Thanking Last Season

Today I was very mindful of how much food we were eating from last season. We had two nice meals, one of veggie burgers and roasted potatoes (with lots of condiments), the other was chapattis and a beany stew (again with lots of condiments). To make these meals happen I have been going down to the basement and taking out potatoes, parsnips and lots of mason jars of preserved food. Here is a little rundown of all the great things we grew and preserved last year (and are enjoying now):

• Dill pickles
• Pickled beans
• Mustard pickles
• Green tomato relish
• Sauerkraut (made from radish and turnips)
• Potatoes
• Parsnips
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Canned tomatoes
• Green tomato mincemeat
• Lots of various jams, syrups and applesauce
• Salsa
• Garlic
• Pickled garlic scapes
• Horseradish sauce
• We made kim chi a few weeks ago from overwintered cabbage, turnip greens, kale and Jerusalem artichokes
  

I really encourage everyone to get into fermenting and preserving. But you already knew that. Check out the great book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

Garden Update

I've certainly been neglecting the old blog. Update from the summer so far: the gardens are so fertile it's crazy. A friend and wwoofer Zsolt put up a fertility rune in the garden and the dandelions and grass have certainly noticed. They are monstrous. But it seems that the effect is more widely felt and the grapes and currants and gooseberries we planted this spring have gotten the message. I'm feeling a bit daunted by the idea of growing grapes but we'll give it a shot. It would be pretty special to make a few bottles of wine out of our own grapes, perhaps with some currants thrown in for good measure.

The potatoes are all in the ground at the usual time at the end of May. I just planted some sweet corn, hoping for the best. Last year I planted corn in July but didn't make a harvest. It was close but no cigar. All the seedlings (tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, chard) are looking good and I've been potting them into bigger pots instead of planting them out early, when they are very small. I did so last year and I think I should have waited. It's nice to be able to experiment from year to year. In the ground are snow and snap peas, beets, parsnips, carrots, salad mix and garlic.

We have had lots of wonderful wwoofers through this year. Thank you to Will, Maiko, Zsolt, Susana, Emily, Marie-Eve, Patrick, Ashley and Markus! We wouldn't be so fertile without you!

Back

Well finally I am home and kind of settled. This is a funny year. For a bunch of reasons I am finding myself heading to Halifax now and again. Last Friday was the last time. But I'm really wanting to be home and settled and working in the garden.

Today was a lovely day and I wanted to tell you about it. It's a sunny day and the greenhouse is nice and warm. Frances and I had lunch in there. The tomatoes and onions are out in the greenhouse along with the small rosemary plant. The brassicas and just out on some flagstones as I don't want to overheat them.

I weeded a bed and I'm going to plant some red clover as a cover crop/green manure. This is the first time I've tried green manure. Then I planted a few hazelnut trees in the hedge that we are building next to the driveway. I'm easing into the season so I lay on the grass and snoozed before coming in to write this post.

As I relaxed, Buddy went into the baby barn and came out carrying a vole he had caught. I was half hoping he would help evict a squirrel that's taken up residence there.

Then a huge raven, flew over the house. The wing beats were something to hear.

Earlier a raven or crow, perhaps the same one, started cawing and flying up the drive toward the house. Frances and I were weeding and we hadn't really seen this from a crow/raven before. But then we got our answer. A bald eagle flew over our heads from behind us and cruised away. It seems that ravens and crows have the ability to push around bald eagles. I know they are very crafty.

So I'm sorry that I haven't been writing as much but I'm going to shift gears now and start focusing on the beautiful season to come.

Harvest Updates

Some pictures to share. Frances took some lovely shots this past download. Thought I should share them with you. I can't write much as we are taking Nikita and Joe to the Brook Village Dance, the last one of the year.


The summer squash and cucumbers have been very prolific this year. Perhaps I'm leaning a thing or two about growing them.


So much so that Joe and I made dill pickles in a brine so they are naturally fermented. They taste pretty amazing. I made up another 4 gallon crock about a week ago and I guess I can do another pretty soon.

We've also been dehydrating a lot of zucchini and summer squash for the long winter to come.

The strawberries that we planted last year have been giving en mass. Each week we sell out at the markets. They are not everbearing as much as I remember (hard to keep track of everything). But they had one big production in July and now are giving again. Must have been a pretty great summer for strawbs.


Sarah came out to visit from Hamilton and was a great help with her cycling partner Patrick. They biked all over Nova Scotia, ultimately ending up at Wild Roots with us.


So naturally we've been eating pretty well with lots of fresh veggies and fruit. This must be the best I've eaten my whole life.

90 Trees!

That's how many we planted. I can't believe it. Let's see if I can remember all the varieties. Random peach (good luck, I know), Sandra Rose cherry, Kristin cherry, Ulster cherry (again sweet cherry, good luck I know), Bartlett pear, Golden Russet Bosc, Beurre D'Anjou, Satsuma plum, Fortune plum, Grimes Golden apple, Lady apple (actually pink lady apple is a cross between these two varieties), Liberty apple and Nova Spy apple.

Then there were the nuts: black walnut, hazelnut, heartnut and bur oak (for the moist valley bottom where they will perhaps thrive). Thanks for some friends for sending along a gift certificate for nut trees which helped greatly. You know who you are.


We had a funny last tree planting ceremony. Frances marked the last stake, though I'm sure sure how much the efforts of men will stand against the beaming, purging sun. Thanks to Jane, Frances and Amber who supported my back in this endeavour.


What's next?

Another nap.

Spring Garden

Here are some images from our spring garden. The orchard continues to grow with the efforts of Frances, Thom and Jane. It's difficult to get a picture of trees that are still dormant and are just now budding and waking up for the season. Thanks to Jane for coming down this weekend and just planting trees (plus bringing me chocolate and tahini). Frances is also working really hard helping plant and tie the trees to the stakes. And yes, it is still chilly here; I see lots of pictures of people in Ontario walking around in t-shirts but that's still a ways away.


Lots of things have overwintered in our garden: kale, spinach, chard, leeks, turnips and radish. So it means that we're not just eating dandelions and beans this spring. Frances and I pulled the radish and turnip and made them into kraut a few days ago. I decided to try something new and made kimchi out of the turnip tops and leeks. It's fermenting away in the kitchen. Might be an interesting taste, what do you think?


Oh and last but not least I planted 18 asparagus crowns. Two have come up already and it'll be three years before we harvest asparagus regularly but then we have 20+ years of asparagus. Can't complain about that. Go perennials!

Scenes From Early April

Our friends Paul and Anne gave us some little rose shoots which we are trusting will grow into a fragrant wind break near the house. They also dug us up three white ash trees which we trust will take, though they are coming from really nice sandy soil up near Inverness to our more clay soil down here.

We spent the morning moving some shaded raspberries to the top of the hill where they will get full sun and ideally produce lots of yummy berries. Go perennials!


Frances moved some rhubarb plants up the hill too. The top of the garden from west to east is raspberries, jerusalem artichokes and then rhubarb. The rhubarb is thriving in its new home, though how much freaking rhubarb can one family eat?

Dan's gift to the farm has been garlic. So much garlic is up (already). And there are two other beds. Thanks so much for everything Dano.

Last but not least, here's some evidence of the crazy weather we had over Easter Weekend. It was actually 26 degrees. And this thermometre is in the shade on the north side of the house.

Instant Gratification

When I was younger my mum always complained about my need for instant gratification. You need something now, you want something now. But in the end, it's not realistic. You can't have everything you want. At least not right away. It takes time and work.

Some things go well out here, others not so much. We are starting a new garden and while it's looking good and it is full of worms (seriously full), a lot of the plants we are planting are not taking to the soil. It's tragic when any plant dies (especially one that you plan to eat someday) but most of our kale seedlings are dead as are most of our onions. Perhaps the clay soil was too rocky and not broken up enough. Maybe we were just too ambitious coming from Ontario and that wonderful growing climate.

It's disheartening but really what did we expect? You can't turn a hay field into a garden overnight. It's going to take us years. We're going to have to add manure, leaves, hay and keep feeding the soil microorganisms that will eventually provide us with a healthy and hearty harvest.

So some good news: our peas are phenomenal. We will be able to corner the market I'm sure. And we're hoping that the potatoes, heavily mulched, can provide us with what we need this winter. The soil continues to warm up and we are having nothing but sunny, warm days. The black flies are not nearly as oppressive as I would have thought from everyone's warnings but I know that they will get worse before they get better.

And these failures make you appreciate the value of perennial plants like Jerusalem artichokes, berries, asparagus, rhubarb, fruit and nut trees and many more. Really we should be expending our energy supporting their growth. But I'm not giving up on a fresh tomato sandwich to end the summer off right. Not yet.