Tree and Twig Farm Blog

Galen Weston-ha!

2012-02-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Killer eggs?

It's been an interesting week. When I've been packing seed for Seedy Saturday, picking greens or just being a mom and housefrau, I've been thinking.
Galen Weston, I'll consider you here.
Read about the really dumb comment the executive chairman of Loblaws made here while speaking at the Canadian Food Summit.
When you are in charge of a 9 billion dollar business, you should be a little more on the ball than to comment about the health risks farmers markets pose, and I quote ".. one day they're going to kill some people though."

Killer greens?

Oops. Scramble, scramble. He didn't really mean it, he was misunderstood.
Friend of the farmer, strolling through the field with the salt of the earth, partners. Oops.
That image of you is gone now and forever, Galen Weston.
I mean that is for those of us whoever believed your marketing in the first place. But it sure as hell wipes out that advertising campaign, doesn't it?
Such funny and amusing stuff.
A follow-up article in the Toronto Star mentions people who got food poisoning while tasting samples at your store. How ironic. How terrible.
How many products have been recalled over the years in your stores? How many people do you fill with edible oil products, trans fat, pop, GM products, BPA lined cans and pesticide laden produce?
It could actually be that this time around bad press isn't actually better than no press at all.
It appears to me that the joke is on you.
As was the thought of actually attending the Canadian Food Summit.
It did cost between $500 and $1000 for the two day summit in Toronto. Accommodation would be extra.
I thought I would like to go, and asked about a reduced fee for a small farmer. Umm -"no" was the answer.
Via social media I implored Galen Weston to sponsor me.
No response from him. I didn't actually expect one.
The message here?
Sorry small farmers. We're going to talk about FOOD. But without you and your input.
Then of course Galen's message to attendees that farmers are endangering the health of those to whom they sell directly.
How positively wonderful it all must have been.
Perhaps Galen you think you know food better than those of us who produce it. I don't think so, but I realize to you I am nobody.
I also think perhaps your business savvy isn't as spot- on as it could be.
Even farmers know about putting our foot in our mouths and how it can be bad for business to slander other business folks. You know... like the farmers you slandered.
Come on down Galen Weston. I may not own a 9 billion dollar business, but I don't have hundreds of people bad mouthing me right now. Maybe you and I could chat and talk about business.
For a price.

This is February?

2012-02-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

The wacky weather continues!
I've been pulling out the winter crops from the hoop houses the last few days and planting for the spring.
The winter crops have pretty much figured out that this MUST be spring, and are sending up seed stalks. Can't blame them....feels like spring to me too.
Here are some sights seen on this fine early February day-

Planted in January in the hoop house-edible now!

A winter survivor - January King cabbage

A spring sight-dandelion

Chickens are loving it

Ducks too!

Crops coming out-crops going in

My backyard, no ice, no snow-this is February?

CBAN Newsletter-GMO's rejected in Europe

2012-01-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

I received this very interesting newsletter from CBAN today. Good news for Europe, but not so much for North America. Read on....

Resistance in North America and the European Union is increasingly making GM a bad financial investment....Last week Monsanto shareholders voted down a proposed study of how the company's GM crops may pose financial and legal risks to the company. Monsanto's profits depend on GM now and they have little room to exit. Meanwhile BASF has cut and run from Europe after 30 years.

********

AquaBounty cuts costs as its GM Atlantic Salmon becomes a losing venture: AquaBounty Technologies is aiming to cut the cash costs of operations by approximately 30%. It says this is due to continuing uncertainty over the timing of US Food and Drug Administration approval for its GM Salmon. http://shares.telegraph.co.uk/news/article.php?id=4298408&epic=ABTX

********

Monsanto gives up on French GM maize

28 January 2012 | By Alistair Driver http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/arable/monsanto-gives-up-on-french-gm-maize/44485.article

Biotech giant Monsanto has announced it is giving up on plans to sell genetically modified (GM) maize in France, despite winning a key court ruling last year.

In November, France’s highest court overturned the 2008 ban on cultivating Monsanto’s MON810, an insect-resistant strain of maize which is grown in several European countries. The court ruled that the Government had not produced enough evidence to back its claims that the GM crop posed a significant risk to health or the environment.

That ruling was prompted by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in September, in a case brought by Monsanto.

But earlier this month French environment and agriculture ministers revealed that, despite the ruling, they were planning to reintroduce the moratorium on MON810 maize before spring sowings start.

This has proved to be the final straw for Monsanto, which said this week that it had no longer had any plans to market its GM maize in France.

“Monsanto considers that favourable conditions for the sale of the MON810 in France in 2012 and beyond are not in place,” the US company said.

GM campaigners welcomed the announcement. Pete Riley of GM Freeze said the decision was ‘yet another sign that Monsanto has failed to convince the public or policy makers that there is any benefit to growing to growing GM crops’.

“This needs to be acknowledged by industry and politicians and there should be a big shift to agricultural research and development which addresses the future sustainability of farming in Europe,” he said.

But Julian Little, chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council said he French Government decision earlier this month was ‘clearly political’ and would deny access to tools that could enable them to ‘produce more food, feed and other raw materials, using less resources’.

*********

BASF, the largest chemical company in the world, announced that it is moving its GMOs out of Europe. It is moving its headquarters from Germany to the US. In 2010, BASF received European Union permission for cultivation of its GM potato called Amflora, to be used for industrial starch production, not food. However in 2011, BASF said it planned to cultivate just two hectares of the GM potato in Germany and 15 hectares in Sweden. Analysis from Ignacio Chapela: "Clearly put: one of the largest among the few who banked on the GMO route to do agriculture is giving up in its own home turf, defeated by public opposition to its products which evidently do not live up to expectations." The world is squeezing GM back to North America, where resistance is strong and growing.

January 18, 2012

BASF Sees the Light - GMO’s Move Out

by Ignacio Chapela http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/18/gmos-move-out/

This week BASF announced that it is moving its GMOs out of Europe. Will the English-speaking media lose its nerve and write about it? Based on past experience, my wager goes to the habitual policy of silence, and I expect that the news will continue all but unrecorded in English. Most of us will not celebrate as we should.

Other languages do comment and give a little more detail, albeit still briefly. In German, the word is printed clearly: “BASF admits defeat”, while in French: “The number one chemical concern in the world, the German BASF has announced on 16 January 2012 that it gives up the development and marketing of new transgenic products intended for the European Union.”

Clearly put: one of the largest among the few who banked on the GMO route to do agriculture is giving up in its own home turf, defeated by public opposition to its products which evidently do not live up to expectations.

You will find some records in the business websites, mostly deploring the European hostility towards GMOs, the loss of jobs (about 150-170 in Europe, although many are relocated to North Carolina, for an overall loss of about 10 jobs altogether) and repeating again the idea that rejecting GMOs in the environment is tantamount to committing economic suicide and “rejecting the future” as if this was possible.

I say that the future holds very little promise for GMOs altogether, and BASF is only the first to have the capacity to recognize the thirty years of bad investments. They can afford this move, which is not unannounced and forms part of a year-long reconfiguration of the company to navigate tighter economic straits ahead, because they are diversified and have strengths in other fields. Monsanto and Syngenta, for comparative example, have stood in complete dependency of GMOs since their mothership companies shed them off to swim or sink on transgenic markets twelve years ago; Bayer and Dow stand somewhere in between. Where Monsanto’s stock would have floundered if they announced they were closing GMO R & D in St Louis, Missouri, BASF’s stock hardly budged on the equivalent news (it actually ticked upwards in the Frankfurt exchange) – the timing of the news release may well have been a token of deference to BASF’s partner Monsanto, protecting the latter’s stock from the shock on a day when the US stock markets are closed.

The reasons for the failure of BASF’s products in Europe are many and very diverse, but the fundamental truth stands that over the decades no real benefit has offset the proven harm caused by GMOs. It is fine to blame “the European public”, but we know that this public is no better or worse than our own in the US or anywhere else – had there been a GMO equivalent of the iPad, masses would have thronged the streets of Europe clamoring for their use. But it may be just as true that BASF would continue to push GMOs into Europe were it not for the tireless and creative work of many hundreds of thousands, the kinds of numbers needed these days to make a self-evident point which counters accepted official policy. So I say to our European friends: embrace the credit that is hurled at you and loudly celebrate what will not be announced as your victory in the newspapers.

We are left in desolate America, though, land of government by Monsanto, where BASF is relocating its GMO headquarters (some specialty technical BASF outfits remain in Ghent and Berlin). In the North it is impossible to know where the nearest non-GMO plant may be, while in the South and in Mexico the tragedy of GMO soy- and corn-agriculture continues apace, driven by corrupt or willfully ignorant governments and against public opinion much stronger and much more vocal than what we have seen in Europe. Far from recognizing the failure of GMOs altogether, something that should have happened at least a decade ago, BASF identifies the opportunities offered by the brutal realities of the Third World, opportunities which are better capitalized with the centralization, mechanization and property-rights enforcement possible only through GMOs. As we celebrate the lifting of perhaps one third of the pressure upon Europe to give in to GMOs, let’s not forget those places where they will continue to be used as the effective spear-head of corporate biological mining of other lands.

Ignacio Chapela is Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Senior Researcher at GenØk, the National Center for Biosafety, Norway.

Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
Collaborative Campaigning for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
Suite 206, 180 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 1P5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext. 25
Fax: 613 241 2506
coordinator@cban.ca
www.cban.ca

Send your tax-deductible donation today! www.cban.ca/donate

The Minister of Agriculture wants to legalize contamination from GM foods that have not been approved by Health Canada but have been approved somewhere else in the world. Send your letter to the Minister of Health today to stop "Low Level Presence" http://www.cban.ca/llpaction

What will be in your 2012 garden?

2012-01-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get to the point of feeling like you have so much on your mind that nothing stays straight in it at all?
It gets a bit muddled. And then it seems like there's nothing really in there at all?
I'm feeling that way right now -blessed with a vacuous mind. Helps me sleep at night.
Who says that growers aren't just as busy in the winter? I don't find myself spending a whole lot of time sitting beside my woodstove perusing seed catalogues.
I'd really like to do that, and will soon I hope.
Not to say I haven't ordered seeds, because I have. Oh how I have.

I'm sure it is an addiction. In my spare moments when I'm not sending out seeds that people have ordered from me, or harvesting the winter greens, I'm checking out the seed offerings of others.
Some seed sources are wonderful and are treasures in and of themselves. If you don't know about them, you really should.

Seasoned growers may want to consider the absolutely tremendous listing on the Gardens North website.
My mom, whose birthday is today (and bless her memory) loved the fun that could be had with Gardens North seed. Stratifying, cold treatment (vernalizing)-yahoo!

My own front yard is a testament to the fabulous seed to be had from this seed company.
One neat little shrub mix package purchased a good 15 years ago transformed my hard and barren clay front lawn into a true jungle of interesting vegetation. It's true! One little seed pack provided a whole lot of fun and experimentation and now good luck peering into my front window!

Mom and I also made an annual sojourn to William Dam Seeds. I love heading up there for a great many reasons.
One reason is that it still feels like home to me. I grew up close-by.
Who says you can't go home? I do all the time. It's different but the same.
Then again so am I.
I like dealing with nice people and the Dams are that. I love walking past the shelves of seed packets and seeing what is new, interesting and different. I always buy more than I should, but the last minute surprises are fun.
The seed is all untreated, and their selection of heirloom and organic seed is increasing every year. They have a wonderful selection of seed that is popular in the Netherlands and not necessarily well known here. Good stuff.

One of my searches this year has been for basil seed. After last years lime basil trial for Organic Gardening magazine, I got it in my head I would grow as many varieties of basil this year as I could find seed for. Enter Richters of course.

Reading the Richters catalogue is an education. There are lessons in that little catalogue about every herb under the sun...and more.
Most of the basil varieties I'll be testing are from Richters, but not quite all.
As it stands now, I will be growing 52 varieties of basil this summer. I'm game to grow more though. Any suggestions?
I definitely see a basil tasting event in the future. And pesto. Lots of it.

I'm also growing some wonderful things this year from my trip to Monticello in the fall.

Sesame seeds at Monticello

Sesame, rice, cotton, more fabulous cockscomb flowers, as well as a variety of wheats, farro, many more oriental vegetables - (can a radish really grow to be 100lbs?) and more.
I need to know why Amish Farmer Doughnut tomato is called that, so I'm growing it. Is there a hole in the middle?
It's easy to get bogged down with the necessary things one needs to do to make a living and survive. And easy to forget how much you love doing what you do. Even when you grow food for a living. It can be stressful and it does have it's pressures.
But then you see it....that one seed that you must try. Then the thought of spring approaching gets exciting and you're willing to do it all over again.
The garden is like going home - the same, yet different. And I would say that is a good thing.

Tree and Twig CSA for 2012

2012-01-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

2012

For the last 15 years now I've been selling veggies.

And doing a bit of this and that as well. In one form or another I've always done a CSA, and this year I'm going back to a bit more formal CSA again, with delivery into town. My new website will be up soon, but here's a little preview of the CSA information. If it all seems as clear as mud to you and you have questions, please don't hesitate to email or call. It will be a small CSA, because I want to do it right, and do my "this and that" right too. So if you are interested please let me know. And yes, if you'd like to work a bit on the farm too, that can be arranged. Or even if you'd like a little spot to garden, let's talk! I have land.

2012 CSA and Farm Shares.

CSA stands for Community Supported (Shared) Agriculture.

This system of marketing links local growers and consumers who want fresh, healthy produce.

When you become a member of a CSA you are committing to a season long agreement, which sees the farmer growing food for you. In a CSA shareholders buy into the farm in such a way that the risks and rewards of farming are shared by the farmer and the community shareholders as well. In a good growing season, there is lots of food, and in a poor, not as much.

Tree and Twig tries to minimize this risk by growing a huge diversity of crops and by also making good use of 3 passive energy hoophouses.

In return for your payment you share the harvest and become part of a farm community.

I save seed, purchase seed, supplies and work very hard with simple tools and sweat to bring you the best organic produce I can grow.

Organic growing practices include the use of cover crops, natural amendments, crop rotations and other practices to improve soil and plant health. Growing organically is more labour intensive than conventional chemical farming. I use no GM seed, no treated seed, and much of my own seed that I have saved year after year.

I am NOT certified organic, but have never used any form of chemical inputs on my crops since the time I began growing produce to sell in 1997. Joel Salatin said it best: "You can't regulate integrity". How true! Take some time to get to know your farmer. Consider attending some of the special events at the farm for CSA members.

I also do not use any animal inputs such as manures, or bone or blood meals. If you are vegan or vegetarian, this may be important to you. It is to me.

I deliver into Fonthill and St Catharines, and may consider other communities if 5 or more people are in that area sign up. If it is more convenient for you to pick up your share, let's arrange that.

Deliveries are Tuesday afternoons and will be at a TBA convenient location in Fonthill or St Catharines by 3 pm.

(Please note-if you go on vacation during the season, remember your veggies are still committed to you. Please ask a family member or friend to pick them up and enjoy them, or I can arrange for them to be donated in your name to a good cause, such as 'Start Me Up Niagara's" kitchen.

Shareholder and potential shareholder information and planning meeting- Sunday,March 4, 2012 2pm at the farm.

I'll answer questions, listen to your ideas find out what you'd like me to grow for you and tell you what I've got planned. (RSVP) Please come out!

Payment

Pay for the full season(s) in advance, or pay monthly via post dated cheques, please.

If payment poses difficulties I will still try to accommodate you.

(Early )15 week season- $375.00 (Spring-Summer) March start (approx)

(Mid) 15 week season-$375.00 (Summer-Fall)June start

(Late) 15 week season-$375.00 (Fall -Winter) September start

Seasons will begin as early as possible, and you can do all three, or more. I grow year round!

The number of shares available are limited.

Your share includes a weekly delivered basket of premium heirloom vegetables( peck size), a weekly online newsletter with recipes and on-farm events just for shareholders.

Shares generally contain a minimum of 8 different items, but in high season this can be much, much more.

I grow pretty much every vegetable you can imagine...and then some. There will be items in your basket that may be new to you, and in 2012, I am trying some very interesting new crops.

My goal is to show you how wonderful vegetables can be and to keep your taste buds happy. I love vegetables and want you to as well!

Thank-you most sincerely for supporting a small farmer.

Individual baskets of produce are always available -no commitment! Baskets of fresh, heirloom vegetables also make a thoughtful gift of good eating, and special gift baskets are available too.

2012 seeds

2012-01-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Well, we're nearly there.

If you'd like to take a peek at my 2012 seed listing, check here

It's been a little slower coming along than I would have liked, but of course that's all me. Strange how winter gets so busy!

Christmas Lima beans

I've dropped my price down a bit this year, and there are some interesting new additions.

The new website will be up soon. But in the meantime and despite the fact I'm still cleaning and packing some of the seed, you are most welcome to mail in your seed requests if you see something in the listing of interest. Orders can be sent to 74038 Reg Rd 45, RR#1 Wellandport. On L0R 2J0

Although not noted on the listing, all orders will require an additional $3.00 for shipping and handling, and until the website is up, payment will need to be by cheque only. Shipping is within Canada only.

I have limited quantities of all seed and when it's gone, it really is!

Thanks for looking it over!

Niagara Seedy Saturday

2012-01-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

Steven Biggs and "Homegrown in Toronto"

Mary from "The Cottage Gardener"

It is that time again.

It's time to start considering what the garden "chez vous" will look like this glorious 2012. And of course we all know that the year to come will be the very best gardening year ever. All the vegetables and flowers we grow will look precisely like the ones in those glossy catalogues. Really!

Why not be optimistic? That's the beauty of gardening. It always could turn out that way! And if it doesn't you still may have some vegetables to munch on and some stunning flowers to admire.

Seeds are a bit of a miracle. And if you like seeds and gardening and being with people who feel the same way, I hope you'll come out to Niagara Seedy Saturday on February 11, 10- 3 pm at Brock University, St Catharines. The event will be in the very beautiful "Pond Inlet', which is within the Mackenzie Chown Complex-see here.

There will be signs as you enter the university directing you to the event.
As it stands now, you may expect to pay $6.00 to park, so pack your cars with family and friends, park off campus, take the transit, or walk if you can. We are still working on reducing this amount, and I'm hopeful we will.

There is, however, no admission fee. When you come in you will be given a pack of seeds, a warm welcome and an opportunity to browse, chat with some fine folks and listen to some very knowledgeable speakers. If you wish to leave a donation, it would be well received and will all be donated to Start Me Up Niagara to help them with their worthwhile efforts. Yes, 100%.

We have many businesses and groups returning from previous years, but also some welcome new additions. Joining us this year are:

Steven Biggs Author "No Guff Gardening"
Acorus Restoration
The Cottage Gardener
Urban Harvest
Premier Horticulture (Myke Supplements)
Minor Brothers
Paul Federici (music!)
Ann Brown "The Plant Lady" (Sea Grass baskets)
The Organic General Store
Tree and Twig
Start Me Up Niagara (kids activity table)
Master Gardeners of Niagara
Seeds Of Diversity Canada
Sustain Ontario
Garden of Eating
Brock OPIRG

There are a few more businesses that I am waiting confirmation from as well, so we'll have a pretty full house.
I am delighted that Paul Federici will be providing entertainment between speakers and that "Fed Up" Brock will be dishing out a light vegan lunch and coffee free of charge. But please consider supporting them with a donation, which would be greatly appreciated.
If anybody is interested in doing a bit of baking, please let me know. We'll again have our goodie table so people can enjoy a sweet snack while wandering.
Our speaker schedule is:

10:15 Welcome and introduction of Susan Venditti, exec director "Start Me Up Niagara"

11:00 Steven Biggs "Container Gardening"

12 noon Chef Mark Picone

1 pm Colette Murphy, Urban Harvest

2 pm TBA

Also this year we will have Niagara Seedy Saturday t-shirts for sale. All the profits from the sale of these shirts will go towards the establishment of community gardens at Brock through the OPIRG group which is assisting with the running of this event. A small but heartfelt thank you. Each shirt is $15.00 and I only have a limited number. If you would like to have me hold one for you, please let me know and which size you prefer...S, M or L (unisex sizing).

And most importantly, bring your seeds! The seed exchange is the heart of this event; it is about sharing open pollinated seeds. It doesn't matter if they are seeds you have saved yourself or extra seeds from some you have purchased. All are welcome!

2011 seed exchange table

If you feel you could lend a hand at the event, please get in touch. Sign up to help with next years event.

Very much looking forward to it and I hope to see you there!

Niagara Seedy Saturday-Please post!

2012-01-16T13:51:00.001-08:00

NIAGARA Seedy Saturday

Saturday, February 11, 2012, 10 – 3 pm

Brock University, Pond Inlet, 500 Glenridge Ave, St Catharines, ON.

Free admission (donations accepted for Start Me Up Niagara)

Seedy Saturday is a celebration and sharing of open-pollinated seeds and gardening know-how —“saving our past for our future.” Seedy Saturday and Seedy Sunday events are held across Canada.

Seedy Saturday is about:

 saving, swapping, buying, and selling seeds that have not been genetically modified

 promoting open-pollinated varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers, grains, and herbs

 preserving heirloom varieties

 conserving biodiversity

 growing native plants and plants adapted to local conditions

 creating and sustaining gardening communities, ensuring food security

 sharing gardening know-how

Events and Activities:

Seed Exchange table and...

 Exhibitors

 Presenters

 Seed Retailers

 Door Prizes

 Free Coffee & Tea & Treats AND SEEDS!

 Light vegan lunch provided by “Fed Up” Brock OPIRG -donations appreciated.

***“Garden Give-away Table” a free exchange and/or giveaway of clean pots, trays, magazines, books, garden utensils....

Seedy Saturday agenda:

10 am Start of Seedy Saturday Seed Swap & Retail all day .....

10:15 Welcome and "Start Me Up Niagara" Susan Venditti

11 am Steven Biggs “Growing in Containers”

12noon Chef Mark Picone “Niagara Food Finds"

1 pm Collette Murphy - (Urban Harvest) topic TBA

2pm TBA

For more information contact Linda Crago 905-386-7388 or treeandtwig@sympatico.ca

This is January

2012-01-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, January IS here. I wondered if it was going to arrive in the usual way this year.

It came yesterday.

When I looked out the snow covered window yesterday, the wind was whipping the snowflakes into a frenzy. Today, tonight...it's just cold. Cold.

Time to feed the birds-Ellie loves them

Cold

My chicken friends enjoy their greenhouse

...with easy access to their heat lamps

Snow is an extra layer of insulation on the hoop houses

Hey, I like your hat!

Not so bright and cheery in here

..but this is bright and cheery to see. Variegated collards!

Magic stuff, I tell you. Magic.

..and rain is in the forecast for this week.

Guest Post-Ribollita Soup

2012-01-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

It's so funny, the relationships you form with people. And it is downright scary when you start reading each other's mind.
I again asked my friend Leslie for blog contribution, and fine cook that she is, she came up with precisely what I cooked for supper last night... I just didn't know what it was called!
My version was probably not quite as refined. I used frozen heirloom tomatoes that I grew and froze last summer, my own mix of dried beans from the garden that I had cooked up, and some fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil and thyme that are growing in my kitchen.
As Mollie and I sat down to eat I told her it was "everything but the kitchen sink soup." In her clever way, she eyed me suspiciously and queried "there's a toilet in here mom?" She's a funny girl. But she gobbled it right up.
Thanks again for the recipe, Leslie.

This cold and damp winter has me wanting soup on a regular basis. Combine that with my resolution to eat more meatless meals this year and I am constantly searching for ways to make over some old favourites. One of those is Ribollita Soup. Ribollita means reboiled in Italian. The story is that this soup was born when there was need for a nourishing yet affordable meal made from left-overs to feed the poor. Hence the name reboiled. Traditionally, Tuscan ribollita is a bread-thickened vegetable soup made with pancetta or bacon and chicken stock. Here is my vegetarian version, perfect for a cold, damp, winter day.

“Only the pure of heart can make good soup” ~ Beethoven

Ribollita Soup

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 pound chopped assorted greens (spinach, kale, collards, swiss chard)

1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon herbs de Provence

3 cups vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

1 (3 inch) piece Parmesan rind

Grated Parmesan for serving

Directions:

Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent and soft. Add tomato paste and stir until dissolved. Add tomatoes and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits. Add the greens, beans, herbs, stock, bay leaf, and Parmesan rind. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

When the soup is ready, sprinkle with Parmesan, and serve with warm crusty bread.

This is January?

2012-01-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Darn, the weather has been nice! This is January?

So instead of sitting at my computer, as I should have been doing I've been otherwise engaged. Doing some seeding in the hoop house, cleaning out the chickens, picking greens for sale, walking the dogs.

Fun stuff, outside stuff.

It's true, these are things I enjoy!

So the seed listing has taken a bit longer to come up with. If I was sitting inside on a blustery, snowy day it would have been done long before this. It's hard to resist the temptation to NOT BE IN!

But now it is done.

It will be winging it's way to my friend who is a knowledgeable friend of computers, which I am in not.

And a new website will be introduced...soon, with some cool new seeds. I'm excited!

A new CSA season, new farm events and some very cool new heirloom tomato seedlings. Lots of them. And some exciting new (old) veggies I'm trying.

But in the meantime, here's a look at the winter farm and what is happening.

Sometimes we rest.

A surprise- a variegated arugula. I'll try saving seed AND propagating.

So many beans to shell...ain't they pretty?

Tressa's Florence hot pepper for seed.

Sometimes I cover, sometimes I don't. This week not yet!

Sylvetta arugula- a winter hoop house staple

My 2011 Vegetable and Flower Favourites

2012-01-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Don't you just know this will be a wonderful year? I sure do.
The turning of that December page on the calendar means a whole new beginning. Symbolic perhaps.
But that's okay. New beginnings are good-clean slate and all that.

And nowhere is the slate cleaner than in the 2012 garden. Time to start anew. Failures last year? Forget 'em. THIS is the year! May your carrots grow straight and sweet and your tomatoes plump and juicy.
Hope always springs eternal and a true gardener at heart is always optimistic.

There are some very interesting things that I'm going to try to grow in 2012, with the emphasis being on try. I don't for sure know I can grow some of these things.
But try I will.
On the list are rice, cotton (again-haven't succeeded previously), and a whole lot more.

But there definitely are some crops that I tried...and succeeded with in 2011. And liked a whole lot.
Here's the run down of a few of them. Soon, when my seed and plant listings are up on the website, you'll see I am selling one form or another of quite a few of them.

Stupice - As always. Delicious, sweet and early. I'll say no more

Green Envy was a nice surprise and did very well at my "Tomato Bash" in August. People loved the taste. Oh...it is yummy.

This was a fabulous tomato. Orange tomatoes are my hands-down favourite tasting tomatoes. I think. Well, I'm pretty fond of greens too. But this one was sweet, fruity, early as the name suggests and large. A real winner.

I question the name, but not the tomato. Dingo Eye? I'm not sure what I expected, but not this very handsome, tasty and large pink. The seed came from a country whose language is not my own, and I had no idea what to expect. I'm happy, though. It's a very good tomato.

Thompson Classic Seedless was rated by many people who tasted it this year as the best tomato they had ever eaten. Ever. I grew it in the hoop house and withheld the water. Sweet, spicy tasting and stunning, stunning. Thanks, Tom Wagner for handing me this seed. This is a truly splendid tomato.

I liked the Lime Basil a whole lot, something a bit different in basils. Lovely and citrus and makes one heck of an ice cream and pesto. Now I have to try lots of other basils this year-I'm aiming for 50. Grow big or go home. (What a thing for a small farmer to say!)

I would say it is a toss up between Slim Jim and Ping Tung Long for eggplant of the year. Pictured above is Slim Jim. It is a great little eggplant that grows very well in tight conditions or a container. Lovely mild taste and great production.

The Amish Cockscomb (celosia) was without a doubt the standout flower of the year. How many pictures did I take of this? The colour, the texture and ultimately the size, although at Monticello they were even bigger than mine. I now know there are lots of other colours, and I'm going to grow them in 2012.

This beautiful, simple marigold made my heart stand still. I had such a hard time locating the seed for this one after I saw a picture of it on the internet. Isn't it so lovely? This is Summer Snowflake, an apt name.

And last, but certainly not least is Molly, the bean. This slim little filet bush bean was tremendous. Look at the plants... just loaded. I sense this one would do well in a container as the plants were small. Very fine flavour, and of course a very fine name! I love it.

I've got more favourites too. And how about you?

I'd love to hear from other folks about their 2011 or all time garden favourites. Give me some ideas - I'm willing to grow as much as I can!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T04:46:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

If you bought seed, plants or veggies from me. Or didn't.

If you read my blog. Or didn't.

May peace and love surround you and hope encourage you

Whoever you are,wherever you are and whatever your circumstances,

All the best for 2012.

I hope our paths cross.

Here...or there!

TAKE TIME…

Take time to work, it is the price of success.

Take time to think, it is the source of power.

Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth.

Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.

Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the Gods.

Take time to share, life is too short to be selfish.

Take time to laugh, laughter is the music of the soul.

Love from the farm,

Linda

Eat in the past and live there too!

2011-12-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

Years ago at the height of my fanaticism for heirloom vegetables I coined the phrase "Eat in the past".
And yes. It's still there on my website, and will be carrying over onto the new website in 2012.

Clever? Maybe. But maybe not.

Some people might look at it and think "hmm, what is this? Eat expired food? Spend all day in the kitchen and forego modern conveniences?"

Well, of course it really only means try heirloom vegetables. Grow them, eat them and keep them alive.
Because as long as people are growing them and eating them, the seed continues to be in existence and in demand. Considering 90% of our vegetable varieties have disappeared over the past hundred years this is pretty important.

In some ways living in the past is important too.
My parents lived through the depression and although they were very young, it clearly had a huge influence on how they lived their lives and how they raised my sisters and I.

They didn't buy things they didn't need. When they shopped they looked at quality and price.
We weren't poor, middle class I would say. But "a penny saved is a penny earned" is how we lived.

My mom gardened on a big scale and canned and froze much of her produce.

No food was ever wasted. My whole life I didn't see (or do I see now) food in our garbage can.
One tea bag made two cups of tea, everything was made from scratch and you ate everything on your plate.
And yes. If I didn't like something I sat at the table till I ate it. Not how things are to be done now I know.

But most people were the same.

I remember every summer after my dad had harvested the wheat, taking a bushel full of the beautiful golden grains to our elderly neighbour. It was his morning cereal for most of the year. He would soak a portion overnight, then cook it up for breakfast, and add a bit of sugar and milk.
For some reason we didn't do that. Maybe mom figured that was more than she could get away with. Kids and all, you know.
Our breakfasts were oatmeal porridge, Red River Cereal or Cream of Wheat.

I was reminded this summer of how simple our life really was by seeing a branch in my elderly friend's yard.

This branch, propping up her laundry line nearly made me cry as a memory came into my head. She must have wondered as I stared at it.
That's what my mom did. With a nail hammered in the top to hold the line, that branch held up that line for nearly 40 years. It's funny to think about it. It was good enough, and did what had to be done. No gadgets, no purchases. Nothing shiny and new. It was just a branch.

Many these days would have you believing that being environmentally friendly is also about buying products that are labelled as such. And sure. If you have to buy something, I guess that's the way to go.

But I think lots of times we're still buying things we really don't need. Buying stuff fills some strange vacant spot inside us.

A few years back I went to a big "green" event in Toronto and came out with my head spinning. "Green" was interpreted as buying more stuff and there was a whole massive building full of it for sale. Maybe the stuff was more environmentally friendly. But with "greenwashing", maybe it wasn't.

I'm not sure buying more stuff we really don't need is the way out of this environmental mess we've gotten ourselves in. Even if it is (supposedly) environmentally friendly.

Maybe it is buying less. Making do with what we have.

I don't want to relive those childhood years. (Well, actually maybe if I could, I would. They were really good years.)

But clearly, here we are today and this is where I want to be.

It all comes back to tomatoes.

Maybe we should be a bit more like the tomato. A tomato that is overfed and overwatered simply doesn't taste as good as one grown with a bit less attention. The best tomatoes I ever grew were ones which grew on my hard-to-manage clay with water withheld for the season. They thrived on less.

If we had a bit less maybe we'd appreciate what we do have a bit more. We might even see that all that stuff isn't necessary for us to be the very best we can be. And the residual effects of less consumption might be good for the bigger picture.

It might not be that bad to live in the past.

Guest Post-Arugula Cottage Cheese Dip

2011-12-15T13:34:00.001-08:00

Leslie must spend a good bit of time in the kitchen...my favourite kind of CSA customer!
(Not to mention my favourite kind of person.Very sweet!)
I'm very much appreciating her creativity, especially since she is so willing to share her recipes. And after my little Christmas potluck here on the farm, I've had the honour of sampling her dishes too. Yum!
Thanks for the post, Leslie.
If you'd like to read another post I wrote about arugula, it was a year ago I wrote about Astounding Arugula
Don't think about it that way? Maybe if you try this recipe you will!

Is it a dip? Is it a salad dressing? Is it a sandwich smear? Well that is for you to decide! What I do know is that it is tasty. I found this recipe for an Arugula Cottage Cheese Dip on a website called www.farmgirlfare.com and immediately thought it would be a perfect way to use some of the beautiful arugula Linda put in my basket this week. Something about arugula makes me think about the summer. Maybe it is because one of my favourite salads in the summer is a simple mixture of arugula, feta cheese and watermelon. When I smell and taste the peppery goodness that is arugula I am instantly feeling warmer and dreaming of the summer. This recipe is great as a dip, salad dressing or even smeared on a sandwich. The choice is yours…enjoy!

Arugula Cottage Cheese Dip

4 ounces of arugula (about 4 cups packed) coarsely chopped

1 cup of cottage cheese

1/3 cup of mayonnaise

2 tbps fresh lemon juice

¼ cup chopped chives or finely chopped scallions (green parts only)

¼ tsp salt

Fresh pepper to taste

1 clove of garlic **

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. Add more salt and pepper to taste if desired. This dip will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

** The original recipe did not call for garlic. I am a firm believer that everything tastes better with garlic in it. Feel free to leave it out if you wish. **

It's Now on the Farm

2011-12-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

This is not the post I planned on writing.

The post I should be writing is about my 2012 CSA.

The last few weeks ( or has it been months?) have been about planning for next year.
Getting the seed listing done, planning Seedy Saturday, my CSA, my farm events and other farm business.

I'm tired of living so far in the future.
So...here's the now on the farm.

After putting up a new chicken coop this summer, fixing up and attaching a chicken greenhouse,which acts as their winter playground/scratching area, I am truly confounded that the rats have already chewed through two layers of plywood door to gain access to the chicken food. How can this be? Not fair.

At least let me get a good solid month of it being together before you burst my proverbial bubble!

Game on I say. My solution to date has been to cram the doors at night with clay pots, which covers the hole they've already chewed and seems to prevent them from chewing new ones.

Pots weren't too busy this time of year anyway.

The rats have the next move. I'm waiting.

I really don't like rats that much.

It's been an interesting fall. We've had some pretty chilly nights, but all in all, it's warm. And in the hoophouses, it has been down right hot at times. It's hard to regulate the temperatures.

Crops are confused.

Some cute little tatsois have decided spring is upon us, so are flowering with eternal optimism. Bless them. I'm enjoying their happy colours, especially on the cloudy and dreary days.

The hot peppers that my friends the Maniacis brought seed back from Florence for are still alive and kicking. They are leaning up against a black barrel of water which is providing them with enough heat during the cold nights to carry on. How much longer, I wonder?

It's neat to see the little tomato plants that have popped up from seed. I know their germination will all be for naught if I don't interfere. The cold weather will finish them off sooner or later.
Tomorrow I'll pot a few up and pop them under my lights indoors with the rooted basil and rosemary cuttings. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a tomato. Or maybe just the wonderful smell of the tomato plant when I brush it with my hand. That's okay too.

And miracle of miracles. I found a tomato under my spigiarello plant that was ripe and ready to eat. In the hoop house of course. But wow. A fresh tomato in mid December works for me.

(I'm eating the tomato!)

But there is still lots of fresh food going out.

The seasons and years are colliding right now. Cleaning seed from 2011 for 2012, harvesting food from 2011 but planning for 2012.

The weather is cooperating now. I'm planning on that for 2012 too.

But we'll see about that one.

Guest Post-Mustard Green Stuffed Portabellos

2011-12-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks once again to my friend Leslie for the great sounding, and soon-to-be-tried recipe.

Yes, friends, it is mustard green weather!

Mustard greens are one of the most satisfying and simple crops to grow in the winter hoop house, and they cover the whole range of colours, tastes and textures. From frilly and mild mizunas, to the pungent heat of Giant Red, mustards are a good bet for winter greens.

Here's a bit more information about them from an earlier post And I hope you enjoy this creative recipe as much as I am going to!

Merci encore, Leslie.

Mustard greens are part of the cruciferous family of vegetables (collard greens, kale, broccoli, etc.) They are often referred to as the super-veggies because they are full of phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals, and fiber. Research has shown that eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables may help lower your risk of getting cancer. The recipe below is just one extra way to get these peppery greens into your diet on a regular basis.

Mustard Green Stuffed Portobellos

This recipe is based on the recipe for Natale Stuffed Portobellos that appeared in the December 2011 issue of Vegetarian Times. The original recipe uses spinach instead of mustard greens and is put together a little differently.

MUSHROOMS

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 clove of garlic, minced

4 large portobello mushroom caps

FILLING

2 Tbs breadcrumbs

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup chopped onion

8 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup light cream or soy creamer

10 oz fresh mustard greens (or any combination of swiss chard, mustard greens, spinach)

¼ cup grated Asiago cheese

4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped

To make mushrooms: Preheat oven to 375⁰F. Whisk together oil, vinegar, and garlic in a bowl. Brush mushroom caps with oil mixture, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until tender. Remove from baking sheet and place on paper-towel-lined plate to absorb excess moisture.
To make filling: Heat remaining oil/garlic/balsamic mixture in a skillet of medium heat. Add mustard greens and cook until wilted. Remove from pan and drain any excess moisture. Wipe out skillet and heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 5 minutes, or until soft. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic; sauté 30 seconds. Stir in cream, and cook 2 minutes. Add cooked mustard greens back into the skillet. Stir in cheeses, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Return mushroom caps to baking sheet and spoon filling into the caps. Top with breadcrumbs and return to the oven for 5 to 7 minutes until crumbs are toasted.

Uncle Howard's Tomato

2011-12-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

It was surprising how many people read the post about the garden story contest. Thanks for reading!

You never know when you propose these things exactly how they will be received. Will, in fact ANYBODY send me a little story?

As with everything I do, numbers really don't mean too much. I'm happy with a few exquisite tomatoes, as opposed to a field of edible cardboard. I'm happy when I hold an event if a few folks come, or if lots of people come.

So I had 3 entries. And I think I am grateful for that. If I'd had 10 entries, how would I possibly have picked a winner?

And I loved all 3.

Genevieve for the sheer joy that comes out in her story as she describes her garden successes. I can relate to being in the garden in my nightgown. On more than one occasion...the joy of country living! Michelle and her tenacity in spearheading what is going to be a wonderful community garden in Burlington.

And Rob's.

Well Rob, that is just a great story! It makes me think of heirlooms and the stories that are associated with them, and of course the huge family connection we have to specific foods. I hope Uncle Howard's tomato is out there growing and thriving as it's loss would be terrible. I mean really... a tomato that can bring that much joy to a person who no longer enjoys food? That's a treasure.

So Uncle Howard"s Tomato is my winner. But in the true spirit of gardening, and because I enjoyed all three, Genevieve and Michelle, there will be 10 packets of seeds for you both as well.

Thanks so much for sharing your garden stories with me.

And now sit back and read this one. Love it!

Uncle Howard's Tomato

When he was nineteen, my mother's Uncle Howard got kicked in the head by a horse. It knocked him unconscious for a few minutes, and when he "came to," he discovered that he no longer had a sense of smell. And even worse, he had almost no sense of taste.

Imagine living a long life without the enjoyment of any olfactory or gustatory sense whatsoever: knowing you must eat, feeling hunger of course, but taking no pleasure in chewing and swallowing. My Great Uncle Howard was a very thin man. He performed the chore of eating purely for necessity, and if not for his wife, my Great Aunt Martha, he probably would have forgotten to eat more often than not.

One year I drove my Grandfather and Grandmother to Florida, and we stopped in to visit Howard and Martha, who had a winter cottage on a residential piece of land. There, Howard revealed to us that although his sense of smell was completely and utterly gone, he did still have a tiny bit of taste sensation. He could only taste one thing, however. He was very excited, because he had finally grown a tomato in his garden that he could actually taste.

He waxed eloquent over the taste of that particular tomato, and crooned over its size and shape. To think, he had grown it in his own garden. Finally, after all of these years, he could again taste food!

Isaac Asimov wrote a short story where life has evolved on a distant planet under multiple suns. Only once every couple of millennia did the suns align on one side of the planet, so that half the world was enveloped in night and the beings there could see stars. Only once every couple of millennia, therefore, could they see and wonder at the true extent of the universe. For Uncle Howard, the taste of that tomato was like a single window into a universe that he thought was forever denied to him.

I wish now that I had paid closer attention to the type of tomato Uncle Howard had discovered. Does that tomato still exist? Has someone kept its seed alive, growing it year after year? Would its taste be pleasant to me, or is it so profoundly tomatoey that only a person without a nose could eat it?

When I pick a tomato from my backyard garden plants, I smell its scent, fresh from the vine, a scent that is truer than any supermarket tomato can give you. I take a bite, grateful that I can taste it. It tastes so good. I think of my Uncle Howard and I wonder: is this the one?

Homemade Crackers

2011-11-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is.

I've finally made crackers that I like and that seem pretty easy and fuss-free.

I decided that this was something I needed to do after my friends Melanie and Jesse over at Crackersblog, told me when I queried, that in fact they hadn't made crackers yet. From the sound of their blog, they've been darn busy gardening and preserving.

I've tried a good few cracker recipes over the ensuing months.

The first was yeasted and the bloody things were delish in the spots where I rolled them thin enough, but even my beagle Darwin with his jaws capable of bone crushing force had a tough time with the thicker ones. But, darn it...we ate them.

A few more kinds I made were un-yeasted and they were okay, but just didn't completely do it for me.

After fiddling around with a pretty simple recipe, I came up with the one that follows.

It was a good use for the "Sweet Corn Flour" that I found in a very interesting East Indian grocery store. The flour, from Manitoba, had me baffled. I bought it because I thought I'd like it because I absolutely adore cornmeal everything, but I've never actually found any recipes that call specifically for it. No mind. I put it in my breads and now crackers, and it is a welcome addition.

Homemade Crackers

3 3/4 cups flour (mine was 2 cups whole wheat, 1 3/4 cup sweet corn)
3/4 tsp sea salt
6 Tbsp olive oil
12 Tbsp water
crushed dried rosemary to taste (I think you could also add other seasonings-like caraway seeds, sesame seeds, or wherever your cravings take you.)

Preheat oven to 400 F
Mix together the flours, sea salt, rosemary and water. I just used clean hands, and got right into it. Add water and mix again to form a nice dough. Mine wasn't too sticky, but held together well.

Sprinkle flour on a Silpat or parchment paper. Divide the dough into thirds or half to work with.
Roll out thin...aim for 1/8" thickness.

Transfer to ungreased baking sheet, then cut into squares, but don't slice right through.
If desired sprinkle a bit more salt on the top.

Bake for 10-15 minutes..just until they are starting to brown.
Pull out the the oven and cool on a rack. Break apart and enjoy!

(ps- they taste super-good with some of the chick peas (made into hummus) I bought at the same East Indian grocery store. That 10 lb bag has served me well!)

(A Little More About) My Southern Ontario Winter Hoophouse.

2011-11-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Thursdays and Fridays are the busiest days for me here on my small Niagara farm.
And why? Well, the weekends are right around the corner, and those are the busiest times for restaurants, the ones I sell vegetables to anyway.
I'm happy to say that this continues to be the case year round.

This time of year the picking is time consuming...one leaf at a time. Small leaves, medium leaves or big leaves. Those really are the choices.

I have about thirty different varieties of greens planted in the hoop houses. I have many varieties of mustards, from the typical to the less common, and also collards, chards and some tasty chinese greens.
These crops will make it through the winter-the radishes and carrots should too.

I have 3 hoop houses in total. The two larger ones are about 84' long, and hold a whole lot of food.

When I plant them I have to prioritize. So sadly, this means pulling out summer crops that are still producing, like heirloom tomatoes, and getting the winter ones seeded.

I aim for having crops in by late September, with the goal being that the crops will mature by the first week of November or so, when the days become shorter, and growth slows.

This fall has been a good balmy one, and I lucked out. I did get things seeded a little later, but the growth has been very good. In fact last week I seeded more bok choy, and it was up yesterday. It will grow very slowly.

When it gets very cold, the growth pretty much halts. That's when the great cover up begins.
I'll fashion little hoops out of plastic coated wire, and lay my agricultural fabric completely over all my crops. My goal with the hoops is to keep the fabric from touching the crops directly. It will get damp from being in the humid hoophouse and freeze on the leaves, thus ruining some of them.

One of my hoophouses has a double layer of poly, with a blower, which fills the cavity between the two layers with air. Clearly, things do quite well in this hoophouse. The other hoophouse is a single poly, but it actually does very well too. There isn't a huge difference.

When the hard freezes come, the greens underneath the fabric will in fact freeze. But when I wait till the hoophouse heats up, usually mid-morning, the greens are fresh and as unfrozen as can be. And all that much sweeter for having been nicely frosted. Amazing, but true.

When I pick, I pick one leaf at a time, instead of cutting out the whole plant, because the leaves continue to produce. I just don't run out of produce, until the time when the days are longer and the signal is sent to the plants to send up their seed stalks...spring is here! The flowers of the winter crops as well as their tender seed pods are very tasty too, but then the time comes. Time to yank out the winter plants, or till them under and get the tomatoes planted and the greenhouse tables set up for the transplants.

Then back to the season of pests and watering and weeding.

Ah-yes. That's yet another appeal of winter growing, less garden work.

Sound like fun? It actually really is, and quite amazing. Good food, fresh food all winter long!

My Southern Ontario Winter Hoophouse

2011-11-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

There's a mix of summer and fall in our meals right now.
A few Sweet Solano tomatoes are still gracing our salads, picked as they ripened, but saved from the hard frost before fully ripe.
It's so wonderful to be munching, sauteing and roasting sweet and hot peppers that are storing well in the cooler.

Some are still surviving in the hoop house. The brilliant shock of red just makes it seem that much warmer in there.
But on the cool but sunny days, it's hot under that layer of poly. The doors are open to allow ventilation.
Because these are cool or down-right cold weather crops I'm growing in here.
Here's a peek in hoop house #1...

And Hoop house #2....

It really is a lot of food.

I did 2 big picks yesterday and hmmm. Did I really? The arugula is certainly diminished, but not much else.

This of course is good. Very good indeed.

These crops were all seeded a bit later than most years. I think I was into the first week of October, but it's all worked out really well. A mild fall has seen to it that the seed germinated really quickly, and the plants have grown well.

I panicked a bit when I realized my Agribon fabric was pretty holey and mouse chewed.

This fabric is essential to keep the crops safe when the temperatures dip really low. So I placed a quick order yesterday to the good folks at Johnny's and it was mailed out yesterday too. (Such a great company to deal with.) I use the 19 weight, which has good light transmission and protects my crops very well under my poly.

I've always found it important to prop up the fabric, so it isn't touching the plants. I've just lost too many leaves to frost burn from wet fabric freezing on the tender leaves.

I counted today. I have more than 30 different crops growing this winter. There are lots of mustards...

....chards...

various pac choi, tatsoi, and bok choi.

And lettuces .

Much more too!

And of course, a chair.

Because there is nothing better on a frosty cold and sunny Southern Ontario day than sitting in the hoop house, face to the sun, feeling the warmth go through you, and smelling the richness of the earth as it grows good food.

Insta-vacation! It's all so good.

Christmas Open House December 4!

2011-11-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

If you need something a little different for a Christmas gift, would like to buy some December fresh vegetables, and also have a peek inside my fields of green in the hoop houses, mark your calendar.

I'm having a little event on December the 4th from 10-2 pm and hope folks can make it out.

We did a lot of canning this year, so there will be preserves to buy, dressed up a bit for gift giving, and a good selection of gift baskets, some with preserves, calendars and some with fabulous and unique heirloom seeds and just a bit more. If you have a gardener on your list, I will have copies of Steven Biggs and Donna Balzac's "No Guff Gardening" available for purchase. It is a great book and would make an exceptional gift for either the beginning gardener or the seasoned gardener. It's just a good read and good fun.

There will be hand knit slippers and mitts, baking, a bit of art and a cup of warm cider to take the chill off. Maybe a bit more too....I'm working on it!

And don't forget. If you need fresh vegetables, I'm picking greens daily throughout the winter. After the frosts they are ultra sweet and fresh tasting, and a bit more appealing than what you may find in stores at this time of year (in my humble opinion).

The next blog post I write will be about what is happening in the hoop houses now and specific things I'm growing, but if you want to see and chat in person, come on out.

I look forward to seeing you. And don't forget Joey, my pig-on-a-diet loves any spare apples you may have hanging around!

The Attack on the Canadian Wheat Board:7 Reasons Non-Farmers Should Care...and Act

2011-11-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

Please take the time to read this information I received today from the National Farmer's Union. This is a terrifically important issue that affects all Canadians, not just farmers. And thank-you.

The Attack on the Canadian Wheat Board: Seven Reasons Non-Farmers Should Care ... and Act
Saving the Canadian Wheat Board matters to you. Losing the CWB will affect the food you serve to your family, your community’s economy, and Canada’s democracy.
On October 18th, Prime Minister Harper introduced legislation, Bill C-18, to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board. The majority of farmers oppose the Prime Minister’s plan—farmers have repeatedly voted for a strong, effective CWB. Farmers are organizing and protesting. But to save our democratically controlled marketing agency, farm families need your help, and the help of the organizations with which you work.
The loss of the CWB will hurt every Canadian family. Here are seven reasons why non-farmer Canadian citizens should act to help protect the Wheat Board:
1. Privatization and loss of economic control Few sectors of the Canadian economy are 100% owned and controlled by Canadians. But one is: our multi-billion-dollar western wheat and barley marketing system. If the Harper government destroys the CWB, it will turn over to transnational corporations (most of them foreign) a critical sector of our economy that is now owned and controlled by Canadian citizens. What C-18 takes away from farmers and other Canadians, it gives to grain giants such as Cargill.
2. Genetically modified food In 2000, Monsanto moved to introduce genetically modified (GM) wheat. Farm organizations, environmental groups, and citizens’ organizations banded together to stop Monsanto and keep GM wheat out of Canadian fields and foods. United, we succeeded. The CWB was a crucial ally. Many people and organizations believe that had it not been for the work of the CWB, Canadians would now be eating food made from GM wheat. Lose the CWB and we may lose the fight to stop GM wheat.
3. Food Sovereignty As an alternative to a globalized, long-distance, corporate-controlled food system, many Canadians are advocating Food Sovereignty, wherein farmers and all citizens collectively shape the food system we want for our families. The CWB is a good example of Food Sovereignty in action: a democratic agency controlled by food producers and citizens. By attacking the CWB, this government is pushing back hard against Food Sovereignty, serving notice that our future food system will be more far-flung, more corporate controlled. A government hostile to the CWB is hostile to Food Sovereignty.
4. National sovereignty Today, Canada has its own grain production, processing, handling, and transportation systems. Our Canadian Grain Commission sets and enforces quality standards—equal to the highest in the world. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulates new seed varieties, keeping harmful ones out and ensuring farmers have access to seeds that grow well in our climate. Most of our grain flows “east-west”, hauled by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways and loaded onto ships at Canadian ports by Canadian workers. If we destroy the CWB, other parts of our Canadian grain system will be destroyed in turn. As the government empowers US-based grain transnationals, those corporations will chafe against Canadian regulations and push for the destruction of our Grain Commission, seed regulations, and the rest of our quality and regulatory systems. Destroying the CWB accelerates the Americanization of our grain and food systems.
Worse, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Chapter 11 gives US-based grain companies a veto over future attempts to rebuild our CWB. If we destroy it, we can’t get it back.
This information brought to you by the National Farmers Union5. Your economy The CWB is the cornerstone of our Canadian wheat and barley marketing, handling, and transport systems. Those systems create jobs:
 in Winnipeg where the CWB, the Grain Commission, the Canadian International Grains Institute, and other agencies are headquartered;
 in Thunder Bay, Ontario; Churchill, Manitoba; Vancouver, B.C.; and Montreal, Quebec; where Canadian export grain is cleaned, blended, and loaded onto ships; and
 across Canada as money is retained in this country and spent in rural and urban centres. The CWB raises farmers’ revenues by $500+ million annually, money largely from foreign nations that is spent in urban and rural businesses across Canada. PriceWaterhouseCoopers calculated the CWB’s total benefit to the Canadian economy at more than $850 million annually. Without the CWB, citizens and communities across the nation will suffer financially.
6. Our democracy The vast majority of farmers want a strong, effective CWB. Farmers have reaffirmed that support in 10 votes—3 plebiscites and 7 sets of Directors Elections. Despite this, the Harper government is pushing forward to destroy the CWB. And it is doing so illegally. Section 47.1 of the CWB Act requires that farmers must vote in favour of major changes to the CWB. The government is ignoring that law and refusing to hold a vote. Also, the government is ramming its legislation through parliament, using closure to limit debate, refusing to let the Agriculture Committee examine the bill, and instead setting up an ad hoc committee to review the bill, but limiting that committee to just 5 minutes per section. Prime Minister Harper has announced he will “walk over” the farmer majority that support the CWB, and he has called his drive to dismantle the CWB a “train barrelling down a Prairie track." Our federal government is sneering at democracy, evading due process, and bending the law to the breaking point. If these antidemocratic tactics are not challenged, they will be repeated.
7. Farms and the land The CWB raises farmers’ prices and incomes. And the CWB provides equitable access to the market for all farmers, big or small. Losing the CWB will accelerate the loss of family farms. In so doing, it will concentrate farmland ownership in fewer and fewer hands. A blow to the CWB is a blow to family-farm agriculture, and the men and women who produce our food.
You can help protect our food supply, sovereignty, economy, and democracy
Time is short. We need to act fast. But action takes just 15 or 20 minutes. What is needed right now is for Canadians to write two short letters:
 OnetoPrimeMinisterHarper,askinghimtoscrapBillC-18,hisdestroy-the-CWBlegislation,andto instead enact policies that foster Food Sovereignty and a strong Canadian nation and economy; and
 OnelettertoCanadianSenators,askingthemtoresistpressuretofast-trackBillC-18,andtoinstead give careful and adequate consideration to this detailed and far-reaching legislation; to hold meetings of their Agriculture Committee; and to hear presentations from farmers, workers, businesspeople, and other Canadians who will be affected by this legislation.
Contact information for the Prime Minister and Senators is:
Hon. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
FAX: (613) 941-6900
Canadian Senators
c/o the Clerk of the Senate Parliament Building Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4
FAX: (613) 992-7959
If you have the capacity, please send your letters to Ottawa via fax. Time is short. And please fax a copy to the NFU office: (306) 664-6226. PLEASE MARK “SENT” ON THE COPY YOU SEND TO US
This information brought to you by the National Farmers Union

CBAN Alert:Stop Canada from legalizing unapproved GM foods

2011-11-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

This alert was received from CBAN today...

Concerned about what you are eating and may be eating in the future? Don't really want to be a guinea pig? Please consider taking the following action and having your concerns heard.

This is what we already need to worry most about. Why add to the list?

Stop Canada from legalizing contamination from unapproved GM foods.

Write to Agriculture Canada from http://www.cban.ca/llpaction

The Canadian Government is proposing to allow contamination of our food supply with genetically engineered foods that have not been approved for safe eating in Canada. Agriculture Canada has opened a comment period until November 25, 2011.

The Canadian government wants to allow a percent, 0.1% or higher, of our food to be contaminated with genetically modified (GM, also called genetically engineered) foods that have not been approved by Health Canada for safe human consumption. The GM foods will have been approved for safety in at least one other country but not yet evaluated as safe by our own regulators. The federal government calls this “Low Level Presence” or LLP and argues that this “low level” of contamination from unapproved GM foods is not harmful.

LLP is unacceptable and unjustifiable:

- LLP is trade policy at the expense of public health. The goal of LLP is to facilitate the free flow of goods into Canada, without the restriction of safety assessment.

- LLP overthrows public health policy. LLP rejects Canada’s “science-based” regulation of GMOs because LLP assumes that GMOs are safe before evaluating the available data.

- LLP makes safety regulation irrelevant. LLP establishes an exception to the (already highly criticized and woefully inadequate) process whereby government regulators review scientific data to determine human health safety. The introduction of LLP will further undermine our international reputation for food safety as well as the confidence of Canadians in our food system.

- If LLP is introduced, it will be clear that the Canadian Government has no interest in protecting the health and safety of Canadians.

Write your letter today from http://www.cban.ca/llpaction

For more information visit http://www.cban.ca/llp

Donate today to support the campaigns at http://www.cban.ca/donate

********

Guest Post-Beet Leaf Buns

2011-11-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks again to Leslie ( and her friend Jennifer) for this very special recipe and blog post.

Food can evoke some powerful memories and allow us to share time with special people in many ways, even if they are not with us.

Blessings,
Linda

Beet Leaf Buns
This past summer I saw a posting on Facebook (yes facebook) by a friend of mine, Jennifer, about how she was going to make Beet Leaf Buns. I was instantly intrigued as I had never heard of Beet Leaf Buns so I sent Jen a message. Turns out her Baba (Grandma) made these all the time when Jen was growing up. At the time of our chat about these buns Jen explained that her Baba had had Alzheimer’s disease for awhile and in the last few years it had progressed significantly and as a result Jen was becoming quite nostalgic, hence her trying to make them on her own. Coming from a part Ukrainian family like Jen, I was surprised that I had never heard of the buns. After inquiring with my mom and aunts they too had never heard of them before. Well after many batches this has now become a new tradition for my family. Thanks Jen for sharing your family’s tradition with me! I hope other people enjoy this recipe as much as my family does.
This recipe is a combination of a few different ones that can be found online. Now Jen told me her Baba never made the sour cream sauce but she did fry chopped green onions in “skads” of butter and drizzled it over the buns and then tossed it all to make sure everything got a nice light coating. The choice is yours as both ways taste great!
This blog post is in memory of Verna Serhienko (Jen’s Baba) who passed away on November 1, 2011.
Ingredients
Raised bread dough (make your own or buy it ready made)
Beet Leaves
Sour Cream
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Fresh dill
Butter
Salt & Pepper
Wash and dry beet leaves.
Mix together approximately 1 cup of sour cream with onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt & pepper to taste. Set aside.
Grease a round roaster or large casserole dish with butter. Cut off small pieces of bread dough (about the size of a walnut) and wrap each in a beet leaf, rolling loosely. If leaves are very small, use 2 or 3 per bun. Place in the pan. Place the rolls tightly together.

After you have laid the first layer, spread a few “small specks” of butter here and there and then slather with some of the sour cream mixture.

Lay the next layer on top, and finish with more butter and sour cream mixture.

Let sit for about 40 minutes, or until bread dough doubles in size. Place in a 350C oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (or until bread is baked and getting golden on top)

Serve with extra sour cream mixture for dipping.

Seed Saving Season Never Ends

2011-11-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

Last April I began the age - old process of saving seeds for the 2012 garden and for my seed sales.

Those plants considered "biennials " in terms of their seed saving cycle were planted back in the newly thawed ground. Winter radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, mangels and cabbages are amongst my favourites to save and replant.

The multi-legged Long Black Spanish winter radish above needed a large hole needless to say, coming in at a weight over 10 lbs. Big radish.

I store these items with the tops removed, in barrels and layered in straw, then plant them in the cool spring soil. Then magic happens. The seed stalks shoot up, and months later I am harvesting the lovely dry seed.

Imagine- a bean necklace!

Jolly Jester Marigold

The seed saving continues for the entire season. From tomatoes, to peppers and eggplants, flowers, seed potato and potato berries, beans, peas and lettuces. I could go on, and certainly do!

The beans I am still in the process of gathering.

A late wet spring resulted in late bean plantings, and a wet fall has made it difficult to get the beans off the field. But worth the effort none the less.

I have dry beans in their dried up pods everywhere! On my bedroom dresser, hanging in the garage, in the basement, and "lucky beans" in most of my pockets. As does Mollie. Some of them are just so beautifully patterned we carry them for luck. They remind me of the beauty of nature and of diversity. They also speak to the potential of everything...even a small pretty patterned bean.

These beans are food for now and for the future. They are also 'objet's d'art" in my opinion. I believe the potential of bean jewellery is huge. However I have failed to sell anyone on this idea just yet.

Beans are one of the last seed harvests in the garden, as are the members of the physalis family. Tomatillos, ground cherries and cape gooseberries sit well in their little husks for weeks, so I get to them when I have the time.

My massive Salinas Valley tomatillos

They are fun to get seeds from. I pull out my trusty "Vita Mix" blender, pop in the de-husked fruit with a healthy splash of water and whir the fruits on low speed until it is a pleasant mash.

I wait for a minute for the contents to settle and the heavier seed has sunk, while the pulp and skin floats above it. I strain off the mash on top ( feeding it to my resident pig Joey) and clean the seeds below in a sieve with cold running water.

They are then laid out to dry, packaged, hopefully labelled and stored in a dry cool place. For me, that's the bottom of my freezer in a mason jar.

Want to save more of your own seed? They key is saving seed from open pollinated varieties, isolating varieties so as to prevent cross pollination and ensure seed purity and storing seed properly.
The very best guide I have found is Suzanne Ashworth's book "Seed to Seed", worth every penny you will pay for it.

When you learn the basics, you can really start to have fun. You can create your own varieties, work on growing out your favourite hybrids until they are open pollinated, and join the seed exchanges to share your valuable seed.

And of course, Niagara Seedy Saturday provides this opportunity too. Mark your calendars and get your seed packaged.

And I'll see you at Brock University, Pond Inlet on Feb 11, 2012!

Stuck

2011-11-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Ever feel stuck? Stalled or immobilized?

Stuck in a rut, in a job, in a relationship, in a mood?

Can't move. You're paralyzed.

Imagine how this little soul felt when he tried to get through a 1/2 " circle in a hard plastic planting box.

I'm so glad I found her. It was really just a fluke of a thing. I looked in the right direction and there she was. Her gorgeous little brown eyes staring up at . Pleading silent. Help me, please.

She was wedged in pretty good. Her poor little bottom end just couldn't slip through.

What to do, what to do?

A few weepy moments then to the task at hand. It took me about 30 minutes to cut through the hard plastic with my secateurs. And ever so carefully as I approached her little body. I was so scared I would nip her.

But I freed her. She was in shock I think. I made her a nice little bed of straw to rest in, where it was safe.

When I came back she was gone. Scampered off I hope to do mousy little things. Survive.

Good luck little soul.

Turn to friends, I think that's the lesson. And friends might be those who you least suspect will help you.

We all need each other and can do good.

Why wouldn't we?

This Time of Year

2011-10-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

All the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are off the fields. If they didn't make it off they are finished. We've had some very hard frosts.

There are new harvests in the hoop house...french breakfast radishes.

Lots of root crops to sell and store..carrots, beets, winter radishes and a surprise crop of scallions I had sort of forgot about.

Vegetable baskets are still going out. It's nice to be able to add some English walnuts. The baskets are a mix of summer and fall.

Ever try making walnut butter? It's nice to be able to make your own nut butters out of your own nuts.

There are lots of hardy greens right now. Some from outside, some from in the hoop houses. Chards, kales, spigiarello.

And dry beans to pick. I've lost count of how many kinds. Just lots. It's been tough to get them all dry.
A late spring planting and a bit too much rain this fall. Some will be seed, and some will just be good eating.

These are the hoop house greens. There are lots of lovely little greens now. Many, many mustards, kales, arugula and chards. Good stuff.

It never ends. It just goes on...differently. But it goes on.

"Tell Me a Garden Story" Contest and win seed !

2011-10-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

I've entered a few contests lately. Really... why not?

One I entered is a makeover contest. I'm really hoping I win. I mean, I had to send in a picture and everything so they get a sense of whether or not there is any raw material to work with at all.

I'm not sure if the "farmer" label in my write up will throw them off. They must wonder why someone who does what I do would want a makeover.

Probably will help me sell more vegetables I figure. Can you imagine driving by and seeing a glamorous farmer in the field working? (Me!)

Surely you'd slam on the brakes, put your jalopy in reverse and come back to buy vegetables from me. That's what I think anyhow. We'll see how it all turns out.

Well, I'm not proposing to make anyone over. Heaven forbid.

But around this time last year I offered The Great Seed Giveaway on this blog to good response. Again this year I have some left- over seed, as well as some nice new seed harvested fresh from my garden for 2012 sales. Some very intriguing seed, rare seed and just plain cool seed.

So tell me your garden stories! In return I'll send the author of the story I like the best 25 packets of seed for your 2012 garden. This selection will include vegetables (including some rare tomato seed), herbs and flowers as well. Heavy, of course, on the vegetables. And with the author's permission, I'll print the story on my blog.

Preferably the stories will be non-fiction, no more than 500 words in length and about your vegetable garden or vegetable gardening experiences. Pictures are welcome, as are amusing stories! I don't care if you are new to gardening, an experienced gardener, or how large or small your garden. If you grow in pots, send in your story! Children are welcome to write in too. Gardening embraces and enthrals us all. And I'll mail the winner's seed anywhere in the world. I'd love to hear from faraway places.

Please send your entries to me at info@treeandtwig.ca before November 30, 2011.

Win some cool seed. Seed and stories are for sharing!

Guest Post-Pickled Tomatillos

2011-10-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks for another great post, Leslie!

There are so many tomatillos at this time of year. Some I planted, many I didn't. My theory with them is that if you plant them in your garden one year, you'll have them for life. They are the most prolific self seeders in my garden.

I'm glad to have another way to use them. I'll be using my "Hinkelhatz" peppers for this recipe, which was my very best producing hot pepper this year.

I seem to have a real love/hate relationship with tomatillos. When they first start appearing in my CSA basket I am happy to see them. A batch of Salsa Verde, a pot of Mexican Chicken Soup all great! However, it is when they continue to show up in mass quantities. One person can only make and eat so much Salsa Verde. So being a person who loves all things pickled I was taken back when I saw pickled tomatillos as part of dish on a menu for a restaurant that was featuring a local menu. Could it be possible? Pickled tomatillos? Would my love of all things pickled come to an end once I tried to pickle them? So the quest to find a recipe began and was quickly satisfied with the recipe below from The Joy of Pickling. I adapted it slightly but was very happy with the results. I must say I am feeling more love than hate for the tomatillos that are appearing in my basket these days!

Pickled Tomatillos

1 pound husked green tomatillos, washed

2 sweet or mild peppers, cut into strips or 1-inch squares

2 to 3 hot peppers (jalapeno or other types found in your csa basket) seeded and cut into pieces

3 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 cup white wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 tsp pickling salt

1 tsp sugar (I like a real vinegar pickle so I omitted the sugar in mine)

Halve the tomatillos if they’re small, quarter them if they’re large. In a 1 quart jar, combine the tomatillos, peppers, and garlic. Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil in a nonreactive saucepan, and pour the hot liquid over the vegetables. Let the contents cool.
Cover the jar tightly with a nonreactive cap, and refrigerate the pickles for about 1 week before eating them. They will keep, refrigerated, for at least 2 months.

Makes 1 quart

Recipe adapted from The Joy of Pickling.

Hinkelhatz heirloom hot pepper

Raw squash salad-who knew?

2011-10-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. Tonight for supper I cut into a 32 lb squash, not a simple task I tell you.

As I explained to my friend Emily, I'm sharing this baby. Some for me, some for the puppies, some for the chickens. And of course some for Joey, my pig, who is tiring of tomatillos on his stringent no grain diet.

The squash in question is a fabulous heirloom variety, "Musquee de Provence".

The wonderful Seed Savers Exchange, (whose seed I sell!) describes it as:

"(Cucurbita moschata) (aka Potiron Bronze de Montlhéry) An heirloom cheese pumpkin from the South of France, introduced to American gardeners in 1899 by Vaughan’s Seed Store in Chicago. Gorgeous squashes, up to 20 pounds in weight, look like wheels of cheese, and ripen from green to burnt sienna. Deep orange flesh is dense and of superb table quality. Very long shelf life. Intolerant of cold. 110 days. "

Mine clearly got a little larger than 20 lbs, and it was a true surprise to find them all.
They crept into a bit of a valley, and grew to this massive size while shaded by tall meadow grass.

What to do, what to do?

Did I mention there are lots of them?

Well thanks to two magazines I subscribe to for the inspiration. Edible Buffalo got me thinking of squash in a way I'd never considered, with a recipe for "Raw Butternut Squash Salad" (Fall 2011,Number 14).

And Mother Earth News with a great little page on roasting squash and pumpkin seed . Great magazines both.

I also found this recipe which appeared in The New York Times. And yum , it worked with my squash too.
Give something different a try!

RAW WINTER SQUASH SALAD

1 butternut squash(about 1 1/2 lbs), peeled, seeded and grated.
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used organic canola)
1-2 Tbsp sherry vinegar, or to taste
1 Tbsp minced ginger
salt and pepper

Combine squash , raisins, oil, vinegar and ginger in a salad bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Toss, then taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to several hours.

Wordless Wednesday (well, nearly)

2011-10-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sighted today...

Not dry enough for dry beans-but my yummy lunch regardless

Chocolate Naga Jolokia. Pretty, n'est pas?

The fiery Tepin (Bird pepper)

Really? Where did this come from? Seen for the first time in the garden today!

Ching Chang Choi

Restaurant veggies-lots of colour!

Ndrow Issai eggplant

She tried her best. And it is good enough!

Lots of squash. And some big ones!

Fall on the Veggie Farm

2011-10-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it is still pretty busy here on my little farm.

I'm not exactly laying on the chesterfield watching the soaps and eating bon-bons. Yet.

But much like the bumblebee on the dahlia, I'm slowing down. Not quite as slow as the bumblebees, who in this chillier weather sit on the dahlias and don't move for hours. But the pace isn't quite as hectic.

The hoop houses are all planted for the winter. I was a bit late doing this. and should have done it in September, but somehow it crept into October when I finished up.

But things look good. The "Ching Chang Choy" (I love saying it!...did I say "Ching Chang Choy?) is, after a 30 day growing period, harvestable.

The kales, many varieties of mustards, mizunas, arugulas, onions, chards, chois, carrots, radishes and lettuces are looking just fine. There will be lots of greens all winter. I'm just wrestling with the fact that I need to buy new ag fabric and that I can get the same product at one fifth the price in the US. Love to buy Canadian and all that, and if I had all that spare cash just laying around, I might do it. But really. I probably wouldn't because that is just dumb.

It's been a bit tough getting all the dried beans in. I use them for seed of course for next year, and also to eat them too as a wonderful protein source for the winter.

There are lots. Probably around 30 varieties, including some really very special ones from the Heritage Seed Library in England. 5 rare little bean seeds planted in the spring are now hundreds and hundreds.

Because I planted late in the spring, due to the wet conditions, they are late drying on the vine to harvest. I got some picked today, but -egad - rain, and lots of it in the forecast tomorrow.

We're fortunate. There hasn't been a hard frost yet. So I'm still finding some tomatoes in the garden, although they are fading. But peppers? Oh my. So many. And BIG tomatillos.

These tomatillos are ones from the seed of some that I purchased at a farmers market in Salinas California several years back. I'd never seen such big tomatillos!

And this pepper? Well, help me out....I'm not sure what it is. Lots of times when I plant things out, I assume I'll know what the plant is when it bears fruit. Not so with this one.
As I do with a few other hot peppers, I'll dig them up and bring them in to overwinter. Maybe i'll identify them eventually. A little internet research may turn up something.

I've taken cuttings for my African Blue basil and have them growing indoors under the lights. I'll have to take more cuttings from them before the spring rolls around. This is a fabulous basil..but not one that grows from seed. I got my original plant 5 or so years ago. It has had hundreds of offspring since that time.

My rosemary plants will overwinter in the hoop house, and for insurance, one will come right inside the house. Rosemary is a tender perennial that won't winter outside...with the exception of the hardier "Arp" variety. I'll take cuttings from them late winter.

My chards, kales, carrots, beets and radishes will still last a good while outside. But before the ground freezes, I'll get the roots up. I like to make sure they get a bit of frost. They are so much sweeter then.

And there are still seeds to collect. Most veggies that produce seed annually need to get a little over ripe before the seed is viable and at it's best. I've got lots of seed now for this fabulous mini-eggplant, Slim Jim.

Ah yes, the couch beckons. But there's still lots to do.

But rest will come.

The Farmer Interview

2011-10-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

Farmstart  is a pretty cool organization. They came down to speak with me years ago to discuss what it was I was doing as a small farmer with a small degree of success. Read about it here.

In a nutshell : "The objective of FarmStart is to support and encourage a new generation of farmers to develop locally based, ecologically sound and economically viable agricultural enterprises."

Exploring Your New Farm Dream is one of their course offerings this time around, and I've been asked to participate in one of their assignment " TheFarmer Interview" by a person I know who is exploring options for her retirement.

I liked the questions and thought they might make an interesting blog post. Thanks, Cathy. It's good to think about these things sometimes.

1.     How did you prepare to become a full-time farmer? For instance: Did you take courses before you started? After? Which courses? Where?

Well, no, no, no and no.
I grew up on a farm as not just a mere bystander. We picked and sold veggies on Hwy 6 in front of our family farm, my birthday was always in the middle of the corn harvest, and my favourite place in the world to be was in those fields, in the bush. Just on that marvellous patch of land.

So how did I prepare? Well, I was born into it, and I knew a fair bit before I took the plunge. I gradually made my growing area larger and larger while I maintained my social work career, until one just had to go.

So logically, the one I made money doing was the one I left behind. But I also left behind a career that was highly stressful, reasonably unsatisfying and a bureaucratic nightmare.

I did complete my Certificate of Horticulture through the University of Guelph in my early farming years, but this I did for interest.

I'm going into my 15th year of farming, and there was not a plethora of courses or people doing what I was doing 15 years ago.

I have a very extensive farming and gardening library, but more than that, I learned from doing. And from doing, I learned what I loved.

And I loved heirlooms, seed saving and chemical free agriculture.

2)     What was the biggest farming obstacle or problem that you did not foresee? Was there a solution?

I can't think of what the biggest problem would be that I've had to overcome. I haven't seen any that have been insurmountable. One would be learning to grow on clay soil, which I've pretty much got sorted out now, and loving it because it is clay. I mean - is the glass half empty or half full?
Clay has it's detractors, but it has so many positives, and can be successfully worked on and improved upon year after year that I refuse to sell it short.
The weather is the biggest variable and poor weather can ruin my season as it does any farmers. My hoop houses ensure I can grow some things even in poor weather, but a season of poor weather regardless, means a poor year for me income-wise.

3)     What advice would you give to start-up farmers? Any hints on how to do it all, especially if you’re the key person involved?

My advice is just do it. I can't tell you the number of people I have talked too over the years who read books, took courses, looked at farming from every angle possible...and then went no further.
Key in this is finding your niche and developing your market in advance as much as you can.
Become known for something unique that you are able to grow really well and you can grow it reliably.
What is lacking in your area? Most restaurants I know of are screaming for more year round salad growers. Develop a beautiful and tasty mix and visit restaurants with it to see if it will sell. And if it is quality, don't undersell yourself. Charge what it is worth. Or is it something else? Globe artichokes, or are you the pepper gal? Don't repeat something that's already being done-ad nauseum.

If you are the key person involved, how do you do it all? You work hard. That's it. You just work really hard. You work hard in the fields, you plan, you work hard to give your business a good image, you work hard at customer service and most importantly you put out a superb product and do what you say you are going to do. Be trustworthy, be honest and be the person you would like to deal with in business.

It's hard work. Work hard.

Guest Post-Another view of a veggie basket

2011-10-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tiffany for the following post with yummy ideas on how to use your veggies from the baskets.
Typical baskets at this time of year hold a whole lot of food, likely around 15 or more items. What to do with it all ? Here you go...
And ps. Thanks for the education! Conserva? I thought it was a typo, but as it kept appearing I sensed not. Now I know! (recipe for conserva here .... minus the cheese for Tiffany.)
And to both my fantastic guest bloggers and great cooks, Leslie and Tiffany....I'm open for dinner invites at your convenience!
(I'm starting my planning for next year's CSA- drop me a note if you are interested, information will be on the website in early 2012.)

Conserva on puff pastry, and we have....

pizza! With added tomatoes and garlic.

Most weeks, I look at my basket brimming with Linda’s veggies as a challenge.
What can I do with them to do her hard work justice?
Greens are easy. Her hardier collards and kale are usually stir-fried, my favourite way to eat them.
Chard is turned into the filling for the easiest-ever tart.
Peppers, well, the creative well ran a little dry so it was either salads or stir-fries, too.
But her tomatoes this year were the recipients of most of my creativity.
I jarred sauce. I made conserva. I oven-dried some and their salty sweetness makes them as easy to eat as candy. In fact, after 12 hours of dehydrating in my oven, I almost didn’t think I was going to have anything to show for my hydro bill and time because I nearly noshed the entire first batch.
When I finally managed to exercise some restraint, I sealed them in a freezer bag and tucked them behind some local strawberries I froze in time earlier this summer.
My tomatoes three ways have left me smitten and missing summer already. Fortunately, I have the season saved in mason jars and baggies.
And memories. I made some of the most amazing roasted tomato soup with Linda’s heirlooms. Easiest soup ever. I dressed roughly chopped tomatoes in olive oil and salt, put them in the oven at 450F and after 40 minutes, I had the rough outline of what would be soup.
A hand blender would make it happen and Linda’s gorgeous basil — a temperamental plant in my world but an herb that clearly does as Linda wants it to when growing on her farm — took the soup from good to summer in a bowl.
One of the simplest meals to make, though, is pizza. It’s rare that I order out for pie, mostly because of my freakish dairy restrictions. If it’s not goat, it’s really no good for me.
With my conserva beckoning me in the fridge, I broke out the last roll of puff pastry in my freezer, thawed and unrolled it; a blank canvas for the night’s meal.
I brushed on my conserva, knowing full well it’s a fancy word for tomato paste and wasn’t really pizza sauce, but I didn’t care. It was packed with summery flavour and that’s really what I was craving as I slathered it on the crust.
I sliced some of Linda’s tomatoes, roughly chopped some of her garlic and blanketed it all with goat’s mozzerella.
Perfect.
But one veggie of hers isn’t allowing me to make that claim, no matter how much attention and care I devote to it.
I’m always thrilled with I see tomatillos in my basket. I have visions of salsa verde in my head when I see their husks peeking through the pile of other goodies.
I scrub all their stickiness off their beautiful lime green skins and roast them. Blend them. Add garlic, onion, chilies and cilantro.
But it never fails. It always turns into gelatinous goo.
I’m convinced the tomatillo hates me.
Unrequited love bites.
Oven ready tomatillos

Roasted and yummy!

Thanks!

2011-10-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

...for wonderful memories,

... my girls,

..my friends who need me (and I need them!)

Well, yes. For Pickle

...for someone to cuddle.

...for small miracles,

...for diversity,

and for the chance to do what I love.

Of course, for tomatoes....

...for beauty and...

the opportunity to carry on.

There's so much to be grateful for.

I am.

Of Tomatillos and Joey

2011-10-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

I have a pig named Joey. Handsome boy isn't he?

Joey unfortunately has an affinity for grain. Sadly, I guess I have encouraged this by giving in to his whoops and squeals when he felt that the veg and fruit diet wasn't sufficient.

It got out of control. This summer when Dr Reid, my awesome large animal vet from Dunnville came out for his annual "Joey" visit, he made it clear. " Joey is40-50 lbs overweight. No more grain"

Oh wow. That's a whole lot of weight to lose. Try selling that one to Joey.

It hasn't been his favourite task. But he is getting there...the bulges are receding. That handsome piggly shape is reappearing. And despite the less frequent protestations, he is seeming more pleasant. Happier.

And a happy pig makes a happy Mama. That's me!

He has eaten a lot of tomatoes since the diet began. You know, the split one, the guts from the ones remaining after I saved the seed, those with bad spots.
Slurp! He loved them all.

He also enjoyed the apples from my trees, the weeds from the garden (although not so much) and some older lettuces.

The cabbage family he doesn't do, so that all goes to the chickens. He just simply would never eat cabbage, and clever he is. Dr Reid told me it's a good thing, as cabbage, kale, broccoli and the like are somewhat toxic to pigs and can make them sick.

Joey's no fool.

But now we're late in the season. The tomatoes got a slight hit of frost last night and the end is in sight.

So tonight in desperation I threw him in some tomatillos from my bumper crop.

And he liked them! Yahoo- Joey likes tomatillos!

Tomatillos are one of about 100 members of the physalis family. Others you may know and love are the ground cherry and my personal favourite the Cape Gooseberry. So yummy.

Tomatillos have a pleasant lemony-herbal flavour, and are generally cooked. When used raw, as my mom frequently did, they have a sharper, more acidic flavour.

And they grow like gangbusters. Tomatillos are one of those garden plants that always self seed. I frequently tell people that if i didn't pull them out, I would just be Tree and Twig Tomatillo Farm. They would just take over.

Joey just gets them straight up. Frankly, he doesn't even care if I strip off the husk.

But if you're getting lots of tomatillos from your garden, the market or even from me...here's a great recipe to give a try. As great as Salsa verde is, tomatillos can do more than that!

Diced Gazpacho Salad
(from Elizabeth Schneider's classic " Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables")

7 medium tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 handful parsley, not chopped
Black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 medium cucumber, seeded and cut into 1/4 " dice
1 large red bell pepper, diced into 1/2 "squares
1 small avocado, 1/2 " dice

1)Slice 2 tomatillos and combine in processor with salt, oregano, parsley and black pepper. Chop fine.Add oil and blend. Cut remaining tomatillos in 1/2 " dice.

2) Combine diced tomatillos, onion, cucumber and red pepper in a serving dish; toss with dressing. Add avocado and toss gently. Cover and chill for about 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy!

The Pretty October Vegetable Garden

2011-10-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

I love the fall. My favourite season by a mile.

Especially when the days are warm and sunny like today.

There's still lots to see (and eat) in the October garden.

And do!

Digging muddy French Fingerling potatoes today

Lacinato Kale

Sunflowers haven't given up!

Still yum-Chocolate Pear tomatoes

Pumpkin covered in noodles

My Organic Gardening test gaillardia

Watermelon Radishes

Oh! I love it-Summer Snowflake Marigold

Turkish Orange Eggplant

Homemade Sandwich Cookies- take THAT, Oreos!

2011-10-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yes. It's true..we like cookies here on the farm! (But some of us are on a diet)

It really BUGS me when people try to pigeon hole me.

I've met so many people who assume lots about me. She grows "organically"...therefore.

Therefore... she doesn't smoke, drink, drink coffee, eat crap, take pills.

She also doesn't eat cookies, use white flour and sugar or have friends who are the complete opposite of me.

She votes Green.

I'm serious. People have said these things to me.

Some of those by the way are true. But, for the record, I don't smoke. You can ponder about the rest...but really, who cares?

I do like to bake though.

And I have discovered a new favourite flour - King Arthur's .

This flour rocks.

No...it isn't Canadian. But in the perfect world, I'm not perfect.

But I have no issue supporting good companies from other countries...why would I?

Good is good. And it is damn good flour.

And it makes good cookies. (And No knead bread )

THIS recipe has become my 10 year old daughter Mollie's specialty.

It is really, really good.

Mollie's cookies

(From Sept/Oct 2002 Organic Style Mgazine-which I believe is now defunct.)

Homemade Sandwich Cookies

(for the chocolate shortbread)

1/2 cup butter or vegan alternative..I used Earth Balance.
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour

Cream butter, add icing sugar and mix till fluffy. Add cocoa powder, salt and vanilla. Mix well.
Work in flour until dough is soft. Need lightly and then chill for 40 minutes.
Dust the chilled dough with flour, then roll out to 1/4 " thick between two sheets of wax paper. Cut into 2" rounds. Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes, then cool.

For the filling: 1 1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup butter or alternative
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Whip all together until light and fluffy.

Create sandwiches by icing cookies when cool and topping with another.

Delish!

Yes ! To answer your questions- I will nibble on a cookie from time to time. But not store bought cookies. Good homemade cookies are the way to go...enjoy!

Bye summer....hello fall food !

2011-09-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

It is nearly October, and the outside crops are changing.

The tomatoes are tired, but the beets, carrots, squash, leeks and potatoes are going strong. Peppers too.

The peppers seemed to take forever to ripen this year. But it is happening now. Slowly.

Some of the crops seem like bonus crops. They were too easy. I'm doing this again next year...the scatter seed approach.

Forget the rows. Draw a rectangle around the area I want to plant and just scatter the seed. Water, and except for a good weeding when they have popped up, that's it.

A 5 minute job to plant, a better use of space and major results. I'm loving this!

Lots of Jelly Melons! What to do with them? Read here (Just eat 'em!)

Still saving tomato seeds. By the way...this is not the colour of my eggs yolks, as per the seed catalogue.
WHAT are THOSE chickens eating that produce eggs with green yolks?

Montser squash are hiding under the leaves. Lots of eating here. Squash soup. Oh yeah.

And on to the next jobs. One hoop house is completed seeded and in less than a week, everything is up.

The other hoophouse is the recipient of more transplants. Variegated collards...can't wait to see your colours.

The zero mile diet, year round!

Jefferson's Ten Rules

2011-09-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

The inspirational Mollie at the inspirational Monticello

Life teaches us lots of wonderful lessons.

Sometimes I wonder how my youngest daughter has learned so much at such a young age. She is 10.

She goes beyond being a good kid. She's a wonderful person....an "old soul" my friend Shirley says.

On our recent trip to Virginia she did it again.

I've been grasping onto ideas, quotes and inspirational sayings to keep me afloat the last while. Just to keep me thinking straight and sane.

When we went into the little shop at Monticello, Mollie bought a "Monticello" chocolate bar, and a little plastic souvenir in which oil drops float down ramps, and drip, drip onto the next, drip, drip onto the next, until they all gather into one big oil glob on the bottom. Flip it over and repeat.

As she checked out all the gizmos and gadgets, I stood transfixed in front of a plaque. Jefferson's Ten Rules.

Me being me, I read the rules and got a bit weepy.

I told my dear child I was just going to wait for her on the wooden bench outside the shop. Nothing I needed.

When she came out of the shop, she had a big grin on her face and handed me a bag with something in it.

I love that child.

This is what the plaque read:

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend money before you have earned it.
Never buy what you don’t want because it is cheap.
Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.
We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.
Take things always by the smooth handle.

When angry, count ten before you speak: if very angry, count a hundred.

It ain't over till...well, it just ain't over. Winter planting!

2011-09-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is officially fall.

The asters and goldenrod are making my rolling land sweeping down to the river look like an artists palette.

I love fall. My official favourite season.

Things will slow down a bit, in a month or so.

Right now though it is full steam ahead. Seed collecting, harvesting and readying the hoophouses for winter crops.

Humid this am

The tomatoes and most other things are out...and in with the new. A clean slate. A gardeners opportunity to be artist.

In they go....

And so much more...

Ching Chang Bok Choy seeded on Wednesday is UP on Saturday morning !

I know the arugulas and mustards won't be far behind.

But still it is nice to see a bit of the summer colour holding on. I just couldn't pull them out.

Watch to see how it all grows, week by week as the temperatures drop.

It is pretty amazing...and there is still lots of good eating ahead. Yahoo!

(One hoop house down and one more to go!)

Monticello and the Heritage Harvest Festival

2011-09-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

I don't get away much. It just isn't possible.

Dogs, cats, chickens and the rest of the family and vegetable fields to tend make it hard to ask someone to come in and take over. It is a pretty big job.

It's okay though. This is what I have chosen.

But an ad in The Mother Earth News convinced me that maybe it was time. A big beautiful picture of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home and his vegetable gardens as well as the headline "Heritage Harvest Festival" and I was on my way to Virginia last weekend.

The event was sponsored by Mother Earth News, but the bigger presence was Southern Exposure Seed Exchange . Great seed company, and as expected I came back with a good sized bag of seed for next year. Rice, a few cottons, a bunch of tomatoes, okras, peppers, and well....quite a bit more.

I'm not sure about the rice and cotton, but Charlottesville, Virginia is US zone 6b and I'm Canadian zone 6b. So we're not too far off.

Mollie hit the heirloom flower seed racks so her garden will be aglow with bright colours next year. Her favourite? Probably the ultra cool cockscomb, which she can now grow in many colours!

The festival was very good. So many nice folks to chat with about gardening. And some great things for kids to do, which has inspired me to have a very different kids area at Seedy Saturday in 2012.

But the highlight beyond any doubt was just being at magnificent Monticello. High on a hill overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is breathtaking. Seeing the gardens, orchards and vineyards, touring the house and just drinking in all that wonderful history. It would be difficult to not be in awe of it all.

To tell you the truth, I've never given a whole lot of thought to Thomas Jefferson. But fascinating he was. Consumed by a thirst for knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, an avid gardener and a thoughtful, intelligent man.

But also a man conflicted. He spoke of slavery as an abomination, but over his lifetime held at least 600 slaves. And Monticello functioned because of his reliance on slaves.

And the vegetable gardens. Well, they were just spectacular. Good plots of many familiar vegetables, but also a good southern dose of cowpeas, sesame seeds, Texas Bird peppers and figs. And clay!

But not my Haldimand clay. This is Virginia red clay, a totally different soil which seems to support the crops very well.

The figs...oh my!

Cow Horn Okra

Ain't she pretty...Hyacinth bean

All this, AND an heirloom tomato tasting.

You just can't tell me I wasn't meant to be there!

And I'll probably go back. There's just so much more to see.

Thank you, Virginia for your beautiful hospitality.

Guest Post: Anatomy of a Tree and Twig veggie basket

2011-09-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to my friend Leslie for another great post. Soup is in my future, and I just love soups with dried beans in them. Great protein source for veg-heads like me!

Lots of veggies now my friends...it is harvest time!

For me getting a CSA basket from Linda is a lot like Christmas morning. She hands me an over flowing basket guaranteed to be packed with all kinds of great “presents” and a few surprises. I can’t wait to get it home, unpack it, and start coming up with all kinds of great things to do with the contents. Last week when I picked up my basket Linda asked if I would write a blog on what I did with my basket. So here goes!

My basket included the following;

Tomatoes – these ended up being used in the soup recipe below and for my favourite toasted tomato sandwiches

Beets – once roasted in the oven they found their way into a salad of arugula, goat cheese, and pine nuts

Tomatillos – I read on a menu about pickled tomatillos. Having never tried this I found a recipe online and have made a jar with the ones from my basket. As soon as they are ready to try I will let Linda know how it worked out!

Beans – I asked Linda if I could purchase extra beans so that I could make some spicy dilly beans. They are great as a garnish in a bloody Caesar!

Garlic – Garlic goes into everything I cook! The spicy dilly beans, into the soup, with the sautéed greens, you name it, garlic is in it.

Eggplant – This went into the soup recipe below. Yum…I love eggplant, but don’t worry even if you are not a fan, try the soup.

Peppers (Red, Green, Hot, not so hot) – The hot peppers ended up in the spicy dilly beans and with the pickled tomatillos. The red peppers went in the soup, and the green were had raw as a snack.

Greens (Kale, Chard, etc.) – The greens were sautéed with garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil. A nice Asian flavour twist.

Assorted Herbs – Most of the herbs ended up in the soup. Any extra get added to salads.

Cucumber – A giant cucumber, half found a home in a salad, and the other half was used as a snack.

Morelle de Balbis – This is the little red fruit that has a husk much like a ground cherry or tomatillo. It has crazy sharp spikes on the husk and I can imagine is no fun for Linda to pick. However, this was the first time I had tasted these crazy little things and I must report I like them! So these were just for sampling but I don’t know what I would do if I had lot of them. Jam…maybe?

Jelly Melon – Another strange find in my basket. It is orange in colour with crazy spikes on the outside. The skin is really tough, but when you cut into it you see this substance that resembles lime green jello. Definitely not what I was expecting. Again, another taste test but unfortunately not my favourite thing coming out of the garden. Sorry Linda, not a fan of the Jelly Melon.

Potatoes – Ah nice new potatoes just dug from the ground. Around a roasting chicken they went.

Radishes – Sliced thinly and mixed with vinegar and salt to create a quick pickled radish and then enjoyed as a side dish with dinner.

Eggs – I always buy eggs from Linda. She has the best eggs around. They get used for potato salad, egg salad sandwiches, or just cooked up for breakfast.

The same day I picked up my basket I also got a copy of Food & Drink magazine from the LCBO. In it was a recipe for Mediterranean Vegetable Bean Soup. Many of the items in my basket ended up in this soup. It is a great Fall soup, enjoy!

Mediterranean Vegetable Bean Soup

12 plum tomatoes (3lbs), chopped (I substituted Linda’s heirloom tomatoes here)

2 sweet red peppers, chopped

1 small eggplant, about 1lb peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ cup olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano

2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

½ tsp chopped fresh rosemary

4 cups water (I used vegetable stock instead of water)

1 can (540ml) white pea (navy) or kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used white kidney beans)

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 425⁰F
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper
Combine tomatoes, red peppers, eggplant and onion. Sprinkle with 1 tsp each salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Toss evenly to coat. Divide among baking sheets and spread out into a single layer. Toss garlic with oil left in bowl and arrange together on one of the baking sheets. Roast in upper and lower thirds of oven, rotating sheets halfway, for about 45 minutes or until vegetables are soft and browned.
Set roasted garlic aside. Transfer remaining roasted vegetables and all juices to a large pot. Stir in oregano, thyme, rosemary and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until flavours are blended.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer about 3 cups of the vegetables to a blender or food processor. Add reserved garlic and half of the beans to blender. Puree, adding a little of the broth from the pot if necessary, until smooth. Stir back into pot along with remaining beans and return to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish each bowl with feta cheese.

Serves 8 to 10 The flavours do bloom after sitting, so make the soup a day or two ahead and reheat it just before serving. Enjoy!

The Late (but great) Beet Planting Challenge-Pull those Beets!

2011-09-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Little did I know when I wrote the initial posts for "The Late Beet Planting Challenge" that on the day of most importance, that is the day of the pull, I would be out of the country.

Had to go! And it was just so wonderful.

It will all be in the next post I'll write, but Mollie and I zipped down to Charlottesville, Virginia for the "Heritage Harvest Festival" at scenic and one hundred percent inspiring Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

Now I'm back home though.

And a day late I've pulled some beets. I've also eaten some of those lovely Detroit Dark Reds.

Yum.

Mine sized up quite nicely, depending as beets do, on my ability to space the seeds well in the rows. You can see in the picture above that some of them are a good 3" in diameter.

But I will be honest. I'd already pulled and sold some several weeks ago because I could see they were a good size.

So my review of this challenge?

It sure isn't too late at all to plant your beets on July 15th and I wouldn't hesitate at all to go a bit later with my planting. I am pretty sure even with an August 1st planting in our balmy 6b planting zone, I would get lovely little beets.

Don't forget how hardy they are! I have no intention at all of pulling them all now...I'm going to let them get even larger for some very good winter eating. I'll simply wait till I know the ground is going to freeze and pull them prior to this. They store exceptionally well when layered in barrels or garbage cans, with straw or leaves as their insulation.

As you may recall, some seed I soaked while some I did not. Regardless of what I soaked the seed in overnight (kelp solution or water), the soaked seeds did infinitely better in terms of speed of germination and germination itself.

Consider me a beet seed soaker from here on in.

You can always learn, can't you?

How did all my seed recipients make out?

I've heard from Cathy from Toronto, who grew hers in pots.

Unfortunately I seem unable to transport her pictures to my blog, but having grown in pots, Cathy's were smaller than mine.

But she says that was just fine with her. They were smaller, but sweet and delicious nonetheless.

Trust me, they just LOOKED delicious.

So how did everyone else make out? Lots of folks to hear from- let me know!

An Outlaw's view of the Bash

2011-09-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Wow.
Thanks Katie for allowing me to post your wonderful and absolutely artistic look at my
"Tomato Bash." I know I'll look at this again and again.
Check out Katie's unique and eclectic blog here.

It's Harvest Time!

2011-09-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

What's in the garden now?

Lets see.

If you get a veg basket now, it will be overflowing!

Beets, carrots, TOMATOES, peppers, sweet and hot, eggplants, kales, chards, spigiarello, BEANS,

tomatillos, ground cherries, cucumbers, oriental pickling melons, GARLIC, zucchini, potatoes, herbs galore, TOMATOES, onions, squash, leeks, yard long beans, cowpeas, and yes, Morelle de Balbis and Jelly melons if you wish. MORE...than can fit in a basket. And more.

Did I say.....TOMATOES!?

Tree and Twig Farm Blog

Galen Weston-ha!

This is February?

CBAN Newsletter-GMO's rejected in Europe

What will be in your 2012 garden?

Tree and Twig CSA for 2012

2012

2012 seeds

Niagara Seedy Saturday

Niagara Seedy Saturday-Please post!

This is January

Guest Post-Ribollita Soup

This is January?

My 2011 Vegetable and Flower Favourites

Merry Christmas!

Eat in the past and live there too!

Guest Post-Arugula Cottage Cheese Dip

It's Now on the Farm

Guest Post-Mustard Green Stuffed Portabellos

Uncle Howard's Tomato

Homemade Crackers

(A Little More About) My Southern Ontario Winter Hoophouse.

My Southern Ontario Winter Hoophouse

Christmas Open House December 4!

The Attack on the Canadian Wheat Board:7 Reasons Non-Farmers Should Care...and Act

CBAN Alert:Stop Canada from legalizing unapproved GM foods

Guest Post-Beet Leaf Buns

Seed Saving Season Never Ends

Stuck

This Time of Year

"Tell Me a Garden Story" Contest and win seed !

Guest Post-Pickled Tomatillos

Raw squash salad-who knew?

Wordless Wednesday (well, nearly)

Fall on the Veggie Farm

The Farmer Interview

Guest Post-Another view of a veggie basket

Thanks!

Of Tomatillos and Joey

The Pretty October Vegetable Garden

Homemade Sandwich Cookies- take THAT, Oreos!

Bye summer....hello fall food !

Jefferson's Ten Rules

It ain't over till...well, it just ain't over. Winter planting!

Monticello and the Heritage Harvest Festival

Guest Post: Anatomy of a Tree and Twig veggie basket

The Late (but great) Beet Planting Challenge-Pull those Beets!

An Outlaw's view of the Bash

9.04.2011

Tree & Twig Heirloom Tomato Bash

It's Harvest Time!