Manitoba Tornado!

On Monday night I stayed late at Mom's making dilled carrots and scapes.  On the way home, the radio was interrupted by tornado warnings constantly, but as they were not for our municipality, I wasn't worried.  I guess later warnings urged us to take cover-- we don't have internet and weren't listening to the radio, so we didn't.  When we went to bed, the lightning was flashing like a strobe light, I've never seen that before!  This photo is on the way to work the next morning.  Myrah Farm was unscathed, thank goodness-- I stopped in to see Sherman yesterday and he was relieved.  :)

Welcome to Paradise!

Love this view from the farm!  Paradise.

Sweet Farm Family

Jillian is awesome and sent me a PDF colour version of the article, you can view it by clicking the link or image below:

https://brownsugarproduce.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/brandonsunjuly25.pdf

Brandon Sun

 Our farm team is featured in the Brandon Sun today!  It was so nice to have folks mention they had read about us in the paper today at the market.  Big thanks to Jillian and Tim for doing such an excellent job on the article and photos.  Awesome!!

Update July 23

Rainbow!

Took this one for Judi-- We have some chokecherries (hers and Mom's all froze).  If the birds don't eat them all, we'll have some!

Jeremy Fisher lost his outfit!

The squash is capturing our hearts right now, it's growing so fast you can nearly see it!  Soon, a large portion of Block 2 will be solid tangles vines.  We also attacked a frenchweed incursion on Monday.  The rain last week allowed thousands of these tiny seeds to germinate on the north side of the leafy rows (in the shade).  We noticed, and the stirrup hoes made short work of them!  Lucky we caught it while it was small.  When we arrived, we had a field of this weed, which is easy to kill, but abundant.

Jon doing some weeding in lush Block 2

So many gorgeous squash blossoms right now!

The dill row, field in background

Can't wait for filet beans to be ready!  I guess I have to-- might try to have some for supper tonight!

Heirloom tomatoes!  I think these are the Cherokee Purple.  Mmmmm!!

Field tomatoes are ripening, too.  We got to have some sweet cherry toms with our meal with Casey and Kyle and Zach on Monday night!

The eggplant is growing!

These are probably Anaheim (mild hot) peppers.  Need to take the field record book out with me sometime, all our tags are completely bleached out from the sun.  That's why planting record books are important!

Our house!  Flowers are doing well, I actually took care of them this year!

Lookout Sammy!  Frisbee incoming!

Sammy and Zach had a great time playing frisbee together!

Sunset July 15

Finished harvesting last night in time to catch the tail end of an epic sunset. This is Jon's favourite view on the farm.  The canola is in full bloom and gorgeous right now!  Makes our little 2 acre field feel tiny.  (Click the image to view a full-size version).  Enormous sky!

Sherman's Grain & a walk with camera in hand!

Hello sweetie barn swallow (living in the barn, how ironic)

 Today I happened to have my camera in hand (no, really-- that's never happened!!) and snapped a few photos.  Too bad I didn't have it in hand last night when I patiently waited until one of the foxes came within 10 feet of me (I waved.... She shit her pants and ran for the hills, lol!). 

Patiently awaiting a much needed rain.  Growing like weeds despite... and the dry spell has turned our top layer of soil into a "dry soil mulch",  and we are CAUGHT UP on weeding.  Yesterday we were weeding and it was kinda pointless.  This rain will get our butts moving!!

Block 1 is getting really dry on the west side... Sherman says the trees suck a lot of moisture, he's right!  We will revisit what we plant there next year.

Block 2, Watermelons in foreground

Tomatoes... Slow with no water, but sure friggin' tasty!!

If you ever want a farmer to remember you, give them seeds.  They will plant them and every time they see the plants they'll think of you.  Jocelyn and Chris!!  We have three little babies so far.

These are my favourite of the summer squash.... Flying saucers have landed!!

The men, doing men stuff, while I pick herbs and take photos-- Lol.  Sherman still has a bunch of grain in these bins that he is selling.  Al came to haul it, and Pa came to help.

Al, Pa, and Sherman.

Love my little herb garden!  It's been bringing in the $$, my mint is doing better than the stuff at Brown Sugar.  Such a random and wonderful assortment of flowers, peppers, herbs, and a little catmint for Sammy.  :) 

Rhubarb Juice

I used the very last of the rhubarb to make rhubarb juice.  I wanted to make a modification of my Gran's recipe for Frozen Lemon Pie, but I added too much sugar and it just tasted like sugar, so I stuck with lemon.  The rhubarb juice turned out awesome though-- the colour is ridiculous!

Here's the recipe:

Rhubarb Juice

About This Recipe

Yield:	Makes 2 quarts
Active time:	20 minutes
Total time:	4 hours (includes chilling)
Special equipment:	5 quart pot
This recipe appears in:	A Simple and Brisk Rhubarb Juice

Ingredients

• 2 pounds rhubarb stalks
• 8 cups water

Procedures

1. 
   
   Slice the rhubarb stalks crosswise into one-inch segments. Place rhubarb segments into the pot along with the water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes.
   
2. 
   
   Strain liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher or spouted bowl, pressing on the solids in the strainer to extract as much juice as possible. You can line the strainer with cheesecloth if you like, but it's not necessary.
   
3. 
   
   After 20 minutes, the juice will separate, leaving a yellowish sludge at the bottom. Decant the clear pink liquid into a clean bottle or pitcher, leaving the sludge behind. Chill for a few hours at least, and serve cold over ice.

The most delicious thing I've ever eaten

Who needs a fine dining restaurant or a chef when you have veggies this good?!
I can honestly say this is the best thing I've ever made or eaten -- Last night we had caesar salad with Brown Sugar Produce romaine, Jon's home-baked bread croutons, mushrooms, lemon, and bacon, with baby Purple Caribe Potatoes in a dill, green onion, and garlic scape cream sauce, topped with curry sausage.  Holy hell, we both had grins on our faces the entire time we were eating, it was SO GOOD!!

Dinner with Gran

Last Sunday, Jon and I went to Gran's to have dinner, and brought her some tiger lilies.  Our first dining experience at Riverheights Terrace-- it was great!

Joan and Gran reserved a nice table by the window.  A definite perk to being back in Manitoba is getting to see Gran more often.  Joan has been bringing her to every market to visit and check out our produce, and they've been enjoying the salad mix!

Continuing Grandpa Tom's tradition of picking tiger lilies for Gran

Salad

Last night we had a big bag of greens to use up, so we had a huge salad for supper.  Sunflower shoots, radishes, green onions, salad mix, baby potatoes, and pansies from the farm, topped with beef and quinoa (used earlier in the week as a zucchini stuffing).  Mmmmm!!  I'm not a huge salad fan unless the veggies are superb, as these ones were! 

Jon and Teri's Fn Delicious Day! & Field Tour July 7

Sauteed beets with greens, baby spuds with butter, and stuffed zucchini with quinoa, beef, and panko bread crumbs.  MMMMmmmmm!!!

The ingredients in supper.  A feast of baby potatoes!

Jon and I spent the day weeding at our farm on Monday... Got most of the weeds cleaned up, and I had a look at how the crops are progressing.  We also took the opportunity to "quality control" inspect some of the crops by eating them!  Had a FN DELICIOUS lunch and supper.  

Gorgeous beets, swimming in butter

Lunch ingredients: spinach, zucchini, CUCUMBER, TOMATO!!, basil, dill, baby carrots

Lunch: Jon's home baked bread with zucchini & dill & dutch Gouda (Thanks Auntie Joan!) omelet, sauteed baby carrots and zucchini, spinach, tomato, cucumber basil salad.  Scrumptious!

(L-R) Spuds, Carrots, Green Onions, Beans, Potatoes, Tomatoes & Peppers

Little Watermelon Plant

Jon is trying some tomato trellising at our place, to see if we can make any improvements over our production system.  Next year we hope to have a tunnel over this part of the field!  Made with mostly farm "foraged" materials, short of 3 t-posts we had to buy.

Lil' Green Onion soldiers.  This has been my weeding nemesis this season.  Proud that it has stayed mostly weed-free so far. 

Vegetable Marrow Squash... Can be eaten fresh like a zucchini, or as a storage squash.  Special to those who know it and love it-- I will have to give it a try some day soon.

Vegetable Marrow Squash getting pretty big!

Whoops!  I think Sherri makes these big guys into zucchini noodles.

I had company while walking the field

Mmmm... I eat you!

Golden Zucchini

The first Katrina cuke.  It was delicious!  Jon's favourite.

Beautiful zucchini flower and Sunny Delight summer squash

Samson the garden cat.  If only we could teach him to weed!

These are called "citron".  They look and grow like watermelons, and can be made into a delicious preserve or marmalade (which we will make and have for sale in the fall).  I have a book from the 1800's exploration in Manitoba where they are mentioned as a crop that grows well here.  The seed is heritage and has been saved by Mom over the years, as we don't know of anywhere to buy it.  These are the Red Seeded Citron, the seeds are actually red!

Blacktail Mountain Watermelons from Jocelyn and Chris.  I think of those two awesome folks that I miss from Nova Scotia every time I see these watermelons, growin' along nicely!

A RED TOMATO!!  Plants from Peter at Marriott's Greenhouse, our closest neighbour.  This is what Jon and I call a "potting mix tomato"-- The fruit formed while they were in the greenhouse, so taste is not quite as good as one grown in the soil.  But, it's July 7th, so we ate it and it was DELICIOUS!

I eat you.

I parmigiana you, later.

For now, we are CPB (Colorado Potato Beetle) free at Myrah's Farm.  I am knocking on wood as I write this.  They haven't found us, and as we want to certify our farm as organic in the near future, we will not have any defenses if they do.  Mom's spray is not on the permitted substances list for organic production, and we can't afford the one that is right now.  So, if we get an infestation, out the potatoes will come.  There are at least 2 acres at Mom's farm that will be used for storage.  Once they have at least this many flowers on them, there are large enough spuds to sell, and right now the gold nuggets are $6/lb, and worth every penny!