We have signage!

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This was a rather momentous week and a major milestone for the family. Our farm's sign was installed.

In order to do this, Tristan and I first had to do some hard work. The installation posts for a sign were already present, however they had not been used for quite a few years. The posts themselves were mounted on a large raised bed holding overgrown bushes and weeds. The roots of the bushes were so broad and deep, we had to use the tractor to pull them out.

Cleaning out a raised bed with the help of the tractor.

With the raised bed clean, we finished our work using landscaping cloth and a thick layer of gravel, We were now ready for our sign. The process was rather tricky since the mounting posts had warped over the years.

Installation of the Ridge Berry Farm road sign.

In any case, it was finally up and somehow it seemed to make our farm "official". We're now rapidly getting ready for business!

Getting ready for business.

This effort also meant we had to work on the barn, in particular the deck surrounding it. The Tea Room is scheduled to open in early June so it was time to do a bit of "beautifying". We started with the front landscaping and the deck's hanging baskets.

Installing flower baskets for the Tea Room.

With our weeding success between the sign posts, Tristan and I decided to start work on a nuisance that grows in our old raspberry rows: the Manitoba Maple (sometimes called the Box-elder Maple). This is a serious problem for us. This tree grows rapidly and is extremely invasive. The real problem is that if it is not uprooted (and simply cut down), it will grow suckers and build a massive root. Over the years, this is exactly what has happened.

The Manitoba Maple which is infecting our old rows of raspberries.

We tackled our first (of many) Manitoba Maples this week. It took well over two hours and many pulls from the tractor. We were often wishing we had an excavator. However, we eventually got it out but it costs us a few raspberry canes which we uprooted in the process.

Pulling the roots of a well established Manitoba Maple.

Since our policy is not to use herbicides on our land, I fear it will take us years to clear the old crops this way. Perhaps the only way we will effectively salvage our rows will be to completely tear them down, remove these roots and replant our stock.

Of course this is still planting season and this week we received another shipment of stock: over 500 raspberry canes (in three varieties: purple, red and yellow).

A new shipment: 575 Raspberry canes

As a result of this shipment, it was time for Tristan and I to work the back rows which we had cleared last fall. With practice, we have been getting better and more efficient when it comes to posting straight lines.

Our new rows ready for raspberries.

We've now started planting and perhaps will be at it for a few days. Doing this by hand is definitely hard work and certainly hard on the back. But we will get through it all and if these canes adapt to our soil as well as our currants and gooseberries, we will definitely be satisfied.

An arduous process: planting raspberries canes

We did have a chance to check up on the plants we have worked on in the past few months. In particular, the kiwis, the grapes and the apple trees that we pruned. The results are surprising to us. For the most part the grapes are starting to bud (although I am worried by the lack of buds on some stock), the kiwis are flowering (we now need to identify the males and the females) and the apple trees have an incredible amount of flower buds (with the exception of the Pippins which were dramatically cut back).

Budding of the Concord grapes

The beginnings of a Kiwi flower (male or female?)

The blooming of our Empire Apple tree

This being Spring, we were notified of the coming Asparagus. On one hill a lone stalk took us by surprise and reminded us to check on the remnants of an old Asparagus fields.

These lone overgrown Asparagus reminded us to check the old field.

Sure enough we did find Asparagus hiding among the weeds and frankly there is nothing better than fresh food from the land to satisfy a couple of hungry guys coming in from the field.

Our first harvest of Asparagus.

In the meantime, our work on the old Victorian manor continues. I am eager to show pictures but will wait until the next phase is completed.

The entrance to our new cellar is almost complete; it is just awaiting walls and roofing to act as cover for the snowy periods. We did add a special touch though: an old boot scraper. We salvaged this from one of the landings of the barn. When we redid the foundation, the landing fell apart so we decided to replant the boot scraper in the concrete that will act as the entrance to our cellar.

The new entrance to our cellar.

The old and salvaged boot scraper.

We also finally finished our barn renovations. In fact the Tea Room kitchen is starting to look rather professional. The only thing remaining is a bit of electrical and plumbing work.

The old Tea Room kitchen (before).

The new Tea Room kitchen (after).

With all of these activities, we also still managed to pursue our experiments in mead making. With the early success of our experiments so far, this week we decided to process larger volumes. We decided to brew 5 gallon batches of  Pyment (Mead made with grape juice) and Cyser (Mead made with Apple juice).

For the Pyment, we used local Concord grape juice. This is now a rarity in Niagara since most grape growing plots are used for viniferas dedicated to wine making. It is a bit of a shame; for many years the local agricultural economy was based on both the Niagara and Concord grapes. We were very lucky to find one local farmer still dedicated to producing juices from these wonderful grape varieties.

What used to be a key agricultural product for Niagara: Concord grape juice.

To this juice we added our honey (this time a local clover honey), blended with distilled water and pasteurized, as well as some of our wine making yeast. We achieved a hydrometer reading of 1.12 which should be sufficient to get a good full bodied Pyment.

For our Cyser, we used a local cider, an unpasteurized blend of juices from at least five different varieties of Apples. This is where things went somewhat wrong.

When I ordered my juice from the farmer across the street (he makes the best cider in town), he knew what I wanted to do. As such he gave us a 5 gallon batch of juice he normally ferments himself for what we would call here "hard cider".

We did not know this.

When we added our honey to the juice (and before we added our yeast), we had a major "industrial incident". The juice instantly foamed up and overflowed well beyond our fermenter seriously messing up the kitchen. We simply could not contain it. Basically the existing culture in our juice reacted very "favourably" to the addition of nourishing honey.

In the panic, I could not even get a picture of the results. It took us quite a while to bring things under control.

In the end, we still added our yeast and capped it all off without even taking a hydrometer reading. We did however taste the foam and based on this, we think we may just get a fantastic Cyser on our hands.

Finally this week, we have also learned something new about a particular bee, which I simply thought was a large Bumblebee. This Spring, we found this large insect in great numbers on the west side of our barn. They seemed rather aggressive and were somewhat intimidating.

It turns out these large bees are actually Carpenter Bees (differentiated by their black hairless and shiny abdomens).

The Carpenter Bee.

Although, I will accept all pollinators we can find on the farm. These are actually causing a minor problem.

The Carpenter Bee burrows into wood. The result: our barn siding is doted with perfectly bored holes the size of a small finger.

The aftermath of Carpenter Bees.

Technically, Carpenter Bees do not burrow on painted surfaces. It seems we may have waited too long to add a coat of paint to this side of our barn.

In the end, we will not do anything to rid ourselves of this useful pollinator. The males have no stinger and the females really have to be in danger to sting. So even though they may look threatening, we will be keeping these bees on hands in the hope they will promote fruit production in our fields.

As for the barn...it will just require some fixing in the fall.

We will close this week by wishing all Mom's a Happy Mother's Day from everyone of us at the farm!