The Juneberries are Ready

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As indicated in earlier posts, we discovered this Spring a few Juneberry trees. These are also called Saskatoons, Service berries or Amelanchier.

These berries are very much a North American plant having been used by Native Americans for the production of  pemmican (fat and powdered meat and dried berries).

Our Juneberries are ripening

Living up to their name, they have finally been turning blue... so it was time to pick. With the very humid and sultry weather we've had this week, I felt as if we were picking coffee beans on a Latin American plantation.

Picking our first crop in sweltering heat

Having never used Juneberries before, I challenged Chef to come up with something. The result was a frangipane tart with Chantilly cream which has become a rather successful desert at the Tea Room.

Juneberry frangipane tart with Chantilly cream and a berry coulis

We've now decided to sell some of our berries and process others for a rather special preserve.

Chef has also not let us down with the Mulberries we had picked earlier. As promised, he came up with a rather nice White and Black Mulberry Biscotti with Hickory nuts. The nuts were incredibly hard to crack and we were left with some small pieces of shell in some cookies...so we'll happily be keeping these for the family since they are so delicious.

White and Black Mulberry Biscottis with Hickory Nut

As the season progresses, Chef has been making good use of our vegetable raised beds. He is lucky since we have no kitchen in the house as we continue to renovate.

Chef's collection from the garden: squash flowers, pea cuttings, parsley and dill

On another front, we continue to forage. Last year, we were introduced to the pleasures (taste) and hardships(shells) of the Black Walnut. This year, I was determined to try them again....but this time differently.

We chose two methods: one Italian, the other Armenian. Both call for the picking of the nut in late June, when the shell has not yet had a chance to form. At this point they are basically the size of limes.

We were lucky to find some low hanging Black Walnuts of just the right size

The Italians produce a liquor with these young nuts. It is called nocino.

The recipe is simple. You wash your nuts and then quarter them (easy since they have no shell). They are then submerged in an alcohol solution. Some use extremely strong grain alcohol or Grappa, we opted for Vodka. For half a liter of alcohol, we added about a cup of sugar. We used large canning jars for the process and added some spicing (a couple of table spoons of cinnamon and the zest of half a lemon).

Adding a zest of lemon to our nocino blend

Now, it's a waiting game. The nocino should be ready for Christmas. All that remains to be done between now and then is the straining of the solution.

I have to add one quick note. Something like nocino is probably a decent drink...but I think this may actually make a much better addition to some of our pastry recipes.

For the Armenian recipe, we've decided to make preserved Black Walnuts.

Having picked and washed the nuts, this recipe calls for their peeling. Not a very easy task, this is best done with a sharp paring knife. Once this is done, we will be soaking the nuts for the next week constantly changing the water every day as it turns dark brown.

Sous-Chef giving us a hand peeling the young Black Walnuts

Eventually we will be cooking them in sugar syrup before canning them...but perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves as we plan to report on this in future blogs.

Another foraging experiment had to be completed this week. For those following the blog in the past few months, this is the last chapter in the cattail saga.

The Cattail pollen is ready to be collected

The male portion of the pods are beginning to turn yellow and it was time to collect the pollen. It turns out this is a bit difficult. The pods produce an amazing amount of pollen so a large plastic bag is called for (not the small Ziplock we used). You simply cover the pod and tap it in your bag. Once home be sure to sift it since you will probably have collected some bugs in the process.

This plastic bag did the trick but was much too small

The result is the collection of a very fine bright yellow powder...which can be used as a flour.

Beautiful bright yellow Cattail pollen/flour

Without a kitchen in the house, I did not want to bother Chef to make the traditional cattail pancake. In fact, I am still looking for something perhaps a little more exciting to make. In the meantime, Chef has decided to use the cattail flour/pollen along with bee pollen as a decorative element to his cheese plate.

Our crops are progressing quite well...even with all of the rain we've been having. In fact, the Purple Raspberry is so abundant that we have come across a new problem. The canes are falling to the ground and breaking. We will have to completely rethink our raspberry trellis concept.

The Raspberry canes are so heavy with fruit they have a tendency to break

I think this abundance of large berries may be due to the weeding we've accomplished over the past year. In fact, we now have help to do this.

You may have noted new faces on the blog. We've hired two students: Julianna and Hanna. They were hired to pick, but we've also been working together on weeding....and not just any weeding. These girls are really adept at just about everything that needs to be done on the farm so they've even been helping us with the very tough chore of cutting out Wild Rose bushes.

Julianna and Hannah weeding...two great additions to the team

In the process, we've uncovered a variety of "wild things"...and the most interesting this week was a snake which I believe may be a DeKays Brown Snake. We were probably close to its nest because this rather large snake was definitely very aggressive (to the point of following and chasing me!)

I'm not certain of the identification of this very aggressive snake (any suggestions are welcome here). 

I leave you this week with another interesting discovery made just outside the back of the house. "Eagle Eye" Christine was weeding and on the ground facing her was a coin. It turned out to be a half penny token produced by Lesslies and Sons. This would have been minted in 1822 or 1824. On one side is a plough on the other the scales of justice.

I did not know this, but during much of the century preceding confederation there was a chronic shortage of small change. No official coins were provided in Upper and Lower Canada so foreign coins were used and tended to flow out of the country. The gap was partially filled by merchants....and this is one of the tokens used at the time.

The First Surprise Harvest

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Now that Summer is here, we actually were able to start harvesting some berries. I call it a surprise since only a few weeks ago, we were not even aware these existed.

The berries that were ready for picking turned out to be Mulberries.I had been keeping an eye out on these fruits since discovering the tree which we had originally considered weed. The berries were small since the tree had never been pruned, but to my surprise they were already falling to the ground. It was also a surprise because they were white....implying this was not an indigenous variety.

The White Mulberry

In China, the white Mulberry is used to grow silkworm and in Chine medicine, they are believed to prevent the onset of early grey hair (of interest to Chef since he just found his first grey hair :)...

The taste of these berries is not at all exciting. They are mildly sweet with no tartness whatsoever. However, we do have some ideas on how to use them....so it was time to harvest.

The first step was to free the tree from the brush surrounding it, primarily old and wild raspberry and blackberry canes. We needed to at least approach the tree.

The Bush Hog and the Weed Whacker helped us get closer to the tree

Of course, being novices we really tackled the picking of these berries the wrong way. We started by hand on the low branches....only to find out that for every berry picked a few would drop to the ground.

The hard way to pick ripe Mulberries

It took a while, but eventually we realized that the best approach would simply be to shake the berries out. We laid out a tarp and Tristan braved the climb up this tree to shake the berries loose. This was a much more efficient process.

The easier way to pick Mulberries (Tristan is actually in these branches!)

Returning with our first little harvest, I was again surprised to find something else...another Mulberry tree. This one however showed multiple berries turning red to black. These are the tasty ones....so on to more harvesting. Now instead of climbing these difficult trees, we've been using our trusted pole pruner to shake the berries loose.

A newly discovered Black Mulberry tree

Discussing our newly discovered crop with Chef, we decided to eventually process these small berries. We now intend to dehydrate (or dry) them. We will then use them in a white and red Mulberry Biscotti.

We now know there are quite a few of these trees on the property. In the Fall, we now intend to properly prune those that have produced for us this year in the hope of getting a better crop next Spring.

The surprise harvesting this week extended to the vegetable patch. I had been following our Di Ciccio Broccoli for a few days and it was definitely time to at least cut one. What was a real surprise though (and something totally unexpected) were the heirloom yellow string beans. This rare variety of Beurre de Rocquencourt was also producing.

This was a really proud moment, our first ever harvest of real food!

From seed to food...a very proud moment for novices

Not having a kitchen in the house ...due to our ongoing renovations, we now have to rely on Chef to make use of our produce. So one special this week at the Tea Room was a Nettle Tagliolini with a Prosciutto cream sauce and our Broccoli....quite yummy!

Chef's Nettle Tagliolini was really appreciated this week.

Now aside from keeping a close eye on our crops, we are also taking the time to do some serious weeding. With School out, we have been able to get the help of some courageous and hard working students. Not only are we tackling our old raspberry rows, but we've also had the opportunity to get back into the old Kiwi vines to again remove some of the Wild Rose.

Weeding: a never-ending process.

It was also time this week to carry out experiment #3 in the cattail series. The pods are evolving and it was time to try them. We simply picked them as they were coming out of their green sheath.  We boiled them and ate them around the hard stem (as you would corn on the cob). The results: very good. They tasted a bit like corn, without the sweetness. I am actually thinking that with a bit of butter and salt, we might be able to create a very tasty "grit". I have to say, it is really surprising how good cattails have been so far.

The Cattail pods are ready to harvest

On the home renovation front, things are progressing quite well. the (wine) cellar is looking superb...particularly now that the racking has been installed. The Tucker team has done a fabulous job customizing this beautiful piece of wood working.

The cellar is really looking "sharp"

I finally leave you this week with the photo of a small visitor.

This young innocent bunny was kind enough to let me pat him!

Weeds and Critters

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Somewhere I read "a weed is just a beautiful flower growing in the wrong place". We've now come to really appreciate this dictum.

Since arriving at the farm, not a day goes by when we are not "weeding" one area or another. However, we've now come to better appreciate some of the plants that are attempting to grow in our fields.

Aside from our "nemesis" the Box Elder, we have discovered that quite a few of our "weed" plants and trees can be quite useful....particularly since we've now also learned to forage.

Last year, when we talked of untangling our Kiwis from wild grapes, thorn bushes and trees, we were not fully aware of what we were cutting down.

We knew Wild Grapes could be of use; they make a great jelly. However, given the amount of Grapes on the property removing the odd vine was not a concern. Today, the Wild Grapes are flowering and if we had the time and manpower, we could probably harvest much more than we could ever use.

Wild Grapes blooming in one of our poplars

What we did not realize at the time was that the "nasty thorn bushes" we were pulling were Wild Roses. Now that they are blooming and releasing a wonderful scent, they are quite easily identifiable.

Wild Roses abound on the property

Like the Wild Grapes, the Roses also serve a purpose.  Not only do they attract pollinators, but this year we definitely want to harvest and process some of the Rose Hip.

However, Wild Roses also abound on the property. As such removing these from some of our cultivated rows still makes a lot of sense.

What was a surprise this year was a "weed" tree we simply could not identify last Fall. We discovered that some of the trees we were cutting down were actually Mulberry. This was quite evident when we noticed the berries beginning to form this month.

Our newly discovered "weed" tree: the Mulberry is fruiting

Unlike the Wild Grapes and Roses, the Mulberry tree is not so pervasive. Since of course we intend to harvest some of these berries, we have now decided to care for them and work around them. This may prove difficult where some of our Kiwis have completely entangled themselves in the branches of these tree. Appropriate pruning is definitely called for.

Not only do we have issues in our old Kiwi rows, but now that we have uncovered the June Berries, we realize the problem extends to many of our potential crops.

In the June Berry rows, we have the habitual Wild Grapes and Roses, but we also discovered multiple Tulip Trees. Many of these are now flowering.

A flowering Tulip Tree among our June Berries

Although, the Tulip Tree serves no purpose to us, it is a beautiful plant which is a symbol of the region and is unique to this Canadian Carolinian forest. So for us, there is no question; we need to maintain these trees one way or another. Given their location (away from our Kiwi vines), we believe we can allow them to grow in the midst of our June Berry rows. It only requires us to work around them.

Last Fall, we covered our harvesting of Black Walnuts. To many gardeners this plant is a nasty "weed". Releasing Juglone (a natural herbicide), it has a tendency to kill many other useful plants in its path.

Over the past weeks we have found quite a few Black Walnut seedlings in our cultivated rows. We even had one of our Niagara Grape vines destroyed this year by a small Black Walnut which we had inadvertently left behind.

The effects of leaving a Black Walnut at the foot of a Grape vine

Since we have quite a few Black Walnut trees on the property, we have now been diligent in pulling saplings everywhere we see them. Our objective is to always maintain a few good trees in isolated parts of our land where we can harvest them when the time comes.

In fact, we will continue to experiment with the Black Walnut and its many uses. We are keeping a close eye on the evolution of the fruit. Our intentions are to harvest it early this year and produce what the Italians call Nocino (a Black Walnut liqueur).

Keeping an eye on the Black Walnut fruit for early harvesting

As we have learned more about foraging, another "weed" tree on our cultivated land has me pondering. In a few locations, the Black Locust has taken root and one tree in particular is of outstanding size.

A bit late in its blooming cycle, we learned that the flowers of this tree were edible. The beautiful grapes of white flowers have a wonderful scent but surprisingly they are also delicious! They are sweet and have a nice crunch (hence a great decorative addition to salads).

The Black Locust flower: a delicious wild edible

Given this discovery, we are now thinking of keeping one or two well established trees.

As we continuously tackle the concept of weeding, we must also now address "critters". Last week we covered some of the issues we have with deer.

These animals are becoming bolder and approaching our house on a regular basis (perhaps because we no longer have a hunter on the grounds).

The deer are getting "bolder"

We have heard of many "physical" attempts to protect crops from deer and with each attempt, we've also heard of many failures. As a result, we've decided to employ something a bit different: an organic spray. We've decided to protect some of our crops (in particular our sapplings) using a spray which apparently makes the leaves of our plants unpalatable to the deer. I'm not certain this will work, but we'll be reporting on this in future blogs.

I must add that the deer have also been feeding on our Kiwi vines. Given the very healthy state of these hardy plants, we see no permanent or long lasting damage...so for the time being we will let them nibble on these leaves.

Our philosophy right now is that most of the "critters" are part of an ecosystem. If we try to contain one element of this ecosystem we may be doing ourselves harm by "unbalancing" the equation and raising another issue.

In fact, when we planted our vegetable garden we did so allowing for losses. Of course, we can now attribute some important losses to another "critter" which abounds on the farm: the Cottontail Rabbit.

This cute nuisance is getting its fair share of our vegetables

We have not done much to contain the rabbits and so far there may not be a need to do anything. Although they are getting their fair share, we have more than enough to satisfy our needs.

This is also the philosophy we are adopting with birds. We know we will lose quite a few berries. However, birds also contain the insect population and very often provide fertilizer as they stoop on our trellises.

The most frustrating "critter" though is the one attacking our only two strawberry plants. These plants are producing a large amount of berries. However, we find nice chunks taken out of each newly ripened berry.

We would not be so frustrated if they at least finished one whole berry and then left another for us.

Someone is munching on the best of our Strawberries

The culprit: we suspect a pair of Chipmunks. They have dug behind our shed and just across the path to our raised beds. Every so often we can see them darting to and fro from the raised bed to their hole.

I'm not sure we can do much and we definitely are not keen to harm these cute little rodents. I just think that next year, we will likely begin planting our strawberries in stacked containers.

In anticipation of insect problems (particularly on our Apple trees). We have had to come up with some organic sprays. This year will be a year of experimentation. So far, we have used Neem oil and we see no evidence of infestation. Later we will also be using some Rhubarb leaf tea.

The apples are so abundant, we should be selectively pulling fruits to concentrate the energy of the plant on a few good apples. However, we are not so concerned this year about the size and quality of our harvest. Our main preoccupation is determining the types of organic sprays that are most effective in protecting the fruit.

The Apples are so far doing well

The very wet weather we have had has caused some problems for farmers in the region. However, with our sandy soil, it has actually proven to be a blessing for the majority of our plants. So I leave you this week with a few photos of the upcoming crops.

Our Blackberries are flowering...

...so are the Kiwis

Red Currants are ripening...

...along with Red Gooseberries

Concord Grapes

 and Black Currants

Things are Moving Fast

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Ever since we decided to open up a shop and a tea room, our lives have gone into "hyper drive". Since hiring our Chef, we brought on board a new sous-chef: Jonathan Fric. Jonathan is a talented young man who graduated from Niagara College and will be attending the Cordon Bleu School in Paris this fall. The new duo (Chef Ryan Beck and Jonathan) then had to get hard to work preparing for the new menu.

Our dynamic duo (Chef Ryan Beck and Jonathan Fric) in their new kitchen

We also had to train ourselves on a new Point of Sales (POS) system. I never thought we would be faced with so much software. Thank God for our business neighbours Sweet Thoughts and Carol who were a significant help in setting us up.

The team had to be trained on a new POS system.

This end of the week was then a culmination of our work with a "soft launch" and the official opening of both facilities. Even though the weather was very cold and damp, we were actually quite pleased with the results.

The "soft launch" was a free tea offered to friends and family. The result was a great evening where we tested our new Chef and team while we worked out the bugs in our system and processes. It was also an opportunity to thank some of our neighbors for putting up with the unsightly construction site our home has become for almost a year now.

Relaxing with a glass of wine after our "soft launch"

We've now been running the Tea Room for two days and things are slowly coming together. Hopefully we will find a rhythm and the community as well as tourists will come to enjoy what we have to offer as well as share in our vision for this wonderful property.

The store....

and the Tea Room have worked out well

Of course we still have to worry about our farming and gardening. Things are progressing very well there too. In fact, everything is starting to bloom or is already in fruit.

The Purple Raspberries are coming...

so are the June Berries

The Apples are abundant

Even the Niagara Grapes are ready to bloom

We have had however three set backs. First, our Bush Beans did not survive the frost so we have started to replant. Then our Cucumbers were attacked by spider mites. For this we have used a solution of dish soap and water which seems to have done the trick.

Most sadly of all though is the state of our Chestnut trees. They seem to be a treat for deer. It now looks like our entire field may not survive. We will definitely have to find a long term solution to this problem if we are to plant any more young trees.

The results of deer nibbling on a young Chestnut tree

In the meantime, we have started to harvest some plants for Chef and the Tea Room. This week, he has been making a cream of Nettle and Asparagus soup. This soup has actually been quite a success....even for those who have never tried Nettles before.

Chef has also been using some of our Garlic Mustard greens and Zucchini flowers. So we're quite pleased some of our gardening and foraging work is finally coming to good use.

Tristan and Jonathan harvesting Garlic Mustard.

Harvesting Nettles for our Tea Room soup

I will leave you this week with a surprising farm visitor. One morning Tristan and I were assessing the state of our raised beds, only to find one of our tomato cages knocked over. This is when we almost tripped over the rather massive culprit: a Snapping Turtle.

A friendly Snapping Turtle laying eggs in the middle of our vegetable garden

This turtle had actually traveled some 100 metres from the nearest pond/swamp to lay some eggs behind our barn! She left gently covering up her nest. The worst thing is: we now feel responsible for the hatch-lings.

A Snapping Turtle nest we now feel responsible for.