Lots to do before the snow flies...

Lots and lots of fall chores, which is a good way to spend the sunny cool days of late october. I think I've planted about 150 garlic cloves, tucking them in to holes poked in the soft rich soil where they will start to root before the ground freezes. The first welcome green shoots to come up in april will be garlic plants.

Apple cider! At last I get to use my birthday cider press...but first I needed a way to crush up the apples before they could be pressed. I built this stand to accomodate an under - sink  garberator that I found on Kijiji.

Here is the underneath view with the machine running and disgorging the apple mush into the bowl below. It works wonderfully. Even tho the garberator is designed to run with water running through, it doesnt plug up, and the consistantcyof the apple goop  is fine but not too fine to squeeze through the holes in the pressing bag.

I can poke the apples down with this stick with a dowel through it, to keep it from going too far into the grinding chamber.

I made a wooden juice collection tray with a drain hole at the front. The press came with a plastic oil changing pan for juice collecting  (which I found quite horrifying and promptly discarded)

Lots of delicious juice, all from wild apple trees from here and there.

The apple corral comes off for cleaning. And a couple of jugs of water poured through the garberator with the motor on, cleans the insides.

The dryish pulp left in the pressing bag got spread onto trays in the dehydrator to make winter nibbling treats for the mini horses.
Nothing really ever gets wasted on a farm . Between horses, hens and compost there's a place for all the scraps.

Seeing a lot of RED lately..

Tomatoes, that is. In the thick of canning season here..

I learned a good processing trick last year from my chat group organichomesteadinggardening@yahoogroups.com
to cut out a lot of evaporating time when making spagetti sauce. You slice the tomatoes in half, lay out in a large baking pan and throw in a few cloves of garlic. Brush cut sides lightly with oil and roast for about half an hour at 400F or until soft and squishy. Then dump it all in a colander and let the watery juice drain out. I help it a bit squashing the tomato pieces gently. Now take the solidy stuff and either blend it in the blender or put it thru a food mill to remove skins and seeds. It's about the right consistency, thick enough to make into tomato sauce. The runny liquid that drained thru the colander can be canned for soup base but mine never made it that far...I drank it lukewarm, yummy.

These are canned chunked tomatoes, skins removed.

Pasta sauce is taking over the cupboards..

The dehydrator is working overtime..

making tasty chewy dried tomatoes.

Lots to bring in before the frost. Two wheelbarrowfuls of squash,

Two loads of sunflower seed heads for winter feed for the hens. I love the whorley patterns they make, everything fitting together so precisely. I began to love the art and design of nature when I was very small and it never gets old for me. I'm very thankful to the Designer for that.
Those racks I made last winter to start seedlings are coming in very useful for storing and drying all this good stuff.

Our last farmers market was near the end of September, after that I switched to plan B which was  weekly csa boxes for 8 local customers.

They all seemed happy with their selections and as time went on and two frosty nights wiped out the salad greens and zuchinni, among other things, I was able to fill the gaps with eggs, baking, hummus and granola. I have a request for pumpkin next time...

Maybe I'll re-home this one, the strangest pumpkin(s) I've ever grown, conjoined twins!
 I daydream about next year's garden before this one is finished for the year.

Here is that new garden patch of buckwheat being tilled under by our neighbor Mike. The tilth of that soil is getting better and better.

I couldnt resist throwing myself into the flowers to make a "buckwheat angel" , looked rather more like a bear had lumbered about in there...oh well snow will be here before we know it and we'll make some good ones..

In the meantime, lots to do in the gardens. The older compost is going into the raised beds, the perennial weeds are slowly being dug out whereever they've taken hold. That short grassy looking greenery in the photo is fall rye. Every time a section of garden was harvested I planted buckwheat or rye. This will make great green manure when it's tilled in next spring.

Rich as the Queen

Funny how certain smells can take you right back. I picked up a big box of crayons for only a dollar at a yard sale, thinking they would be handy to have for visiting kids. It was when I got home and opened the box and inhaled that crayola aroma that all the dormant grade 2 memories awoke.
Nowadays kids take the measure of each other by the brand names they sport and the aquisition of the coolest electronic gadgets. In the late 50's in Canning Elementary school, Nova Scotia, there was no concept of brand anything, we all wore hand me downs and wool socks and sweaters made by Mom and Grandma. If you wanted to be awe inspiring it was all about your crayons.
    Most of us, like me, had the standard box of eight. Some of the Hungarian refugee kids had none at all. The Dutch family with kids in different grades shared a box, alternating colors each day.
Sometimes a kid would get a new 15 cent coloring book and a deluxe box of 16 crayons for a birthday and the 8 crayon box kids were green with envy. And then there was Susan. Susan was delivered to school each morning by her father in their glossy turquoise Chevy Bel-air. The rest of us walked through the village, or up or down the railroad tracks. My saddle shoes never looked like Susan's with her impeccably white toes. There were far too many adventures to be had along the tracks coming and going. The train always whistled in plenty of time to get out of the way, it was just that if the whistle blew when I was in the section with swamp on either side, the saddle shoes would pay the price. I dont think school buses had been invented at that time. And I dont remember a single fat kid. But back to Susan and what we perceived as her boring life...It was rumoured that her family owned the bank and were as rich as the queen. That was to be confirmed the day after her birthday when she showed up with the world's most extravagant box of 96 CRAYONS! AND with a built in sharpener!! The class of 7 and 8 year olds would not have been more gobsmacked had she won a million dollar lottery. She was instantly the most popular kid in elementary school. "I'll be your friend if you'll lend me your gold crayon..."
      So here in my senior years sits this box of 96 crayons that once was as out of reach as the moon, and I must admit to feeling a tiny bit smug and quite unreasonably happy in the owning of them. I hope Susan who had everything gets to feel small important joys like the smell of spring sunshine on warm railroad ties. Me, I feel rich as the Queen.

Hurrican Irene aftermath

Hurricane Irene made for some spectacular surf in our neighborhood, bringing out all the camera buffs in the area trying to capture the perfect crashing wave.

The bulldozers had to be called out when things calmed down, to push the beach back off the road where the wild surf had thrown it.

My biggest worry was the tunnel greenhouse being blown away, but with clamps securing the plastic to each of the bows it came through the high winds unscathed. And I worried about the huge linden trees crashing through the roof, but they bent with the winds and were ok.

The flattened corn however, didn't fare as well...

And the apples that still needed three weeks or more to ripen, are mostly on the ground, too green for any use at all. Will be hard to find enough later for cider. I must check my pears tomorrow...there were only four on the tree so I put a drawstring produce bag over each and tied them to the branches to protect them.

Remarkably, the sunflowers are still upright, but they are in a garden that has a windbreak of mature trees so that surely is what saved them.   All except the one accidently lopped off by the garden maid who is in this pic sharpening her scythe for a go at the alfalfa plot.

This will be dried winter feed for the laying hens, along with the sunflower seed heads. Yesterday seemed like a good day to cut the alfalfa down as there is no rain forecast for another 4 days, how unusual for this soggy summer!

I've been meaning to replace my ageing raspberry patch for several years now. If I ever needed a nudge here it is on this little bush from Corn Hill Nursery, that I planted in May.

The 12 year old plants put out these tiny pathetic berries despite a heavy manure application, (which produced the biggest healthiest weeds ever). The gigantic berries were produced on a foot high new baby plant. So why did I wait so long? Its that gardeners optimistic mindset that "next year will be better." I'm fond of this old patch even tho it has run it's course and definitely it's time to call in the tractor/tiller guy.

This is the new raspberry patch being worked up for next year's planting, presently sporting a crop of soil enriching buckwheat. I love the look of a field of buckwheat. It looks so soft and billowy, like green clouds that you could throw yourself into.(No, I havent tried that.) It will be a beautiful attractant to the bees when in flower, so that I will hate to till it under, but after all, that's the main idea.

Just to keep the farmers market customers guessing, I'm growing some English Broad Beans. When I was small I loved to pop them out of their pods, but dinner preparations could be delayed while I played with the food. You see , I saw faces, little newborn baby faces in each bean. I still see them...doesn't everybody? Is it just me?
And after involved conversations with all the little faces, after they finally landed in the pot, then there was their soft fuzzy cradle to play with. I would trace each indentation in the soft fuzzy lining of the pod with my fingertips, and inhale the lovely unique smell. We had no electronic or plastic toys, but we sure had the riches of Imagination.

Here's what the pods look like growing on the broad bean plant.

Walking in the gardens, there's always something new and different and lovely. I planted about 100 sunflowers with the idea of saving the seed heads for winter feed for the hens. They are stunningly beautiful, I always marvel at their ability to turn their giant heads from east to west so that the sun kisses them all day long.

A Day Off to Play

Sometimes you just have to take a day off..well half a day since saturday morning is cottage cleaning and turnover day. When the last toilet was gleaming we were off to Hampstead for the second annual organic celebration on Slipp Farm's organic 1800 acres. What a BEAUTIFUL farm!

Farmers and foodies feasted on Speerville Mill's wood fired oven baked pizza, Slipp's grass fed beef burgers and Picaroons beer. The farm was so breathtaking, rolling hill after rolling hill with a magnificent view of the river below, and the grass so lush and green even this late in summer.
I met people I hadn't seen in months and a blues performer I knew from the 1970's. I love local live music of almost any kind (no rap please) and we were treated to a non stop series of bands playing country, bluegrass, folk, traditional, blues and jazz.



And one of the most fun things for me was watching the kids run wild and free. Groups of kids climbed all over this hay wagon all afternoon inventing games on the spot, having the time of their lives without a single adult hovering about with "Get down from there, you'll hurt yourselves!" I guess most of us were from farm backgrounds and can remember the joys of non electronic active imaginary play.











There was non stop entertainment under one of the big tents, some of my favorites were The Browns with some sweet bluegrass harmonies and Tom McAvity's Hardscrabble Blues band. Tom sings the blues the way they're meant to be sung, with energy and gravelly voice. and the requisite wails and moans. It was fun to meet up again.

 

What a great glorious sunny day and a refreshing break from work! We'll be back next year for sure. Thanks ACORN for letting us know about this grand time!

July flown by

Ok, I know..I've been a very negligent blogger. About 6 weeks has flown by in a roller coaster of mid summer neverending to do lists. And honestly there hasn't been a spare moment for the blog. The 3 months of gst paperwork backed up in a pile at my elbow, due today, is testament to that.

The strawberries owned me for several weeks. Twice a day they needed picking before the slugs and birds claimed them. MMMM, juicy sweet organic berries, they flew off my tables at the farmers market, I made them into strawberry cake, strawberry milkshakes, strawberry jam...every evening Jimmy sat hulling and slicing them for the freezer. Glad that's over but I miss them in all their fresh abundance.

The kids came home from Yellowknife to visit, so wonderful to see them. They buried their beloved little dog Leroy beneath our old apple tree. Always so sad to lose a faithful old dog.

Every sunday in July was perfectly sunny for our farmers market, in fact it has been perfect weather from the start. My weeks have become a predictable cycle of wednesday - make granola, thursday dig new potatoes, friday - pick wash, weigh, bag all the salad greens, chard, and spinach. Pick nasturtiums and johnny jump ups from the new flowerbed to pretty up the salads,, pick peas and beans, put the chick peas in water to soak overnite. Saturday - clean the cottages for the next tenants, make the hummus, pull carrots, beets, onions, cut broccoli and herbs. And tomorrow morning before market - pick cukes and zuchinni in case they grow a bit more overnite. Monday, Tuesday, catch up on the weeding and re planting succession crops like spinach and lettuce.
The market seems to be growing more popular every week. I really enjoy presenting good healthy food to people who appreciate fresh, local and organic.
One of my favorite vendors is Pizza Del Fuego. They pull in with this great little wood fired brick oven on it's own little trailer, and they make the most incredibly delicious thin crust pizza. My weekly lunch treat.

Avery said goodbye today after 3 weeks in St Martins. I will miss his six year old gap toothed smile. He loves his pal Stormy as much as ever. His family comes every summer from Ontario.

My birthday was mid month and I was too busy to give it a thought, but my beloved, unbeknownst to me had the whole market serenade me with a box of vendor Derrick's sinfully delicious chocolate truffles. As if that wasnt enough, when I got home I found this apple cider press on the porch! Apparently he had been trying to buy it for me from a local guy for the past 4 Christmasses and birthdays, must have worn him down.