Starry nights and frosty mornings

I ventured out of my tent at six-ish this morning and under the light from my headlamp everything sparkled like diamonds, it was so pretty.  It’s been the hardest frost we’ve had so far and the temperature apparently got down to -4˚C;  this is what I’d think of as winter back home, not autumn.  

Everything looks so gorgeous when covered in frost, and I spent a chilly few minutes taking a bunch of photos this morning, before venturing into the warmth of the farmhouse; far too cold to stay outside or in the barn kitchen today.

Ice maple

bit of an arty one

 Tasks on the farm this week have been quite varied.  We’ve harvested all the potatoes, and with the help of volunteers from Ecology Ottawa, it was a pretty speedy task.  Having extra helping hands really makes a big difference  With only four of us it may well have taken us all week to accomplish, but with the lovely volunteers we got most of the harvest done on Tuesday and then spent maybe another three or four hours on other days finishing up.  it feels good to know that it’s one more thing checked off the to do list!

Early in the week we harvested Jerusalem artichokes that have been growing at Bob’s, they are a relative of the sunflower and are native to Canada.  I’ve not eaten them before now and one night this week we roasted them up and they were so delicious.  They have a really distinct smell and flavour, which to me is kind of smokey.  They are very easy to grow and are a perennial crop by the way that they will grow from any tiny piece of root left in the soil, so even when they have been harvested you’re almost guaranteed to get a crop the following year from the little bits of roots that were missed.  Provided I have the room, I’m thinking of growing them when I’m back home.

the mighty sun-choke

 On Thursday the boys started on getting the solar hot water panels onto the roof of the shed – this is what we’ve been waiting for, our key to moving to the farm!  They we’re in place on Friday and now the system just needs to be connected up and functioning and then it’ll be all systems go and we can move.  Fingers crossed it’s going to be this week!

Matt was spider-man in another life

 While the boys were climbing on the roof Leah and I cleaned out the used bee hives that Zach aquired recently.  They may or may not be carrying a disease, so we scraped off all the old comb and wax and we’ll be blowtorching the pieces to sterilise them.  I quite enjoyed doing it, scraping off the wax is an oddly satisfying job and it also smells really good.

This week was our final CSA veggie basket for the season, what a short 16 weeks it’s felt like!  Everyone who we’ve asked has been really pleased with their veggies and many were sad that it’s over already.  It’s so nice hearing how members appreciate the produce, especially when it takes so much hard work.  We have really generous CSA members and over the season we’ve been given many tasty treats such as garlic scape pesto, amazing zucchini crumble, muffins, cookies and more!

Today is Thanksgiving and yesterday evening Leah and I were invited to go to Kylah’s  aunts home for dinner, which was lovely.  There were quite a few people there and we had a really tasty dinner and got to meet more of Kylah’s family, which was fun.

Last night before snuggling up in my sleeping bag for the cold night ahead, I took some more photographs of the stars…

Thinking warm thoughts,

Love always

Becky x

thirty days have September...

So, I’m really missing home today. I woke up this morning all snug in bed under my multitude of blankets longing for one of mum’s Sunday roasts; evoking the smells and warmth of a relaxed Sunday afternoon at home.

I’m not wishing my time away here, but at the same time I’m really looking forward to going home.  I’ve been here for five months now and I think that’s the longest I’ve ever been away from family and friends and I’ve still got another 7 weeks to go. 

I feel a bit disconnect from what’s going on with friends at home, I’m in a bit of a bubble here, and I wonder how that is going to affect my friendships when I’ve been away for so long and not been involved in their lives and vice versa.  I’m really looking forward to being regaled with tales of my friends lives from the past seven months when I get home; over a decent cup of tea and a slice of cake of course.

On the farm this week we’ve been doing a bit of clear up. a while ago we pulled up all the zucchini, cucumber and watermelon plants and on Tuesday we finally got around to picking it all up and moving it to the compost pile.  At the same time we pulled up the patty pans and delicata squash plants which had finished producing.  So that block is clear again now, looking like it did when I first arrived.

We’ve dug up the small patch of sweet potatoes, getting a modest harvest due to the fact that they were planted late, though there are still some good sized tubers.  I was surprised how deep they go, much deeper than regular potatoes and have a wider spread. Digging with bare hands in the soil felt like looking for treasure.

digging for pink treasure

pink beauties

We’ve carried on with the regular potato harvest this week and the next big push will be to get all the potatoes out of the ground.  It’s a very time consuming job as we do it by hand, and lifting heavy crates of potatoes certainly works the muscles!  I feel so strong with a season’s worth of work and lifting.

All the onions are now sorted and those suitable for storage have been bagged up and moved into the farmhouse basement, which again meant a lot of lifting; a good way to warm up when it’s cold!  On Friday, our day to harvest for market,  it was frosty out in the open fields.  It soon melted once the sun burned through the mist enough, but it was cold on the fingers when harvesting.

frosty clover

pre-frozen salad anyone?

The barn nestled amongst the maples

I probably warble on about this a lot, but I’ve been enjoying the autumnal colour around the farm very much this week.  It seems like the trees suddenly turned and there is a beautiful display of colour. I’ve been collecting and pressing fallen maple leaves, which the others poke fun at me for, to make some artwork with when I get home as a memento of my time here.  I’m such a magpie when it comes to autumn leaves,  the colours just bring me a lot of joy, I can’t help collecting them.

resplendant maples in the morning sun

The glorious 'Sacred Maple grove'

 Until next time

much love

Becky

Baby, It's cold outside

Brrr, blimey it’s cold. Fall has set in and with it has come the rain, crazy strong winds and we’ve had our first frost.  Over the last couple of weeks on the farm we’ve been doing a lot of big harvests – all the rainbow beets and rainbow carrots are now out of the ground and in storage and will be sold at market and given to CSA over the coming weeks.  

we got the carrots

There is still a lot in the ground yet to come out- lots and lots of storage carrots and beets which will be stored over winter, and also a good amount of potatoes.  The rainbow carrots and beets are short term storage varieties, whereas those that are yet to come out of the ground (e.g.  Chantenay and Bolero are the two carrot varieties) will keep for months and months in the right conditions. In fact Leah and I were sorting last year’s storage crops this May and they were still good.

The other day it was so windy the plastic skin on the greenhouse got ripped to shreds so there was a bit of a dash to get all the onions out that had been curing in there before the rain came. Cured onions and rain do not mix.  Many of the onions have been affected by a fungus that softens the stem and causes rot, so over the past week we’ve been sorting through the ones good for storage and the ones that need to be sold quickly.  the onions not suitable for storage we clean off the damaged layers to reveal a beautiful shiny gem of an onion beneath that we then sell at market.  Many people comment on how beautiful they look, one little boy even saying that they look like candy!

cool praying mantis that was in the greenhouse when we were doing onions

This past Saturday was the Autumn equinox, a time of balance, day and night being equal.  The nights are now longer than the days and I find myself sleeping a lot more with the earlier onset of the dark.  I never thought before coming here I would be going to sleep at around 8:30pm, but it’s a rhythm that has happened perfectly naturally; go to sleep with the sunset and wake up with the sunrise.

Nature itself is winding down into the dark of the year, I’ve noticed there isn’t a dawn chorus now, perhaps the song birds have migrated south? The air also isn’t filled with the sound of insects any longer, the crickets don’t chirp unless it’s warm it seems.

This Monday just gone the four of us went into Pembroke to do a bit of shopping, stocking up on warm clothing at the second hand stores and getting other bits and pieces.  Jackson found lots of goodies for his home brewing ventures, so there is going to be plenty to drink over the next couple of months; perfect for those long cold nights!

rainbow brews!

 And here follows our new Fall Fashion thrift store finds here at Rainbow Heritage...

Leah's amazing retro knitwear find.

Jackson rocking the grandad sweater

Me modelling my rather lovely wool hooded sweater, cosy like a snuggly robin.

Happy Autumn!

Becky x

Rolling full circle

I’m sitting in the kitchen and the smells of autumn drift around me as Jackson cooks up a huge pot of apple sauce from all the bruised apples that were in the root cellar.  Fall is here, the days have got cooler, the nights are cold and there are the first touches of gold and red on the trees.

I’ve been here four months now, and I feel like I say this all the time, but how the time has flown and I find it hard believe that it’s September already!  I love seeing the change in the season as the year turns onwards and I’m looking forward to seeing the fiery colours when fall is in full swing.  Kylah told me the farm is really beautiful in the fall, what with all the big old maples which will turn crimson.  Autumn is my favourite season.

Last weekend I spent a couple of days at Kylah’s mum’s cottage on the Ottawa river in Quebec.  It’s really beautiful there with a nice sandy beach.  We went for a swim in the river which was nice and refreshing as it was a warm day.  In the evening we had a big bonfire on the beach watching the glorious dusk colours of the sky.

The Ottawa river

Sunset over the river

Dawn on the river with the low mist on the far side

It was really nice to spend some time away from the farm and see a little bit more of Canada.  On our way to the cottage we stopped at an art show of and artist called Kathrin Winkler.  The show was called ‘100 Trees’ and her work is beautifully colourful, expressive and very unique.  She doesn't have a website, but you can see examples of her work here http://www.theartmarket.ca/users/kathrin-winkler

On the farm we’ve completed the onion harvest and they are now all curing in the barn or in the greenhouse.  I think they take around two weeks, like the garlic, and then they can be stored over winter.

I got to drive the tractor (very slowly) while harvesting onions

We’ve cleared most of the Curcubit block, pulling up the courgettes, cucumbers and watermelons which have all finished producing.  We have left in the patty pans, but I don’t think we are going to get much more off them as the plants look very tired.

We still have the squash and over the last week or so we’ve harvested quite a few for both CSA and market.  We are growing a variety called Delicata which I haven’t seen before, it’s really delicious and the skin can be eaten as it’s nice and thin.

Yummy delicata squash

So we’ve seen a number of crops full circle now, as all those above we planted at the very beginning of the internship and they are now at their completion.

So I think last time I said we’d be moving very shortly, however we are still yet to spend our first night at the farm;  it’s such a running theme, thinking we’ll be moving and then there being yet more delays.  We’re waiting on the hot water system to be installed which should have been done at the end of August, but for one reason or another is yet to be done.  Fingers crossed it’s going to be this week as being in the tent is now getting tiresome what with the colder weather and my tent being leaky.

We have started the move though, which is good.  Bob’s hay wagon has been used to bring over big loads of furniture and other things like the outhouse and solar shower.  I’ve packed up my stuff, which really isn’t much, and I’m eager to get into my cabin.

fun times while moving furniture

so, til next time

Much love

Becky x