So Much to Tell

We have been very busy in the garden & kitchen during 2011, I just haven't had a chance to share with everyone.  In quick summary:

• Despite the extremely slow start to the season and depressingly cool summer, we had a surprisingly bountiful harvest from our garden, especially potatoes, dried beans, squash, and tomatoes.  Once again, we figured we would have no tomatillos and ended up with a bumper crop (although they didn't ripen very well, and as a result didn't store very well at all).  Even our peppers did really well this year, and we smoked our Guajillo chillies in our new Bradley Smoker!  They are fabulous in soups, stews and sauces, with just a little bite and a lovely smoky flavour to enhance anything they're tossed into.  We also tried dehydrated tomatoes and had enough of our Red Ruffle bell peppers to dry again this year, which I've been adding to just about all of my savoury recipes.
• We have our first livestock!  In July, we picked up 9 young Muskovy ducks: 3 drakes and 6 ducks.  They've been enjoying our orchard & field, and keeping the weeds cropped beautifully.  Plus, they really got into slug duty this summer, so we're enthusiastically looking forward to their slugging abilities this coming spring.  They started to lay in late November, and Dave's been collecting about 3-5 eggs every day since then.  We'll be letting them raise their babies in the spring, in the hopes that we can have duck meat to make into confit, casssoulet, ham, sausage, and just duck!

 

• We participated in a Community Supported Fishery through the Michelle Rose in Cowichan Bay.  As a result, we had about 11 pounds of king shrimp and spot prawns, and a little less than 10 pounds of sockeye and pink filets.  We christened the Bradley by cold-smoking some sockeye, and I made my first batch of gravlax.  The seafood (including the smoked salmon) has made it into a few chowders with our root veggies (rutabaga, potato, parsnip, leeks & onions), smoked guajillo & dehydrated ruffle peppers, home-made chicken stock, our grilled corn nibblets and coconut milk finish - totally yum.
• We had our first "feast of the fields" equivalent - we hosted a mid-winter feast with our friends, and dined on the gravlax with home-made butter (sigh, not yet with our own cream) on home-grown home-made rye bread, spicy pumpkin soup, espresso-braised venison, rutabaga potato gratin, and pumpkin pie, accompanied with home-made apple plum wine.  It was fabulous, and we're looking forward to repeating this new tradition annually (maybe even semi-annually with a summer feast, too!). 
• In dealing with eliminating eggs, wheat & dairy (and now corn & rice for the foreseeable future) due to Kate's eczema, I've been exploring baking with allergy-friendly alternatives.  I purchased allergyfreemom.com's recipe book and have made quite a few of her recipes very successfully.  I recommend trying the cinnamon rolls (they're weird to make but really, really tasty) and the gingerbread cookies (even if it's no longer Christmas).  I used sorghum flour in both to great success.     There are also some great recipes on Bob's Red Mill site.  I'm also now trying to eat a lot more veggies, especially greens (check out the TedX presentation by Terry Wahls), and have discovered that I actually love kale chips (go figure)!  I've also invested in some super food stuff via recipes from Meghan Telpner's Making Love in the Kitchen blog.  After enjoying the Tumeric Tea (actually more like spicy chai tea with tumeric added) and Raw Chocolate Bark yesterday, I am definitely looking forward to some more experimentation in this department.

Since I can't seem to keep up with what I'm doing in the kitchen, you can always have a look at my SpringPad site to see what recipes I'm collecting and trying out.

I'm sure there's been more activity - of course there has, Kate's now 18 months and there's been a year's worth full of development and exploration in that department.  The addition is now mostly complete, certainly Mom has been living there since about May, and really enjoying it.  We're now turning our thoughts towards getting Dave a shop built, so that he can get back into making his beautiful furniture.

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

Soueee!

by burnishings on Flickr.

We discovered a wonderful source for local smoked pork products at the Duncan Farmers' Market in the Square a couple of weeks ago: Ravenstone Farm. We'd been making a delicious pork & beans recipe in the slow cooker, but I wanted something different. I cobbled together a couple of recipes from Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss, my "go to" manual for slow cooking and pretty much 80% of our dinners lately! I used a roasted vegetable soup with what I'd been doing for the pork & beans recipe, and got something like this:

Smoked Pork Hock Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 carrots, peeled & chopped into 1" rounds

1 sweet potato (the orange fleshed one!), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

1 small squash (I've used butternut and Marina di Chioggia), peeled & chopped into 1" pieces

3-4 celery ribs, chopped into 1" pieces

1 large onion, chopped into 1" pieces

4 whole garlic cloves

4 cups total liquid - I used about 2 cups red tomato salsa and 2 cups chicken broth, both home-made

1 medium (about 2 to 3 pounds, depending on the size of your slow cooker - ours is a Crock Pot VersaWare, I think 6 quart) smoked ham hock

1 to 2 cups cooked (or canned) chick peas, drained

1/2 tsp cracked white or green peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 425F. Toss the vegetables and garlic in the olive oil and spread over a rimmed baking pan. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until softened and slightly browned at edges. Place ham hock in the slow cooker. Scrape vegetables into slow cooker. You can use some of the broth to wash off the pan into the slow cooker if there are bits stuck, but I've not found that necessary. Pour the chick peas into the slow cooker. Add the salsa and broth and stir the ingredients together a little to distribute. Add the peppercorns, cinnamon stick and bay leaf and cover the slow cooker and cook on low for about 10 hours, or high for at least 5 hours, or until the ham is falling off the bone and the vegetables are tender.

This is a very versatile recipe: use whatever root vegetables you've got on hand that you feel like including. It's wonderful with parnsip, turnip (rutabaga), etc. Just enjoy! And like most soups & stews, it's even better the next night. And if you happen to do the baked beans recipe (which I'll have to post at some point) as well, it's fabulous mixed in with this.

Addition Part 3 - Raising the Roof

We're now pretty much past the weather-critical work, so we'll see how it progresses, but we're so excited that we've got to this point. Len has worked very hard constructing the pieces and figuring out how he'd manage to put it all together. It was a bit of a nail-bitter when the crane engaged the roof, but when the tension caught and everything lifted all beautifully in one go, it was perfect!

Addition Part 2 - Raising the Walls

Addition Part 1 - Construction & Deconstruction

We've had some delays with the construction of the addition to the house, but the bits are finally constructed and installed, yay!! So here's a quick review of the process for your viewing pleasure, broken into three posts.

Happy Pantry

One of my favourite chores at the end of the growing season, once the hectic pace of harvesting and preserving is over, is to take stock of what we've got on our pantry shelves and create a tally of our preserves for the year. This summer was quite the challenge, balancing looking after our new girl Kate with the work of the harvest. Dave, of course, did most of the work. I won't go into totals, but here are lists of what we put together last summer and this summer.

2009 Preserves Tally

• Spiced sweet cherries - great with pork
  
• Cherry pie filling
• Cherry conserve
  
• Cherry juice - this was fabulous
• Tomatillo salsa verde
• Tomato & pepper salsa
• Pickled carrots
• Pickled dilled cucumbers
• Dilled green beans
• Preserved baby figs
• Orchard fruit chili sauce
• Pears in juice
• Pear ginger conserve - another fabulous preserve
• Spiced pickled pears - weird but good with meat
• Blackberry juice
• Blackberry pear juice blend
• Apples in blackberry juice
• Lime & ginger tomatillo marmalade
• Apple pie filling
• Tomatillo/Green tomato mincemeat
• Grape juice
• Cranberry salsa - a fantastic condiment with poultry, especially on leftover sandwiches with mayo
• Cranberry juice
• Hot pepper jam - quite a bit like sweet Thai chili sauce, and an essential condiment with pot stickers
• Chicken stock
  
• Fruit vinegar - another essential condiment with pot stickers
  

2010 Preserves Tally
No cherries this year; really unfortunate year for cherries, sigh.

• Dilled green beans
• Pickled dilled cucumbers
• Apple blackberry juice
• Blackberry juice
• Raspberry juice - check out the Basil Sorbet using raspberry juice, yumm
• Cucumber relish - we used our overabundance of cucumbers and golden zucchinis, as well as our unripe Ruffle peppers for this fabulous relish. I highly recommend this recipe!
  
• Tomato & pepper salsa
• Tomatillo salsa
• Orchard fruit chili sauce
• Ginger pear conserve
• Tomatillo ginger & tangerine marmalade - even better than with lime!
• Green tomato mincemeat
  
• Hot pepper jam
• Honey plums
• Basil raspberry syrup - was supposed to be jelly, but didn't gel. Makes great syrup for pancakes!
• Chicken stock
  
• Venison stock
• Venison chili
• Fruit vinegar

It's sure nice having a happy pantry!

Handsome Visitor

We had a barred owl visit us this afternoon - he sat on our orchard fence at least long enough for me to snap some photos. I think he was looking for our meadow voles, I hope that he got dinner (and that he comes back for more)!

It's an Orchid!

Dave found this on our property in June:


We thought it was a False Solomon's Seal, but the inflorescence wasn't quite right. So we waited until we got mature flowers. Today, Dave declared that it was an orchid based on the flowers. I was skeptical (bad me), so we went in with our camera, and yes! it certainly was an orchid.



We think it's Epipactis helleborine, an introduction from Europe. There's a native version, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it. We'll wait for some more mature flowers and try again with a better camera.

Blue Fungus

Dave discovered a collection of fascinating-looking, intense cyan blue fungus yesterday, and kindly brought the branch to the awkward pregnant lady so I didn't have to go wandering through the brush to see it. The fruiting bodies ranged from about 3mm to 7mm in width.

Apparently it's Chlorociboria aeruginascens, which is not uncommon and found around North America and Europe; however, it is apparently unusual to see the fruiting bodies. Often, you'll just see the blue-green stain on the wood, usually a hardwood (apparently commonly on oak). We figure this is an alder branch, as Dave found it amongst the alder stand.

Here are some links to further information about this species:

Wikipedia - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
Mushroom Expert - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
Rogers Mushrooms - Chlorociboria aeruginascens
WiseAcre Gardens - Blue Stain Fungus

Thanks, Dave, for another great fungus find!!

Happy Tomatoes

Things are progressing very well in the greenhouse.

Earlier this week, we replaced the wooden stakes that the tomatoes were supported by with lines strung between eyehooks in the rafters and the raised bed sills. Dave ran across this idea from The Cottage Smallholder last May, and we both thought it would be a good thing to try. Last year, though, with the half wine barrels, it wasn't quite practical. This year, with the raised beds, everything lined up really well for this project. We use the Velcro ties from Lee Valley to support the tomatoes from the lines, and they're fantastic - reusable, super easy to implement, and very soft & delicate against the tomato stalks.

As you can see, everyone is really thriving - here are some images to compare to early May when we'd just transplanted all of these guys:

Plus the middle bed now has plants in it: watermelons and cucumbers, and basil in between.

We have our first tomato flowers, many even on the bigger tomatoes (not just the cherries):

Our eggplants and peppers are doing really well; both varieties of each have really caught up. The initial transplants had the Dusky eggplants and Red Ruffle peppers ahead of the Listada de Gandia eggplants and jalapeño peppers, respectively. Everyone is looking fantastic now, and all our pepper plants are putting on little tiny flowers, which should be ready within the next few weeks for pollinating.

The eggplants all look alike, but the growth pattern of the peppers are interestingly quite different; the Red Ruffle is the one on the left, the jalapeño on the right.

So, fingers crossed that our "bumbling" hand pollinating will work again this year as well as they did last year.

Wee Visitor

Last week, we had a little visitor roosting above our porch in the evenings:

Now that the weather is better, he's not been coming around, but we noticed the bird poop first, as our bag of clothes pegs is right under his roost, and the poop was collecting. One evening, as I shut the screen door, I turned the outside light on and looked outside, and discovered the poop culprit: a wee chestnut-backed chickadee. Awww!!!

Last Cake Class

...for now, anyway! This class we learned how to make roses (can you tell?!?). The "old rose" coloured ones are mine, the white ones are Mom's, and we both did leaves & the bottom border. The buttercream (except we used Crisco for this class) icing got kind of soft; I'd like to try with a royal icing. The roses were difficult, but I think with practice, they'll be fun to do. I just ordered some natural colouring, so we'll hopefully get to play with that soon.

We really had a great time in this four-week introductory piping class. We've signed up for a fondant animal sculpture workshop (assuming I'll still be able to make it... it's scheduled for June 12, so we'll see! At least the teacher is OK with me cancelling at the last minute). So if we make it to that workshop, I'll be sure to post about it. Otherwise, it'll be awhile before we take any more classes, but we might get an opportunity to practice what we've learned.

Bird Feeder Visitor

Mom decided to put some birdseed out as we've got a lot of black-headed grosbeak activity around lately. While there's plenty of food for them in our neighbourhood, it's nice to have them come right by the window so we can get a good look at them.

Of course, not only birds are interested in bird seed:

And other members of the family like to take advantage of the wildlife viewing opportunities presented:

Cake Decorating

Since we've got a new addition on the way, Mom was getting into "Grandma" mode and really wanted to get prepped for making some proper birthday cakes in the future. We signed up for an introductory cake decorating class, and have been having a lot of fun with it. This class is about introduction to piping techniques, and how to bake & ice the "perfect" cake. It's being held at At the Sea B&B in Mill Bay, as the instructor, Pat, much prefers to work out of her own kitchen when possible (although she does teach at the Michael's in Langford, too).

The first class was a demo by Pat, then the next class we had to bake & ice a cake, and prepare icing in a bunch of different colours & thicknesses before the class in preparation. I just about walked out on the project at that point; I had no idea it would be so much prep work!! But the end result (a combination of piping techniques by both Mom & I) was pretty darned good for a first try:


As Mom can't eat the cake (made with an instant cake mix for this class) or the icing (because of the food colouring), and I just didn't want to eat all that fat & sugar all by myself, we gave the cake to our cousins, as we figured they'd at the very least have more mouths to divide the results between (they are five in the family).

We do have a recipe for a pound cake that works really well with rice flour, and apparently pound cakes are good for cutting up into layers, so we'll give that a try. I've also found some "natural dye" suppliers, so we'll also give that a go, rather than the chemical dyes that we don't really want to use anyway. Of course, they won't be as intense, but what the heck!

The third class this week was more piping techniques, but this time on cupcakes. Fortunately, we had left over icing, and we were a little better prepared so it wasn't quite the mad dash that the prep work for the second class was. Here are our results:


Mom's cupcakes:

and my cupcakes:

and our two "clown" cupcakes:

Next week is the last class; we'll be learning the "Wilton Rose" which is a somewhat fancy piped rose, as well as sweet peas. The cake is baked, and while we've got the icing made, I think we might need to make some more or adjust what we have for consistency, and definitely add some colour to some of the batch (unless we want just white roses - which we might do). It's been really fun, and I'm looking forward to taking further classes in the future. Since next month is "D-Day", I think I'll have to hold off for at least a few months before I sign up for the next sessions, though!

Vancouver Island Bees Threatened

Vancouver Island has had restrictions of the movement of bees and beekeeping equipment to the Island in place since 1990 to prevent the introduction of pests and diseases to our local honey bee population.

In 1997, an illegal importation of bees and/or equipment to Vancouver Island resulted in the introduction of varroa mite, which until that point had not been present on Vancouver Island. Since that introduction, the mite has spread rapidly and has caused significant damage to commercial and hobby beekeeping ventures on Vancouver Island.

In early May 2010, the BC Government Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, without appropriate consultation with Vancouver Island beekeepers and beekeeping associations, lifted the 20 year quarantine, opening Vancouver Island to introduction of diseases and pests which are present in the rest of BC and Canada, but as yet not present on Vancouver Island.

Please spread the word; I don't think that the general public, especially on Vancouver Island, is even aware of this issue, let alone the potential problems resulting in this lifted quarantine. Support the reinstatement of the quarantine, or at least extension of the original quarantine restrictions until appropriate consultation with key stakeholders has occurred.

My concerns regarding this move by the BC Government include:

1. Vancouver Island's food security is threatened through significant potential loss of commercial pollinators via the introduction of foreign diseases to our local honey bee population, which, so far has a unique disease profile that has been mostly successfully managed since the introduction of the quarantine 20 years ago.
   
2. This move potentially threatens other BC honey producers and commercial pollinators, as this year's (2009) winter die-off experienced on Vancouver Island (90% or more in most areas of southern Vancouver Island) has not been successfully explained: what if there's something that our population introduces to the Mainland as a result of the lifted quarantine?
3. Beekeeping has become much harder, both commercially and as a hobby, all over the world; why would we add complexity to the issue by introducing further pests and diseases to manage that Vancouver Island apiculturists do not currently have to manage?
4. I am deeply disturbed that a significant change to the status quo was implemented without communication or coordination with the key stakeholders involved. There was sufficient opportunity to introduce new bloodstock into the honey bee population under the original quarantine restrictions; why did the quarantine get lifted wholesale without any consultation with the appropriate groups involved?
   

Please visit http://www.cowichanbeekeepers.ca for further information on this issue, including contacts for the Minister responsible, as well as the NDP Agriculture Critic, who has created an online comment/petition form at http://www.islandbees.ca/.

And, just out of interest, May 29, 2010 has been declared "Day of the Honey Bee". Somewhat ironic, in my opinion.

Garden Update - For Dave

Dave's on the Mainland for the next week or so, so I thought I'd provide him with a visual edition to the daily summary I've been giving him over the phone in the evenings.

Rutabega flowers (no bees today - too cold)

Sunflowers are up!!

Peas in orchard progressing (still not up in Kitchen Garden)

Garbanzos progressing

Finally, lilac open!

Grrr, the dreaded black aphids, on the currants (not the golden ones though)

Fennel transplants

Celariac transplants

Natalino transplants

Nematode originally on Grace Ward,
moved to raspberry leaf for photo op - really long (4")!!

Narcissus blooms

More asparagus up amongst the coriander

Strawberry flowers (still no berries, but so many flowers)

Rosemary flowering!

Spanish lavender blooming

Golden iris blooming (deer missed it this year, obviously!)

Sweet rocket blooms (yeah, its a weed, but so purdy!)