Cottage Season Has Officially Started

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With the "May 2 4" weekend officially behind us, it is now cottage season in Ontario and, as the unofficial start of the summer, it is time for some serious gardening.

For us at the farm, it's been a time of pruning our berry canes... under what has been a very hot mid-day sun. It's also been time to tackle our strawberry beds. And on this front, we're starting to learn a few things from past mistakes.

When we first arrived at the farm, we planted a couple of strawberry plants...just for fun. These now fill an entire bed. To control weeds we have been using straw mulch.

Last year, we decided to expand our strawberry production by planting a few rows. Although we have made strawberry jam and pies for the Tea Room using local berries, the idea was to finally produce enough ourselves for this purpose. The results look very promising this year, many plants are in full bloom and some are already showing signs of green berries.

The Strawberry crop is looking promising

However we've also made some terrible mistakes. First, we were not very liberal with our straw mulch. Second, we planted Strawberry rows and left grass in between. Since we do not use any chemical fertilizer, herbicide or pesticide, the result this Spring is a bit of a mess. Weeds have taken over our Strawberries in a big way.

Strawberry rows....a mess of grass and weeds

Now we have a major effort on our hands clearing each row individually and by hand. The hard fought campaign against weeds is finally showing some promise.

Things look a lot better when cleared up.

We've decided to never let this happen again. In fact, not only will we be more liberal with our mulch, but we've decided to cover the entire Strawberry patch with straw later this season. After all, the grass in between is a waste of labor and energy (mowing) and could be used to increase our yield per square meter.

On the other hand we have discovered something interesting in our old Strawberry bed: a new weed. We call it "new" because we've never really had to identify it. It turns out, it's called Purple Deadnettle. Related to the nettle, it is called "dead nettle" because it does not sting.

The reason this weed caught our attention is that it seems to grow well with the Strawberries, while keeping other weeds at bay. Its small flowers also seem to attract pollinating insects just as the Strawberries need them. The Strawberries grow tall and bloom well among the Purple Deadnettle and the bed requires no weeding!

Strawberries blooming among Purple Deadnettle in our old Strawberrry bed

Thinking we may have struck on a great permaculture solution we actually looked this up on the Internet and the first hit was a bit a surprise. A forager had blogged about a Purple Deadnettle and Strawberry salad!

It turns out that Purple Deadnettle is edible and like its distant cousin, the Stinging Nettle, is a healthy food. We had to try it. The taste is nothing to write home about, but it is fascinating to see these two plants (the making of a salad) working so well together.

The result is that we are no longer weeding the Purple Deadnettle whenever we see it near our Strawberries. We hope to see what this will do next year. The problem is that the Purple Deadnettle is an annual that is obviously self-seeding. Hopefully the seeds do not travel too far.

Elsewhere, at the Tea Room, work has now started on some new bathrooms. Foundations have been poured. This does not affect our operations, but we ask our patrons for their understanding as the back of the barn looks a bit like a work zone.

Work on new Tea Room bathrooms has now started.

We'd like to add that now that summer is unofficially started the Tea Room is getting rather busy and a lot of functions have been booked. This is particularly the case on weekends. As a result, we now highly recommend reservations (we hate to have to turn away regular and prospective patrons).

If you've not been to the Tea Room recently, we'd like to add that the market also has a new look and expanded offerings. Seating is available for basic tea service and along with berries (seasonally), jams, chutneys, and syrups, gift items are also available. This includes art work (from our own in house artist), clothing, and vintage jewelry.

 

We'll close this blog entry with one quick announcement. The Tea Room will be hosting an event on the evening of June 7th. SlowFood Niagara is hosting its first evening open to the public. Tickets are $15/person. Food will be provided by the SlowFood convivium (this includes our Tea Room finger sandwiches) and a talk will be provided by Anna Valli of The Valli Girls meat shop in Ste. Catherine's (our source of drug-free, hormone-free meats). Should you be interested, please call us at 289-897-8943 to reserve a seat. Wine will also be available at additional cost.

We're in Full Spring

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Mothers' Day is over (the busiest day of the season for the Tea Room) and the tulips are in full bloom. This means the farm is in "full Spring" and in fact everything is blooming.

The tulips are in full bloom

Our Asparagus continues to surprise us. One day we see them just penetrating the surface of the soil...and it seems the next day they stand three feet tall. There is nothing as delicious in Spring time as freshly picked tender Asparagus from the backyard. If you're not growing them yet....you really should. It is a very simple perennial to care for.

If you cannot grow them, it's certainly now time to look for great local Asparagus at your farmers' market.

The Asparagus shoots really spring to life after a good rain

In fact, just about everything has started to bloom around the farm. This year's crop of Black Currants looks outstanding. We've never seen anything like it!

Look at all these berries in the making....this year's Black Currants will be prolific

Even our Strawberries are in full bloom. This being our first full year with our Strawberry plants, we finally expect to make some decent Strawberry jam for the Tea Room (you just can't beat it with scones and clotted cream).

The Strawberries look just as promising

Perhaps it was the mild Winter, or the early Spring weather, but even our Apple trees look like they will be producing a lot of fruit.

Beautiful Apple blossoms

The only worry for us now is frost. The average last frost in this area is mid-May. Last year we lost our entire crop of Kiwis due to a May 25th frost. We're now just crossing our fingers.

Finally this week we finished our Birch syrup. We made enough for our family BBQ's but we still had quite a bit for bottling and it is available in the Tea Room market.

This year's syrup is light, but still as dark as ever. It always reminds us of the colour of tar!

Dark as ever...this year's Birch Syrup is ready for BBQ season

Time to Garden

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With snow hitting the region earlier this month, it has been difficult to get back to do some farm work. Our fingers however have been getting "itchy" to plant.

As we finish our Birch syrup, the weather has been more typical of Spring and we could finally use our Growing Dome greenhouse to begin planting our seeds. We're quite pleased with our effort since for the first time, we are generating plants from our very own seeds. This includes all of our Tomato varieties, herbs, Peppers and even Asparagus.

We're finally (and proudly) planting our very own seeds.

As many useful plants begin to sprout, it was also time to move our Rhubarb and once again split the roots. From two plants originally found in the back of the old Victorian house some three years ago, we now have well over 40 roots firmly in place! They had to be moved once again since we had located them in the back of the barn where some construction work has taken place and this work will likely continue thru summer.

Transplanting Rhubarb in their new raised beds

From seeds gathered off "feral" Asparagus in the field, our Asparagus raised bed is also showing signs of life. It will not be long before the family can enjoy its first Asparagus dinner of the season.

The Asparagus are sprouting!

We'll close this week with our favourite find of the season: Ramps (Allium Triccocum). They are only to be found for a very short period of time in the Spring. However, they are a real delicacy.

The Ramps are out.

We have so many Ramps available to us from our swampy patch of Carolinian forest that we like to share a taste of these with our Tea Room customers. Recently our guests have had an opportunity not only to learn about this wonderful plant, but also to taste it in our daily soup.

Ramps ready for soup!

We'd like to close by warning people not to pick Ramps in conservation areas or the Greenbelt. Extreme care must be given to prevent these from extinction. The problem is the very long life cycle attributed to the plant. It may take 6-18 months for a seed to germinate and it can take 5-7 years before a plant is mature enough to flower! As a result, in our own patch of forest, we greatly limit how many plants we will pick in any given season.

Wine Pairing and Pop-Up Dinner at the Farm

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We're happy to announce a special evening at the farm. This will be held on Saturday April 23rd.

Good friend, local wine exec, oenologist, and SlowFood advocate Daniel Boudin, will be sharing his passion and knowledge of wines in order to educate our guests on the art of "pairing". To complete the evening, Niagara College trained, young local chef, Calvin McAlister has decided to use the farm for his first "pop up" dinner.

The event will include a 5 course Spring Blossom menu designed by Calvin and a selection of wines for each course specifically chosen by Daniel to please the palate.

At $75/seat, tickets are limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis. So if you are into good food, good wine, good company, and a learning experience, be sure to get your tickets at the Tea Room.

Meanwhile on the farm, the weather has been a real surprise. After enjoying Spring-like weather in February, we face the harsh realities of the Canadian climate: a snow storm and and frigid temperatures in the first week of April.

This has slowed our work in the field and in fact may prove damaging to the buds on many fruit trees in the area.

In our case, we just decided to finish off our Maple syrup and begin tapping our Birch.

Our 2017 vintage Ridge Berry syrup is  ready

This year's Maple syrup is darker than previous but still has the same great taste and we're rather pleased with the results.

For those that have never tasted Birch syrup before, we should have some available in the next 2 weeks. Unlike Maple, Birch is not a "desert" syrup. The taste is more akin to molasses. And although you may not want it on your pancakes, Birch syrup is simply fantastic for marinating meats for BBQ.

Even the old Birch next to the house is tapped this time of year.

We'll close this week, with our latest surprise from the old Victorian manor.

When we first arrived here, we could never open the front windows of the house. The old counter-weight cables were damaged, or the years of paint were sealing the frames and they were simply tightly wedged into place. So we were rather surprised one very hot summer day to see that one of our windows had opened upwards on its own. Although it took us a week to shut it, we rationally tried to explain this by blaming it on window frame expansion during this rather hot summer.

This past week however, we were once again caught by surprise on a very cold morning to find the same old window had opened itself again! This time we definitely cannot blame the heat and we're certainly at a loss to explain how this has happened. Thank God for storm windows or our front living room would have been a frozen shell.

The mystery window (far left) keeps opening up!

We've now decided we better find a way to lock this mystery window!

With the immense Copper Beech still bare, we decided to take the opportunity and finally get a full picture of the old lady (our Victorian house). Every day when we come home, we are still impressed with this historical piece of architecture. It certainly was worth renovating.

The Tea Room Opens Tomorrow!

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It's Spring time and of course, this means our Tea Room is re-opening for the 2016 season. We will be open as of tomorrow, March 22nd. Our hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 10AM to 6PM.

Spring time and the tea pots are blooming! Ready for the 2016 Tea Room Season.

We've updated our menu a touch. As promised, we've replaced our (unsustainable) Tuna salad with Niagara Coronation Chicken. This is our own version of a UK classic, using a chutney made from local Peaches. We've also now sourced our drug-free and hormone-free meats from sustainable farmers.

We've also made some significant upgrades in our egg procurement. We have finally found local eggs we can use in our restaurant (Provincial regulations mean they have to be graded). These eggs are somewhat more expensive but well worth the difference in price. The multi-coloured eggs are from free-range heritage varieties locally farmed by  Bertha's Bounty. You can tell the difference in quality just by the strong egg shells and the large orange yolks. We're really looking forward to using these.

Finally! A local source of high quality eggs (Bertha's Bounty)

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the farm, it is Maple syrup season. We've been collecting our sap (this year a lot earlier than before). In fact, we'll be switching to Birch soon and this is a few weeks ahead of last year, given the Spring like weather we faced in February.

Spring like weather has made it easy to collect sap this year.

We'll close by suggesting to everyone that it is now time to visit your local "sugar bush". A good place to visit in Pelham would be White Meadows, where everything they do is Maple themed.

Re-Opening Soon!

To view the latest from Ridge Berry Farm visit our new blog and site!

March is upon us and this means Spring...it also means the Tea Room will be re-opening soon! Many have asked when this will occur and we're happy to say Tuesday, March 22nd. For this new season, we will be open 10AM to 6PM, Tuesday to Sunday. We will be closed on Mondays.

It is now time for us to get out of hibernation and get ready! Over the coming weeks, we'll be working on updating our menu and trialing some new items for the upcoming season.

Although, we've not accomplished much this Winter, we still managed to get the first phase of our barn restoration completed. Finally, the back half of the barn is looking a lot more "civilized".

The back of the barn was looking a little sad...

...a  face lift has provided it with new life.

There is still much to be accomplished in the interior, but this is a great start, Our ultimate objective is to have a patio where guests can dine overlooking the berry fields.

Although our Winter was a lazy one, we did manage to discover and develop a few new things. One of these is a "white" wine made with (of all things) Raspberries.

Of the new berries planted in our fields, the most difficult to use has been the Yellow or Golden Raspberries. They taste great and are very similar to their red counterparts. However, when cooked, they turn brownish and are not exactly appetizing,  Although tasty, even the associated jams and jellies tend to take on this darker colour.

Since our plot is generating quite a few berries each year, we have more than we can use. This Winter, we were left with a reasonable amount that we ended up freezing for long term storage.

We decided that one option might be to transform these into wine.

Delicious golden raspberries ready to be transformed into wine.

The result, has surprised us completely. We ended up producing a distinctive white wine. The bouquet is all Raspberry and so is the taste. Not as sweet or "liquory" as some of the other fruit wines we've been playing with, this wine is perhaps the best we've managed to produce to date.

A Raspberry "white wine", perfect accompaniment to....chocolate!

We'll close this week with one thing that we were able to accomplish during this rather warm Winter: pruning. The lack of snow and bitter cold weather meant that a few days could be spent catching up on our pruning...although we still have a heck of a lot more to do!

An easy Winter means easy pruning!

A New Hive

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In the past, we have let some of our property for commercial bee keeping, hoping to eventually do this ourselves. This year, we decided to start on a very small scale. Of course, not satisfied with doing anything the traditional way, we wanted to try out some new apiary technology.

Our new assembled Flow Hive

Last year, a father and son team from Australia launched a crowd funding campaign for a concept they had developed. This involved a bee hive, called a Flow Hive, which would allow the beekeeper to collect honey from the combs without the removal the combs from the hive or the use of centrifuge to extract the honey from the combs. We were intrigued and after a bit of research we were compelled to be one of their original backers. We were definitely not alone and their crowd funding campaign exceeded all expectations, raising much more than originally anticipated.

This month, as original supporters, we were rather thrilled to get our first Flow Hive. The entire hive came in two neat packages and required quite a bit of construction. It was a bit like an Ikea kit. Based on recent Ikea experience, we would have to admit this was of better quality. The instructions were well detailed and after a morning of construction we were pleased with the results.

From the Flow Hive kit, a brood box takes shape.

The only two issues we did face during assembly was a brood box panel which was not pre-drilled and an access door which was rather tight.

The key to this technology are plastic frames which sit on top of the brood box. These frames are composed of multiple partially finished plastic cells. Bees will eventually complete these cells with wax and fill them with honey.

The critical element to the Flow Hive

Once the hive is assembled, two access panels or doors are used to collect the honey. On the top is a slot in which a long key is inserted. In the bottom is a collection tube. Once turned, the key splits the combs and the honey flows to the collection tube.

Accessing the Flow Hive frames for honey collection

A couple of added niceties for being original supporters of the concept, were a wood burned recognition on the hive's access window panel and a beekeeper's hat which was sent with the kit.

Already feeling like a beekeeper 

Of course we will be augmenting this hive with a couple of more conventional units. However, our first experience with this particular model would suggest that this may be the ideal hive for the hobbyist. We will now need to assess it with a bee colony and their honey to give a final verdict.

For those wishing to know more about this technology here is the Flow Hive web site. Below, you will also find one of their videos which really explains the concept.

It's now time to educate ourselves on beekeeping and get some colonies!