Harvesting, processing, drying, fermenting, pickling and eating the bounty 2013!

Our apologies for not keeping the blog too active this summer.  we realise as the homestead transforms itself ever more into a functioning farm, and as the number of people who visit us during the summer increases, our time spent on the computer decreases.  Which is a good thing :) and there will be plenty of time to catch up and retell our season's stories during the colder days. 

Like today :) this morning is a beautiful but crisp sunny September morning, with the thermometer indicating barely 40F (4C), so I am inside with my hot chocolate, and while Leo takes his usual morning nap, I will start catching up.

First things first I want to send some big hugs to our friends who came to visit the homestead this summer, and were such a help in keeping on top of everything!  Chantale :) Zane :) Chloé and Nat :) thank you so much for taking the time to come see us even with the long distances that separate us, and for sharing some great meals, and hard work. We miss you and will think of you as we open every jar of preserved food this winter :)

Garlic, Cukes, Basil, Tomatoes and Rhubarb!

Leo and his best friend Chantale, cleaning beets and carrots!

Building the wood shed lean-to

mmmm, vegetable paella

This season had started very slowly, with all the rain and cold weather we received in June, but we managed to still have a pretty good harvest, considering that we have increased the size and diversity of our gardens six fold this year.

HARVESTING:

We regularly take a stroll into the garden for our daily harvest.  Leo is carrying the cherry tomatoes back to the house, in his hands and his belly!

The harvests started with field strawberries, regular strawberries, raspberries, kale, lettuce, radishes, cukes, zuchinnis and eggplants, and then went in full force with basil, chives, herbs of all sorts like lemon verbena, chamomille, red clover and mint, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, celery, cabbage, oats, ground cherries, blueberries, onions, peppers, carrots, leeks, and winter squashes. And now we are getting into the end: we still have lots of production, the weather has been reasonable so eggplants, peppers, carrots, celery and cabbage are still growing, but we are finally able to start harvesting horse radish and dry beans!  I regret not growing more varieties of beans this year, as Alex and I are realizing that Leo LOVES beans! Oh well, next year.  We do have hundreds of jars of sauces, tomatoes, pickles, pesto, etc. already stored in our cupboards, but the tomatoes and all curcubits have been pulled out by now, as they were infested with septoria and cuke mosaic virus.  We are not complaining, everything else is surviving well.  The only tomatoes which are still growing are the ones in the greenhouse and the cherries, which I actually planted way later in the summer.

We added hay down in July, to suppress the weeds, next time we will do it WAY earlier, it really works, saves so much time and water and protects the plants from soil born illnesses!

The Schimmeig tomato that we are growing for a local seed company is growing strong and green

PROCESSING:

All this food needs to be dealt with in some way.  We grew oats, as a small test field, partially for us and partially to have local grains for our chickens.  Well once the oat kernel is no longer milky, the field needs to be scythed, and the kernels need to be separated from the shaft.  Lenghty process if you don't have access to special threshing equipment.  Chantale and I (mostly her!) ended up spending quite a few hours removing the kernels by hand from the straw (which smelt so good!), and when we ran out of time for this project, we gave the rest to the chickens, kernels straw and all, they had a party!  And it made some good scratch area for a while.  The kernels that were separated for us will one day this winter be turned into oatmeal, ummmm I can't wait to try them! 

 These are the tomato seeds I am growing for a local seed company this year, it is quite a lengthy process from start to finish.  Grow the tomato, when ripe harvest, cut tomato in two, separate the seeds from the flesh (at this point they are in their protective gel sacs), ferment the seeds and gel for one to three days, until the surface of the mixture becomes all white, then rinse so that you remove everything but the seeds, then dry as quickly as possible so that they don't germinate.  Redo this as often as your tomatoes become ripe!

DRYING:

We also have been doing a lot of drying, to perserve some of the harvest, like pears and apples, zucchinis and crookneck squashes, kale chips (I even did Ketchup Kale Chips, yum! a Canadian twist :))

Drying the summer squash for later use in soups and stews

EATING:

And finally eating :)

We have been eating a lot of the bounty right away, fresh from the garden is the best way :)

Leo loves all the veggies, or almost, he's not too keen on horse radish yet, but we are working on him, haha!  It is also hard I find, for him to eat leafy greens, so I have been making him a daily smoothy with banana, yogurt, pears (or any other ripe fruit from the homestead) and kale, and this way he eats plenty of greens.  And he loves his smoothy!

 

 Alright he is awake, so I'll leave it at that for this time.  I still have so much to catch up on (I even have to skip over fermenting and pickling!!!), but I'll be back.
Until then be well,

This photo is too cute :) but its true, he just wants to be outside, rain or shine

looking past the mess at the future plans for the homestead

The landscape on the homestead currently looks more like a logging operation than a farm.  In a sense, that is what it has been, as we slowly clear away the Norway Maples that have taken over the orchard (those Norway Maples haunt me, I feel like they are mentioned in every single post!).

Ira and Ian visited from Montreal in March and helped a bit with the cutting

Piles like this one dot the property, we tried to burn one, but the wood is too green

It's sometimes hard to see past the mess, but we quickly use our imaginations to remember our dreams and plans we have for the homestead, and as you can see, we are far from troubled ;)! We just tell ourselves that the endless mountains of brush aren't clutter :) they are resources, materials that will be used for the various projects we have planed: trails, fences, lumber, sauna, outdoor shower... They will soon disappear as these projects come to life.  

Just yesterday, with the beautiful sunny weather, Alex and his friend John practiced some tree climbing techniques, to be able to begin pruning even the tallest of our apple trees, big and small.  They climbed our prized and magical crabapple, which we hope to turn into delicious homemade hard cider this fall.

We have been doing all this clearing to make room for the garden (which is already in full production indoors!), but also for our new trees which are set to arrive in May.  We will be diversifying our fruit trees with the addition of some cherries, plums, pawpaws and we'll add some protein with walnuts, hazelnut and butternut.

Getting ready to transition to the greenhouse

Tomatoes nice and warm next to the stove

Meanwhile indoors, our garden grows. In the cold winter months I got to reading The Seed Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel (great book, part of the collection of farming books gifted to us by the previous family who lived here), and in order of plantings, we now have seedlings of onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, celery, kale, basil, cabbage, lettuce, leeks and potatoes either sprouting in the greenhouse or next to the woodstove or already growing and luscious under the grow-lamps.  For the rest of the vegetable varieties we plan to grow, I think I will simply wait to do direct planting.

One cool technique that Sabrina and I started doing last year: pre-soaking the seeds in water, it works!  It's like starting sprouts, and this way you give your seeds a headstart.

The temperature inside the greenhouse already gets up to 95F (35C) in April, when its sunny all day, luckily Alex planned for good ventilation!

One exciting plan that is currently under way is the relocalization of the chickens to their permanent home.  We also got to reading the Permaculture Garden book by Graham Bell and the Edible Forest Gardens Vol II book by Dave Jacke during the colder months, and we got the idea from both these books, to design a chicken moat around our largest vegetable garden plot. By creating a gated 4 foot wide corridor all around the garden, where the chickens can roam, our new garden 'guardians' will be ridding us of any potential weed seed or most insects trying to enter our coveted food pantry, all while foraging for their food. 

So far we have moved them into the summer coop on top of the knoll, have created their pen, complete with roosts and access to the compost pile, and this week the rolls of 150 feet of 6 foot tall chicken wire will arrive.  Currently, the chickens are busy eating away at all the weeds that grow where the garden will be :) Thank you chickens! More on this project later...

And I leave you with these photos of Léo, who is now 10 months old :) has four teeth, will soon be walking without the help of the table or chair, and does poo poo in the potty everyday! It's the little things in life... ;)

Seems crazy I know, but he is really regular ;)

If you like what you read, you can follow us by email, add us on google+ or share with us your stories, or your own blog about homesteading or sustainable living, we'd love to see what others are doing.

Until next time, be well

Chicken update, overwintering, dry leaves and fiddle heads :)

Léo and I, collecting kindling for us and dry leaves for the chickens

This will be the first winter for most of our chickens, definitely the first winter for them as layers, and we are trying to put all of the eggs in our basket (haha!) and make sure our chickens are content, while still minimizing waste and spending.

While I was watching one of many chicken coop winterizing videos online, I realized that before there were wood shavings at the store, there was another material that was used to keep a chicken coop clean-er: dry leaves.  It's so simple, with the number of trees we have, and the quantity of leaves they shed, it would be silly of us not to use them.

The benefit of using the leaves in the coop, before composting them, is that the added chicken manure enriches your compost with nitrogen, and the chickens break up the leaves, increasing the turn over rate into compost.

So I started saving piles of leaves, before winter arrives, making sure they are dry and storing them in the barn where hopefully they will keep.  I changed all the chicken litter, and they loved their new leaf medium, it feels like being outside!

I have also now turned the 60w red light bulb back on to keep them a little warmer, and hopefully soon I'll have a little radio out there to play them some classical music.

Léo and I, on one of our many outings; Mr. Serious here keeps us all in check :)

I was so excited the other day when Alex and I were preparing the back forty for the potential arrival of our sheep next spring, when I noticed a big patch of ostrich fern!  Last week I found the Oyster mushrooms in the front, and now fiddleheads in the back.  More reasons to already get excited about spring!

Our dried oyster mushrooms

The spore-bearing frond, the dead give-away of the Ostrich Fern

Til next time, be well.
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Life with Animals on The Homestead

Rouminou (Red Cat) the guardian of the homestead, and the first animal on the farm.

This post is long over due.  And it's simply because there is too much to say. Every day is a new adventure living with farm (and wild) animals.  Just last week, right before sunset a mother deer and her two fawns came into our yard and munched on some of our fallen apples while we got to sit and watch their beauty from our window. My first instinct was to take a picture. Alas, the camera was in the car... Living closer to the natural circadian rhythms of nature here on the homestead has taught me however that some things are kept more sacred in the mind's eye.

When we first moved here I thought: how exciting! that our town has an ordinance permitting the raising of chickens within town limits.  I was so psyched about the possibility of feeding my own chickens and getting to eat their eggs.  Plus our intention was for the chickens to either roam free or have a mobile chicken tractor, allowing them to eat the insects and mow the grass all over the property.  It would have been a win win win all around.

One of the three raccoons we've caught so far

While it certainly is rewarding to have fresh eggs from your backyard, and the chickens do create hours of entertainment for the kids who visit us, it isn't as simple as I first imagined... First off, we were - and still are - amateurs when we got our first chicks, and there were many things we didn't anticipate. In retrospect I would admit and suggest to anyone who wants to start raising backyard chickens, to ensure your coop is predator proof BEFORE getting your hens... we didn't take predators seriously enough at first, and as a result we lost 3 adults and 9 chicks...

We'll never be sure who the predator was, but we caught 3 raccoons so far in the have-a-heart trap and have released them in a wooded area far away from any chickens (and other homes of course).  Its upsetting to find out some of your chickens were killed in the middle of the night, but when you think about that poor raccoon getting trapped just trying to survive, you have to also understand his position, and that is why it's ultimately our responsibility to secure the chickens from predators.

The coop is now (hopefully) predator proof, unfortunately it is no longer a mobile chicken coop, but we can now go back to living in harmony with the local wildlife without feeding them chicken for dinner!

Our flock is quite diversified, in breed and in age.  We got our first 6 juvenile chickens for New Year's Eve (3 of which turned out to be males so they ended up in the freezer when they started crowing) from a small farm in Maine. They were Sussex and Marans.  Of the three hens, only the two Sussex remain, and they are the Mamma's of the group!

The first chicks on the VenRosen Homestead

They started laying in early spring and since we have been enjoying the ritual of feeding and collecting the eggs so much. The decision was made that it was time for a bigger operation. We ordered Chantecler chicks, the only breed originating from Québec (I had to keep my roots alive!).  Chanteclers are extremely cold hardy and good for eggs and meat.  They were scheduled to arrive 1 week before Léo's due date... maybe not the best timing in hindsight! Mittendrinen (in the midst of it all), a neighbour wanted to get rid of his laying hens...so we inherited 4 new - 8 week old - chickens (I think they are New Hampshire Reds).

We now have Splecked Sussex, New Hampshire Reds and Buff and Partridge colored Chanteclers all of different ages living together.  And combining the flocks isn't always easy, as the older girls feel the need to show the younger ones who's boss.  But with regular surveillance from me, patience and ample food and space, they settled down and realized that there is plenty of room for everyone.

We are slowly getting more eggs than we can eat in a given week, so I have started pickling them to keep a good supply in case the production gets too low in the winter months or to give away as thank you presents for coming to visit us :).

So, it has been a challenge at times, but we get a lot of love and food out of it! And we are reminded every day of where our food comes from, and of our connection and interdependence with other beings.

Now that the chickens can't mow our grass anymore (and we would rather not have to use the ride-on lawn mower), Alex and I along with a good number of our neighbours are petitioning the town to further change the town ordinance to allow sheep, miniature goats and other small farm animals within town limits.  I think it would be a first in Maine, but bringing back our food closer to our lives is crucial in establishing more sustainable local food & economic networks.  Not to mention the beneficial educational and responsibility building exercise owning animals has proved to be for a community's youth and adults!!

We are excited, we should know by winter if the ordinance change is accepted, and hopefully next year we'll be raising two sheep, who will mow the still grassy sections of the Homestead, and provide us with meat and wool for the winter months.  This time however, we'll do more research before getting them :) and we'll be prepared.

'Til next time, be well.

Easter eggs :)

The homestead's hens are happy out in the field at last.  After spending the winter 'cooped up', the hens who are no longer little chicks have finally made their way out in the pasture.

Alex and I looked at many designs for DIY mobile chicken tractors, and this one seemed the best for our hens.  It was mostly built out of salvage wood from our renovations and old construction materials we found in the barn. From the cedar shingles, to the chicken wire, screen door and rooster decoration, all these treasures were salvaged by the previous owners of the farm, and are now being put to good use once again.  We did have to go buy a few 2x4 (and we made sure it was local untreated FSC certified lumber) and some good screws, but we would say that more than 70% of the coop is recycled (Eli, there is even a recycled inner tube to waterproof the seam, just for you!).

a removable side wall for easy cleaning

We get 2 eggs everyday now, from just 3 hens

It's a simple A-frame structure, with a shelter and 4 laying boxes in the back, and even though it's not completely finished, once it has its wheels in the back and handles in the front, we will be able to move the chickies to fresh pastures (and fresh new bugs!) on a daily basis.  At the moment we use a dolly to do the moving but that should be fixed by the weekend.  For this project, just like all our other projects, we wouldn't have been able to pull it together so quickly and resourcefully without the help of lots of friends, so thank you guys, we'll be saving some eggs for you!

A lot is beginning to happen now outside: the fruit trees are in bloom, the hammocks are up and we have relocated the vegetable transplants to the cold frames we found in the barn so that they can acclimatize to the outdoors before we plant them in their permanent home.

Last weekend, five of our girlfriends from Montreal came down to visit and they were instrumental in opening up the first garden plot.

Is it a pear? an apple? a cherry? who knows!

And with this blog post we really wanted to share that we value the help and the resourcefulness of people who are here with us in the present, but also of those who came before us.  Sometimes it can seem so easy to just discard the past, the old, the 'obsolete'.  But thanks to the thriftiness (or common sense!) of the previous owners, we built a mobile chicken coop, we protect our seedlings from bad weather with old cold frames and windows, and everyday we discover a new (old) treasure, or a new fruiting plant... and for all of this, nothing or very little new was needed.  There is something of a treasure inside everything, we humans just have to be patient and figure out what it is.

Until next time,