Discovering Crosnes

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We were quite excited this week because we managed to get our hands on the equivalent of one bushel of Crosne (Stachys Affinis) roots. Our older daughter first introduced us to these plants about a year ago, mentioning they were a delicacy which is highly prized by top chefs.

These plants resemble a small mint like ground cover and are treasured for their roots which really resemble a small grub. Also known as Chinese Artichoke, they are mainly consumed in France and China. They are used a bit like the Sunchoke which means that they are great pickled, pan pried or steamed. The taste is mild and nutty. They are as crunchy as radishes but not at all peppery. They are usually washed cleaned (with a toothbrush) so the harvesting and cleaning can be rather tedious. However, their little ridges are loved for their ability to hold whatever sauce is applied to a dish.

The "grub-like" Crosne root

Being great fans of odd plants and very much fans of perennials (those that keep giving on an annual basis), this was a great gift. It came to us from a husband and wife team in Fonthill that run a produce distribution company for local restaurants: Urban Graze. We have been using Urban Graze at the Tea Room not only because of the quality of their produce but their ability to source good local seasonal vegetables and their knowledge of local delicacies...and this week they made us twice as happy by providing us with a large amount of Crosne root stock for one of our raised beds. At $20-40/lb retail, this was quite a gift.

We're now looking forward to having a raised bed covered with this beautiful groundcover with dreams of pickling Crosnes this coming Fall. In fact, between our Sunchokes, our Rhubarb, Ramps and Asparagus, we are thrilled to add Crosnes to the list of perennial foods grown at the farm.

This week, we also noticed some wild Asparagus in the back of our lot. We took the opportunity to transplant them and begin the spreading of those plants into one single and large raised bed. We call these Asparagus "wild" but they are probably the remnants of Asparagus planted perhaps decades ago on the property. Not only have we been using their root stock but we have collected seeds and successfully grown them.

Slowly populating one large raised bed with "wild" Asparagus root stock

Last week, we were thrilled to transplant a few plants in the outdoors, proclaiming May 24th as the date beyond which frost is avoided in these parts. We were wrong! We (along with most gardening aficionados) were really caught off guard with a late frost which seriously damaged a few plants. In particular, the Scarlet Runners in our raised beds were decimated. Some survived closer to the barn but we will now have to replant this beautiful bean in the hopes of getting some flowers soon for the Tea Room dishes.

Scarlet Runner frost damage...back to square one!

Not only were some of our raised bed plants affected, but we fear some of our berries as well. Many bushes have past the flowering stage and are currently loaded with green berries. Haskaps and Currants seem OK, however the Red Gooseberries look completely damaged. Maybe they will recover, but we're not holding out much hope... they're goes our Gooseberry pies for the year :(.

What currenlty looks like a frost damaged Gooseberry.

Nevertheless, we have plenty of other berries on the farm and so far things look quite promising.

We'll end this week with an update on the Growing Dome. Those following the blog know we've had a very difficult time keeping fish alive in this environment...mostly because of temperature extremes. We were surprised to find more "floaters" a few weeks back. This means that although we've not taken care of the water, fish were still alive throughout the Winter. They died when we just did not aerate the water on a very hot day...we simply thought all the fish were gone.

This incident has given us new hope and we've now decided to tackle a major project in the dome, We intend to bury our water tank some 3-4 feet down. This will provide some insulation to the water tank and hopefully alleviate the temperature extremes for the fish. It will also allow us to move our aquaponic work tables to a more convenient height.

The next major project this Summer: bringing the water tank down into the ground some 3-4 feet. 

The Dome has also provided some surprises this year. So we'll conclude this post with a couple of pictures from the Dome. A small Avocado plant has managed to survive the Winter in the Dome, and one of our grape vine cuttings (Baco Noir) is already fruiting.

We had not given this small Avocado much chance...but it survived!

In the Dome, this Grape cutting is well ahead of our other vines.

Transition to Summer

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For our international readers, the 24th of May (or May Two Four as it is known here) really marks the transition from Winter to Spring. Our Springs and Autumns are short and this date which marks a long weekend celebrating Queen Victoria is often the time when gardeners of all stripes begin to plant. By this time, we're usually assured that we will no longer suffer a frost.

So for us, this was a time to begin transplanting plants from our greenhouse nursery to our raised beds. We're far from done, but at least our Scarlet Runner beans and Peas are now well established.

Some of the Scarlet Runners transplanted in the back of our barn.

Last Fall we also decided to see if some plants could simply self seed in their own raised beds. In particular we did this with our Borage. The results are promising since we're already noticing quite a few plants at an early stage of growth.

The Borage has self-seeded remarkably well

We also attempted to self-seed our Ground Cherries but of course not everything we do goes well. In this case, we actually forgot which bed the plants were in.  Unbeknown to us at the time, we had tilled the soil to plant strawberries. We'll just have to try again next year.

Meanwhile in the Tea Room, we had to resolve a problem with egg whites. Simply put, we had way too much of these. They are the result of making our own mayo and pastry cream from scratch.

For us, the solution was to produce meringue cookies. We decided to make chocolate marble meringues. Easy to make, they've proven to be a hit with kids and parents alike.

A great way to use egg whites: chocolate marble meringue cookies

We'll close this week with a few pictures of some of the plants now flowering in our beds. Not only did our Chervil, Chives and young Asparagus survive this hard Winter, they are now thriving and in full bloom.

Asparagus in bloom

Beautiful Chive flowers

This Chervil will quickly take up half of its raised bed

It's Finally Asparagus Season

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Nothing evokes Spring better than fresh Asparagus and in Ontario, Asparagus season has begun. For us, this means that the Tea Room menu is slowly being adapted to this wonderful food. Our first effort is a cream of Asparagus of course. We're currently on the second iteration of our recipe and we've come to the conclusion that the simpler the better. In fact, our recipe has only three ingredients: stock, onions and of course, loads of Asparagus.

Getting started on our latest batch of Asparagus soup...

Normally, a good cream of Asparagus would call for the use of chicken stock and the addition of cream. In our case, we use our own vegetable stock since many of our clients tend to be vegetarian. After a couple of tries, we've also opted to not add any cream. The result is a lighter soup just full of Asparagus flavour.

Last week, we also indicated that our Rhubarb is ready to be harvested. As a result, we've been making loads of Rhubarb and custard tartlets. After working on Maple syrup pies for the past few weeks, it is actually a relief to change and move on to the next seasonal pie: Rhubarb.

The first Rhubarb pie of the season.

After working on the first Rhubarb pie of the season, we're now really looking forward with anticipation to the berries that will soon arrive. Based on the flowering going on at the farm, this will not be long. In fact, the Black Currants this year should yield twice what we had from the young bushes last year.

The Black Currant bushes may just be loaded with fruit this year.

For those interested in foraging, we found that elsewhere on the farm, it is now time to collect the Pheasant Back Saddle Mushrooms. These are the one mushroom we can easily identify. They tend to grow on rotting logs and have a beautifuul "feathery" pattern. We pick them at under 3-4 inches in diameter. Any larger and they tend to be a little too tough. In fact, we always maintain some large ones on our logs to keep the mushroom spores spreading for future harvests.

The Pheasant Back Saddle Mushrooms are ready to forage.

This past week was very busy at the farm and the Tea Room. Much of this had to do with Mothers' Day celebrations.  However, we were also pleased to host a very special and private evening with Slow Food Pelham. We held a wine pairing event, hosted and monitored by wine industry executive and conoisseur Daniel Boudin. This was such great fun, we sincerely hope to be doing this on a regular basis.

Slow Food Pelham...learning about wines and pairing under the tutelage of Daniel Boudin.

We'll close this week with another sign in the progression of Spring. Tulips have bloomed and are almost on their way out. Under our European Copper Beech, it's time for Lily of the Valleys and their amazing scent.

Lily of the Valley are blooming and filling the evening air with an amazing scent.

Time for Rhubarb

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A couple of weeks back, we blogged about the first signs of Spring, one of which was the burgeoning Rhubarb. This week, these trusted perennials have spread their leaves and some are now ready for picking.

The Rhubarb has grown fast and some is actually now ready for harvesting.

We have a whole raised bed dedicated to our Rhubarb. We had originally found two of these plants in the back of our house under a dilapidated deck. When taking the deck down we learned how to transplant and split the roots in order to propagate them. We now have some twenty healthy plants ready to produce all Spring.

The variety we have on hand is called Strawberry Rhubarb. It has beautiful red stems and tends to be less tart than its green counterpart.

Red stems of the Strawberry Rhubarb

So how do we know when to pick our Rhubarb? It's easy. We simply harvest any stems that are at least 10 inches long. We'll be harvesting these until the end of June. We probably could pick more, but it is important to give the plant some time to build up energy before the Winter arrives. By end of June, we simply have many more things to harvest and use, so we can certainly give our Rhubarb time.

As a result of the arrival of Rhubarb, it will be time to make a change at the Tea Room. For the past few weeks, we have been featuring Maple Syrup pie with Pecans (made with our own Maple Syrup of course). Over the next few days, this will now be phased out as we begin work on a traditional Rhubarb pie.

To start the week though, we decided to make something a little different: a Rhubarb Custard tart. With a crust and custard based on brown sugar, the result is a beautiful pie which is not as tart nor as sweet as the traditional Rhubarb pie. We like the results so much, we're actually thinking of making tartlettes in this fashion.

Our first Rhubarb Custard pie

Now, we can hardly wait until the Strawberries come out! Which brings us to our next farm report.

As a berry farm, we have just about everything under the sun, from Haskaps to Saskatoons. However, we do not have any Strawberries planted (with the exception of half a dozen plants).

This year we decided to dedicate a small plot to Strawberries. Although there are great Strawberry producers in the region, we wanted access to our own Strawberries for the Tea Room, so we planted some 500 plants this week.

A new Strawberry field...just for the Tea Room!

It is amazing how rapidly things grow in Spring. Already many of our plants are flowering and showing signs of great crops in the next few months. This includes the Haskaps and our Currants.

The Haskaps are in full bloom.

The Currants are loaded with buds awaiting to bloom.

Hopefully these plants will not be affected by a late frost.

In the Growing Dome, things are progressing even more rapidly. Basically, everything is sprouting.

Of course the plants that are most ahead are the Scarlet Runners and the Peas. These plants have no problems getting started in a greenhouse environment.

As usual, this year we also decided to try some oddities. Some of these tend to be non-traditional. This year for example, we've focused on a few Asian varieties. This includes a Chinese Black Tomato and Okra.

In fact, knowing our fascination for new plants, last year one of our Asian visitors dropped off a package of seeds. They were large and segmented as if coming from some sort of pod. However, we never really understood what they were. We've been calling them the "Chinese mystery seeds".

Well now these seeds are sprouting...and the plant is no less mysterious! We were hoping to recognize the variety from the leaves, but now we're just as dumbfounded. If any reader can help us identify this plant it would be highly welcomed.

The forked leaves of our "Chinese Mystery Plant"

We'll close this week with a picture of blooming tulips (under our European Copper Beech)...another clear sign that Spring is well on its way.

Tulips flowering in the shade of our European Copper Beech.