We Have a Logo

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One of the most important aspect of our new farm operation will be marketing. This is particularly important for our products (jams, jellies and juices). This week we're really happy to have finalized our new logo. This will be used for labels, signage, and website among other things.

The theme we chose is "Victorian". We felt this made sense since the farm is originally Victorian (this includes our home and the barn). Furthermore this ties in very well with the Tea Room operation that is run from the barn every summer.

The principal element of the logo is an outline of the Ward Manor, the Second Empire house which is now our home (Note: About.com has just published an article we submitted on the house; it can be seen on Ward Manor: Then and Now).

We underlined the name of the farm with a scrolling pattern reminiscent of the Art Nouveau/Arts & Craft period of the turn of that century. We hope everyone likes it and certainly welcome any feedback.

Of course this week we have to continue our Winter squash "theme". It was time to try the Sweet Potato Squash. These squashes are relatively small. Although a bit difficult to halve, we decided on the easiest preparation of all. We did not peel them; we simply emptied them of their seeds, applied a bit of butter and put them in the oven until tender.

Since we are now great fans of local food, we used the squash as a side dish to Muscovy Duck. It turns out that a small local farm just west of St. Catharines organically raises a variety of animals locally and processes them as well. The result is a much higher quality meat than typically found in the grocery store. The prices are similar but their subscription service allows for 25-40% in savings (not bad at all; this translates to very competitive prices and better quality). For anyone with access to the Niagara area we recommend you check out Lake Land Meats. We're so pleased with their products, we've already ordered our Christmas goose.

We roasted the Muscovy duck legs and finished them using a glazing of our own Purple Raspberry and Bacot Noir Wine jelly. The whole thing was sprinkled with oregano, served with our Sweet Potato squash on the side.

Our jelly-based glaze complemented the duck very well. The Sweet Potato squash were not as sweet as we expected but were none the less very good. What was most surprising about the squash is the thin skin. We expected to scoop the flesh from the baked squash (as you would from an Acorn squash). This was almost impossible as the skin would tear readily...in fact it turns out that you can eat the skin!

This week saw temperatures drop to the single digits. However, for the most part the sun was shining and we had beautiful days to work the land. Now that the leaves are gone, we can better distinguish the plants and actually do a lot more weeding. This includes the nasty thorn bushes which seem to have overtaken much of our land.

Just three months ago I could never have taken the following picture. It is a clear view of our farm land some 1/4 of the way down its length from the main road. We can finally see the barn. In June, this shot would have been impossible!

You'll note a lot of corn. Next year, we hope to transform this into grape vines. But we have a lot of planting to do before we get there. In our plans are red raspberries, yellow raspberries, red goose berries, black currants, strawberries, blueberries, Arunia (choke berries) and of course more purple raspberries and blackberries. This along with the heirloom apple orchard we hope to create will certainly keep us very busy.

This week, we also had the opportunity to put our new BCS Tiller to work. We outlined our rows for planting next spring. The success we've had in using this "work horse" had us consider its brush cutter attachment.

Again with the leaves gone, we have a much better picture of the brush that needs to be cleared and for the most part our tractor pulled Bush Hog simply won't do; there are just too many small trees and obstacles in the way. So now we have a new "toy": a PTO-driven "sickle saw" attachment.

Now our "Ferrari" looks like a hedge trimmer on steroids....and it works like one!

We leave you this week with perhaps our last mini harvest: wild Rapini. Our Italian hunter friend Francesco swears they're best when picked after first frost, so we decided to pick a bushel's worth. We'll be cleaning them now and blanching them prior to freezing for the winter.