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.

St Martins has a Farmers Market !

We thought at times it would never come together, but after many months of steps forward and back, the pieces have fallen together. Location issues, liability issues, so many complications, but that is now all behind us and what a great first week we had ! I sold out of granola, kale chips and radishes and sold the last bag of mixed salad greens to the ice cream lady on the way home. We have 14 indoor vendors and several including me, outdoors. A nice variety of products from baking to meat pies, German shnitzel and sausages, thai food, chocolate truffles to die for, organic veggies, jewelry and crafts, and artisan soaps.

We were blessed with a sunny warm day and a clear view of the sparkling Bay of Fundy in the distance.

Tomorrows market has taken 2 days of preparation, so much picking and washing of spinach and salad greens. I cant imagine how I did this in the 70's in Fredericton without a salad spinner.

Here is my new right hand man, Zachary putting the finishing touches on a deluxe compost pile, saving my creaky old back. He raked up a wagonload of grass clippings, emptied the chicken bedding/manure bin, and rebuilt the pile making alternate layers of grass and chicken doo. I think with the green/brown mix it should heat up and cook along nicely to make some A1 compost for fall.

A month of weather woes

Surely we must have broken records for lack of sunshine in May. I think I remember one and a half days when it wasn't raining, foggy, drizzley or cloudy. And the slugs loved it. And they multiplied and multiplied, so my early morning ritual became don the rubber gloves and saunter thru the gardens doing slug patrol. Into a pail with salt water they went, by the dozens and dozens. I started prowling about at 11 at night with a flashlight and my trusty pail. Horrible nasty creatures, so vile even the laying hens wont eat them.

May had its good points however, like a Mother's Day visit to Corn Hill Nursery for a great lunch of real food, and a trunkful of plants, hardy roses, raspberries, black currants, and coming home, a terrific roadside sale of perennial flower plants dirt cheap.

Our next wwoofers, Armandine and Richard from France joined us and we tackled loads of garden chores, setting out tomatoes in the greenhouse when it rained,

setting out plants outside when it stopped..

Everything was covered immediately before it could be chomped on by the slugs.

A family with a 4 year old came by to visit. The little boy was impressed with all the ice cream buckets in the garden and asked wide eyed, "Wow! Are you growing ice creams?"

The little meat king chicks arrived and Freckles loved them immediately. 21 days before pickup day at the feed store we borrowed some fertilized eggs from the farm next door and put them under Freckles who had been broody for a week or more. On day 21 several were beginning to hatch and make peeping sounds, which causes a hormonal shift in the hen to change her from setting mode to mothering mode.. They all went with us in a box to the feed store where we picked up 8 chicks, a day old, and slipped them into the box. Freckles thought, "Great! Instant family!" and pushed them all under her wings. The neighbor got his hatchlings back and Freckles was none the wiser. One of the best things about meat kings is that they will eat slugs.

And now we have our last wwoofer for the spring season, Konstantin from Germany. A wonderful lad who cheerily tackles any job that comes along.

He was exceedingly cheery when we put his very first lobster in front of him! I think we enjoyed watching him figure out how to eat it as as much as he did chowing it down.

First week of May projects

A huge dump truck unloaded this pile of topsoil into our prepared flower bed (sort of into). Our valiant wwoofers shoveled and raked it into place, until it was all tidy and ready to plant.

Tall perennials like hollyhock and sweet peas will go in the back, then cosmos, lilies and dahlias. There will be lots of room for edibles like nasturtiums and johnny jump ups to pretty up my restaurant salads.

We finished boarding in the roof of the log cabin and worked on the gable ends.

Tess got an all over haircut from the scissor wielding girls. She is due for a bluegrass transplant to fix that receding hairline.

Alina cleaned out the dead leaves and sticks from last fall, that were clogging up the pond.

More potatoes got planted, the weather still unseasonably cool with much too frequent rain.

The crew put together the trellis for the scarlet runner beans, which I planted this morning. They are always so pretty covered with red blossoms and alive with hummingbirds.

Dr Brian came to listen to Big Red's vitals, finding dirt in the gas a likely cause of her loud and rather startling backfiring.

There's always the never ending transplanting to do when the rain starts again.(The red ring is to pass the hose through to keep it off the plants)

The girls cut out new mesh fabric covers for the ice cream buckets that will protect the newly set out transplants from slugs, cutworms, and cabbage moths.

The fence for the meat hens was rebuilt, ready for the chicks arrival later this month.

The carpenters learned how to put on 3 in one roofing shingles.

..and posed with Prince Charming in the doorway of his new house.

      Our wwoofers left today on their way to new adventures, new skills, new experiences. Whoever is lucky enough to host them next will surely feel as I do...in a world seeming to be spiralling out of control we are so encouraged by the enthusiasm, creativity and strong work ethic of these young folks, who are not afraid to get their hands dirty out in the real world .