Transplanting Rhubarb

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Our week started with Rhubarb. In the back of the house partially sitting under a deck, the Rhubarb was already showing signs of life. Our variety is called Strawberry Rhubarb; it has a mild taste with bright red stems. We used it last year to make some preserves and they were the first jars to disappear from our pantry this winter. We simply loved it.

The problem is that the back of the house has become a construction site and the deck is planned for removal later this summer. In order to save these plants, we decided to transplant them to a safer place and perhaps propagate them.

Digging up Strawberry Rhubarb from under our deck

Spring is apparently the season to do this. We dug up our roots as best we could. They were very deep and the plants were difficult to access.

These Rhubarbs had a very extensive and deep root system

Once removed from the soil, it was rather easy to see where the roots could be split in order to generate more plants. In the end, we transformed an eight foot row of Rhubarb into four rows planted in a raised bed behind our barn.

Our new Rhubarb patch

We were reluctant to put them in direct sun; Christine and I always thought Rhubarb needed shade. Our neighbor (the original source for these plants) put our minds at ease. Her Rhubarb is in direct sun and thriving. Hopefully our new Rhubarb patch will do the same.

From Rhubarb, the entire week ended up being dedicated to planting.

We were actually surprised when we took delivery of our first production root stock: Red Gooseberries; a Japanese variety called Hinnonmaki. 160 small plants arrived and we were far from prepared.

Hinnonmaki Red Gooseberry stock

We ended up quickly setting up our rows and posts. Using our trusted Polyamide cable, we ensured the plants were arranged in a straight line. This is where we realize that tilling by "eye" on some rather hilly terrain results in some rather crooked rows.

Nevertheless, Tristan and I planted our stock. As for the Chestnut trees last week, we decided to plant the Gooseberries with a mix of soil, peat moss and bone meal.

Planting our Gooseberries

The trick now was watering (and this is a concern for all our planting). Although we were told the farm had no irrigation, it is clear that at one time it did. The ground is crisscrossed by miles of tubing. Regrettably the configuration was never recorded and in many segments the system is utterly damaged.

The result is that we have no system of irrigation currently installed. Our temporary solution: a sprayer. This small unit is powered by the John Deere battery and happens to be sufficient for our current task.

Our current watering solution

Planting did not stop with the Gooseberries. With our inside growing space restricted, we felt we really had to start planting some of our vegetable seedlings.

We are currently about 1 week before the average last frost and this can be a risky thing. However, we do know that certain things can be safely done. This includes our Rutabaga (yes those cuttings from out store bought root have taken really well); the Artichokes (grown as an annual they need to feel as if they have gone through a winter) and probably our cabbages (Cauliflower, Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts). Hopefully things will work out; the fourteen day weather outlook is promising.

Planting the "remnants" of our store-bought Rutabagas

Planting did not end there. Now that our drained land is clear, we felt we had to recondition the soil. To do this, we need to fix some Nitrogen back into it. Usually recommended are things like clover or fall rye. Given what we intend to do there, we decided to use an all purpose mixed ground cover which includes clover and rye grass. We did this manually and I am sure it will require a few passes.

Seeding our newly drained land

We even had the chance to start "chitting" our potatoes this week. Perhaps late (we're still getting our heads around the timing for all this planting), this basically entails the pre-sprouting of the seed potatoes or cuttings  in order to get better yields.  Doing this basically requires placing the prominent "eyes" up and for small seed potatoes, the base of the potato (the one originally attached to the rooting system) down. Once the "eyes" begin to sprout, it will be time to plant.

"Chitting" Potatoes

This week was also time to return to our mead experiment. Since 4 weeks have gone by, I thought it may be the right time to test for alcohol content and taste.

Getting ready for a pleasant experience or a nasty surprise

The first honey mead provided a hydrometer reading of about 1.034 suggesting an alcohol content now of roughly 6%. The taste was actually pleasant, although still quite sweet. Since we were using a buckwheat honey, the taste is very much that of buckwheat. With a slight effervescence, it felt like we were drinking a sweet beer.

The brew is bright orange (almost like orange juice) and it is opaque because of yeast particulates. A thick residue was left in the bottom of our fermenter.

We decided to take our brew and transfer it to two 1 gallon jugs for a secondary fermentation. We'll now try it again in about another four weeks.

Our mead ready for secondary fermentation

We also managed to try the Acerglyn (Mead with Maple syrup). The hydrometer reading was just about identical and the colour of the brew was more on the amber side.

The sweetness of the Acerglyn was similar to the Mead, perhaps a bit less. It also had some light effervescence. The buckwheat taste of the honey was not as overpowering but the Maple flavour is barely perceptable. Perhaps with aging and more fermentation this will change.

As for the conventional Mead, we also set this up for a secondary fermentation for trial in another 4 weeks.

Our first batch of Acerglyn

On the Birch syrup front, we processed our last batch. I combined all of the syrup to make a final boil. It turns out this syrup is very sensitive to heat; you cannot boil it as you would Maple. In fact the process requires a lot of precaution; the syrup will rapidly burn even as it touches the edges of a hot pot. Slow simmering is the solution.

The final result was  just over 2  liters of dark syrup. As for the Maple, we also found that crystallization occurs in the process. Unlike "Maple Sand" however,  these crystals seem to dissolve in your mouth. I'm not sure if we created a sugar crystal (it is not very sweet) or some mineral crystal (as for the Maple), or a combination. In any case, now that it is bottled, the syrup will need decanting.

Although we do not have a proper kitchen yet, we did try to marinate some beef ribs for a barbecue and the results were actually very good. It is really hard to believe that a colourless and almost tasteless sap could generate such a dark and aromatic syrup. We'll definitely do it again next year.

Our Birch syrup

Finally, home renovations continue. This week some major work was undertaken to provide outside access to our newly combined cellars. To do this, we decided to actually re-open a doorway original to the house. The difficulty in doing this is the fact that this doorway is well below ground level and into the original foundations. So here goes another addition to our messy construction site!

The old doorway is once again exposed