Chocolate Pepper Harvest & More

Pepper season has been amazing! Although I will always say I prefer tomatoes, my pepper success is growing by leaps and bounds year to year. Proper soil and manure, full sun and good weather, and great peppers you shall have. I would also like to thank and acknowledge good seed quality and genetics. I've had an amazing yield of both hot and sweet peppers and the chocolate peppers have been outstanding! Most of my pepper seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and I've had an amazing nearly 100% germination rate.  

A tuxedo coturnix quail with a "Yellow Monster" sweet pepper for a size comparison. 

Meet the new rabbits!

So I ended up with a total of 5 rabbits - two over my personal limit. I'm very pleased and fingers crossed everyone settles in nicely over the next few days. It's always lots of fun to go pick out some new farm animals. I'll probably end up finding new homes for my two extras, I don't want to over crowd my rabbit setup. I apologize in advance about this post - as none of my rabbits have names yet, you may also notice I talk about the rabbit in a more serious utilitarian tone - but I love my animals and treat them with the upmost care and affection! They are both my pets and farm critters.

It's Rabbit Time Again!

This Sunday coming up, I'm going rabbit hunting! Not with a gun, but with sharp eyes. Well I guess you need that too. I'm rabbit shopping, for some new rabbit companions here on the micro-farm. I've been wanting to breed rabbits for very long time, but more so after getting Henry my first lionhead rabbit. Unfortunately after his passing, I no longer had a rabbit and I loved Henry very much. I would have purchased a breeding pair in the spring but the usual selling fairs were cancelled due to a commercial outbreak of avian flu. This fall the buy and sell events are back up and hopefully full of bunnies that suit my needs!

My Henry, I really miss this rabbit.

Some Lil' Dar Pickles

I hadn't bought cucumber seeds in a long long time, not that I'm not a fan, I just never had the trellis network I wanted. This year I ordered "Dar" cucumber seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Wow, these are great, and they are exactly how Baker Creek described them. They're juicy and plump little things and the colouration is very unique - just what I was looking for. I collected a few for pickling the other day - made some quick dill pickles from a generic online recipe.

I should have taken a picture where you can see the size of these guys!

Chickens are dirty. Let's Make it Clean!

Keeping chickens is a blast. It comes with many rewards and some of which are the challenges it brings. You learn responsibility, accountability, perseverance, and discipline. These things come naturally to the farmer, and farm-kids. I wasn't as fortunate to grow up on farm, instead now I'm living out a mini fantasy by keeping dozens of animals in my house and yard. With that  desire to be a farm kid comes the grim reality of farm chores and cleaning, getting up early and dealing with things you don't want to deal with, no matter how cold, wet or hot it is outside...or how tipsy you got last night.

Learning what it takes to raise animals and keep chickens, has certainly moulded my work ethic and pushing my skills to be responsible with my animal husbandry. For months and years before I got my first chickens, I read countless books, blogs, web forums and asked questions, I did my research. One thing, that whole time was omitted - how dusty chickens can be and what it's really like to clean up after them. You'll see countless beautiful coops on Pinterest, you'll see pretty chickens in glorious gardens, but you wont see what I'm about to show you! Warning: dust, manure and gross cleaning pictures ahead.

In side the shed area, not actually including the chicken coop area.
You can see the dust build up on the bin lids on the left. It's time for some changes!
Just look at that floor of shame!

An Article on Miniature Horse Therapy!

I came across this article on my Facebook feed just hours after I posted about my field trip to a miniature horse breeders boarding facility, coincidence or not - this is a great article and the pictures make me melt and smile. I am all for animal therapy and Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses is doing something amazing, check them out!

Click here to read the article on Huffington Post. 

Miniature Horse Field Trip

I recently went on a little field trip to Elmira Ontario to go visit some miniature horses! Yes they're beautiful, yes, they're small, but how would they fair on the micro-farm? This question, is exactly what I wanted to find out about. 

At first glance, I scratched my head, "This woman has horses in her backyard?" Our first stop on the field trip was the downtown Elmira home of a sweet a Mennonite woman and owner of several miniature horses - Sweet Dreams Miniature Horses - her business and hobby. Low and behold we stepped into her backyard 15 metres from a public school to find an immaculate annual garden with three mini horses in a back paddock, munching hay under a small shady tree. They didn't smell, and they were very quiet and peaceful. 

You are looking at half her yard! Micro-animal husbandry? It's happening in more backyards then you think!

Take in all that colour!

Walking and weeding (it never ends!) around the garden last night I noticed an abundance of brilliant colour. The final fruits of summer are ripening up and and sadly fall approaches - which brings frost. It's very important for me to capture the garden as it evolves in the year and look back on it's beauty, hues and successes while the season of warmth persists. Some of my all time garden favourites are ready right now! Feast your eyes and enjoy this pic-heavy post!

Gorgeous "Anne" fall amber raspberries!
Very hard to find and the most delicate taste!

I have small hands, but these are big berries!

Gardening books on the Small-side

I buy gardening books and "grow your own" books fairly often, maybe a dozen or so a year, but the cost of new books isn't cheap. More frequently I take books out from the library - to gather ideas or decide if it's worth the buy. My latest finds are certainly worth the purchase!

Small Space Garden Ideas by Philippa Pearson

A book chalk-full of colourful full page pictures, illustrations and ideas. There's a good mix of projects and they're all achievable both financially and for the time-limited individual. Definitely one of the best small space gardening books I've come across, but is also wonderful for the gardener with less space because you've already filled your yard. It also introduces you to some out of the box ideas in terms of plant material - like a carnivorous plant bog garden. Not edible, but a very unique touch to a garden, certainly a conversation starter. In terms of edible ideas, there are plenty and of course all of which are adaptable. I give this book 5 heirloom tomatoes out of 5 heirloom tomatoes. You need this book - novice or veteran.

Gardening in miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World by Janit Calvo

Miniature gardening seems to be the next big gardening fad - although in some sense, small zen gardens and bonsai have been around for centuries and fairy gardens date back to the 1600's. Out of all the mini gardening books out there, this one is a star. It doesn't concentrate on the whimsical fairy world of nymphs and acorn bowls - but rather the scaled down sophisticated realm of gardening we all desire in our gardens at a regular size. 

 The author, Janit Calvo (pictured below) is an actual miniaturist, a blend of the visual artist, sculptor and landscape architect. She creates these amazing scaled down mini gardens both down in the garden and in containers. With the hobby expanding - this book is definitely the best out there. I even noticed the other day that Michael's Craft store is selling miniature garden items. Her use of containers and scenarios within the gardens are superbly creative and ingenious - she's got a great eye. She even has a mini farm scape with miniature tomatoes and sprouts, with to-scale Schleich chickens and a tiny coop - definitely on my to do list for next spring - a great place to grow the micro-tom tomatoes again.

Adorable and look at that flagstone!

These books are available on Amazon - a great gift for that gardener or yourself (the personal collection - you know).  I hope to be building a small garden space myself again soon. Keep those hands in the dirt - except when handling your new books!

Nasturtium, Capers, Jelly & Vinegar

I've been wanting to make nasturtium products for a while now, having only used them as edible flowers in salads and as edible decoration. While scrolling through a pickling book I picked up "brand new" at a used book sale - I noticed a recipe for nasturtium capers. I love smoked salmon with all the fixings, so I did some research and found that you can make larger sized - poor man's capers - if you will, out of the smaller light green seed pods. They don't get that dark brown colouring, but they taste nearly the same, and basically free if you grow nasturtiums and can spare a cup of vinegar and a dash of salt.

A lovely sunshine-yellow and peachy-salmon Alaska Nasturtium

I found that when using the flowers in recipes - the darker flowers were the real colour makers - the light yellow to light orange flowers emitted a very faint colour, whereas the darker flowers produced a strong orange red colour almost right away.

A pile of red and orange flowers collected for the recipes.

Other recipes I encountered were simple and seemed like worth the experiment. Nasturtium jelly - a sweet and spicy spread for crackers and cheeses, this sounded amazing, so I gathered a large amount of flowers for this and another clump of flowers for a herb vinegar with the light flavour and colouring of nasturtiums.

With the addition of plenty of chicken manure and new garden space - my nasturtiums are monsters this year. I also used epsom salt and fish emulsion sprays, which no doubt have strongly influenced the growth habits of these plants. Although I'm finding that the fertilizers create more foliage and less fruit - which displays as crazy thick leaf clusters in nasturtiums and less flowers overall - yet still more flowers per plant then in past non-fertilizer years.

Gorgeous dark red flowers a-top dark green foliage - this variety was a proven producer of flowers.

After collecting a few cups of flowers the plants looked rather bare - but, within the next two to three days they tripled the amount of flowers in a flower explosion - which was perfect for boosting the amount of seed pods for the capers.

 For making the nasturtium jelly, it's pretty straight forward - pick about 2 1/2 cups of fresh nasturtium flowers - darker the colour the more colour in your jelly. Rinse and clean them like a delicate salad.

 

Pour about 3 cups of boiling water over the flowers in a large glass bowl - metal bowl will tamper with the flavour and colour. The water will immediately change colour - but don't be alarmed, the first time I did this I actually thought I had somehow overcooked the flowers because the water appeared purple-brown - but this is just an illusion created by the flowers. Leave the bowl of water and flowers to sit overnight. You can put them in the fridge once they cool down completely, but I simply covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it on the kitchen table for about 24 hours.

Next step after allowing the flowers to soak is to prepare a strainer lined with paper towel over a metal pot. Just note that if you use paper towel to filter, you must gently squeeze out the remaining flower "juice" and be careful not to press any paper towel fibres into your pot.

Squeeze the flowers over the strainer with your hand to extract any remaining juice and flavour and carefully squeeze the paper towel. If the water smells faintly floral - this a great thing, it will only get stronger as it cooks down!

Once all of the nasturtium juice is drained into the pot, you're ready to add sugar and a touch of spice. As you can see the juice isn't brown at all compared to how it appeared in the glass mixing bowl, it's a lovely shade of red-orange and it smells like nasturtium flowers. Place the pot on the stove and add about a cup or so of sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of your favourite (non garlic containing) hot sauce - I added Sriracha.

Bring to a rolling boil for maybe 15 minutes or until the mixture sticks to your spoon and it immediately sticky to touch, add a dash of lemon juice and pectin. If you overcook the jelly it will turn to solid candy (another experiment, another day) and undercooking it will keep it too liquid to use as jelly.

 In the end I had two smallish jars of jelly. Pour the hot liquid carefully into each jar, wipe away and drips or spills (jars should be preheated by the oven at 125F for 10 mins) and the lids in boiling water. The jelly and jars are hot enough to seal without a hot bath. It is important to leave the jars undisturbed at room temperature - you don't want to create condensation in the jars by placing them in the fridge and the jelly needs like to solidify. Within 24 hours your batch of jelly is ready to enjoy and should be kept in the fridge once opened.

Finished product! Wowza - look at that colour!

Backyard Berries and Jammin'

It's been a great year for backyard berries! My strawberry patch has producing at least a 1/2 quart of ripened berries each day. I'm so glad I did an experiment and added pine-needles as a mulch, it seems to have helped with the acidity of the berries and the sharp needles have prevented attacks and pilferages from chipmunks and squirrels. In addition to the pine-needles, I also added pine-berries to the mix - or "White Soul" strawberries to be precise. I've picked so many strawberries I've actually made jam - exclusively from my strawberries (the exception being white sugar and pectin).

Other berries are also in season - Black Raspberries, Pine-berries and the strawberries. I'm hoping to make a mixture jam this week - and if I have enough pine-berries, I'd make a "White Soul" jam, but that might be a few seasons off, as I only have 3 plants.

Finished product! A simple pectin strawberry jam! Amazing on fresh white bread!

Black Raspberries ripening - so sweet, not tart at all this year!

A small "White Soul" strawberry - its ripe (I think) once the seeds protrude off the skin - like so.

My strawberries might be small, but they're delicious every-time!

Fresh pickins' from a morning forage. The combo taste is something special! 

Finally, look at this "White Soul" spread!
The seeds give the appearance of yellow but they truly are white.

A Radish Trio to Share

I always grow radishes. Now that I think of it, I've been growing them for about 10 years. For many years I grew what ever package Canadian Tire had on sale or the dollar store sold - mostly Cherry Belle or Easter Egg. I wouldn't call myself a massive radish fan - often I'm not exactly sure if they actually taste good or where I should use them in my cooking. However after a few years of experimentation they've grown on me. Here is a quick list of some actually yummy uses for radish from your garden.

8 Quick Ways with Radishes

1) Thinly sliced accompanied with cream cheese or goat cheese on Melba toasts
2) Chopped into any coleslaw
3) Sliced and pickled alongside baby carrots and cucumbers (or simply alone)
4) Finely diced into tuna or egg salad
5) Finely diced into devilled eggs
6) Quartered and baked with butter and fresh herbs
7) A pretty garnish - on anything. (See stunning examples below)
8) Raw with a nice ranch dip - or any dip of your liking.

Thinly shaved into perfect coils of itself, patience and practice.
(Photo from Google Search)

Adorable stars made from the tip of a pink radish.
I can imagine them poking out of a vegetable tray.
(Photo from Google Search)

Feeling cute and keen - tiny radish toadstools as a garnish or decor.
(Photo from Google Search)

After getting over the taste of radishes - that watery, earthy, tingly spice, crunchy (sometimes nutty) profile, you realize there is much more to these quick growing root vegetables. Colour. Wither it's finely chopped, or sliced, it adds edible bright colour to your dish.

This year I'm growing the following radishes - Sparkler, Red Head, Pink Celebration, Watermelon (Red Meat), Malaga, Pink Beauty and Bora King. Yes that's a lot, I know. The seeds save well over a few seasons and they all seem to mature at different times.

First to ripen this year are simple gorgeous! Malaga, Sparkler and Pink Beauty! All of these radishes could get larger, but in the process of thinning I removed these small tender guys for munching.

Malaga Radishes from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Dark purple, slightly sweet
and even the leaves display some faint purple veining and purple in the stalks. When cut the
true purple colour leaches onto the cutting board and onto the white flesh of this radish.

Some very pink, Pink Beauty radishes! Very crisp and mildly spicy!

An old classic, Sparkler radish, traditional in every way.
Texture and flavour always very consistent.

All of them together, look at that bundle! Wow!
I sliced them up and made lovely cream cheese canapés!

Bonus awesomeness - the chickens love those spiky radish greens from harvest and thinning!

Quail Full Circle!

Just over a year ago I blogged about my dream to own quail alongside my chickens at the Suburban Mirco-farm. Last fall the dream came true! I picked up 7 adult quail and right away I had an abundance of eggs and cute little sounds were heard coming from the coop. I soon discovered I had 2 males and 5 females. I quickly found quail very easy to keep, extremely productive and of course adorable! Each quail hen was laying an egg each for weeks straight!

The first big clutch of quail eggs collected over a week -
adorably speckled with large orange yolks!

The "First egg" alongside my chicken eggs for size and
colour comparison!

Quail are maybe, not "as" glamorous as I had originally imagined, but that's like anything you're trying for the first time in the garden or with livestock. They are about as easy as rabbits or guinea pigs - litter changes, fresh water and food daily, small leafy greens and egg collection. It's also important to gently handle your quail to check body condition, nails and beaks. I found that the males were rather aggressively breeding and creating some small balding spots.

One of the female Coturnix quail - this colour is called "Golden Italian" or "Gold Tibetan"

The winter in Ontario was very cold and harsh this year, and I lost 3 quail to what I believe to be weather related stress, and personal failure on my part. Especially sad because I lost a beautiful white male, with a small brown bow tie on his chest. Lesson's learned - seal the quail from drafts - insulate better. Despite my drop to only three females, the eggs kept pouring in! It's important to note that quail lay all over the coop, not in nests - so accessibility is important, as well as a cleaner bedding.

As some of the younger quail started laying and the speckled egg colour really started to vary - from large dark speckles to lighter with more delicate speckles. Also- for those who noticed my pink porcelain egg tray - it was from Target store-closing clearance sale! I also have two white more traditional trays for chicken eggs! Easy to wash and perfect for counter-top display, reusable and sustainable!

Baskets are also picture-esk! Note; the olive toned egg, bloom and variation.

Note the title of this blog post - Full Circle. Well, I have my quail, I have a male and three females, what does a girl with 5 incubators do? She collects 23 eggs and bakes them for 16 days at 99.5F, and voila! New baby quail! Some of my eggs were infertile -  but I still got quite a few chicks! They are about the third the size of a chicken chick! Now, enjoy some quail-chick-pics!

Some interesting colour variations! Excited to see how they'll fledge out!

Eyebrows or no eyebrows? Cute or cute?

Don't I look fantastic in the Scotch Heather? A very alternative spring picture!

 I'm excited for the next generation of backyard Suburban quail - and so far a very pleasant experience! Next steps are an outdoor quail tractor and bringing in some fresh bloodlines for more breeding! Coturnix quail come in so many colours!