Fall Chores

I finished digging the potatoes today. Overall I'd say we ended up with 25 to 30 pounds. Not bad for our first year and considering how dry it was. I used some of them today in what I like to call my harvest vegetable chicken soup.

I cooked a chicken earlier in the week and tossed the leftover carcass in the stock pot with onion, garlic, carrot and a couple of bay leaves plus salt and pepper. I let is simmer for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, I drove down to Goucher's Farm Market outside of Kingston, and picked up a sweet potato, squash, onions, celery, garlic and carrots. When I was home again I cut up all the veggies, including a few potatoes and put them in a roasting pan. 

Just for future reference, an axe works really well when it comes to chopping up squash.

I poured olive oil over all the veggies and sprinkled them with ginger and curry powder. I left them to roast slowly in the oven for a couple of hours. Once done I strained the bones cooked veggies out of my stock. Added the roasted vegetables (except for the celery which I felt was too stringy) and then used my handy immersion blender to mix up the soup. I tossed in the separated chicken.
Now Rob and I have a seasonal, hearty soup for supper which will be delicious.

Rob spent the weekend working on the woods road connecting the big field to the new property. He's just about through. Meanwhile I trimmed the grass and weeds all along the fence line. We also collected wild apples for the horse and cow.

We certainly got a lot done this beautiful fall weekend, but the to-do list is still long. We have to fix the floor in the woodshed, bring the wood up from the field where it has been drying, cut kindling, fix up the chicken coop and install a couple of windows in it and in general clean up the yard.

Rob wants me to get a coat of paint on the end of the house and he plans to build a new cover for the septic tank. I think we've got enough to keep us out of trouble for a few weekends.

I did take time to take Joe for ride. It was perfect weather for just meandering around the fields and through the woods.

Tomatoes

The rains have come. First we had not enough, now we are bordering on too much.

I picked tomatoes this afternoon, decked out in my rubber boots and Rob's over-sized rain coat. 

It was hard to collect enough for any type of cooking purpose as many of them are suffering from blossom rot. The end of the tomato turns dark and starts to rot. My research indicates the cause was likely inadequate water when the fruit was setting. The plant has a calcium deficiency; without the water it can't pull the calcium out of the ground.

Too much nitrogen in the soil will also slow down the absorption of calcium. Given the fact the pigs were in the plot last summer, the nitrogen issue may also be a problem for me.

Next year I'll put bone meal in the planting bed and hopefully we'll have our water management system set up so if it is dry, I can water the plants with water we've collected and saved.

Not all is lost though. Some of the fruit is fine and I was able to pick enough to make a small pot of sauce on this rainy afternoon.

Homemade tomato sauce served over linguine and sprinkled with parmesan. Wagner photo

I grew San Marzano tomatoes this year. The seed is from Annapolis Seeds, a local company. The San Marzano is a paste tomato used by the Italians for sauce. I'm making a simple sauce - onions, garlic, olive oil and tomato.

Of course, being the first batch I'm making this year, I totally forgot to take the skins off the tomatoes. Now I'll either have to fish them out of the sauce or puree the whole batch. I'm leaning toward the second idea.

But the smell; well it's divine. I can't wait until supper.

Celebrations

September is an important month for us.
We closed on the farm on September 1, 2010. This weekend marks our second anniversary here; our first as full-time residents. And, I just had my third cancer-free appointment at the Breast Health Centre.
We've always loved the fall. For me, Labour Day weekend always marks the end of the summer, far more than the autumnal equinox later in the month. The days may shorten, but the nights cool, the bugs are fewer and there's still warmth in the sun.
I'm hoping we get rain this week and if we do I'm going take advantage of the late summer sun and try to get some lettuce and spinach in the ground for late season harvest. Wally gave me the frame from his old "garage" and I'm going to cover it in plastic and make myself a green house. I won't heat it, but by virtue of protecting the plants from the frost and cold, I should be able to harvest them through November and December. It will also protect by tomato plants through the early frost, before the tomatoes are ready.
I'm making my second batch of plum sauce from the plum tree growing in the front yard. Rob and I dug up our potatoes this weekend. We don't have lot, my canning pot is full to the brim, but given the challenges of the dry weather and the chickens digging through my garden, we're pleased with the results.
This weekend we dispatched the two roosters and all but four of the cockerels. We also got back to work clearing a road from the largest field to the new property. Hopefully, before the fall is over, I'll be able to ride Joe through it.
Rob checked his camera cards and saw pictures of two does and a nice buck. Hopefully, we'll add one of those to the larder this fall as well.
Rob dug out his bow this week and started practicing and Joe and I went riding twice. Both good workouts each time.