Keeping my Promise

I promised Ian that I would try to keep up with our raspberry patch while he was away on business this week.  That has turned out to be easier said than done because, unfortunately for me, the boys have decided that they are over raspberry picking.  They were interested at the start of the harvest a few weeks ago but now they would rather do just about anything else.

As such, my suggestion this morning that we go on a raspberry treasure hunt (I tried) was met with adamant disinterest (putting it mildly).  I quickly shifted to Plan B: tire the boys out so that I can go pick raspberries while they are sleeping.  And so it began...

We started with morning swim class at the community pool, followed by a road trip across town to pick up honey jars for this weekend's honey harvest.

We then stopped off at a play structure to burn some energy before heading home to make Queen Anne's Lace jelly.

With all the wild flowers in bloom right now we picked the Queen Anne's Lace flowers and steeped them to make a strong tea.

We then added lemon juice, pectin and sugar and processed.

Recipe: Queen Anne's Lace Jelly

25 fresh, large Queen Anne's Lace flower heads
4 cups boiling water
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sugar
2 packages powdered pectin

1. Fill sink with cold water. Submerge flower heads to remove any insects. Drain.

2. Place flower heads in a large pot and cover with boiling water.  Cover and let steep for several hours to make a strong "tea".

3. Strain the cooled tea and discard the flowers.

4. Heat tea over medium high heat.  Add lemon juice, sugar and pectin.  Stir to dissolve and bring to a boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  Reduce heat to medium, stirring frequently.  Cook for 10 minutes until thickened.

5. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

The jelly set right up and the little bit I tasted out the pot was divine.  I cannot wait to see what my CSA families think of this!

During the jelly making the boys had naps, though sadly they were not concurrent.  Then we all went for a swim (and ice cream) at Ms. Margo and Mr. Jim's house next door.

The swim did Alistair in.  He demanded breast and bed pretty much as soon as we walked in the door.  After a dinner of vegetarian tacos, Liam and Seamus were happy to put on their jammies too.  A few books later, they also turned in for the night and I was finally able to scamper outside to the raspberry patch.

It was a long time getting there but I must say there is something quite soothing about an evening spent in the raspberry patch listening to the coos, baas and hee haws of my barnyard family.

Dusk at the raspberry patch.

The farm animals could not figure out why the food lady was taking so long to bring their dinner and put them to bed.  They made their protests known - loudly.

Finally, after just over an hour of picking, I had collected 6 lbs 4 oz of raspberries.

I think the take home message is clear: unless we plan a foray into the u-pick business, we do not need a second raspberry patch.   Furthermore, I will be very glad when Gael Glen's resident raspberry picker returns home; keeping up with this raspberry patch on my own is wearing me down!

Mama's Little Helpers

One of the most fun things about Liam and Seamus is that they get excited about whatever (sometimes unusual) things I get excited about.  I do a lot of stuff that they like but they are also easy to enthuse about participating in things I want to do.

For example, right now I am excited about my new rhubarb patch.

We have some very generous friends (Thank You Liam & Nina!) who kindly offered up rhubarb plants for adoption.  They have been planted with much love and manure into what I hope is an optimal place for them to flourish.

I have high hopes of one day having such an epic rhubarb crop that a recipe for rhubarb lemonade that calls for eight cups of rhubarb is no longer a pipe dream.  It is awesome that Liam and Seamus were interested in helping me attain this goal.  We dug of the sod, liberally mixed compost into the topsoil, and watered generously.  I am hoping to also plant a row of rhubarb seeds to see what comes of that.

I am very lucky to have such amazing helpmates.  They might be exhausting but I would not trade them for anything....well, today anyway.

Kids That Can

Raspberries, raspberries, so many raspberries!  After freezing a bunch, gifting some, and eating lots of berries and cream, we have resorted to making raspberry jam.

The mash.

The pectin.

The sugar.
It's an obscene amount; I don't want to talk about it.

Boil hard for 1 minute.

Water bath process and wait for the tops to pop!

Nine beautiful jars of sweet, sweet summery goodness. 

I might need to make more jam - it is a quick and easy enough task that the boys can help without getting bored and as I always say, you are never too young to enrol in Canning 101.

#selfsufficiency #homesteading #kidsthatcan

Lettuce-avaganza

It has been a great year for lettuce.  With the really hot and dry weather upon us, I finally picked the last of our spring-planted lettuce.

I even shared some with the hens and ducks - mostly the bolted shoots.

No rest for the weary; after picking, I hoed the soil, added fertilizer, and immediately sowed a fall crop of lettuce.  Until that is ready we will have to rely on the plants growing in our shaded lettuce trellis as well as get creative with other greens such as kale and chard. 

Kale.  We have armfuls and armfuls of kale.

These hardier greens, despite growing easily and copiously in the garden, are a harder sell to Ian and the kids.  Too much taste, they say. 

It is time to break out some new salad dressings to augment (disguise?) their flavour.  Any suggestions?  Send me your favourite homemade salad dressing recipe and I promise to make it and feature it on the farm blog.  Go!

A Surfeit of Raspberries & Jalapeños

Ever inspired by the culinary pursuits of others, today I whipped up jalapeño poppers for dinner with  Raspberry Rhubarb Ripple ice cream for dessert.

Not the most beautiful but certainly delicious.

After such a spicy appetizer, the boys were mad that Papa finished off the last of "their" ice cream yesterday, so I appeased everyone by whipping up a batch of vanilla ice cream which I layered with stewed Newfoundland rhubarb and raspberries from our garden.  When scooped, it made Raspberry Rhubarb Ripple.  Nice, huh?

Not bad for a lazy, hazy Saturday afternoon.

A Little Lily Goes a Long Way

With Liam gone to sleep away camp for three days, Seamus at the cottage with Grandma, and Alistair napping, I was free to spend a bit of time exploring my gardens.  I have lots of beautiful and delicious things growing.  Unfortunately when I get behind in my weeding some can actually bloom and disappear before I even notice them!

As I was checking things out, I realized how low the water level in the pond was.  As I prepared the hose to add almost a foot of water, Ian pointed out that I would be drowning all the gorgeous water lilies that were currently in bloom on the surface.  No problem, I said.  I suited up in Ian's hip waders and climbed into the mucky mess to harvest several buds which I included as the bonus item in today's CSA baskets.  They are incredibly lovely.

The rest of this week’s CSA basket included: green and butter crunch leaf lettuce, a head of red leaf lettuce, chard, baby turnips, Parisian carrots, jalapeños, a head of garlic, a tiny yellow zucchini, strawberry spinach, rosemary, summer savory, dill, sweet basil, flat leaf parsley, kale, red onions, chocolate mint, apple mint, oregano, sage, daikon micro greens, wasabi mustard micro greens, red clover micro greens, raspberries and a dozen farm fresh eggs.

I was particularly proud of the Parisian carrots.  This was a special shallow growing variety of carrot, perfect to grow in my pallet gardens.  They turned out amazing!

I fed some carrots tops to Nugget the hamster so he could share in my bounty.

Do not worry hamster lovers, I did not let Nugget eat all of these!  I gave him a bunch,
let him drag a few into his house for a snack, and then removed the leftovers.

As an aside, Nugget is doing very well on his farm "holiday".  We have established a routine whereby he exercises in his ball for 15 minutes each morning and then scarfs down a gourmet breakfast.  For example, he has tried sweet pepper, apple, clover microgreens and a raspberry.  He liked the microgreens and refused the raspberry.  There is no accounting for taste, I suppose.

Also special in the CSA basket this week was the strawberry spinach with scarlet red "berries".  The berries tasted weird - very much like spinach but with an odd texture.  Certainly interesting.  I am looking forward to hearing what my CSA families thought of them.

While I am doing well keeping on top of my vegetable gardens, my flower gardens are getting away from me - especially my pond garden.  My pond garden is my passion project that I just never seem to get around to.  Right now it looks like a jungle.

During my explorations I realized that there are heaps of black raspberries growing in there that are dying for water.

There are also heaps of weeds...

and a weeping mulberry tree that is no longer weeping but instead looks like it is crying "Hallelujah" while swaying back and forth and waving its branches at the Sun (see what I did there?).

Once out of the pond garden, the hidden produce was a little easier to spot.  We have grapes growing gangbusters,

an eruption of cucamelon vines,

and about a billion teeny tiny pears.

There certainly is a lot going on on the farm at this time of year.  There is not much I can do but keep trying to keep up with it all...and enjoying my hidden treasures when I find them despite all the weeds!

Paltry Plum Production

Someone sure is happy...

...but it is not about this year's plum harvest. 

I had such high hopes after all the blossoms and baby fruit this spring but nada.  Clearly there will be no plum pie this year.  Thank goodness we have a surplus of raspberries!