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.