I've Got Sunshine in my Pita Pocket

On this rainy last day of November, our day was filled with loving embraces.

Gentle cuddles.

And warm doughy pita pockets.  

It may be raining outside but we've got sunshine in our pockets here on Gael Glen Farm.

Our next pita project?  Naan.

Recipe: Gael Glen Farm Pita Pockets (inspired by: https://frugalfamilyhome.com/food/recipes/pita-pocket-bread-recipe)

1 tablespoon Yeast
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/2 cup Warm Water
2 teaspoons Salt
1/3 cup Milk
2 cups Hot Water
7 cups Flour

Mix yeast, sugar, milk and warm water in a large bowl. Stir to dissolve yeast and let sit about 5-10 minutes until yeast foams.

Add the hot water and mix to combine.

Mix salt into flour.  Add in the flour a cup or two at a time and mix well. You want the dough drier and not sticky.

Knead dough for about 5 minutes.

Cover and let rise 30 minutes.

Divide into 1/2 cup balls.

Cover balls and let them rise for 30 minutes.

While dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you have a baking stone or steel put it on the lowest rack and let it preheat too. You want the oven very hot to get the bread to puff properly.

Roll dough balls out into an oblong shape.

Bake the pocket bread for 3-5 minutes or until puffed but not brown at all. If the dough starts to brown before fully puffed remove from the oven.

After removing the pocket bread from the oven, place in a dish towel to deflate and cool.

Once cool, cut in half. If the two layers stick use a knife to carefully separate the layers.

We're Off to Greece

In my quest to expand my culinary horizons and avoid thinking about the unpleasant weather drawing nearer, I ventured into pitas today.  My first attempt was a Greek souvlaki style pita bread.  

It turned out well and we enjoyed a Greek-inspired dinner with all the fixings.

Recipe: Gael Glen Farm Greek Pita Bread (inspired by: https://akispetretzikis.com/categories/pswmia-zymes/pites-gia-soyvlaki)

160 ml milk, at room temperature
80 ml water, at room temperature
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Combine the sugar, yeast, oil, water and milk.  Set the bowl aside for 5 minutes, until the mixture starts to froth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and oregano.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture in batches. 

Knead in mixer on speed 2 for 3 min.
Cover and let it rest for about 40 minutes, until it rises and doubles in size.
Place a cast iron pan over medium heat.
Press on the dough to remove the air and cut into 6 equal sized pieces.
Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece of dough to a circle 20 cm in diameter.
Cook the pita bread for 1 minute on each side in the pan, until they puff up slightly and turn slightly brown.

In addition to the homemade pitas, we turned homegrown potatoes into lemon garlic roast potatoes, our parsley into a chopped parsley salad with a garlic and lemon dressing, and whipped up homemade tzatziki.  We rarely eat beef, so the marinated beef kabobs cooked up on the BBQ were a real treat.  

The next few days are supposed to be a really awful rain/snow combo, so I figure I will start now and just continue to imagine I am on vacation in Greece until the weather improves.  Maybe I should try my hand at baklava next?

Dependent Deep Clean

Sometimes everyone just needs a thorough scrub.

Human children (bodies, hair, nails, teeth) - check!

Chickens, ducks and turkey (coop, nests) - check!

Donkey and Sheep (barn) - check!

Goats - check!

The only ones who escaped today's deep clean were the dogs.  They are experts at camouflage.

Mellie is NOT a T-Bone

Not much is new on the farm today except to note that Ava is back on her tether.  For who knows what reason, she decided that Mellie's hind leg looked like a juicy t-bone.  Ava is back on lock down unless someone is out in the yard to directly supervise her behaviour with the goats.  I wish that she would grow out of the "puppy phase" faster.  😭  Mellie was slightly traumatized by being treated as a chew toy but she has since recovered and is okay.  I feel terrible for not noticing sooner and thank goodness that I didn't notice any later.  It is harder to hear the goings on in the barnyard during the winter when the windows are closed.

A Soggy Snow Day

It was a soggy mess of a day.  Alistair required four baths.  Four.  Meanwhile, Liam and Seamus both worked really hard at their school work this morning and were rewarded with ample time to play outside in the afternoon.  They built snowmen in the backyard and then we went sledding.  

Imagine, having a whole toboggan hill all to yourself!  It was a kid's dream.  Needless to say, I have needed to dry out their snowsuits, hats, neck warmers, and gloves three separate times today.  Their two pairs of boots each are still sopping wet and are propped up on all the various heater vents we have around the house.  I am thankful for our drier - it certainly got a workout today.  I really wish our Boot Warming Snuffleupagus Machine had not bit the dust.  RIP good friend, RIP.

It was a long way up for a kiddo with very little legs! 
Ali's mantra was "Keep going, keep going" with
the occasional "Truck, truck, HAR!" thrown in.
(He doesn't say the "C" in "car" yet).

Ali rode down  the hill with one of his big brothers three times.
He had a blast!

Liam and Seamus did seven or eight runs.
They were sure tired out by the end!

But it's Too Early!

No one knows just how it started

And it's caused us some alarm

Baking cookies, stringing popcorn

We've let Christmas on the farm!

Ali's cozy with his heat pad

Frosty's made his big debut

Before long, I hate to say it

We'll have our tree up too!

There is just no way around it

One whole month until it's time

It's Christmas here at Gael Glen Farm

And apparently in rhyme!

Queen of the Sunshine

While we were busy with school work, Charlotte and Emily transported themselves to a sunny vacation destination (at least in their imaginations).

Emily: "Roar! I am Queen of the Sunshine."
Charlotte: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Snore."

It's the Simple Things

There are few things more comforting than a loaf of fresh baked bread,

homemade chicken soup simmering away on the stove top,

or the gleam of my favourite cast iron cookware after I have finished re-seasoning it.

These three things are fundamental to life here on our homestead.  I bake bread almost every day.  To me, homemade bread means self-sufficiency.  Along with eggs and milk, I feel like producing my own bread frees me from the grip of the grocery store.  We can go a long time between shopping trips without feeling like we are missing out. Now if I could just grow bananas!

I love chicken soup because, to me, it is a reminder to waste nothing.  Even old chicken bones are precious because with a touch of time and a long simmer (or a quick one in the instant pot!), they will make us a whole extra meal.  I get great satisfaction out of a hint of frugality - remaking leftovers into a whole other healthy and delicious meal is my jam!  Case in point, in today's bread I substituted the water for the left over juice from a can of homemade sweet carrots that we had for dinner the other day.  I figured why waste it when it might add a touch of complexity to the flavour of our bread (and maybe even some vitamins).

Our cast iron pots and pans get daily use here on the farm and truly are at the heart of our homestead by virtue of preparing the food that fills our stomachs.  Our huge cast iron frying pan as well as the dutch oven I use to bake our daily bread were both gifted to us by my paternal grandmother.  They remind us of her with each use and how much I am inspired by the homesteading roots of her childhood and later her hobby farm years with my grandfather.

It truly is the simple things that mean the most.

Belly Bacon & Buzzy Bedtime

Ian was very excited to break out his new (to us) Bradley Smoker to turn some of our cured pork belly into delicious, delicious smoked bacon.

He then used said bacon to make even more delicious white wine steamed mussels for supper. He served them with our fresh spinach as a side salad with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and a sweet poppy seed dressing. What a treat!

Can you tell that we do not drink much wine around here?
This bottle is from a trip to Niagara that Ian and I took with my parents
BEFORE we were married and moved to Ottawa!

In addition to feeding the humans of Gael Glen Farm well today, our buzzy bees were also well fed - though it was their last ration until springtime. I tucked our ladies away safe and dry right in time for our first big snowstorm.

Let the winterizing begin.

I started by wrapping each hive up in a black, insulated hive cosy.  

I hammered a nail over the lower entrance to make sure that the bees can come and go easily for cleansing flights and so that neither the bees nor the air flow into the hives are hampered by the cosy.

I then elevated the back of the hive a few inches so the hive is tilted forward.  This is in case any moisture from the bees' breathing happens to condense inside the hive.  The drops will travel forward to the front of the hive and then run down and out the front entrance instead of dripping down from the middle of a level hive directly on to the cluster of hibernating bees.

After removing the inner cover and listening for my ladies' soft buzzing from deep within the hive, I placed several sugar cakes on the top bars of the hive.  I could even feel a gentle waft of warm air on my face from my strongest hive.  Bees are the coolest!  The sugar cakes serve both as emergency rations for the bees if they eat through all their stored up honey and they also absorb moisture from inside the hive helping to keep the ladies as dry as possible.  Experienced beekeepers will always tell you that it is not the cold that kills bee colonies but too much moisture.  If the bees get wet, it is easy for them to become chilled and sick.

I covered the sugar cakes with a homemade "quilt board".  This is a pillow case stuffed with clean, dry wood shavings.  These also serve to absorb moisture.  I left an inch of open space at the front of the hive to ensure good air flow inside the hive between the upper and lower entrances.

I covered the quilt board with the inner cover and then placed a block of insulation on top before fitting the outer cover on and securing it all with two bricks.

And there you have it - all five hives are tucked in and ready for winter.

Just in time too because the snow has arrived here on Gael Glen Farm!

Snowy butts!

Well, I did say that we were ready for winter to come!