a bag sale)

Beef bone broth (made with my own beef bones) but lets go with if i bought it and say 1.00 if i had gotten the powdered version

Salt/pepper/garlic powder – .25 cents

Total for the pot of soup $8.50

8 Supper Bowls breaks it down to 1.06 per bowl

Super simple, and very close to a dollar a bowl, if i had gotten the beef on sale at the store this week which was 4 for a pound, i could bring that cost point down but if you were buying from the store the corn would have gone up in price as it would not be from the garden.

Posted in Eat what you grow, Soups and Stews | Tagged bone broth, Bulk Buys, Corn, dinner, Eat what you grow, food, Frugal, Garden, grass fed beef, Grow what you eat, Grow your own, homemade soup, local food shed, Pantry, recipe, recipes, Simple soup, soup, Winter Soups | Leave a comment

Ham Maker Review

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

While i like cooking roasts and chicken and such for both meals and leftovers, the truth is, i like having precooked sandwich meats in the fridge. Wow the price on these has just gone crazy! I don’t mean the good stuff at the deli counter either, i mean all of it, the price point keeps going up, the amount we are getting keeps going down and in many cases, they have changed their recipes and they are hoping we don’t notice.

So as i was looking at food equipment for black friday sales, i spotted something called the Ham Maker, and went huh.. in some ways its like making sausage but without the casing and in the very size we think of as sandwich meat sliced rounds.

At $40 Canadian it was worth trying and boy, am i glad we did, so far i have made a number of different sausage recipes, i have made it course with just regular burger and spices, i have made it finer by doing the only stir your meat one way to create the longer texture fibers and i have put it and spices/dried and powdered greens/herbs and even veggies into the food Processor and let it grind till very smooth indeed.

The bottom line, the leftover juice makes the best soup/stew starter or you could use for gravy, or flavor other dishes with it. The cooled and sliced rounds can be made quite thin for sandwich or pizza or it can be made thicker for fast reheating with a bit of crisping.

Mine is standard size and it holds 2 pounds of meat prepared and then once cool can be sliced and stored in the fridge for ready to go use. I already had the water in the big pot left over from waterbath canning so i did it so you could see the pot but normally i do it in shuttle chef pot as it just fits it perfectly and it takes much less energy to run the cook time.

So far the spring to me is the only real weakness, you need to let it cool enough that you can get it to let go and or risk the first slice by putting a dull edge down enough to break the cooking seal, the rest of the unit is study as they come. So far the spring is solid and holding well, but i would like to see where its at in a year or five!

Mixing and matching meats, flavors, herbs, greens and even dried powdered veggies, its proving itself to be quite easy and useful! I will admit that i wish i could adjust the compression on the meat itself as i think some could use more and some could use less.

Overall rating, Solid 4.5 out of 5

Posted in At the kitchen table, Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Control what you eat, dinner, Dried veggies, Eat what you grow, food, Frugal, grassfed beef, Ham Maker Review, Hammaker, Herbs, Homemade Sandwich meats, Powdered veggies, Premade, recipe, recipes, Sandwich meat round sliced, sandwiches | 2 Comments

Blood Orange Marmalade Recipe

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

The wonderful scent of simmering marmalade filled the kitchen on this bitterly cold winter day, for here in Canada, the citrus season comes in during our bleak winter months. The color on these oranges as i cut into them was just stunning, deep ruby purple reds.

In Keeping with as simple as possible

Blood Orange Recipe

2 pounds of oranges (wash, trim ends, cut into quarters remove any seeds) Process them in a food processor till they are a med grind using the pulse grind

Measure out the amount of ground orange, in this case it was 3 cups, double the sugar

6 cups of Canadian Sugar (beet sugar)

1 tsp salt

Bring to a simmer boil and stir often, scrape down the sides and put a few small plates into the freezer, once it starts to give a glossy cover to the spoon,

check on your plate for thickness of what you want in terms of thickness, some like it thinner, some like it be a thicker set. In this case you can see how clean those edges are and that i have no fall back into my line, its at the thickness we like our no extra pectin added to be.

As i expected the end color is stunning! This marmalade has more of a traditional bitter edge to it then the Cara Cara did!

With these two done, that is our year’s supply of Marmalade made, so far in 2025, i have called lunch soups and marmalade. A slow start to be sure but at this time its more about using the canning pantry then it is about putting things up.

The cost savings for having made my own is over 5 dollars savings per jar!