Late Summer at the Farm

All sorts of tiny frogs emerging

Late corn is  almost ready.

The garden is getting that late fall overgrown look.

Herring Processing: Part I

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What do you do with twenty pounds of herring? Well, you have to clean them first! We thought it would be less complicated to process the fish outside, so we pulled a table close to the fire pit, and got a bottle of skull vodka to keep us warm.

We were lucky enough to buy the herring right off the dock. The fish were so fresh and healthy. It was amazing. We stood in a large line for an hour, exchanging recipes with people from all sorts of culinary backgrounds. The sale, which was a fundraiser for the BC Children’s hospital, ran out of fish at 10:30 AM. We just got ours before they closed the line. We came very close to not getting any fish.

We spent four or five hours outside, cleaning and salting the fish.

By the time we were done, it was dark, the vodka bottle was seriously depleted, but we had all our fingers.

Fall Scenes from the Farm

The last of the bounty

Halloween Prep

The treeline 

Cranberry harvest

Mouser

Opportunist

Cranberry Harvest Time

Suddenly it is winter. I have missed the gloomy grey of the west coast fall. It is when I get the most writing done, and when I remember my dreams the most.


At the farm, they have begun to harvest the cranberries, It is like living in the middle of an island (of course we are on an island), but now it is a much smaller one with all the fields flooded.

The flooded fields have attracted all sorts of ducks. It is lovely to see them. There have been so few of them coming through this year. I am not sure why they have been so scarce. The eagles have killed many of the ducks around the farm, but it seems to me there are fewer in general.

In fact, I think the eagles were pretty desperate for food, because they hunted all the herons this year.

The Fall

Blueberry Time

Everybody should have a secret berry picking spot. I know I do. I have several, depending on the berries I am seeking at the time. I have included photos of my top secret blueberry picking spot. (All identifying markings have been removed in order to ensure secrecy. )

I remember going berry picking with my family. I kind of hated it as I recall. It seemed like a lot of work with very little reward. Now I look back fondly on those times I spent with my family. My parents are dead now, but I like to think they are there in the bog with me, as I fill my stomach and my bucket with blueberries.

The Return of the Kingfisher

The kingfisher is back! For years the kingfisher was a permanent resident of the farm, and then he disappeared about five years ago. I missed seeing him perched on the wire over top of the canal. Last year, we thought we heard him, but we couldn't spot him. Then this weekend, we kept hearing him, and then we finally spotted him. What a delight it was to see his bright blue body flying across the green canals.

Garlic Season

I finally got around to digging-up the garlic patch, and today, I planted three rows of garlic. I used last year's garlic, although I was sorry I didn't get any new stock this year. Last year's crop was a little weedy looking. The cloves are a little on the small and thin side. It is still good, but I worry that the small cloves will yield an even weedier crop next year.

Hops

We just harvested the hops. We have a patch of golden hops growing against the back fence line. It takes some doing to cut a path through the blackberries to get to the hops, but well worth the effort. I usually incorporate hops into my French bread recipe. I like to make a hops tea and then use the warm hop infused water to proof the yeast. I ran out of hops in the spring so I have been experimenting with other teas but so far, hops are the best!

There used to be lots of hops fields in this area. They would grow hops on tall trellises that stood 12 feet high (so I am told). It became too expensive to keep up the trellises and farming hops is not as common around here. But I still like to imagine fields of giant trellises stretching up to the sky.

The Fall Garden

It was time to clean-up the garden. For most of the plants, the season has ended. The beans and the corn are done. All that's left is the kale, next spring's broccoli, and some spinach. As you can see in the picture above, I dug-up all of the plants.



Then we dismantled the greenhouse and harvested that last of the tomatoes. It is November after all, and we should have tomatoes ripening until the start of December. We take the greenhouse down, because we have lost a couple of greenhouses to the November winds. Scot built the greenhouse so that it comes apart fairly effortlessly. The most difficult part is getting the tomato plants out and making sure that there are no tomatoes left. Otherwise you can get all sort of pests and blight. Ideally we should move the greenhouse but it isn't that feasible.



The last of the tomatoes!

The Birds

I am amazed by the number and variety of birds that have been flying around the farm these last few days. I guess it is the combination of the harvest attracting some birds, and the birds that are flying south are coming through now too. When I look up, the sky is filled with birds. They fly in silhouette against the sun, and it looks a little like black writing across the blue sky. The birds fly at different heights, and I try to read their flight. What kind of birds are they? Are they traveling alone or in a group? Are they migrants or local? So far, I have seen white geese, Canadian geese, crows, harriers, falcons, eagles, herons, snipes, and all sorts of ducks.

I imagine, this life-filled sky is a little bit like what it must have been like, before we settled here and displaced them.

Fall at the farm

Cranberry season is happening. A sure sign that winter is not too far away. So far the weather has been very kind. Lots of sunny days and not too much wind. Best of all, there have been very few frosts. If you are knee deep in a flooded field, you can come to appreciate how depressing it is to break the ice on the water before you jump in.

From the Garden

The world' largest fennel! I discovered the secret to sizing up fennel bulbs this year, and it is all in the transplating of the seedlings. You must start the plants and then transplant them, otherwise the tend to grow up, not out.

The late corn is just about ready. Beside it, the remaining raspberries are all suffering from cane blight. I have been cutting out the blighted canes and it looks like they are all blighted. Worried about next year's crop.
The fall garden is slowly finishing. The summer squash are almost done. Everything is now grown. Already, a plan is forming for next year.

Snow Geese

In the back field there is a very large flock of snow geese. Their cries sound like Christmas. It is almost like they have bells in their throats, if that makes any sense at all.

Sometimes, they get startled and they fly up into the air. Like a black tipped white cloud they circle the field and then come back to land.

Cranberry Harvest

It is harvest time in the cranberry bogs. The sunsets are amazing reflected in the flooded fields.

New Oven

We managed to find bricks in some road fill so we built a brick oven in our garden. We haven't mortared it yet. We are still experimenting with it.

All Good Things Must End

Summer is in its final stages. It is hot in the sun, but in the shade the cold lurks. I see geese collecting in park and fields, getting ready for their long journey. People seem to hate geese, especially Canadian Geese. When checking my Google Analytics, I find people coming to my site with search terms like "Kill Canadian Geese" or "Get rid of Canadian Geese" or Hate Canadian Geese." Now, more people looking for the above terms will come to my site! So all I can say, if they read this is, WTF?

So geese are big and they tend to eat a lot and deficate. I can understand farmers concern over the geese, but there are many methods for scaring birds from crops. If the fields are fallow, then the geese will help keep the field fertilized as they gleam the last of the crop. And in parks, the geese dung is good for the grass.

We do all have to learn to live together. There are just under 10,000 species of birds in the world and 10% of them are endangered. I have been writing about bird and human interactions for orato.com under leannej. Check it out.

End of Days

The air has that milky quality that can only mean that fall is on its way. The sun is hot, but the air has a coolness that takes the crispness out of the sun's bite. The tomatoes are ripening faster every day. We have had many salads. Soon we will have to begin canning the tomatoes and peaches.