Two Thumbs Up for Lambie Hammies

With a little (okay, a lot of) effort I redeemed myself and managed to earn two thumbs up in the dinner department - no, I did not cave and serve Kraft dinner.

Tonight's dinner selection was lamb burgers with garden salad.

We used red scallions, garlic chives, oregano and radishes from the garden.

Lots of fresh greens too.

Homemade buns.

And our homegrown lamb meat, of course.

"Look Mom, I cleaned my plate!" 
He ate a whole burger!

During dinner Ian and I reflected on the incredible amount of time and effort that went into this particular meal.  From breeding the sheep, bottle feeding one of lambs, and helping him nurse until Violet, a first time mama, got everything figured out.  To harvesting the ram lambs and the incredibly long time it took to clean and butcher the meat ourselves.  To planting the vegetable seeds and transplanting the baby sprouts.  To weeding, watering, harvesting, and cleaning the vegetables.  To baking the buns, including the mixing, stretch and folding, and two rises.  Not to mention, preparing and cooking the meal.  And doing the dishes.  It is quite amazing when we stopped to think about it.

To make up for last night's dessert flop, tonight I served homemade frozen chocolate ice milk.  So much simpler and, thankfully, very well received.

Especially when topped with tiny score bits or super mini chocolate chips.

In the end I received two thumbs up.

I suppose that makes up for the two solid thumbs down that they gave me last night?  And you know what the kicker is about feeding kids?  They would have been just as happy with a box of Kraft dinner.

Lovin' Lavender...Maybe?

Our day culminated with honey lavender ice cream.  However, it took us a while to get there.

Continuing our quest to eat off the farm, today's lunch included: daikon and clover microgreens, lettuce, garlic chives, scallions and homemade bread.

All fuelled up, we harvested lavender from the garden and combined it with our wild flower honey and some store bought milk and cream (I cannot wait until we have goat milk on the farm!) to make a batch of homemade honey lavender ice cream.

Feeling inspired by the honey and lavender combination, I decided that I might like to include homemade honey lavender yogurt as the bonus item in our CSA basket this week.  We got to work...

Yogurt making is a lengthy process so we ate dinner in between.  We had grilled deer chops, asparagus and a delicious salad made from the most beautiful head of red lettuce in the garden.

I actually planted this lettuce last august and it is finally ready to eat!  Talk about being in for the long haul.

I remembered to add radishes this time!

Instead of salad dressing we topped it with sprinkle of brown sugar and a drizzle of white vinegar - a trick I learned from GG.

Amazing, you say?  Well, the boys hated it.  This was not a winner in the kid department.  They also detested the ice cream.  Apparently to them, lavender tastes like stinky soap smells.  Ian's verdict on the ice cream: "It is good...sort of."  Hopefully the honey-lavender favour profile is more popular with our CSA families that it was with mine.

Bosom Buddies

Just a boy and his chicken.

A Multi-Sensory Feast

Our front yard smells like a perfume factory.  The lilacs are out in full force and their heady scent is wafting throughout the farm.

In addition to smelling incredible, there are heaps of gorgeous flowers currently decorating our landscape.  From alliums to tulips, bleeding hearts to violets, lupins to honeysuckle - it is a feast for the eyes and our honey bees!

During our garden explorations we came across a vibrant blue robin's egg that, sadly, must have fallen out of a nearby nest.

We looked up in the tree but to no avail.  I do not think you are supposed to put a fallen egg back in a nest anyway but we did not even have the option; I have no idea where this beauty came from.

Tree above where the egg was found.

We also have a few things growing inside right now but they are not nearly as pretty or smelly. They are, however, very tasty.  It was time to move our trays of microgreens into the light.  In less than six hours, they went from yellow to green.

This must be what happens when you start the day with bread shaped like a flower.

#photosynthesisrocks

My Potato Bug

My little potato bug and I planted some potatoes for the second year in a row.  Last year, this undertaking did not go smoothly.  In an effort to "help" me, three year old Seamus picked all the eyes off of the seed potatoes prior to planting.  In his defence, I do ask him to remove the eyes when we are going to eat the potatoes so I could see how he got confused.

Over the past year we have been working hard at differentiating between how to prepare potatoes for cooking/eating versus how to prepare them for planting.  Four year old Seamus is now well versed in all things potato - I will let him explain...

This year we started by digging a trench in the garden.

We placed the potatoes with eyes intact equally spaced in the trench.

We covered them up with dirt.

Now we will wait until we see the eyes emerge from the dirt at which point we will cover them up with more dirt and we will continue to do so until the potatoes are buried about six inches deep.  Then we weed, water, wait and hope no other potato bugs find them in the meantime! #growingup

We've Got the Green Goods

Our family's quest to eat local - like off of our farm local - has begun in earnest.  With asparagus, radishes and a variety of greens out in full force, we are doing really well so far.  For instance, tonight's supper included: asparagus, scallions, garlic chives, dill, parsley, chard, arugula, spinach, butter crunch lettuce, and oregano - all from our gardens!  Radishes would have made sense too but I forgot about them...oops.

Homemade Greek salad dressing with lemon and fresh oregano.

Greek salad with spinach, lettuce, chard, arugula and parsley.

Chopped garlic chives and scallions for topping the potatoes.

Lemon-dill salmon and roasted asparagus done on the BBQ.

Voila!  Delicious, right?!

We are not the only ones eating like royalty.  We received a lot of positive feedback about the contents of our CSA basket this week.  Our CSA families are really digging our fresh salad greens and homemade artisan kombucha bread.  One even sent us a photo as proof!

With comments like "yummy", "AMAZING!!!!", and "phenomenal", we know we are on the right track.  So, we will keep eating local and feeding our CSA families delicious, healthy food directly from our farm to their table.  Bon appetit!