Oink

An ode to Babe. 

We often think of pigs with a negative connotation. But there are different types of pigs. Some are cuter than others, and the well known and all time cutie-pie, Babe, certainly comes to mind. Others are less personable. The choice is obviously mine if I wish to practice the husbandry of pigs. And I might. I love bacon! And ham! 

My cake hasn't got any bacon in it though, just banana cake and a layer of cream cheese frosting, covered in a fluffy chocolate icing - perfect for fondant pigs to roll in. 

I was back on the farm again, for a second vacation, with a new arsenal of farm cookie cutters (I guarantee you'll see the rest in action before too long) and ideas for making and baking all the scrumptious things I cannot create in my Warsaw kitchen. Life didn't exactly play out that way. Time in the chef jacket was limited. We had a whirlwind on our hands. Figuratively speaking, the lists of chores we had conceived and the other tasks that we found lurking everywhere. But also literally: after our first glorious week of prairie summer - we definitely picked the perfect week to be home together - we had a 30 hour wind storm. I was stuck inside. I couldn't watch what was becoming of the garden and the yard. Bananas were overripe. So I had an excuse. Until it stopped. 

Then I had one heck of a mess to tidy up. And more work still to finish up losing a whole day to weather. 

I'll do my research on pleasant pigs and then encourage any pig I get, to be nice. Maybe raising a piglet is the way to go. After all that's what Almanzo does, and isn't that also the plan for Wilbur? It's a farm thing I gather. We have a farm, so what are we waiting for? What are you waiting for? A new blog post? Yes. Me too. It's just this whole farm thing is a lot of work on its own, and I didn't have my camera in Warsaw. I'm taking the Canon this time, and retracting my excuses and getting on with it. So I'll talk about cake first, then we will get to the juicy meat of summer. 

I also thought banana could go with poppy seeds and cream cheese icing so I sneaked in a few cupcakes in a summer shade. I love those paper pots I baked them in. They really make a cupcake.

I couldn't have been happier to come home to plants that had been watered, because they all grew and came to life. I never knew how nice dill could be as a backdrop. I might not have let it go to seed if I'd been home, but obviously I was MIA. Great farm-scaping I say.

For the record I'm not really complaining about the chores on the farm, and impressed with how much we accomplished because many are fun, exciting, and rewarding. Those that aren't, or become a bothersome chore due to the amount you must do (20 hours of weeding for example) often can be done whilst thinking, listening, chatting, making phone calls and getting a suntan. There are exceptions. But since I'm on such a positive note, they're not worth mentioning. ;)  Unfortunately I've not yet managed roping anyone into helping me, however I've been learning... We did enjoy our Didsbury Rodeo. I saw lariats and lassos there in action. Watch out!

Our chickens continue to be champion egg layers. I could eat egg salad every day. 

I continue to bake bread. Oh how we love home made 'artisan' bread. Or so I like to call it. We eat our egg salad on it. I used to make baguette shaped loaves, but we enjoy the boules and braids the best. Épis is also a fun shape and an easily torn apart baguette alternative. 

And it appears we also had a red velvet blackberry cake. I almost forgot about that! I think it was because I needed to make Swiss buttercream because I used yolks for something else. Needed to, of course. I assure you we also eat vegetables and both cakes were small. Not those double/triple deckers I often make. Yeah right, you say. 

See. Swiss chard. Even the Swiss have sweets and vegetables. ;) That mountain became 2 kg of processed chard for the freezer. However we enjoyed lots more fresh. We like it in a curry. We shared lots of chard, too. Very, very pretty in the garden. (More photos when I talk more about gardening.) Like the zinnias below, which make superb cut flowers. I will be growing them again next year. 

All this salivating talk of pork brings me to take a Keiłbasa break. 

Good thing there's plenty just a hop skip and a jump from my door! 

Diaries of a Hopeful Gardener

How the garden delighted and amazed me. A million thank yous to Jordan for watering, though he assures me it has been a rainy summer and he didn't need to water as often as we originally thought he'd have to water. But, with his help and a moderately sunny week before I came home, I was able to return to plants as tall as me! A garden forest if you will :). Which is even more amazing since the plants were so tiny and attacked by hail just five weeks prior. (And a tad less amazing knowing I'm elf-sized and the plants are cheating a wee bit standing on their raised beds, but still.) 

The weeding was a chore, a 20 hour chore... So if I still have dirt ringing my nails in a month you'll know why. But it does look well tended now. And there were vegetables (and flowers) to harvest! Quite my favourite part, the harvesting. A self-perpetuated summer bounty. I analyzed what to wait for in consideration of the possibility of a hard frost before I'm back, and what must or could be done now. The question is more of what to do with it all, and where to find the time. Like with my 3.5 lb zucchini. It became Libby's canned salsa, of course! But I also stored 8 lbs of beets, puréed some more, processed 2 lbs of chard, stored 2lbs onions, 2lbs carrots and 2lbs turnips. Plus I made pesto from beet tops and we ate a lot of chard and zucchini during dinners. The rest will be awaiting my return in late September because it must still grow, ripen or mature. Alas the short growing season! 

I'm sure I've said before, and I will say again, this summer, being our first on the farm, is really a trial. Trial for gardening - the efforts, organization, soil acquaintance, composting, climate and the seeds. The season isn't even over and I'm already able to draw some conclusions that will steer my planning for next summer.

It's hard to believe, but I can actually grow things! I did actually doubt this initially. Which is why I did substantial research. This proved helpful in garden organization and in choosing appropriate plants for the short season. Being knowledgable also promotes positivity from confidence. Luck and a lot of wishing, too. 

 

Not being certain I had a green enough thumb was also why I initially purchased seeds from Home Hardware. I figured, if I couldn't be a gardener, at least it would only cost $25 to try. No big loss. And if it worked, all the better. But, later when we expanded our garden space, I purchased seeds from reputable non-GMO organic, or nearly-so growers, and I saw intense results in improved germination and strength of plant. So rather, no gain. Except in regards to zucchini! 

I can tell where my soil needs amending. Good thing I've been composting, properly. Only I wonder how much I can produce by the end of the season when we put the garden to hibernation. More dry leaves come autumn to aid the effort.

I've made numerous mistakes and now I know better. Though I'm sure there are many more future hiccups to discover. It's nice to know things I'd rather do differenty next time. For example I'll be starting indoors with a different method (and keep George from eating all my sprouts. Bad cat.), I'll choose better radishes and plant successions. (Apple sized radishes aren't anyone's favourite.) This could be said in part about carrots, beets, lettuces, etc. I'll plant about four times as many carrots so I can have little juicy morsels as well as still have bigger carrots for the winter, too. 

Zinnias

It turns out hilling potatoes doesn't just mean growing them in a mound, though I think we will still might have a good harvest. Sometimes I'm too literal... 

There are so many other totally viable plant choices I like which I didn't try, and want to try next year. The good thing about living in zone 3a is that my seed selection is narrowed (annuals: days until maturity) which makes choosing easier. I'm sure I'd be like ants on sugar looking at a seed catalogue otherwise. No doubt I'll be pouring over all the beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuces, new pumpkin varieties, corn, tomatoes and herbs. I think I'll try carnations, different turnips, fingerling potatoes, cabbage, butternut squash, garlic... I'd like to use Salt Spring Seeds and Renée's Seeds again as I had so much luck with them. They both deserve their own posts! 

For now here's the rundown on the least expensive seeds:

Zucchini, bachelor's buttons, zinnias, nasturtiums, beets, and Swiss chard all worked rather well.

However, the chard was my comparator. I also purchased rainbow chard seed from Renées Seeds, and despite the inexpensive seeds grew fine, the specialty variety outperformed them. And who doesn't like rainbows? 

Beets! 

Bachelors Buttons

Zucchini 

Not a single cucumber (though I heard other people had the same trouble this year) or lavender seed germinated. I'd still like to try them again. Cucumbers are a fair candidate for our area, though lavender likely wouldn't make it through the winter. 

The Sweet Williams never flowered, and the African Daisy, carrots, round onions were under developed. I can live without either of those flowers, but carrots and onions not so much. Again there was a noticeable difference between the first carrot seeds I used and those from Renée's (also a specialty variety), in both taste, appearance, ease to remove from the earth, and germination rate. We will see how they store. 

Unfortunately those orange carrots pictured above are also the total harvest we got from an entire packet of seeds. Not exactly many. The yellow one I accidentally pulled out and is one from the other packet. 

I did get a few thyme, dill, and sweet pea seeds to germinate, though none were vibrant plants.

Both herbs and sweet peas are important for me in my garden so I'll be using different sources for these next year for sure.

I was somewhat successful with pumpkin, calendula, bunching onions, radish, and sunflowers. I'd really like to get more creative with pumpkins especially in cooking, so I'll need some other varieties anyway, but I rather prefer my very healthy and vigorous calendula plants from Salt Spring Seeds. I'll try another type of bunching onions but also try to continue on with some of my saved stock, and I'll definitely be using different radishes completely. We did well with the black oil sunflowers we grew from our rabbit feed, but... I'm not sure the season will stretch enough to harvest them. 

In this category of seeds I'm most pleased with the zinnias (wonderful cut flower), beets (for growing to the correct size and being a root and leaf food) and nasturtiums (because every seed sprouted and the colours and mounds are gorgeous). 

I love my garden :)

Canadian Vacation

This is the first summer, after three years of spending my summers away, I've actually returned to Canada for my vacation. What a novelty! Especially now that I have a wonderful home to return to and enjoy. What I've been missing is all the outside fun a person can have in the summer in Canada when the temperatures are warm. 

It was mildly disappointing to have had a drab stretch of cool wet weather, the most unfortunate, though, being a heavy fall of large hail, which killed half the garden and maimed the rest. Hopefully the remaining plants will pull through to maturity. Meanwhile things are looking green. 

Our farm is getting cultivated, producing eggs and rabbits, and being fixed up in at least the most structurally important places. 

This year was mostly expected to be a preparation year, for thinking, planning, repairing and some experimentation, so everything else is a bonus. The garden areas, for example have plans, and we are beginning to see what grows well and to establish and open up the areas, and develop the soil with compost, which also takes time to run its course. The fact that we chose to plant annuals was primarily for fun and for the soil, so all produce has tickled us in dividends and the season has just begun. Above was the result of thinning the tiny beets, and gave us two stuffed produce bags of tops, plus 100g of baby beets. Chard seems to do very well and is really a very versatile vegetable. It's hard enough to be cooked, but only needs to be wilted, and could be eaten chopped directly into a salad. It comes in fantastic colours, though the chard we ate as mango curries was just plain-jane, green-on-white stalks. The nasturtiums and bachelor's buttons were blooming, and I wasn't even the only one who ate beets. Mind you, the tops are not tasting of soil. This was of course, prior to the hail storm...

Perhaps the most exciting recent development in terms of returns, are our feathered and furry friends. Georgi and Rori are well, too, being good pets, mostly. George is odd for a cat, in a good way and provides some laughter. He often comes to the bedroom window very early asking to be let in. Standard cat behaviour. One morning he was getting impatient so he climbed the screen. The screen popped out of the window casing, tumbling to the ground two stories down, while Georgi saved himself by springing into a nearby tree. He hasn't tried that a second time... Meanwhile Rori has been using her big dog voice on alert for skunks and coyotes. She is getting to be a very fast dog!

The little yellow peeping chicks are now a full fledged laying brood with fine looking feathers. Though they are still poults until next year, they do in fact appear every bit like any standard hen you've ever seen. The eggs are becoming more regular in numbers and shapes, and these delicious, sometimes double yolked marvels are showing up in mass quantity and often so large the carton won't close. Yes, those are our super chicks! Eggs proudly laid by Henrietta and brood. 

Our favourite rabbit, Rochelle had kits. Four plus a wee runt. Poor Runt didn't make it past five days, but the other little plumpkins are growing up. Rabbits don't make the best moms, but considering how terrible they apparently can be, we are happy about Rochelle. The babies look like rabbits now, but in the early days the only part looking ostensibly rabbit-like are their teeth. They are just little balls of wrinkles, lacking fur, eyes shut and I think looking rather like an alien mini-rhino baby. Lol. Cute nevertheless. 

Our building project for the week was the foundation for the north wall of our first barn. We elected to get the cement delivered and I am so glad we did. It was much easier (obviously), probably more sound done all at once and actually considerably cheaper at an amount of approximately 90 cubic feet. We had extra so I made a step up to the door. It may get covered over eventually, but for now it's easier to get up. And it bears the name of the farm. :) 

We began a sign for our driveway which will go up soon. The pets are settling into a routine with Jordan, and now the place is just waiting for some sunshine and for me to come back! 

I'm waiting to come back, too! 

From the Far Away Land of Warsaw

Varsava, is how you say it. Roll the R. Like an Ice Queen. 

But don't be icy. You'd melt here. It's hot. And furthermore the people of Warsaw are nice. 

I've not had time to write, or do anything else recently, but I could no longer be silent about my distant location. So, now I will explain how Warsaw is the modern Eden. 

Why? Because of the fruit. 

But because Polish is one tricky language I've got no idea what is forbidden. So far raspberries, blueberries, cherries, watermelon, plums, gooseberries, currants, grapes and apricots are not! 

I've never actually eaten a perfectly ripe apricot before this afternoon! Amazing!  

So delicious it's almost unreal. 

Then again most foods are excellent here. Kiełbasa, milk, fresh cheese, yogurt, and pastries are all wonders for the tastebuds. That's the diet here in Poland, and people are of the good looking, slender type. I also suspect they may consume more cabbage than Canadians on a whole. 

Most of the fresh items must be produced very locally, because they are sooooo fresh. 

I'd enjoy visiting a farm. When I look down from the sky, I see farms with long skinny fields all of different shades of greens. Then I would ask the farmers why this is so. I've been given recent communism layout and family divisions as reasons, but I'm only partly convinced. Any ideas? 

Oops. And I just polished off a whole pound of apricots. 😋

There are actually tonnes of other grand things about this city and country, but they will have to wait for a future post! 

Napoleonka. 

(Though quite honestly I'm currently loving all things meringue. Which is probably a good thing due to the number of eggs our chickens are laying... If I had more time I'd give houzz.co.uk a longer perusal... I am rereading 'Home' by Bill Bryson which started almost by accident but it hoodwinked me and I'm halfway through. Just as addicted as the first time... My life in Warsaw has the raspberry colour above as a constant theme. No beret, but I couldn't resist having my toes match my apartment...)

I like to read everything I see in English here. It's often random and/or funny.

More about the farm next time...

Garden Glories

I'm not sure which is better, or if perhaps I'll just have to settle on loving both: it is very exciting to see little plants emerging from the ground that I, myself planted, but it is as fun to be given plants you get to watch grow and then identify.

Either way, the garden brings a lot of joy to my life. We've actually harvested our first radishes and pretty much everything I've planted from seed has shown some sign of life. 

It's a slow process, figuring out what's already growing on our property, but much easier when the flowers show themselves. For example I've got peonies, irises and columbines, and even lilacs tucked away in a shady thicket, but I'm still wondering if I've got comfrey, though secrectly I was hoping for borage, and, what exactly the blooms of these various multiplying bulbacious plants will look like. It's clear Paula obviously had a penchant for the blue purple spectrum. 

There's more planting to be done, now that the month of May has passed. Some direct sowing of seeds mail ordered from Dan at Salt Spring Seeds, and possibly also some perennials depending on our free time from "Work with a Pay Cheque" to tend to our "Labour of Love". Ultimately organic gardening, or natural raising, as I might be more obliged to call it, is the idea behind our home grown consumables (and that includes animal products and animals). Many projects, ideas and hopes...

We've purchased some old fashioned equipment to pull behind our tractor by three point hitch. The machinery is now quite hard to come by because big farms have long since retired the shrimpy, nearly manual bits and pieces, or farmers just can't bear to part with them preferring to let them become delapitated lawn ornaments. (To be fair, we have ornaments ourselves and will be leaving the horse drawn Massey Harris tractor and single bottom horse drawn plow right where they are to be slowly reclaimed by the earth, and admired, too.) Nevertheless, these pieces of equipment are the perfect size for a farm like ours where we are still young legs and enthusiastic. 

Breaking new ground is hard work, as imagined, even with the help of gas guzzling machinery. But it is coming along as my appreciation grows ten-fold for the settlers (true survivors and adventurers) who dug all their garden spaces by hand, not just some measley 300 square feet like I did. The soil itself is nicer than I'd ever imagined, it's really just the top layer that's a nightmare -  woven and matted dread-lock style - which takes some (hours of) hand hoe wielding like a barbarian (yes, some people pay to go to the gym, but you could just come help me! Your back and shoulders would thank me for the sculpting, your back, though, will never be the same even post multiple massages.) We have two spaces we are preparing - Bob and Frank, for back and front - and we are close to planting Frank. The idea here are dual purpose cover crops, improving soil (and not too bothered by chunky organic matter i.e. colds of grass) and feeding our chickens and rabbits. Bob we may have to allow to run the course of the season... We will see. It's me who wants to get going and get growing. I could totally be a fruit and flower farmer. Maybe I will be. If patience doesn't get me first! 

Speaking of hand tools, I've just found a scythe and sharpened and learn to use it. Very, very cool. It does give reaping a fierce feeling. 

Spring means there's really no time for writing, meaning mostly, all extra energy is given to plow and cultivate our newly opened plantable patches comprising in total about 18,000 square feet. Also I've been sad because my Kitchen Aid super mixer hasn't been feeling too super lately. It's eaten itself from the inside out once again and parts are on order and reordered since they never arrived. Obviously I use said mixer a lot. This is not a decoration on my counter folks. So because cake is my thing, I got an idea and went with it. Cake mixed in a blender? Yes! Especially if it requires an ingredient to be puréed anyway. 

Brick-Red Velvet Cake

In a bowl with a whisk combine:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 heaping tsp baking powder

In a blender mix until smooth:

130-160g Cooked beet

2 Tbsp cocoa

1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup butter milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Then add and mix until incorporated:

2 eggs

And an optional splash of vinegar

Remove the center part from your blender (if it detatches because it is much easier to remove batter and to clean the blender afterward with it out) and mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

Use a spatula to get the batter all out and bake in either cupcake liners or an 8" round pan until done. 

Adorn as you please. Here the chocolate icing was a great flavour and texture companion.

After we recover from being pooped out, we must concentrate on watering. Once we contemplate all the solutions, gather the necessary parts and put the system in place, it seems to simply become a function that time must be reserved for, versus a cumbersome chore. 

Rabbitry Beginnings

I've waited and waited for these three rabbits! 

Finally I was able to meet with the breeder. She lives about six hours north of Red Deer so it was quite convenient to meet her in Red Deer for the pick up. I didn't have the opportunity to choose my stock, so I'm stuck with these genes, at least to begin. And breeding will see what that brings!

Meet our breeding stock: 

Grand Chef, our Buck, needs a bit of an attitude adjustment, though he's not had a temper tantrum for a week or so now... He sounds like a pig when he's mad! He's a big fellow, weighing about 10 pounds, but apparently a very picky eater. We are working on this... I don't want him to waste away. 

Rochelle, our oldest doe, is the sweetest bunny of all. 

She has a lovely temperament, keeps her cage tidy and we think she will make a good mama rabbit. Her favourite treat is sunflower seeds, so we've planted sunflowers we will harvest just for her. 

We hope her black features are hereditary and she passes them on. 

Lynnette is a little over a month younger than Rochelle and she is cheeky and full of baby energy. She's beginning to get her silver hairs and I wonder if she will go more the all-over silver like Grand Chef, or more black striping in the facial area like Rochelle. Maybe she will be different! 

Rabbits don't travel too well... The younger the better it seems and Grand Chef either had a rather mean streak to start with or the drive simply brought out his mal humour. 

I'll try feeding him banana. He needs to be sweetened up! 

The chickens are no longer chicks, and I can't wait until they begin laying! 

We've been experimenting with a mobile enclosure, a chicken tractor, if you will, and although moving it with them inside, or not, and then carrying them to and from is a pain, they are developing their foraging skills. I'd like to reduce their bagged many-unappitizing-over-processed-ingredient feed to a minimum and instead give them more wholesome chicken food (Like maggots!! Yum, right? And whole grains), after all, what goes in is what comes out, which in this case are eggs that I'll be eating. Amaranth or quinoa, buckwheat or turnips, but still undecided and rotor tiller-less! 

Above Georgi looks a tad guilty. 

Which he was, sitting on the bed! 

And furthermore, I later found he'd also eaten all my indoor seedlings!!!

Bad kitty. 

But the poor little meow-meow is sick. No one knows what's wrong with him. 

Hopefully he will pull through! 

This morning just before leaving the house I realized Georgi was chasing something. The something was a mouse, a large, plump mouse with ears like a bear, hiding behind the recycling bins. I pulled them away from the wall to let the cat at it, but the cat was just playing too gently. So I brought in our real mouser: Rori. She also just likes to play, but her bite is more lethal. She bit and tossed the mouse numerous times, not killing it, just puncturing it, and then flung the mouse, hard - right at me. Blood splattered. Luckily not on my uniform, but by then I'd had quite enough. The injured mouse ran under the fridge and since I'd prefer to put the poor thing out of its misery, than for it to die in some obscure location and ferment, I pulled out the fridge, and got the mouse away from the dog. Outside I sent the mouse to mouse heaven. The cat was irritated at the dog, the dog was irritated at me, both for 'toy' stealing, and I was irritated at them both for making me deal with the mouse! 

It was early, but I was wide awake by the time I left. ;) 

Bathroom Update

I'm not saying this is so true of men, so much as it is of women, but each and everyone one of us does spend a fair amount of quotidian time in the bathroom. I'm not a woman who spends a ton of time in one of the smallest rooms of the house, but in the course of an average week I suspect I log seven hours in there. Good grief! (and you come out looking like you do... Lol) Looking at it in this way reminds me it's a heck of a relief these hours are spent in a nice bathroom. 

On that note - of nice bathroom spaces - I thought when it comes to renovations, the bathroom should probably be our first priority in our little house. Above is a photo, and you might agree: Functional, but a bit sad and outdated.

Lots of shower/bath scrubbing (like thee hours!) showed it was obvious with some caulking and well chosen flooring (in order to pull the colour of the shower walls in) we could avoid replacing the tub enclosure - see above photo. Otherwise we kept only the light fixture, heat vent and door. We kept the drywall, too, but completely changed the subfloor. And ended up with this: 

In achieving the above it was quite a bit of grunt work. Our goals were to repair all floor rot, have pressure from the shower, for the toilet to remain level, and include a wee nod at revival. Perhaps in a softer colour, (butter yellow because obviously I have a thing for yellow - butter anyone?) favouring a country-shabby-chic décor. Jordan is quite happy to go along with my decorating schemes even if they turn out more feminine than neutral... 

Nothing like a good scrub and a nice coat of white to clean things up. Just painting this vent cover did wonders. Also to go with the decor theme, I finished the mouldings and door with an antiqued brush finish and sealer. 

I hope you like it because we made it especially for Jordan's lovely cousin - also a lady so perhaps she'll appreciate the feminine touches - who I hope will enjoy it, too. A few more details such as door stop, a shelf, and hooks will complete the room. Fashioned rusticly, building them should be manageable. 

Since everything was remarkably well built and still works, I will likely keep the vanity as a base for a wood working table. Maybe the toilet and sink could become planters? Looking back to childhood, my Dad would have thought the same, jokingly, knowing it would not be permitted by my mom. Shall we ask Jordan, who was so adamant I not use palettes in the house, EVER? 

But I did. And never showed you yet. So here's our extra bedroom:

I used a nifty crate for a bedside table, as well as an old panelled window for decoration. The palettes just serve as a frame to elevate the mattress, and create a walkway at the foot of the bed. 

And just to let you know you're a loved guest, I chose this pillow. :)

Oh and Jordan does want to keep the toilet planter... And is talking about a special inscription to go on the lid as a nod to our farm's name. More on that later!