Time to Garden

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With snow hitting the region earlier this month, it has been difficult to get back to do some farm work. Our fingers however have been getting "itchy" to plant.

As we finish our Birch syrup, the weather has been more typical of Spring and we could finally use our Growing Dome greenhouse to begin planting our seeds. We're quite pleased with our effort since for the first time, we are generating plants from our very own seeds. This includes all of our Tomato varieties, herbs, Peppers and even Asparagus.

We're finally (and proudly) planting our very own seeds.

As many useful plants begin to sprout, it was also time to move our Rhubarb and once again split the roots. From two plants originally found in the back of the old Victorian house some three years ago, we now have well over 40 roots firmly in place! They had to be moved once again since we had located them in the back of the barn where some construction work has taken place and this work will likely continue thru summer.

Transplanting Rhubarb in their new raised beds

From seeds gathered off "feral" Asparagus in the field, our Asparagus raised bed is also showing signs of life. It will not be long before the family can enjoy its first Asparagus dinner of the season.

The Asparagus are sprouting!

We'll close this week with our favourite find of the season: Ramps (Allium Triccocum). They are only to be found for a very short period of time in the Spring. However, they are a real delicacy.

The Ramps are out.

We have so many Ramps available to us from our swampy patch of Carolinian forest that we like to share a taste of these with our Tea Room customers. Recently our guests have had an opportunity not only to learn about this wonderful plant, but also to taste it in our daily soup.

Ramps ready for soup!

We'd like to close by warning people not to pick Ramps in conservation areas or the Greenbelt. Extreme care must be given to prevent these from extinction. The problem is the very long life cycle attributed to the plant. It may take 6-18 months for a seed to germinate and it can take 5-7 years before a plant is mature enough to flower! As a result, in our own patch of forest, we greatly limit how many plants we will pick in any given season.

Wine Pairing and Pop-Up Dinner at the Farm

To view the latest from Ridge Berry Farm visit our new blog and site!

We're happy to announce a special evening at the farm. This will be held on Saturday April 23rd.

Good friend, local wine exec, oenologist, and SlowFood advocate Daniel Boudin, will be sharing his passion and knowledge of wines in order to educate our guests on the art of "pairing". To complete the evening, Niagara College trained, young local chef, Calvin McAlister has decided to use the farm for his first "pop up" dinner.

The event will include a 5 course Spring Blossom menu designed by Calvin and a selection of wines for each course specifically chosen by Daniel to please the palate.

At $75/seat, tickets are limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis. So if you are into good food, good wine, good company, and a learning experience, be sure to get your tickets at the Tea Room.

Meanwhile on the farm, the weather has been a real surprise. After enjoying Spring-like weather in February, we face the harsh realities of the Canadian climate: a snow storm and and frigid temperatures in the first week of April.

This has slowed our work in the field and in fact may prove damaging to the buds on many fruit trees in the area.

In our case, we just decided to finish off our Maple syrup and begin tapping our Birch.

Our 2017 vintage Ridge Berry syrup is  ready

This year's Maple syrup is darker than previous but still has the same great taste and we're rather pleased with the results.

For those that have never tasted Birch syrup before, we should have some available in the next 2 weeks. Unlike Maple, Birch is not a "desert" syrup. The taste is more akin to molasses. And although you may not want it on your pancakes, Birch syrup is simply fantastic for marinating meats for BBQ.

Even the old Birch next to the house is tapped this time of year.

We'll close this week, with our latest surprise from the old Victorian manor.

When we first arrived here, we could never open the front windows of the house. The old counter-weight cables were damaged, or the years of paint were sealing the frames and they were simply tightly wedged into place. So we were rather surprised one very hot summer day to see that one of our windows had opened upwards on its own. Although it took us a week to shut it, we rationally tried to explain this by blaming it on window frame expansion during this rather hot summer.

This past week however, we were once again caught by surprise on a very cold morning to find the same old window had opened itself again! This time we definitely cannot blame the heat and we're certainly at a loss to explain how this has happened. Thank God for storm windows or our front living room would have been a frozen shell.

The mystery window (far left) keeps opening up!

We've now decided we better find a way to lock this mystery window!

With the immense Copper Beech still bare, we decided to take the opportunity and finally get a full picture of the old lady (our Victorian house). Every day when we come home, we are still impressed with this historical piece of architecture. It certainly was worth renovating.