Tea Time

Steve and I make our own tea these days. Right now we make it with fresh lemon balm and mint, but we are going to experiment with drying the leaves for winter. We are going to experiment with different herbs to see what different combinations taste the best.

We have been harvesting bush beans like mad. Plus our cherry tomatoes feel like they are all ripening at once. We are also having a bumper crop of ground cherries. As predicted Gracie eats them before anything can be done with them. We bought a ten pound box of blueberries as ours will not be ready until next year. We have made blueberry and blueberry peach jam. Very good. Next up will be spaghetti sauce and salsa. Can't wait.

Paradise Squared

We are truly blessed to have two places to go that we consider heaven on earth. Both are relaxing peaceful and feel like home. What more could a family ask for.

In-Laws Laptops and Vacations

We have been away for a while and home with family. Steve's Dad and Vivian were here from Ontario and we had an awesome visit and it was nice to finally show them our home and our farm in person. We have been just doing upkeep around here. Weeding is an everyday chore wit the sun rain sun rain chain , they are growing like crazy. Our ground cherries are finally becoming ripe and we have been enjoying tomatoes and beans for a while. The beans are very tasty and are an extra special treat after they were almost wiped out by bugs.
We had our dog Furgus at a friends house while we vacationed and he loves being there so we let him stay for a couple of weeks. It was time to get him back though, as we started seeing deer scat in the woods close to our house.
It continues to be hot everyday and the sun seems so strong this year. It has been good for some plants and terrible for others. I guess that is what farming is about and we are rolling with the punches. Hopefully we can get  enough produce ready at the same time so we can go to a farmers market and actually sell some of this yummy stuff. Although eating it ourselves is not hard to take. Hope everyone is having a good summer.
Electa

It's Raining it's Pouring

It has been very wet lately and after a long bought of sun and extreme heat the plants really needed it. I have bought some beautiful ribbon to make lavender sticks. When I get a bunch made then I will post a picture.
Everything has just exploded in the garden and I can't wait to start to pick. The peas are ready and so are some lettuces. The ground cherries and tomatoes are not far off.
We are hoping to have the road side stand up and running next friday at 1pm. That is at 2207 Chester Road.
We will have peas, herbs, ground cherries and tomatoes if all goes well. Plus a few lavender crafts.
I read about making fire bundles. You use the stems from the lavender and bundle them up after they are dried and you use them start a fire. The lavender gives off a beautiful smell. They also make a great decorations if you but a basket of them by the fireplace.

Finally

Finally some progress. I was thinking it was taking forever for anything to be ready to harvest. Now it seems like everything is coming at once and there are still a million things to do. Plus today it was almost 40 degrees. That is just too hot for words. So things take a little longer to get done. Late in the afternoon the kids and I went for a swim and it was heavenly. Here is some of the lavender that I harvested today. It was nice to have my gardening gloves smell like lavender than some of the other things it has smelled like.

We are hoping to have enough produce to sell by next Friday. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that we can finally make a little money. 

On to the Next Phase

Today I am finally harvesting something other than rhubarb and chives (although I may harvest them as well). I have a ton of oregano and lavender. So my first foray into drying begins. Plus I am going to freeze some as well. It is all an experiment at this phase and we will have to see what works and what does not. In the next few days  we will be harvesting the biggest raspberry bush I have ever seen. We found it on our property in a clearing in the woods. I want to make raspberry jam and maybe freeze some as the kids love smoothies. Hopefully there will be enough to sell as well. Plus I am going to try and take some slips from it to transplant into different areas, so we can have an even bigger harvest next year.

I will get a picture of the raspberry bush and post it. It is too big to believe.

The other chore for today will be to water. The temperature will be over 30 degrees today and my plants are feeling the heat. They need a cool drink to help them through it. I will write more tonight with some pictures.

Turning a Corner

We think we may have turned a corner with the earwigs. I am sure everyone is tired of hearing about them and I am tired of talking about them. We have been so vigilant, taking away all of their daytime haunts, setting out yeast traps and clearing away any debris and rocks. Our use of row covers is over as apparently the earwigs used them for a party tent. The good news is that most things are coming back, the bad news is that everything is going to be delayed. It does give us confidence though, that an organic solution may take some time, but they do work and they are worth it. Everything we have saved will be worth the effort. 

Above are a picture of some lavender that was left by the previous owners and my peas, which have finally begun to flower. I can't wait for fresh peas. The kids love to eat them straight off the vine. 

Peonies, Shrews and Earwigs

We continue our fight with the earwigs. Everyone told us that earwigs could not possibly be doing the damage that they are doing to our crops, but we now have an eyewitness....me. One of my potted plants were being eaten the same way and I took the ground apart to find hundreds of them in one pot....UGH!

I am not normally freaked out by bugs but seeing hundreds of those creepy things crawling everywhere, is up there on the creepy scale.

Other than worrying about everything being eaten, we have a cat who has perfected her skills at killing shrews. She can can kill sometimes 3 a day. The killing is not the problem it is the disposal of the bodies that bother me. We now have a shrew dying field. I have nightmares of shrew zombies coming after me.

too long so sorry

We have been so busy these days I have been neglecting our blog, but I promise now that most of the plants are in and seeds sowed, I will be more diligent with my writing.

This is a picture of one of our lemon balms. They smell so good. They taste even better. The leaves are good with fish, in ice tea, or dried as a hot tea. I can't wait to harvest some. Everyone who hasn't tried this herb should try it at least once.

We are having a big problem with snails and are now trying every natural remedy we can think of. I can't wait to see if any snails have decided to go for a dip in the beer jacuzzi. In the mean time row covers have stopped anymore damage from occurring.

Where is the Sun?

Well it is coming down to crunch time and this rain is not helping. Most of the things we are growing should be in the ground by the middle of June, but the rain is making this impossible. Even when it isn't raining the wet ground makes it feel like I am planting in pizza dough. We have made tremendous strides, but the finish line is still far away. To add to this everything else is piling up. Mowing the lawn has to be down, weeding fertilizing etc. It is just to crazy. Let's hope this week is sunnier than last.

Peace

Finally a break from all the planting. Don't get me wrong I love it, but my house looks like a pit. So it is the glamorous job of cleaning and laundry. I am praying that it dries up soon, but it isn't supposed to. I walked Miles to the bus stop this morning and the road was actually quiet except for the usually chorus of birds. The misty fog hung all around feeling like it was a bubble keeping the chaos out and the peace in. It was warm and I felt like I could stand out there forever just soaking in the quiet and calm. Of course that was until I heard my daughter screaming from the balcony " are you coming in I am thirsty" at the top of her lungs. Apparently the peace bubble missed a bit of chaos. The good thing is she is one of my favourite bits of chaos lol.

Beautiful Visitor

One of the perks of living in the country and working for yourself you can take a little time to meet some of your neighbors. This little guy came for a snack and gave me a great excuse to take a break from planting.
Gracie and I followed him all over the lawn so we could get the perfect picture.

The Planting Continues

Yesterday we planted potatoes and I can't wait to eat them. I have very fond memories of my Grandfather's garden and his potatoes were always the best. When my Nan would make her mashed potatoes mmmmm.
We also finished planting our ground cherries. I just hope I can keep our little Gracie out of them. She loves them. She loves them, but I am hoping to get a big enough harvest to make jam. For those who have never had ground cherries they have a slight pineapple taste and come in a papery husk like a tomatillo. They drop from the plant when they are ripe and will last quite a while if you leave them in the husk.
We are taking today off. The apple blossom festival is on so we are headed to Kentville and then to my sister's new cottage.

In the beginning.....

We finally rented a sod cutter and it took only two hours to do the whole lawn. It took us two weeks to finally track down a sod cutter to rent. Who knew those things were so popular. So after trying to take up the sod by hand and tiller for two weeks it is finally done. Of course taking the sod up and schlepping it to the edge of the woods might be the most arduous task yet. Despite the amount of ants and other creepy crawlies it will not walk itself. So Steve and I have been working night and day trying to get everything in the ground, if not on time then at least before it is too late and we are making pretty good progress. 

We now have tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, cauliflower and ground cherries planted and we are still plugging away. I have been a little slow these days as my knee is not liking the constant crouching that comes with planting. 

Now that we have more going on we will be updating our blog more often. Keep reading and we will let you know how everything is growing and when and where you can get our delicious pesticide free veggies.

Chive Blossoms

These are the chive blossoms I picked earlier today. I am going to make chive blossom vinegar. It is supposed to be very tasty and have a pretty pink hue. I never knew these were ever good for anything but looking pretty. If all goes well it may be the first preserve we sell.

Living on the Edge

I went into my greenhouse yesterday holding my breath. I took the chance of not putting on the heater as we were not supposed to get frost. Well......we got frost. Everything looked fine. Thank goodness. The door to the greenhouse is trashed and needs to be fixed after we had a big wind whip up and practically pulled it off the hinges.So in the fall we have a lot of repairs to do on the poor thing.
I planted all my garlic chives in the garden yesterday. After relocating some hyacinths to my flower bed I think I have a finalized plan for the herb garden. When it is done and up I will take a picture. 
We have more than enough chives thanks to the previous owner and have decided to make chive blossom vinegar. It is easy and the blossoms infuse the vinegar with a beautiful pink color. Plus it will taste incredible on a salad. 
Today I am going to start the lettuce beds. I am late starting a them. Other than the spinach and baby leaf we are trying out a mini romaine head. They are a perfect size for a salad. 
I also want to get my peas in before the end of the weekend. Things have been slow as everyone in the house has been sick. Everyone seems on the mend though so hopefully things can now get back to normal. My body is telling me it needs a day off, but it will have to wait one more day. 

Oh I almost forgot. I have now read Farm Inc. The book based on the movie. Let's just say I am glad I know where 90% of my food comes from. It is an eyeopener. I recommend it if you have any interest at all in where your food comes from, how it was grown and at what cost to the planet, the animals and man kind. It is an eye-opener to say the least.

Our second harvest of rhubarb. Not enough to sell but enough to have a big batch of stewed rhubarb. I love it.

It has been a busy week, which is good. We have been sod busting and planting like mad. From now until the end of May will be go go go. Hopefully we can get it all done. I have been doing it by myself this week as everytime Steve comes home it rains. I can't fault him though as he has been doing all the cooking and dishes. The kids have been awesome too. Miles has been doing extra chores and Gracie has been great at entertaining herself all day while I work. The whole family is really pulling together.

Rhubarb

It started to rain on and off yesterday so I decided to harvest some rhubarb. I just stewed it and added some sugar. Rhubarb is one of my favourites. Just cooked up with a little sugar. Although the next time I may go buy some strawberries and make a strawberry rhubarb crisp. Now that is what I am talking about. Or maybe a rhubarb buckle. MMMMMMM! When I make the rhubarb buckle and get the proportions right and if it is tasty, then I will post the recipe. I am terrible at measuring when I cook. I will have to make an effort from now on. I think the sweet and creaminess of the buckle will go perfectly with the rhubarb.

BRRRRRRRR

Yesterday I was planting most of the day in the cold and damp. It didn't rain until after I came in but the ground was wet and I was full of mud. Today I am going to plant some asparagus and harvest some rhubarb. I think I will just stew the first batch, but I want to eventually make a Rhubarb salsa or chutney. The rhubarb patch is pretty big. It is really healthy too. I can't take credit though it was here before we moved in.
If I have time I want to plant some peas. I can't wait for fresh peas they are so yummy. The kids like to eat them raw off the vine.

fiddleheads

Welcome

This morning as Steve my husband was packing to go away for a week and the kids needed to get ready so we could take him to the airport, I decided hey this is a great time to start a blog. I mean that is the perfect time right? Well in a sense it was, because these days if I don't do something right away then it does not get done. 
I am doing this blog for many reasons. The main reason is to promote our hobby farm. My husband and I will be selling fresh pesticide free produce, flowers and herbs at various farmer markets throughout the season and this blog will be a way for those who are interested to find out what we will be selling, when and where. We will also, if there is a demand for it, be delivering produce once a week to HRM. We hope to make eating healthy locally grown produce more accessible. 
This blog will allow you to get to know the people who grow the food you feed your family. To know exactly how your food is grown. 
So for some of you maybe that is too much information and you guys can skip the daily stories of our trials and triumphs and just go to the whats available and where section. For the rest of you we hope you enjoy our blog. I hope  you can identify with our family of four and the adventure that lays ahead. 


Electa (gone country) Graham