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.