Potato Leek Soup Recipe

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Potato Leek Soup Recipe

  • 6 new med sizes potato’s diced (these were from the garden so skins on)
  •  2 cups of sweet baby corn (I used the cut off corn on 4 cobs)
  •  1 leek trimmed properly and then quartered and finely sliced.
  •  6 cups of veggie stock (depending on the size of your pan, must cover the veggies to cook at a med-heat simmer)
  •  1 cup of whole milk
  • 1 tsp of olive oil or any kind of fat.
  • Salt, Pepper to taste.

In a good quality heavy bottomed pot, place your 1 tsp of olive and your prepared leek, cook stirring now and again till you get some brown bits on the leek..

Then Add your Prepared Potato’s, corn and stock and cook till the potato’s are tender.. taste your broth, does it need a bit more salt, pepper.. this should be a VERY light tasting soup.. you want the leek/corn flavours to be able to come though..

Once your soup is cooked.. add your milk or light cream if you prefer..  Allow it to heat back up but DO NOT simmer it again..  just heat though..   Taste again.. do you need to add a touch more salt or pepper?

If you want, you could put a tiny bit of green onion on top for a pop of extra color..

Serves 4 bowls..

I love that this is a such a perfect fall garden soup.. Fresh baby potato’s from the garden, fresh fall leek with just cut off the cob fall corn..  The light but rich broth hits just the right notes of depth with a hint of sweetness..

Bonus Recipe.. See Below

If you wanted to change up the flavour a touch, I recommend a little bit of nutmeg, try just a tiny pinch and test the soup to see if it has enough of that spicy undertone from that spice..   Adding this spice will change the whole soup in flavour and I would put finely diced red pepper bits as the finally finish to the bowl.

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Chaga Bone Broth Recipe

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I had a awesome bag of grass fed beef bones to make bone broth with and I had a light bulb moment..

Chaga bone broth..

o my..

Talk about taking two amazing immune boosters and combining them together. I had leek bits, peppers and other amazing extra to add from the garden to the stock.. simmering away for the day..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Product Review: Reusable Silicone Food Bags

Posted on September 25, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Sharing this nice review from a friend’s blog.. I had passed on these and went with the freeze its but I believe in second chances and it does sound like these are top lineish.. so if you are looking for a silicone reuseable food bags.. pop over and have a read.. I think I will see if she might like to do a year review on hers and me on mine

via Product Review: Reusable Silicone Food Bags

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Potato Harvest 2019

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

What a year its been in regards to our Potato’s..

The Bean Teepee spuds where planted out in the 3rd ring and they were outstanding in volume and taste.. they were the early’s that I planted and were eat though them in july.. for 4 pound bag, we got a solid 10 to 1 yield of 40 to 45 pounds of fresh eating potato’s

Kitchen Garden Plot 15 which was given some compost and lightly turned in.. got a huge amount of one of my best growing potato’s, we covered the plants with straw, we feed it with comfrey leaves and I even watered it out once with rabbit/nettle compost tea..

It did not matter.. the plants struggled in the drought, they were stunted and did not want to grow.. they yellowed hard and fast..   I was lucky to get one med and two small per plant..  such a waste.. maybe 20 to 25 pounds..

The side patch has done well but its yield is lower then it should be.. I am going to guess another 35 to 40 pounds.. it should be at least 60.. but shugs.. what is what is..

However..  then comes rose hill

It was a lower area in our yard and its a odd combo of a slightly hugel type base of small branches, lots and lots of leaves and then it became a compost pile.. bird, rabbit, bedding, horse..  We stacked and let it rot down and stacked again.. but never really turned it..

Last year it just sat..

This spring in the yard rebuild.. I needed something done in that area.. so Amano Gardens  

Gave me a helping hand the one day for some of the really heavy lifting and they spread the whole pile for me across what became Rose Hill and that included bedding the whole area down in very thick straw.

When it came time to potato planting time, it was the perfect spot to slip seed spuds into the area’s where the straw meet.. it was a great call!

A solid 140ish pound of potato’s came out of that patch.. the best one of the year for sure.. I am very happy with the size and yield from that patch for sure..

However I have major work to do in the Kitchen Garden Plot 15.. and I need to really think about maybe, turning Rose Hill into a regular main garden plot.. thinking thinking.. it is the best soil spot in the whole new garden due to the fact that it was created over a older compost pile..  it can grow anything..

How was your potato growing this year? did you get a good harvest? Did you have any pest issues? did you have any nibbling.. I had one spot that I had a bit of mole bites but the farm cats did their job and did it well..

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged | 6 Comments

Jimmy Kitten decided he wanted a photo session..

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Ah, Jimmy, you were having so much fun playing on this big old tree! loved, loved your poses.. There were at least five or more of the ones below for each one of the above lol..

 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Good Bee numbers eqaul a Good Harvest..

Posted on September 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I love this photo so much because it just sums it up so well..  While we started out with sad start this spring with some of the mason bee’s coming way to soon.. They hatched out on a snap warm up and the odds are very strong they died in the coming cold and snow that appeared shortly afterwards.

Thankfully I had held my early spring bee’s in the fridge till the timing was right and then hatched them out.. At that time I could already see some native spring bee’s where busy in the tree’s and early blooms.

These little tiny tike’s seen here on a very early spring forced cherry bloom. I pushed all my bigger branches that I trimmed so I could get a extra flower push due to our very cool long spring.

Still.. once spring really arrived.. so did the bee’s.. the local farmer around my land grew soy this year..bad for the coming hoards of Asian beetles but good for my bees and its not a very heavy spray crop.. so I barely had a dip in my pop after he sprayed his land this year.

The bumbles did amazing this year.. as did the leaf cutters.. so many little cuttings in leaves all over the place.. love it!

The Garden thrived despite the slow start, the 5 week drought and then the fast cool and still dry early onset of fall..  the bees are everywhere at the moment..  I swear that while we worked out in the gardens and yards today that there are hundreds of native bees, bumbles and so forth in a fall feeding.

Four weeks ago.. the sunflowers where crawling with them..  Two weeks ago.. the golden rods were humming and right now.. sun chokes and asters are in full cover..

I feel that a number of things we have been doing really have helped to raise the populations of native bees here on the farm.

How was your bee breeding season this year? Did you see more bees? More Bumbles? More Mason? More Leafcutter? More the tiny bees?

 

 

 

 

Posted in Native Bee's | Tagged | 3 Comments

Always game to learn..

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Untitled as of yet

I am not sure what I am going to call this little painting.. but I really like it.. I adore the many, many layers in it..  this is not a big painting.. but I have close to 5 hours into it.. while the photo does a ok job.. but there is a crazy amount of detailed work in this piece.

I ordered in some books to work though things over the winter..  Each book has a number of exercise’s in it. and I looking forward to learning them.. some I learn and never use because it will not “sound out to me” I know this.. but it does not matter..

Some I will learn and only use now and again when its needed in order to get a certain look.. or texture in maybe one or two painting over the whole year..

Other’s however will sing out to me.. and when I want to paint this or that.. I will have more way to do so.. I can reach out and try this style or that way..

I have a few favorite ways to do water but I am beyond excited work from the book that shows you 30 ways to watercolor paint water..  Awesome!

Hubby laughed at me,  I am totally focused on fall colors at the moment but I am excited to learn new ways to paint snow.. and winter tree’s..  Winter is coming.. but not yet.. right now.. its just coming into fall..

This is the next painting I am going to do.. a friend put it up on their facebook and I went.. o yes.. you are next..

It might be the start but I have never in my life ended up with the very same.. but its the starting point :)..  I like the yellow and the white birch trunks, with a touch of orange/red…  great lightening.. on the tree’s and the water.. not sure if I want the front plant growth or if I will remove that and or make it shorter..

The joy of having some control.. taking a blank sheet of paper and creating something from nothing.. with a number of things in my life at the moment, of which I have little control.. the fact that I get to choose what goes on the paper and at the same time, as its watercolor.. you must be brave and willing to let it flow to a certain point..

Hope you will enjoy imagining boating down that river with the fall colors popping all around you!

 

Posted in Painting | 2 Comments

The Peanut Gallery

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Good Morning Folks..

Can’t see the forest though the tree’s

Yesterday on CBC news they announced that Tim’s (our national Coffee and donut shop) who with great fanfare announced that they were jumping on the “no meat band wagon and serving up the ultra-processed plant based proteins mock burgers/sausages in july

Had poor enough sales that they were cancelling this in all province’s other then B.C and Ontario.  There is are lots of other fast food that will continue to carry this certain type of veggie burger..

I put up what I considered to be the most polite two sentence comment in the peanut gallery..

I said.. How wonderful, hopefully in the future it be all of Canada.

Now I honestly think if I had just added the little detail that I don’t think ultraprocessed food is a good thing.. that I think you should be able to read what is on your food list as at least a hundred others did.. I would have maybe got one to four comments or clicks..

However I didn’t..

O my Gosh..  so when the first couple very negative comments came in, snarling at me that I was bad for wanting this amazing “meat replacement” gone across Canada.. I blinked and when huh..

I almost answered but I didn’t get a chance before another 10 plus comments came in and they were very unhappy that I could think it wonderful..

I got..mind my own business.. Why should I be allowed to have a say.. if I didn’t like it, don’t order it..

Then it took the first really odd turn.. other people started defending me.. and they were totally on the other side.. eat meat.. (which has nothing to do with my own reason.. I have friends that choose to not eat meat.. its fine.. and if you are going to eat meat, if possible I hope if you can afford to do so… that you buy outside the commercial production and support farmgate local farmers wherever you live)

So they started in-fighting and I walked away to do some work in the kitchen.. when I came back.. it was to another 20 plus comments..

I got called a “snowflake” which made me laugh.. I have never been called that.. It made me chuckle because I am so NOT a snowflake..  However at this point.. it took another turn..

Someone went to my facebook photo and they had moved from the above to deciding to fat shame me.. I should not be allowed a burger of any kind.. this lead to another whole round of both those that decided it was fine to call me fat, my personal favorite was the guy who told me.. mind your own business, you fat cow..

At this point, I was staring at my screen in with a look of WHAT the BLEEP!

Then to give credit where credit is due.. a number of the women and one man who had written and was very angry at me over what they thought was my choice against plant based protein.. jumped back in to DEFEND me. in this angle.. that fat shaming in public was no more ok then not liking a meatless burger..

This lead to a number of them “checking” out my facebook profile and public posts in more detail..

Which lead to the next round.. moving from fat shaming me to .. wait for it..

Me needing to charged because I ride my horse.. my massive 1600 pound horse at my weight..  and that exploded.. I could have explained that I own a horse the size I do so I can ride, that I follow carefully the recommended well studied weight limits, that I have my vet check for chiro issues to make sure they are NOT being hurt when I ride..

It would not have mattered.. so I did not..

At that point.. I had to block, remove and stop the comments that were then flying on my public profile photos so that the nasty things they were writing on it..

Then of course they followed though and hit the blog.. thankfully.. its moderated.. so none of their nonsense made it on here..

At this point, I had over 80 infighting comments..  On my facebook, I think my personal favorite was the one that attacked my art skills.. Wow.. Just wow..

I did not write back.. I did not engage.. I hit delete.. I was sadly the top post, which meant that as they all continued to infight, each new comment meant it was pushed back to the top again.. and again..

I am a blogger, I have a pretty thick skin.. but I was amazed to watch this happen in real time in a mear matter of minutes..  How it went from being happy that a ultra processed food is no longer being sold to intense personal attacks in under 10 min..

The mob..  The mob is alive and well.. it is thriving on the internet!

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 25 Comments

The Call..

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

I am sad that I missed getting my post up yesterday.. it was a good day but I seemed to do chores and then be out and doing things and or on the phone on other things..

The call..  Like that sunflower above.. the call itself is the simple enough right.. your phone rings.. and you either answer or not..

The meat of the call is like the sunflower seeds.. hidden, deeper and the meat sometimes needs a cracking to get to..

When your parents get older and their health starts having issues..  the phone ringing takes on a new meaning at times..  Some calls are waited for.. waiting, waiting for information..

Other calls are much harder to deal with.. worry and concern and frustration.  All fair and normal considering what is happening but none the less its tricky..

Information must move from place to place and to the day.. hearing a voice, hearing the words themselves is a good thing even if the news is tricky itself.

Jason’s mom is back in the hospital again.. the fourth time in a matter of weeks.. and we are waiting for the call on the latest news on results..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 10 Comments

The last round of the Tomato’s

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

That’s it Folks.. on sunday we picked and choose and hauled in another 15 pounds give or take of the best tomato’s and the rest when to the birds, the bad went to the compost pile where next year dozens of babies will no doubt sprout up.

The year has been a surprise.. its been outstanding.. I had a very limited number of plants.. they were in a new bed with new soil.. and they rocked it..

In part because they were massive starts that I had custom grown for me..

In part because they were in the perfect full sun/heat sink grow area in the new kitchen garden..

In part because I did a lot of compost watering’s

They got a bunny poo manure tea feeding

They got a nettle tea green plant  tea feeding

They got a comfrey green plant tea feeding

And in the worst part of the drought.. I did a sheep poo/aged horse and nettle/comfrey blend that they loved..

The plants have all been pulled out, the extra weeding in KG plot 1 done and now it sits ready for me to add a thick heavy but well screened compost..

This plot was double dug and took close to a ton and half of top soil to back fill..  I will have it ready to go in the early spring for early greens and then its going into the root veggie plot.. carrots, parsnips, summer turnips and green onions..

I could not be more pleased with our return yields on this plot and those 12 plants.. they have allowed me to fresh eat and cook for months, put up 72 quarts of different kinds of pasta sauces..

I have enough left over to do salsa and green tomato relish..  and we are still harvesting and enjoy the sweetest yummiest cherry tomato’s that are now well over 8 feet and climbing still..  I will hold them till frost..

The custom start meant my slow start to the garden was moot.. the plants put down the roots big time and so they handled the drought with grace.. they were tight enough planted and we planted ground cover radish’s and onions and other fast growers between then to keep that soil covered..

We did water them when we could and when they were pulled up those root systems were massive.. just as they should be!

Hope you got some good tomato returns in your garden this year..

Posted in At the kitchen table | 6 Comments