Prepping for Oktoberfest

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With the Downton Abbey High Tea event under our belts, it's now time to prepare for Oktoberfest. We expect to hold a quaint celebration on October 3rd, featuring a traditional German feast ....and beer of course!

Preparing for this is almost like preparing for the Fall. With the kids back at school, it may still be Summer technically, but already the land is telling us otherwise. As such, we're now decorating accordingly both inside and out of the barn.

We had to take a picture of our old trolley fast....before the Chipmunks get to the corn stalks (as they did last year).

Our old train station trolley....before the expected Chipmunk assault.

With the onset of Fall, both Tomatoes and Apples are rapidly coming in from our raised beds and the field. We've had to be imaginative to put all this good food to use.

As indicated last week, we are making very good use of our tomatoes in soups and relish, but we've also decided to make some Tomato chips (something we discovered a few years back using our Italian canning tomatoes). To accomplish this, we simply use a dehydrator (what has become an essential tool for us when preserving various foodstuff).

When it comes to the Apples, we were thrilled to have enough to finally make our own "stuff". Of course this meant the first obligatory Apple pie for the Tea Room. But it also has involved making our own (hard) cider. This is so simple it's a shame not more people do this.

From tree to table.....our first Apple pie of the Season

The process we use can be found on last year's blog entries when we used another farm's Apple juice. Since that time, we have been able to consistently make a rather good sparkling cider. Of course the taste is defined by the juice you start with.

Since our current Apples are primarily McIntosh (with some Empire variety), our home made (and home grown Cider) does not have the complex structure we hope to achieve with our new Apple trees. We have to admit though, it is as good if not better (and much cheaper) than anything we get at the Liquor store.

Naturally sparkling, home made cider...refreshingly good!

Speaking of fermentation, we have not reported on some of our wine experiments. However, as we were getting a bumper crop of Black Currants this Summer, we decided to focus on Black Currant wine (technically a Melomel or fruit flavoured mead). It is now in secondary fermentation and we hope to report on the results later this Fall.

Fermentation is not limited to preservation using alcohol but also concerns preservation via lactic acid or lacto-fermentation. this time of year, for us, it means the production of Sauerkraut. Beautiful cabbages are coming from the fields and a home made Sauerkraut beats anything store bought.

To produce our Sauerkraut we shred the cabbage and toss it with Kosher salt. We use 3 tablespoons of salt for every 5 pounds of shredded cabbage.

The real trick is to press the cabbage as it will ferment. We've jerry-rigged a food safe plastic container and use a pie pan to press on the cabbage. The pie pan supports a large stock pot filled with water. We use plastic wrap to keep the whole thing protected from the elements.

Sauerkraut in process...simple set up leads to amazing Sauerkraut.

Finally, we'll close this week with a another picture taken of our new friends/pest, the wild Turkeys. Like clockwork, they are the first thing we see every morning as we head to the Tea Room.

Every time we see this flock we can't help but think "Thanksgiving"

Downton Abbey at the Farm

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This week was all about our Downton Abbey High Tea event. We had very good attendance and certainly had a great time hosting this. In fact, we're seriously thinking of turning it into an annual event.

We simply all had a great time.

For the event, we transformed our High Tea. Beginning with a glass of Cuvee Catharine and a tossed salad, all participants tried a variation of our High Tea tiers. This included finger sandwiches made with Norwegian smoked Salmon and dill cream cheese; Asparagus rolls with a bacon spread, and our new Niagara Coronation Chicken on a croissant.

The latter was a trial for us. Although we have regularly served Tuna salad, Tuna itself is not a sustainable catch so Chicken is likely to become part of our menu rather fast. Coronation Chicken is very common in the UK. Originally developed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Coronation Chicken is a chicken salad usually based on curry spicing. Today, many recipes use Mango chutney.

Niagara being a great source of Peaches (and obviously not Mangoes), we decided to put our own spin on this classic using our very own Peach Chutney. We feel good enough about the results that this will surely be on the menu by next year.

The Downton Abbey High Tea Tiers

The sweets portion of the High Tea was also changed somewhat. Although it still included our cream scones with clotted cream and home made jam, we changed everything else. It included a Strawberry Pavlova, a puff pastry swan, a Mexican Chocolate cream pot and a Black Currant and Elderberry tart. For those that could still manage more, we finished everything with a Raspberry Rumpot trifle,

Some participants walked away with prizes and everyone was provided with a small gift to end the afternoon. The event for us was simply delightful and we just hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.

Next up? We're bringing back our Oktoberfest event which is now planned for the afternoon of October 3. So it's now time to dig up the dirndls and lederhosen.

Elsewhere on the farm, the tomato crop is doing rather well. In fact, we are having a hard time keeping up. Our "gargantuan" Marizol Gold and Cuostralee Tomatoes are generating so much that we are forced to quickly transform them into Tomato relish and now even soup. We tend to like roasted tomato soup and the Marizol Gold make for a light non-acidic yellow tomato soup which we enjoy as much as our patrons.

Beautiful Marizol Gold Tomatoes

Finally, we have discovered a new pest on the property.

First hint of this happened a few months back when we were harvesting our Black Raspberries. After one day of harvest, they all disappeared! The culprits: Wild Turkeys.

Every morning now, for the past few months, a group of wild turkeys have been vociferously rummaging in our berry rows. Although we've come across inoffensive ways of preventing deer from munching on our crops or saplings, these birds are going to be somewhat more difficult....short of a shotgun :)

Joking aside, we admire these beautiful birds so much we're not likely to kill any. Besides, it turns out oddly enough that Wild Turkey season is in the Spring (not the Fall as you would expect it).

Wild Turkeys rummaging on the Farm.....we now need a decoy of some sort.

Thank You

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Once again, we have been rather belligerent in updating our blog. The month of August set new records in Tea Room attendance and for us this means a record summer season is now over. With kids running back to school we expect things to calm down this Fall until our closing for the season on December 21st.

As such, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our patrons. We want to express our gratitude to all of our patrons that keep returning and those that continue to bring their special guests to the Tea Room. We would also like to thank all of those that have chosen the Tea Room to celebrate their special family events. This past month, we have hosted everything from baby to wedding showers and anniversaries.

The Tea Room all "decked out" for an August wedding shower

We even closed the month of August  with a very special private function: a 25th wedding anniversary hosting close to 100 guests. Since this was well beyond our capacity, the event actually needed  a special tent.

Ready to host close to 100 guests.

In fact, for their kind consideration, we also need to thank all those patrons who could not access the Tea Room last month. Sadly, we have had to turn away quite a few folks as our Tea Room seating and kitchen capacity often reached their limitations.

Sadly, this is something we cannot easily overcome. We have a few plans in mind, but our limitation is primarily dictated by the fact that the farm sits on the "green belt" and Niagara Region has strict limitations on grey water effluent from septic tanks. We are far from reaching this amount in reality, but public administrations use simplified math to calculate these things and assume that the square footage of our Victorian home must be used as a means to establish these limitations.

So for the time being, we now strongly recommend reservations.

Meanwhile on the farm, our tomatoes are beginning to ripen. The real surprise turns out to be the "black" Chinese tomatoes. They are now very ripe... but certainly not black. They are a mixture of red and dark green. They are relatively small but by far the sweetest tomatoes we've ever eaten. These are perfect for the Tea Room tossed salad.

The sweetest tomatoes we've ever tried.

Our Apples are also progressing rather well. Not only have we been able to start our own "hard" cider production for the Fall, but it will soon be time to transition from making Peach pies to the traditional Autumn Apple pie.

Since arriving here, the Apple trees have never looked so productive.

This also means that canning season is upon us. Our first project was to pickle beets this year. Bushels can be had for very reasonable prices at local markets. Although it takes a bit of work, pickling beets in a sweet brine is a worthwhile endeavour (you wont regret it during the Winter months). For that special taste, we tend to spice our brine with cinnamon.

PS. Use Kosher salt when pickling (it will prevent the pickling solution from turning "cloudy").

It's canning season. Check your local farmers' market for small beets and pickling cucumbers.

Finally, we are now preparing for our Downton Abbey High Tea event this coming weekend. The Tea Room is slowly being transformed into a "time capsule". On display are now a replica period dress as well as an amazing local map from 1907. Mounted in a "shadow box", this map depicts Welland and Lincoln counties. It is an original which apparently sold for the grand old price of $5 at the time!

Getting ready for "Downton Abbey"

A small historical treasure: a 1907 local map printed on cloth.