Maybe I should pick my tomatoes....

Damn, I wasnt ready for this yet. Always in denial at this time of year, my garden fork with snow on the handle is where I left it, sticking in the patch of weeds I was digging out of the garden. Looks like this is an inside day, I am baking trays of acorn squash which, when cooked I can scrape the squash off their skins and freeze it.

Yesterday we went to an auction on the trail of a pony model troy bilt tiller, but having a look underneath I could see where the transmission fluid had been leaking out of the seals in the tine housing, the tines were

worn and needed replacement and judging from the big hairdo on the girl on the maual cover I guessed it was made in the mid 80's. So I didn't feel too bad when someone else took it home for way too much money.

 We got this magnificent solid walnut table for just $100! I am SOOO happy with it. Wonderful condition and the center leaf kind of telescopes in underneath when not in use. Our other amazing buys were this pretty wicker seat chair for $10. and two small tables made of the most beautiful wood, for $40 and $60. Now we have a perfect excuse to go to the next auction in search of dining room chairs to match the big table.
Auction shopping has been my antidote to feeling really sad and heartbroken over losing my sweet but dumb golden polish hen. She tended to wander about in her dazed sort of way, apart from the flock. She didnt know enough to avoid open places like the other girls and sometime while I was indoors she disappeared. I imagine a fox grabbed her. There were no telltale feathers, nothing. I have been obsessively checking on the silver polish, but thankfully she has learned to follow the other hens. I have started an outdoor fenced run to protect them when I cant be outdoors.

Gardening - Phase 2- Winter

We have had several frosts in the last week so its time to switch gears and prepare for the winter garden. The sweet million cherry type tomatoes have been SOOO prolific, but they are slowing down now so I've yanked half of them out. The growing bed is being sweetened with loads of leaf mould compost before the next crop goes in. Standing on the horse barricade across the chicken door are my two supervisors, the Polish Girls. They have been watching the wormy compost with great interest.

They wandered in to the greenhouse, to see where the worms were going no doubt. Remember those wild haired creatures in "The Cat in the

Hat" book? Thing One and Thing Two? Thats what I call this goofy pair. They are quite irresistable, friendly and docile but not too bright. I have to hunt for them at dusk to put them to bed as they cant figure out how to get back to the coop. Maybe they just cant see anything.
Some treasures turned up in the compost as I was digging out the bin.
These round sprouted things were avocado pits I threw into the compost in early summer. I potted them up but dont hold out much hope for them.

These gigantic potatoes grew from potato peelings. Wow, there's a testimony to the growing powers of good natural compost.

So now the baby greens that I planted in early September are moving into the greenhouse bed where they will feed us fresh salads all winter. Here is a shovelful of arugula about to be transplanted where the tomatoes came out. They are neighbors to green and red oak leaf lettuces, parsley, rosemary, lemon tyme, and kale (so far) Perhaps I'll leave the rest of the tomatoes in there as they are, just to see how long they will produce. Fresh homegrown tomatoes would be lovely with Christmas dinner.

Cascade tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Fall Diversions

I was going to title this post fall chores, because I've been going from job to job, for weeks bringing in and preserving a wonderful harvest. It's more of a privelege than a chore really, when I think of all the crops under water from our prairies to Pakistan. I feel lucky to have interesting and varied days adding to our food security, and when it gets tiresome theres always something different to do, unfinished projects like shingling the chicken house.

      My sweet neighbor invited me to help pick a gift of his  beautiful grapes. I thought they looked so pretty in the baskets...one batch of grape jelly done, more grapes waiting in the freezer.

     Wild apples are everywhere. I'm turning them into sliced apples for the freezer for pies and apple crisp, dried apples for munching and cooking with, apple juice, applesauce, apple jelly.

I found a short cut this year to doing spagetti sauce. You slice the toms in two, add in some onion and garlic cloves, brush with olive oil and roast in the oven til soft. Dump into a seive til the watery liquid drains thru. Can or freeze that for soup base. Separate out the skins & seeds. The sauce is most of the way there.

Next I dump the sauce into the crock pot and let it simmer and cook down til the consistency is right. Add salt & pepper to taste, some fresh chopped basil and oregano, yum!

I can only stand so much indoor work on a nice sunny day, so I'm getting on with painting the trim and doing more   shingling on the greenhouse/henhouse. I've been working on some 3D designs in the shingles and the diamond patterns I'm especially pleased with because anything mathmatical with geometry is a really huge challenge for me.

The hinged barricade across the chicken door is to keep the nosy horses out, when the door is open for the hens to come and go. The greenhouse vents have two large hinged doors on the inside. I plan to add plywood winter doors up there on the outside.

Where did summer go? ..a late summer summary

     The best growing summer ever...albeit a bit dry, but lots of heat for the tomatoes and peppers. I sold loads of salad mix to the local restaurants, greens can be a challenge in hot weather so this was a summer to experiment with different varieties. The green and red varieties of oak leaf lettuce became the basis of my salad mix, augmented with spinach, bulls blood beet leaves, arugula and various mesclan mixes. Seeding every 2 weeks gave me a constant supply of fresh baby greens.
     I started a new garden for next year, had a tractor mounted tiller come in and chew up a piece of the pasture, which was then limed, manured, and seeded to buckwheat as a green manure.
     The blossoms  were so lovely and the bees flocked to them, but the buckwheat had to be tilled under to fertilise the soil before it went to seed.
      Trusty old Big Red, vintage 1978, chomped his way through the tangle of buckwheat, and once mixed with soil the plants began to break down quickly.

    

 Darrel came back for his horse and chicken fix.

It's such fun to watch him having such a great time with the animals, and they really seem to be drawn to him.

Avery came and said his goodbyes to the horses, and then was on his way back to Ontario. I miss his frequent visits.


The weather forecasters had us thinking hurricane Earl would blow us all to kingdom come, so we tied down everything important.

In the end it veered off to Nova Scotia but we did get a welcome rain out of it.

We had record breaking high temperatures in late august and the hottest day ever was Sept 1. I'm so thankful to live on the coast as no matter how hot it gets here, its always hotter inland. Counting my blessings these busy end of summer days as I'm up to my elbows in ripe tomatoes, canning, making pickles, preserves, and freezing summer's bounty.

Avery

My favorite small visitor returning each year to the farm has to be Avery, from Ontario. I met him when he was two and was amused to see him confidently leading our white mini Stormy, the length of the pasture. Avery talks about Stormy all winter and when his family comes back to their St Martins cottage each summer he cant wait to get here to see his favorite little horse.

The first time he rode Stormy as a 2 1/2 year old he was hooked. I did his portrait at four astride his best horse friend.

This year the inevitable happened. Avery grew too tall to ride Stormy. Sad news, but he was excited to learn that he was now big enough to drive his special horse . We hooked up the cart and Avery was in heaven, learning the reins, the whoa and the go of it.

He came this week with a huge concern. He believed that the koi fish in our pond had to be lonely since he was the only fish. He had to have a friend and Averys parents got no peace until a trip to Saint John was made to find a goldfish. Not just any goldfish. It had to be the goldest goldfish in the tank. And so he turned up clutching a plastic bag of water and "Goldy".

He was on a serious mission that had to be seen through. He worried about the water temperatures in the bag and the pond being the same. We submerged the bag for half an hour and then, the great release!

Such a focused (his mom used the word obsessive) and thoughtful little boy, a joy to know. I am priveleged to be one of his friends.

Perspective

I think the world is being run by a lot of lost crazy people. Dictators threaten their neighbors with nuclear weapons with all the concern for the aftermath that people would have for a snowball fight. As a news junkie I am grateful for the power of nature to pull me away from harshness and volatility"out there" to a place of wonder, predictability, and mystery just outside my door. Three magnificent linden trees stand in front of our old house. I suppose they were planted when the house was built about 180 years ago. Every midsummer they burst out into yellow blossom and at the same time thousands of wild bees turn up from heaven knows where. As dependable as the sight of the canada geese soaring over the house in spring and fall, they bring the hope of continuity for this old world. Spring was very early this year and the trees have flowered 2 weeks ahead of usual but the bees knew and came at the right time. The yard hummmmms with a constant loud drone of their busyness. I can sit on the swing beneath the tree and feel as if I'm in a hive. I can feel that all is right with the world, at least this small part of it. Nature gets it right, and is a great teacher if only people would listen.

I have this quirky idea that aggressive and belligerant leaders, hyperactive wild kids, and sourpusses of all types would gain a whole new outlook if taken out of an environment of concrete, asphalt, steel and plastic and immersed in nature. They'd have to follow my instructions though..."Sit! Stay! Be quiet, Inhale deeply and Listen....."

For Darrell

I often wonder why I do this. Every day people turn up here: "We wanna mini horse ride." "Sorry" goes the spiel, "We retired the horses from rides 3 seasons ago, they're getting old, and so am I. Disappointed looks. " But you can go in and pet them if you like. No theres no charge." Which requires supervision.... "Those 4 are fine but not that one, she doesnt like petting. Dont pull on his tail please...dont put your fingers in his mouth like that please. Please stop chasing the hens...would you mind shutting the pasture gate behind you?"
   So yesterday we put up the large CLOSED sign and went to the city for errands and the next batch of meat chicks. Arrived home to find a woman with toddler on hip standing in the pasture, her 5 year old sitting astride Casey, free as a bird 10 feet away.
    She got a lecture (restrained for the child's sake) on the meaning of "closed" , on liability issues, on the idiocy of placing a child on an unknown unrestrained horse, (thank God she picked Casey who is next thing to comatose) and the impropriety of her attitude of entitlement, at which point she rather huffily departed.
     A cup of tea was in the works to soothe my indignation, but I wasn't to have it , in rolled another car. Two middle aged sisters and the husband of one of them, Darrell by name. They worked together to get him situated in his wheelchair and one of them explained to me about his stroke. Darrell was highly excited. I whistled the horses over to the low gate where he could reach them and feed them carrots with his one working hand. Darrell appeared to be lit up by his own personal sunbeams. He grinned and cooed and poured out his love for those little horses, each one in turn and Chloe, the 3 year old returned it, licking his hand over and over for the longest time. Chicken Little wandered over and his delight was multiplied. We worked out a one armed chicken hold and Darrel posed for pictures between burying his nose in her soft feathers and expressing his immense gratitude.
    I felt humbled to be in the presence of such a flow of love and laughter from one with every right to bitterness, whose mobility and independance had been stolen away. I couldn't wait to give him a copy of my children's book, Nana's Chickens. It was like I gave him a million dollars when he recognised Chicken Little on the cover. The last image I have of him as they backed out of the driveway is his joyful face mouthing the words of the story as his one good hand turned the pages.
     I know now why I give chunks of my day away to strangers. I do it for Darrell, who gave back so much more in return.
   

Ahhhh summertime!

I have never been in a kayak before. What a fun quiet happy way to enjoy the water and a lovely sunny day. We paddled under the covered bridges, had to duck under one as it was close to high tide at the time, and around the harbor where the lobster and scallop boats tie up.

Back to work with lots of weeding waiting for me. The first cauliflower and broccolis are ready. More salad greens seed goes in as the cauliflower plants come out.

Those cute little fuzzy meat chicks that

hatched on may 11 have turned into lumbering top heavy frankenbirds who live to eat and lie down. I call them the gorbies, which doesn't insult them at all, greedy things.
These three are the survivors (for a few more days) Their buddies are in the freezer. I butcher two at a time, first thing in the morning before any garden customers show up, altho I was caught the last time by some very curious people who wanted to watch. Kinda creepy. Sparing the reader the graphic details on this site, I would refer anyone interested in the process to the absolute best detailed copiously illustrated chicken  

butchering site ever : http://www.butcherachicken.blogspot.com/
Here are the latest two unnamed casualties on my kitchen counter, ready for their freezer bags. They are averaging about 4 and a half pounds dressed out. I will miss the others when they are all gone next week because they are the only birds we have that will eat the slugs I collect from the garden.
The new girl Lola is settling in with the flock. She is a pretty Buff Orpington, and a large size that none of the others will give any grief to. She got her name from her yellow feathers

(if you remember that dumb Barry Manilow song, "At the Co-pa, co-pa-ca-ba-na, and something about Lola with the yellow feathers in her hair and some mayhem that ensued...)
Well, anyway she appears to like her new digs in the Coopacabana.

Organic Market Garden Update

Here we are at mid june and things have greened up beautifully since the last garden post. I 'm enjoying the walk each day through the vibrant dappled greens along the path to the berry garden. I'll be putting out the Organic Market Garden sign at the roadside this week. The Salmon River B&B & Restaurant of St Martins has become a regular customer, going thru an ever increasing amount of mixed salad greens and herbs every few days. I mix together several types of mesclun  and oak leaf lettuce, baby beet and arugula leaves, and some baby spinach. The owners tell me that the customers are loving their new healthier menu.

       So far I also have ready swiss chard, a wee bit of broccoli, onion tops, chives, cilantro, sage, tarragon and chervil. The usual villans have shown up with their destructive appetites: brassica and arugula loving flea beetles, slugs and snails.

    Bottomless ice cream buckets with a mesh top are just the best thing for wind and chewing bug protection, and pushed down into the soil, they also foil the cutworms.                  These cauliflower plants are now big and strong enough to withstand the flea beetles so they can lose their buckets  to the tender squash and cucumber transplants. I use a pile of sheer curtains I found at the Re-store as row covers for the arugula and turnip, otherwise there would be nothing left. The hoop houses described in an earlier post have had a succession of crops since  housing the baby chard back in march. The radishes have come and gone, now the hoop beds are sheltering a second planting of arugula and some tender beans.

     Scarlet runner beans are finding their way up the poles. Their blossoms make such a bright splash of color in the midsummer garden, and how the hummingbirds love them. I put the beans through my bean frencher and sell them that way, all thinly sliced and ready to steam gently and enjoy.

      Some of the potatoes planted under mulch are beginning to blossom. I so look forward to the first dinner with new baby potatoes, there's nothing like it!

     Giant Tess, the swamp lady is at her usual haunt by the pond...lazy sod never does anything useful, but demands an all over haircut every few days, Such a high maintenance creature she is.