Pelham Heritage

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This week we had a great time hosting the annual Pelham Heritage Tea Party. This year the town was celebrating Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857-1940). Born in Rockwood, Agnes was one of Canada's early female writers. She lived the majority of her life in Pelham. Her house still stands to this day perhaps just one "country block" from our farm.

Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald

Agnes Wetherald was known for her journalism and poetry. Her jounalistic carreer began in 1886 for her essays and sketches in the Toronto Globe using the pseudonym "Bel Thistlewaite". She also became a regular contrubutor to the "Week" where she published her poetry and a series of articles on Canadian literary women.  She collaborated with Grame Mercer Adam on her only extensive work of fiction entitled "An Algonquin Maiden" in 1886. At her Pelham family farm she found her inspiration to produce three books of poetry in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Agnes died in 1940 just short of her 83rd birthday and was buried in Pelham.

With this setting in mind the town's Heritage Tea Committee arranged a great party at the farm. Here we hosted well over 100 guests all with a keen sense of history and some with remarkable costumes.

Great costumes at the 2014 Heritage Tea Party

Tea was complemented by informative sessions and a tour of our old manor. We had such great fun doing this, we really hope to be able to host this event again next year.

We were in such a mood that we also went to the trouble of creating a special photo board for the manor's veranda. It's proven a great hit with the tourist.

Not your typical tourists :)

The board was created by Art in the Orchard, a local charity providing services to disadvantaged children. They did a great job and we hope to be able to continue to work with this charity during the course of the year.

Meanwhile on the farm, things are progressing rather well. Most of our time is spent weeding and clearing. While clearing around the creek, it was clear that the Beavers that were on the property were in fact creating their own ecosystem, one which was tending to flood the area.

Old evidence of Beaver cuttings.

When we first arrived at the farm, there were two Beavers in our first pond. We actually enjoyed seeing them frolicking on warm Summer evenings. We never realized however how much damage they can cause.

By the second year, we believe they were shot since they were also causing a lot of damage to neighboring properties. So we have not seen Beavers since then....until this week that is.

We were astounded to find a very large and healthy Poplar cut down next to our creek. This tree is a favourite of the Beaver. A couple of days later, while fishing in our pond, we finally saw the culprit. A large Beaver is back in our  "Beaver Pond". Now we face a dilemma. We really do not want to kill this animal, but we are going to be challenged to control his activities.

When it comes to the varieties of fruits and vegetables we have planted this year, things are going rather well.

The Cauliflower is starting to bloom, as well as some new plants we had never tried before such as the Scarlet Runner. Meanwhile many plants have fruited and we are anxiously anticipating the ripening of these new fruits such as our Ground Cherries.

Scarlet Runners are blooming....

...while Ground Cherries are ripening.

One ugly discovery revolved around our potatoes. The bed in which we planted them looked quite healthy from afar. While getting much closer this week we discovered things were not as they seemed. The entire bed was infested by the dreaded Potato Beetle, the great majority in the larval stage.

Potato Beetles int the larval stage.

Since we do not want to use pesticides (including the organically approved BT Toxin), we decided to tackle them in three ways. First we hand picked and killed all the larva we could find; we sprayed the plants with a Neem oil solution; and then we covered the soil with straw. Straw is expected to attract ground Beetles which would normally feed on this pest.

Next year, we intend to look at companion plants which may reduce Potato Beetle infestation.

We'll close this week with pictures of a couple of new finds around the manor: an old horseshoe and an early British wine bottle from the second half of the 19th century (marked "THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF W & A GILBEY LTD)....do we have to return it? :)

A very old horseshoe discovered in our backyard.

A well preserved 19th century wine bottle.