Our first clutch of ducklings have arrived, three more are being currently sat on, Dh has informed me that our first little peepers have safely hatched out, they are currently spending their first couple days in one of our big rabbit hutches with their mom to give them a great head start, they have both a outdoor and indoor area, and momma duck called them back an forth. Soon they will be moved out to the main duck area, and be back with the main flock. The other girls all started sitting around the same week, so it will interesting to see how many they hatch out, if they all do a dozen, that’s 48 ducks for freezer camp later in the season.
DH says that he has been working in the gardens, and building my new gate for me, I am quite excited to see that gate, Its something I have been asking for awhile but we have been making do.
Now is it any real surprise to you, that I am also currently in the process of helping my momma put in her garden at her new place? So today we headed out to the garden center and picked up new current bushes, High Bush Cranberry, two new rhubarb plants (plus one for my dad’s farm as surprise, so hope he does not read this post tonight), and four kinds of tomato’s and four peppers, along with a few flowers my mom got that where her mother’s favorite, and I picked up a lovely orange correl bell for mom, one of the few none food plants I truly adore.
And then came all the garden seeds, I will share with photos if it ever stops raining.. so you know how it is when you go back to your old home town, how is it that you can STILL after being gone for close to 20 years run into your old high school friends, amazing really.
I wanted to have a visit with a collage friend of mine that now has a farm half way between my mom’s place and my dad’s farm but I had forgot her phone number and its unlisted, only in a small town can you just call someone listed “with” the same last name and say. are you related to K-bear and hubby, and turns out, he was a cousin, and I explained I was a old friend, and before I got the numbers, got asked some real O so causal questions, that a friend would know the answer to, but no one else would, thankfully I passed the test 🙂 and was able to get her number and will be heading out to her farm to have visit later this week, I can’t wait to see her and the kids but I am also excited to see how her own team of baby oxen are coming along, and to maybe find a bit of time to work with them, I want to see the difference between me working a single with Girl vs working a team of baby boys.
Can’t wait to show you the photos of the wild saskatoons out on dad’s farm, they are all in full bloom at this time, and mom and I are planning a pie making hour of hours so will soon share how to make a amazing saskatoon pie.
Any new babies on your homesteads? Any new plantings in the garden? Ever had Saskatoon Pie?
Hi Folks
DH is holdin down the fort and I have hit the road, got called home to help my momma, and its possable that I will have less time to blog (I hope not), and I did take extra photo’s on the farm over the past couple days to do some farm related posts, and Dh will guest write but please bare with me while I show off some of the local fare on my trip..
Couple days ago farmer R stopped by and dropped off close to 1000 pds of straw for bedding use on the farm and he asked/told me that he still has four more of these big bales available for me, and do I want them otherwise, he has a buyer set up for them.
You see the rain, flooding and the fact that he has not been able to get out on the land means that he has already missed the cut off date line for planting wheat, which means that there will be NO new straw for sale this fall, now he is going to try and get in barley.
Needless to say, I booked to have delivered all four big sqaure straw bales for this coming winters use, now I am looking at hay with a groan and sigh, everywhere I turn, the local farmers are telling me that the cost of hay will be going up if you can get your hands on it.
Went to the feed store and already, the cost of each bag is up by about ten percent, since the same time last year its up over 30 percent in my area, and I don’t think that trend is going to reverse any time soon.
This morning I am listening to CBC radio and they have spent the last half hour talking about the droughts and the floods across the world, and how its going to effect this years wheat crops, Its always so interesting to me to hear directly from farmers in other countries, in this case we heard from a farmer in France, as they are in a drought currently.
They had a gentleman on from Texas that was talking about their drought as well and that he was selling off his yearlings early to reduce the herd, and that they are still feeding extra protein months after they normally stop because the pastures have not had the normal spring rains.
While we have not been here that long, this has been the coolest, wets spring we have had to date since we moved to the farm, and my garden is about three weeks behind on a number of things.
How is it going in your area? Are you drier or wetter then normal this year? Or are you having a great planting spring? Are you putting away a little more then normal with the thought that those prices are going to go up this fall, and better to get it at the current prices?
The best way I know to mow a lawn, First, it teaches Girl how to be a proper tie out grazing cow, while she is still small, second it saves on gas for the lawnmower, third, the lawn is mowed to a high that the grass still has a nice height to it, fourth, the clean up is easy enough and the results can get flipped into the compost pile. So how does your lawn mower grow 😉
The first potato’s are up and got a good start, our second planting is just poking its heads up and we will put our third planting out over the next week or two.
The peas are coming along very well, not only on their third set of true leaves but the first gripping tendrels are starting so soon I will be helping them find their climbing wire. My Greenhouse started Cabbage and Broccoli that was transplanted out about a week ago are looking good, they don’t appear to be set back at all. The green onions are ready for harvest at eight inches tall and the romaine is going strong as is the garlic, my strawberries plants are looking great but no flowers yet.
Inside the green house, the tomato and pepper plants are growing like mad, they need to get transplanted out as soon as the weather will allow it. My big tomato plants are well into their first flowering, and I will have my first fresh tomato’s within the next few weeks.
Still have so much to plant and as you can clearly see in the above photos, someone needs to do a little weeding already 🙂 That is a never ending chore around here..
Out in the fruit yard, the plum tree’s are in full bloom and looking mighty fine, hoping for a really nice crop this year. I have the most amazing spicy plum sauce recipe to share.
While Rhubarb will freeze for later use, if you know that you are going to use it within three months, and have the space in the freezer, feel free to do so. I have dried it, and it does work, and of course takes a great deal less storage space.
However if you are looking to put up large amounts of Rhubarb for year round use for me at least, I like to can Rhubarb Fruit. Please get the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving for all your basic information.
A regular batch for me is 16 cups of Rhubarb to 3 cups of Sugar, and I hot pack it, and hot water bath process for 15 min, so easy! and so yummy when done. You can move your sugar safely down to two cups or up to four cups keeping the rhubarb at the same percent depending on how sweet or sharp you like your rhubarb. It makes me six pints. Is there anything better then hearing that “Ping!”
About a month ago, I looked at my asparagus bed and went huh, I pulled back its mulch just a little and dug out the edges, two weeks ago I looked at my bed and went, come on! already, and went an picked out in the yard “wild” greens, Last week I stood over the bed and gave it a good old fashioned glare, darn cool, wet spring.. I swear the very next day, green heads started pushing out of the soil and finally almost a month late compared to normal, I have lots of fresh asparagus.
Let me tell two cute little stories, both are about DH, the first was when I started the Asparagus said, well you get to it that, cuz I don’t like them.. so the first year when harvest came along and I made my first dish and on the plates it went, and I said, try it before you knock it, and next thing you know, it was “this is so good, nothing like I remember store bought ones tasting like”. Last year, he said to me, I think we need to expand that bed or get rid of it, this quite surprised me, so I said, why hon, and he says, its just not producing enough, to which I laughed and said.. uh.. well you see your wife kind of tends to pick and eat a ton fresh every time she walks by the bed, so its kind of my fault that you don’t think its producing well 😉 Needless to say, we are planning on expanding the bed.
From The 150 Healthiest foods on Earth Book, Asparagus has a very faorable rato of potassium to sodium. A cup of cooked aspargus contains a whopping 404 mg of potassium as well as 268mg of folate. Its also high in Vit K, Rutin, which helps protect blood vessels and the anti-inflammatory, cancer-fighting flavoniod quercetin. A cup will give you 3.6 fiber all for the above for only 40 calories.
Farmgal Fresh Asparagus Soup.
Take all your fresh greens and dollop of butter or magrine or oil olive and give it a little fry, then add your veggie or white bone broth, then your sheeps milk, allow to heat but not boil, then thicken with a little corn starch, cook till thick and serve.
If you want to learn more about ontario Asparagus, http://www.asparagus.on.ca/
Do you grow Asparagus? What is your favorite recipe to use it in? Do you eat it raw? or perfer cooked? Did you have a good season in production this year?
Ah, monday, bread making, housework and laundry day.. I could not resist bringing in this splash of color on this grey rainy day.
Green Thumb Print Cookies
Mix in order, then roll into ball or flatten and then press a hollow in the middle of the cookie, fill either with spruce sugar, or rhubarb/spruce jam and bake for 12 to 14 min at 350.
Canadian Doomer did a book give away supported by the generous people at Thomas Allen & Son, a Canadian family-owned publisher in Ontario. I won the Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook
I asked for catalogs to come with the book, and while DH liked the main catalog, I was thrilled to see a smaller one called Storey publishing, it turns out that this company sells some of my favorites, I was quite suprised at just how many of their books I already owned in my homestead/garden collection. Some of these books are on my list for review in my Homestead Books section including but not limited to.
Like I said, I was surprised at how many of their books I had already gotten and have sticky notes on and use on the farm, I saw at least six more that I know I will be putting on my wish list for the future. If they are listed up there, they have passed the first reading and are keepers on the shelves for current and future use on the farm.
Its spring time and that means time to make tons of different things with those stunning Vit c packed lime green fresh spruce tips. Remember to remove the brown casing and give them a wash, these are picked off the farm, so I know that they have not been sprayed with anything.
Farmgal’s Rhubarb/Spruce Tip Jam (it was inspired by a Finnish Drink, I had in Finland when I visited in 2004)
if you want to hide the tips more, Blend the spruce and apple mint leaves with one cup of sugar for ease of doing so, then add everything into a pot and bring to a slow boiling simmer. Now you have a choice, you can use pecton if you want, or you can slow simmer the rhubarb till it thick enough on its own, like a good rhubarb butter, and then hot pack it into clean hot jars and process for 15 min for storage. Its rhubarb which to me only gets better with cooking, so I like my old fashioned slow simmer into almost a butter but still jam. Remember to skim your foam off but don’t throw it out, just save it and use fresh on toast. Now don’t let this one fool you folks, it may seem a little odd on the mix but its truly a delightful jam, Give this one a try, you won’t be sorry you did so! This is total favorite to go with rye toast in the morning.
Took some of this jam with me this today to a little get together, and had six folks try it, and got postive feedback from everyone, so its not just me that thinks this one is a good one to make.
Jelly Version, Cook Rhubarb, Spruce tips and mint, strain though cheesecloth, collecting all drippings and make into Jelly instead.
Canadian Mock Capers with fresh young Spruce tips. So very easy, pick your picks, remove any of the coverings, wash and dry them and fill your jars with them
Note: The first time I made Mock Spruce Tip Caper was in Yellowknife in 1999, while I worked at “the office”, we made our own Northern Capers, they were used with the char we made..
In a pan mix your vineger with salt and peppercorns, heat till salt is desolved, then pour over the tips in a glass jar, cover and allow to pickle for at least two months before use in the fridge.
Spruce Tip Vinegar
2 cups red wine vinegar or Any other kind of Vinegar you want to use
1 cup roughly chopped spruce tips
Spruce Tip Salt
1/2 cup coarse salt
1/2 cup roughly chopped spruce tips
or
Spruce Tip Sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup roughly chopped spruce tips.
Finely grind the tips, mix with the salt, it will be quite damp to start with, just let it dry, break up any lumps and keep in glass jar.
Spruce Tip Mayo
Makes 1 cup mayonnaise
.1 cup mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)
1/4 cup minced spruce tips
2 tsp. sugar and lemon or lime juice
Spruce Tip Syrup or Make it into Jelly by adding in pectin.
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 cups roughly chopped spruce tips.
Simmer for 30 min and then strain and then bring back to a full boil, put the boiling syrup in clean hot jars and then process in hot water bath for 15 min for long term storage.
The tips are just entering the picking stage on the farm, and so as I make each of the above, I will add photos to each item, but for today, I am in Jam mode!
If you are looking for cookbook that shows how to make many of these basics and then provides recipes on how to use them, I would highly recommend this cookbook, my husband picked it up in Whitehorse Yukon.. Its called the Boreal Gourmet.
Going to make this one a Homestead Barn Hop post.
Just another Day on the Farm 