I have spent a lot of time lately on sourdough related baking, so today Seamus and I decided to go back to basics this morning and make muffins. We could not decide what kind we wanted so we ended up with whole wheat banana, strawberry, lemon, coconut muffins. We used our homemade lemon yogurt and substituted our raw honey for the sugar.
Despite the many flavours in our muffins, we agreed that they were still missing something - rhubarb. Luckily, our rhubarb has finally started to grow! It will not be long until rhubarb muffins are on the menu.
On our walk about the farm today we were delighted to find that many other things are growing too.
Some of the 300 daffodils we planted last fall have popped up.
Our pallet garden veggies loved the sunny day.
Our lettuce and chard look crunchy after a late afternoon watering.
Our first planting of directly sowed spinach is up.
And we have green grass. Finally!
Speaking of green things growing, our microgreens have gone gangbusters! I have gotten creative in trying to figure out how to use microgreens on almost everything we eat. Today's lunch and dinner included:
Red clover greens on an open-face tuna salad sandwich on homemade sourdough.
Wasabi mustard greens on a baked potato with homemade creme fraiche.
Between muffins and microgreens, our tummies are satisfied tonight here on Gael Glen Farm. In addition, our minds are appeased by the promise of much more homemade and home grown food in our future.
I know that it is going to be a wonderful day when Ian offers to take the boys out for the morning so I can spend a few uninterrupted hours in the barnyard. Ah, peace and quiet.
Our farm animals are currently living in a mud puddle. I figured that since it is so wet outside, they would appreciate a clean, dry sleeping spot more than ever. So I mucked the barns, in the muck.
I noticed today that Abbott currently has a sore eye. The lid is swollen but he can still open it a bit. It is tearing pretty heavily. Hopefully this heals up quickly.
Violet was really enjoying her free choice minerals today. She licked some up while I was in the barn to show me that I installed the mineral feeder at exactly the correct height.
As always, I multi-tasked. I tried a new recipe for naturally leavened sour dough. It was my nicest crumb yet (the holes on the inside) but got a little burnt on the outside.
My first try at English muffins resulted in muffins that were definitely edible; however, there is room for improvement. The boys did not complain at all though. They each polished off two, warm out of the oven with melted butter and jam.
On the whole, it was a low-key but productive Sunday - the best way to end the week, in my opinion.
On any given day Gael Glen Farm is a verifiable fermentation factory. Seriously, bacteria and yeast are our friends. Today we have twelve things on the go on the fermentation front.
After awakening to a beautiful sunrise at the cottage,
and leaving Liam and Seamus in the very capable hands of Grandma and Grandpa,
Who doesn't love an early morning tractor ride?
I continued my trek to Carrying Place to retrieve our new chicks. Collecting them and strapping them in safely was easy.
I introduced them to some Randy Travis for the drive back to the cottage. It seems that we are going to get along just fine; the chicks were loving my choice of country music from the 80's. In fact, when I turned it off, they responded by continuing the music themselves.
The boys were thrilled to meet our new additions. The hardest part was getting Seamus not to squeeze them to death with love.
I had a very different soundtrack on this leg of the journey: cheeps and snores.
It is exhausting loving on something so cute and tiny!
At home we installed the chicks into their new home in the trailer that very recently held our veggies being hardened off. Good thing I got the pallet garden done so we have room to house our new chicks!
Our chicks were HUNGRY after their long journey.
Both chicks and toddlers are now fed, warm, happy, and snoozing. I will not be far behind.
We will do half the trip tonight and stop at the cottage. Liam and Seamus will spend tomorrow visiting Grandma and Grandpa while I make the rest of the journey and then we will all head home. Ian is holding down the fort at the farm, as per usual.
And we are off! Liam really is excited, he is just practising his teenager face.
(Really Mom, enough with the pictures. Let's go already.)
I have been experimenting with microgreens as a way to add flavour to the many salads we eat and as a potential addition to our CSA baskets, especially until the garden is in full swing. Since we have grow lights up for the garden seedlings anyway, adding another tray underneath is not a big deal.
We started off with a test batch of broccoli and sunflower seeds. It look a while for them to get going but they really took off.
Then our seeds arrived from Mumm's Sprouting Seeds in Saskatchewan and we were really in business! We are growing broccoli, dill, wasabi mustard, red clover, alfalfa, daikon radish, dwarf grey sugar peas, and speckled peas. The dill did not take but everything else was a success!
And the gobble, you ask? Today was opening day for wild turkey and our huntsman of a Papa was home by 8 am with our bird.
The homesteader in me finds this huntsman, who literally puts meat on our table, so appealing.
Tonight's dinner? Turkey pot pie with a side of crispy and crunchy microgreens salad.
From field to plate in less than 9 hours. It does not get any fresher than this!
