Bacon & Lamb

You know it is a good day when it is filled with bacon, even if it is accompanied by lots and lots of kale.  Kale is not a family favourite but when I disguise it with homemade Caesar salad dressing and bury it under shrimp and bacon, it doesn't take long for it all to disappear.

Oh, and lamb snuggles!  Apparently I have been forgiven for yesterday's vet visit and Poppy, Gillian and even Willoughby were back to giving me copious amounts of woolly cuddles.  If you have never cuddled a lamb, you are really missing out!   Their wool coats are the softest and they smell so good.  Add it to your bucket list, I promise you won't regret it.

A Bad Day to be a Ram Lamb

We pride ourselves on taking exceptional care of our farm animals.  That said, today was not the day to ask them for a recommendation.

Bright and early this morning our friendly neighbourhood farm vet stopped in for everyone's annual check up.  The good news is that everyone is healthy and no one bit the vet (sigh of relief from me).  The bad news, from the animals' point of view anyway, is that everyone got shots.

And poor Willoughby got the worst of it.  It was castration day for him and, while our vet is incredibly competent and Willoughby took it like a trooper, it looked so painful.  Poor little lamb.

Everyone got a bit of a break after our vet visit until evening when it was time to weigh the meat ducks.  They are nearing nine weeks old and we wanted to see how close we are to harvest time.  The two we managed to catch and weigh made it quite clear that they did not appreciate being stuffed into a bag.  Poor duckies.

While today was perhaps a bit trying for our animals, things should improve for them tomorrow.  At least we know what they are all well protected against a myriad of awful diseases for at least the next year.

Sunday Funday

Everyone got to spend the day doing the thing they wanted to do.

Liam smooched pigs.

Seamus climbed trees.

Alistair frolicked in Lake Alistair.

Ian smoked two pork shoulders and made the most delicious supper of pulled pork sandwiches.

I continued Project Floral Jelly with three new experimental jellies: rose petal jelly (left), elderflower jelly (right), and a jelly made from a mix of rose, elderflower, and apple mint (middle).

We finished off the day by coming back together for a family swim.  It was a relaxing and refreshing day.

Seeding for Autumn

Today I prepared the pallet gardens for fall planting.  In hot, dry weather like this, lettuce becomes bitter tasting and spinach bolts so we pulled out whatever was left of these cool weather veggies (and fed them to the ducks) to make room for seed sowing. 

Tomorrow, the boys and I will put in beans, beets and carrots.  These will sprout and grow during the next several weeks of really hot weather and then be ready to harvest and preserve in early autumn.

Inside, I started the seeds for our fall crop of broccoli, cabbage, and head lettuce.  In 4-6 weeks we will transplant these baby plants outside in the space currently occupied by the garlic and our previous plantings of brassicas.

It is hard to think about planting when we have so much weeding and harvesting currently going on but successive plantings are the key to a plentiful fall crop.  In the next few weeks we will directly sow more cool weather crops such as peas and radishes, leaf lettuce, arugula and spinach - it is too hot for these right now.  Harvest then plant, harvest then plant - that is the name of the game right now.

For whomever needs to hear it - if you have not yet started your fall broccoli and cabbage inside, it is time!  You will thank me when you sit down to fresh coleslaw in September and homemade kimchi all winter long.  You're welcome.

Hiding from the Heat

It was one heck of a scorcher today.

Luckily we got through our weeding early while the garden was still mostly in the shade. 

Before

After

This meant that we were then free to spend the rest of the day splashing around in our neighbour's pool and napping in the lovely coolness of our air conditioned house.  I am not ashamed to admit that I hid inside from the brutal afternoon heat.

Ali even ate his first ice cream cone (he devoured the entire thing!) and loved every single bite.  It was the perfect mix of a productive and relaxing summer day.

The Brownies' Baker's Dozen

Our new laying hens (we call them the Brownies) are making excellent progress.  

It took them three weeks to venture outside the coop, though I cannot say that I blame them.  Just when one hen would get brave enough to stick its beak out the door, this horrifying thing (with its accompanying snorts and squeals) would come poking around.  This was enough to make even the most adventurous Brownie abandon any notion of extra-coop exploration.

Thankfully, the Brownies finally learned that "run from the snout" is the name of the game and so they are now able to sneak out past the pigs and scratch and peck alongside our more experienced layers.

All that fresh air must be doing wonders for them because around the same time that they started going outside, the Brownies also started to lay us eggs!  This development is not a moment too soon as we were beginning to worry about running short of eggs for our next round of CSA baskets.

We collected thirteen eggs today!

Over the past three days, we have gone from 5-6 eggs per day to a daily sum of 13-14 eggs!  That's some good laying.  We can now get back to poached eggs for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and quiche for dinner.  We love ourselves some farm fresh, happy chicken eggs here on Gael Glen Farm.

Happy Canada Day

We had a fun-filled day with some fishing, CSA harvesting, bread baking, beekeeping, weeding, arts and crafting, and a little celebrating.

Happy Canada Day from all of us here on Gael Glen Farm!