The Thistle

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For those following the blog, you will note that there is the beginning of a common thread: weeds. This week's weed is the Thistle. We often find it in our Raspberry rows and it grows everywhere in our fields.

This week's weed: the Thistle

Of course, we could not cover a "weed" without highlighting its useful purposes. In this case, the Thistle turns out to be edible! In fact, the Artichoke is a distant cousin.

You can eat the stem, the leaves (once devoid of the nasty spines) and the flower (pretty much like an Artcihoke heart). The best time to pick these for eating is in early spring when the plant is young and the stems are not very fibrous. They can be eaten raw or cooked. In fact there are some Italian recipes for Thistle stems in Tomato sauce (of course).

In any case, we had to try this. We decided to try a young stem. The idea was to cut the leaves off, peel the stem and simply eat it raw.

Prepping a Thistle stem with our trusty Vendetta knife

A quick side note: if you ever get to Corsica, be sure to acquire an artisan-made Vendetta knife (yes their name reflects their original use). We've had ours for over 30 years and never needed sharpening and still as deadly as they were when we bought them.

So for the taste of the Thistle....actually really good! Not just your typical green, it has a very mildly sweet and nutty taste, a bit like Artichoke! We'll definitely have to pick more next Spring and try some Italian recipes. This could be a great culinary experience.

Meanwhile on the farm, it looks like it will be a great berry season. Although we had zero Blackberries last year, it looks like we will be overwhelmed this year.

Just like the Black Currants, we should be overwhelmed with Blackberries this year

The yellow Raspberries also look very promising. They are so healthy that the weight of the plants are starting to pull down our posts.

Our posts are being pulled down by the weight of our Yellow Raspberries

Although the Black Raspberries are also doing very well, we were quite surprised by the volume of wild Black Raspberries on the property. Since the corn was pulled, the edges of the forest are healthier than ever.

Wild Black Raspberries ripening

Even the Wild Grape looks promising. In fact, we should be able to harvest enough for some Wild Grape jelly this year.

Wild Grape flowers on a vine climbing a tree

So far, we've been quite pleased with our first Strawberry harvest, but it is already coming to an end. It's now time to turn our attention to the Lavender. The dried buds will be used in our Tea Room baking and teas, but here again, we have a lot more than we can use, particularly since we added more plants on the back ridge of the house.

Time once again to pick our Lavender.

In previous blogs, we mentioned the abundance of frogs on the property. this week's frog picture is that of the Pickerel Frog. A beautiful little frog that is copper coloured.

The Pickerel Frog

For our Tea Room patrons, we have a couple of announcements for the week. On the 25th, the Tea Room will be holding a charity fashion show. There may still be a couple of tickets for those interested. Please call Carol at 289-897-8943 for details.

On the 26th, the Tea Room will also be closed for a private event.

Finally, we'll close with a picture of someone enjoying our stone bench overlooking the berry fields.

It's Strawberry Season!

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

Well that didn't take long. Last blog entry our berries were still green, now we're piking berries every single day.

The Strawberries are ready for picking

There is nothing like sun-ripened freshly picked Strawberries. They certainly put the store-bought versions to shame.

If you live in the Fonthill area, we urge all our readers to go to your local "pick your own". You'll have a delightful time and you'll be enjoying this year's first crop of berries.

Here at the farm, our entire crop is dedicated to the Tea Room. You'll find our berries in pies, jams and every so often on our High Tea.

With the Strawberries now in season, we decided to survey the other berries which we will soon be able to pick. We expect that these will be the Mulberries and Saskatoons.

The Mulberries are ripening.....

...and so are the Saskatoons.

This year is looking very promising. We've never seen so many Black Currants in our bushes.

The Black Currants are simply prolific!

Even our Kiwi Berries will be showing more blooms than we've ever seen.

Kiwi buds just ready to bloom.

As we continue working on our raised beds, we also have made acquaintance with a new "weed". Looking a bit like small Christmas trees, this weed is called the Field Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense). We have found it primarily in the beds near our dome and we have left it occupy a portion of our Asparagus bed as ground cover.

Field Horsetail fronting a thick wall of Asparagus ferns.

It turns out that the Field Horsetail is a living fossil. It has descended from larger versions that covered the globe some hundreds of millions of years ago. It is one of those rare plants that actually reproduce by spores. As a weed it is very difficult to get rid of. Herbicides do not generally work and the plant develops a deep network of roots making it difficult to pull. The best solution is to just keep cutting it down.

The reason we have an abundance of these is that the plant loves a wet sandy soil. Exactly the conditions around our dome.

Our latest "weed" discovery: Field Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense)

Always looking for the good in "weeds", we had to do some research on this plant and we discovered a few very interesting facts.

The Field Horsetail contains a lot of Silica (in fact it feels a bit like plastic). As a result, it has been used in biodynamic farming to condition soils. A tea made with the plant can be sprayed on a given soil to prevent fungus.

As avid foragers, we were also surprised to find that this plant is indeed edible! It can be poisonous to certain animals (eg. horses), and it also can contain Nicotine (so not recommended for children). The buds are eaten in Japan, where it is called Tsukushi, pretty much the way we consume Fiddleheads.

For thousands of years concoctions of this plant were used by man around the world. It is said that the tea strengthens hair and nails. It has also been used to aid in kidney dysfunctions. However, nothing has yet been proven by modern science.

We were a little late in discovering this new weed so we've not had a chance to taste its buds. But you can be sure that next Spring, we'll be looking for some Japanese recipes!

We'll close this entry with a quick wildlife pic: the Northern Leopard Frog.

A very well camouflaged Leopard Frog

We must have thousands of frogs on the property. We figure it's a good thing and an indication of a healthy ecosystem. However, it can also a problem.

These very well camouflaged frogs can turn into a sad mess when we BushHog or mow the lawn. We do our very best to avoid them but every year we sadly find we just can't avoid them all. At least one of us in the family always cringes when he has to mow the fields.