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.