Coming and Going

We finally got a wonderfully rainy day here on Gael Glen Farm.  Thank goodness; our gardens were parched!

See the sparkling raindrops on the pine lit up by the glorious sunset?

Despite the very dry growing conditions in July, we got out first significant harvest this afternoon of vegetables that are not greens!  It was a long time coming.

Potatoes, tomato, carrots and sweet onions.

We roasted them up for a delicious side dish for our roast doe supper.

Also coming in hoards are mushrooms.  No, these are not the wine cap mushrooms I planted last fall and have been waiting forever for.  The irony is not lost on me that heaps of wild mushrooms are popping up all over the place and I have not been able to grow even one mushroom intentionally.

The last thing that I noticed coming today is...(I hate to say it)....autumn.  The leaves have begun to change colour - only a few! - but there it is.

We also have a few things that need to get going; chiefly, the many, many jars of 2019 raw, wildflower honey that are now residing in our basement.  We are looking for commissioned Honey Champions to hawk our wares in their workplace.  In all seriousness, we currently sell honey through several of our local craft breweries and the workplaces of a few friends but we need to reach more potential buyers.  If you would not mind advertising our honey - we have a lovely order form that you can circulate - and then helping to distribute jars to buyers, we will reward you handsomely with free jars of Gael Glen Apiary's liquid gold.  Please get in touch if you are willing to help us out.

We are also looking to get some of our pesticide-free garlic moving.  At $12 per pound this is a great deal and we grew enough (but not a ton) this year so supply is limited.  If you are interested, let us know as soon as possible as we fully expect to sell out.

As the sun sets on another great day on the farm, we are feeling grateful for the much needed rain, our bountiful harvest and even the wild mushrooms (damn you wine caps).

Waxy, Wax, Wax

Ian is back home from camping and has been busy melting and cleaning the beeswax from this weekend's honey harvest.

After all the honey has dripped out of the wax cappings, Ian collects the dry wax and melts it down in a miniature slow cooker.

Once it is liquefied, he scoops out all the bees' legs, ants, propolis, and other contaminants.  He then lets the cleaned wax cool.

He pops out the wax patty, and then melts it a second time to purify it further.

The finished product is a clean beeswax disc that is perfect for making candles, soaps, beeswax food covers, lip glosses, creams, salves, balms, body butters, etc.  Let us know if you want one. $5 per half pound.

A Leisurely Putter

As we eagerly await our new kids - Martha is due in two days! - we kept ourselves busy by puttering around and checking out the many things growing on the farm.

From apples to elderberries,

oregano to chokecherries,

hydrangeas to echinacea,

day lilies to butternuts,

pears to chocolate peppers - there is a lot going on!

Ali and I worked a bit more on our new rhubarb patch.  Our old and very sad rhubarb plants were obviously not flourishing in their existing locations, so we consolidated everyone and relocated them into the new garden.  We gave everything a good watering.  Hopefully things perk up.

The boys and I will be picking up some orphaned day lily plants later in the week which we will transplant into the old rhubarb holes.

I also got caught up on some outstanding chores today: watering the gardens, mucking the donkey and goat barns, cleaning the hamster cage, laundry, baking bread, picking raspberries, and bottling and brewing both jun tea and kombucha.

It was another productive day but a leisurely one.  I am looking forward to the predicted rain that is supposed to be coming over the new few days.  We have lots growing but everything could really use a good soaking.

Extract It Like You Mean It

This was by far the quickest, cleanest and easiest honey extraction I have ever done. Normally it is Ian and I trying to balance extraction with child care and it takes forever (pee breaks, snack breaks, lunch breaks, nap breaks, timeouts, etc.) and is so messy! Plus we have to listen to the kids beg for tastes of honey repeatedly ("Can we taste it now? Now? Now?! NOW?!!") as they get crazier and crazier with each added spoonful of sugar.

This time I extracted while Ian and the two oldest boys were away camping.  Plus, I arranged for reinforcements in advance in the form of Grandma Extraordinaire (to help with Ali), the wonderful Ross and his lovely son Brad, and power couple Jen and Mario.  Mario informed me that he was "voluntold" that he was helping with extraction today (he prefers sausage making with Ian) but he was an awesome help and we were lucky to have him.

The tower of honey waiting to be extracted.

A perfectly capped frame.

Scratching the wax cappings off.

Keeping the wax for later.

Ready for the extractor.

Waiting to spin.

Liquid gold.

Filling those jars.

Waiting for the wax cappings to drain through a sieve.

I had all the frames bee free and all the equipment set up for when my helpers arrived around 8:30 am.  We assigned people to stations (uncapping, cappings scratching, loading the extractor, filling jars, and wiping/capping jars).

This was some seriously efficient honey extraction.  We were done and cleaned up by 2:00 pm.  I had the floors washed, the empty frames replaced on the hives, and the cappings dripping dry, by 3:00 pm.  Time for a celebratory beer.

By 3:30 pm Ali and I were ready for a nap, followed by dinner and bedtime.

Sweet potato and apple sauce for Ali.  Taco salad for me.

Five helpers, 5.5 hours, 185 lbs of honey and one very happy baby.  What a seriously productive day.

My sweet potato faced baby.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me out today.  You are amazing. #grateful

Damn Flies

I am not sure why but the flies are terrible this summer.  They are driving Charlie nuts in the barnyard.  Over the past few days she has developed a sore on her leg.  I am not sure if it is from a scratch or from a compilation of fly bites in the same area but despite my disinfecting it, applying Polysporin, and bandaging it every morning and night, the flies are still managing to get at it.  Clearly my makeshift donkey first aid with a human tensor bandage is not going to cut it. 

So, Alistair and I headed off.  Our first stop was the vet's office.  We needed to pick up a de-worming tablet for Ava and some obstetrical lubricant for my goat emergency kit.  We also picked up Vetwrap.  It is a roll of amazing super sticky tensor bandage that is perfect for keeping Charlie's sore covered and safe from the damn flies. 

We also stopped by Kinburn Farm Supply.  We needed puppy food for Ava, higher protein goat food for nursing does and more layer pellets (we always seem to need more layer pellets).  We also added a bottle of equine fly spray to our cart.  It is supposed to keep the flies and mosquitoes off of poor Charlie.

Upon our arrival home, Charlie had gotten her bandage completely off again so we cleaned and re-bandaged her leg and then misted her with fly spray.  Hopefully Vetwrap and fly spray are the winning combination that makes her more comfortable and lets her leg heal up in peace.  Poor girl.

Making "Lemonade"

Today we made "lemonade" - actually we made fried green tomatoes, but it was done with the same positive thinking sentiments one uses when making lemonade from lemons. 

During today's harvest, I noticed that there is some sort of animal feasting on my green tomatoes.  This always happens at the beginning of the harvest season (that is one of the reasons we grow lots of tomatoes) but it is frustrating nonetheless when there seems to be a bite out of all your best specimens!

Instead of being too upset about it, though, I decided to cut off the gnawed parts and make these beauties into fried green tomatoes.

Now these divine morsels match the rest of the delicious veggies I harvested today.

This week’s CSA basket included: green and butter crunch leaf lettuce, small heads of red leaf lettuce, chard, baby turnips, Parisian carrots, jalapeños, a yellow zucchini, strawberry spinach berries, half of a huge Chinese cabbage, a red cabbage, peas, daikon radishes, red radishes, licorice basil, lime basil, sweet basil, dill, kale, red onions and scallions, a sweet walla walla onion, chocolate mint, apple mint, oregano, sage, daikon micro greens, wasabi mustard micro greens, red clover micro greens, raspberries and a dozen farm fresh eggs.

This week’s bonus item was a jar of Queen Anne’s Lace jelly.

I am with Alistair on this one, all this looking on the bright side might be delicious and nutritious but it is also exhausting.

A Bad Day to Be a Bee

If there was ever a day that it stunk to be a bee, today was it.  Not only did the capped honey that they have been collecting all season "disappear", but then the field of wild flowers right next door to the hives got mowed down for horse hay.  What a double whammy of suckiness!

These supers are each filled with 10 frames of capped honey.
I estimate that we are looking at about 75 kg of honey here.
Whoa!

This is the field next door that just this morning was filled with Queen Anne's Lace.
Not to worry, I am sure the golden rod will be out soon enough. 
Until then, the ditches and our animal paddocks are still loaded with bee forage material.

P.S. I made more raspberry jam.

 

P.P.S. Yes, we are now taking orders for our 2019 honey crop.  Jars will be ready by Sunday afternoon.  Reserve yours today!