Be Sophisticated!

I just watched the most fascinating short doc by Joe York on vimeo.com, about an amazing organic beef farmer called Will Harris. This is an important message that everyone needs to hear. It doesn't matter whether you eat meat or not. The same holds true for grain and vegetables.


CUD from Joe York on Vimeo.

Society is making us believe that the wrong things are worth spending our hard earned dollar on. Let's make ourselves a proper, classy meal. All we have to do is cancel our cell phone accounts, and we'll easily be able to afford good, wholesome, ethical food from our local farmer - every day of the week. It's time to get our priorities straight!

The Dead of Winter

I was told today that one's first Winter in the country is always like this.

February is just around the corner, and we are now in the Dead of Winter. I remember as though in a dream how when we first arrived in September, the place was teeming with life. You couldn't look anywhere without spotting a garner snake, a frog, a dragon fly, a busy bee, a millipede, a blue jay. Even if you tried. Now, I can stare out of my window for hours hoping to spot an animal, some kind of life other than the cluster flies that are to my amazement still alive and well in our house, or those other lives that sleep in my bed and that I feed myself everyday, whose survival I assure.

We have only one vehicle in use right now. It goes to work everyday, and leaves me behind at home. Being a city girl all of my life until now, I was accustomed to walking everywhere, and meeting loads of people along the way. It is true that as city dwellers, I and everyone else tried very hard not to have their gazes meet to avoid having to say hello or having to look down to the ground in embarrassment or God forbid, having to smile back despite being in a bad mood. I longed for the day when I'd be able to fully embrace solitude and have the opportunity to spend an entire day by myself without seeing anyone at all. I've done that now, quite a lot, and while I do enjoy it, most of the time it's not by choice.  I love my own company, but I've found I actually like the company of others too.

Two days ago, a nice lady from the Women's Institute called me and asked if I wanted to join her and the other Institute ladies for lunch. I was overjoyed. Women! Live women to talk to about farming and solitude! We had a lovely lunch today and I feel re-invigorated after the stimulating discussions about chickens, pigs, vegetables, draft horses, ponies, and sheep's milk. I love the country!


On the bright side of Winter,  I've learned that February is the time to plan summer gardens and order seeds. I couldn't wait another day and placed my orders yesterday. The thought of these colourful, juicy and tasty summer treats warmed my heart quite a bit. I was like a kid in a candy store. This will be the first time I try my hand at vegetable gardening. I hope to be able to grow enough to provide for our household for the entire year. That's the plan, anyway. Here's what I ordered for my 350-square-foot summer garden, my 400-square-foot winter storage garden and my herb garden:

Eleven varieties of tomatoes
Tomatillos
New Zealand Spinach
Winter squash (Spaghetti, Butternut, Yellow Scallop, Acorn)
Purple top white globe turnip
Black beauty and Golden zucchini
Lutz green leaf beet
Red and green cabbage
Potatoes
Premium mix - brassica
De Cicco brocoli
Chantenay and Dragon carrots
Pok Choy
Straight eight cucumbers
Curly green kale
Sugar snap peas
Cherry Belle radish
Bleu de solaize leek
Dakota tears, Rossa di Milano and Evergreen onions
Orange Bell peppers
Jalapenos
Rutabaga
Sweet delight melon
Early green moss endive
Parsnip
Crimson sweet watermelon
Baby leaf lettuce
Five-colour chards
Grand Rapids leaf lettuce
Arugula
Chamomille
Coriander
Dill
Garlic chives
Greek oregano
Lovage
Mustard
Parsley
Rosemary
Sage
Savory
Sorrel
Sweet Basil
Dark Opal basil

and loads of flower seeds!

Already growing on our property: rhubarb, strawberries, elderberries, tarragon, thyme, raspberries, asparagus and horseradish.

Here are some great places to order seeds online:

Terra Edibles Local organic, heirloom seeds

Hope Seeds Canadian certified-organic seeds

Ontario Seeds Larger Ontario seed company

If you feel inclined to start a vegetable garden of your own for the first time, whether you live in the city, in a village or  in the country, I strongly recommend getting a copy of "From Seed to Table - A Practical Guide to Eating and Growing Green" by Janette Haase.

It's a fantastic book that classifies all of the gardening tasks and recipe ideas according to the months of the year. For an inexperienced vegetable gardener like myself, this is the ideal guide to simplify the daunting task of knowing when to start transplants, how many to start, when to plant, when to harvest, how to store and preserve your harvest etc. and how to eat seasonally based on what you have grown yourself, whether it be fresh, or preserved, or on what's available at the market.

Until May, when I finally get to taste the fruits of my upcoming labour, I only get to salivate to my daydreams while loading some more wood into my best friend's belly.

And The Hat Came Back

This is my favourite hat (circa Toronto, 2007)

I got this hat from Dufferin mall in Toronto, in early September about three years ago.  I remember wishing and wishing for snow so that I could start wearing this white fluffy hat. It snowed and snowed that year. I wore this hat all Winter. It has matching mitts.

As I was thinning out my possessions while packing to move from the city last July, I came across my favourite hat amidst the Winter scarves and gloves and it did warm my heart. I thought of the coming Winter which I was gonna spend in knee-high snow in the country, skating, snow-shoeing, shovelling, cavorting around with my dogs, wearing my fluffy hat. Aaawww the joys of Winter in the countryside.

So when it did snow in December I was overjoyed and put on my hat, called the dogs and headed for a beautiful wintery walk in the wildlife conservation. Our friend The Farmer had told me where I could go and follow a path off the dirt road which would lead me behind the wetlands. I had never been in the woods here by myself before (most wooded areas around here are private property). When Emma, Chico and I entered the woods it was just gorgeous and I eagerly followed the numerous deer tracks into the forest, which was becoming denser and denser.  

My hat kept getting caught in the branches so I just tied the strings around my neck and let it dangle at the back like a hoodie. There was no path that I could see after a while and my tiny Jack Russell Terrier, Chico, was having a hard time keeping up. Emma the Beagle's nose had lead her way ahead of us. I picked Chico up into my arms and decided to walk in the middle of the stream to avoid getting all caught up in the branches. That's when I heard the coyotes bark and howl and got frightened and decided to run out!

Oh Dear, I'm pretty embarrassed about how I get so easily spooked in the woods when I'm alone. I like to think I'm a pretty tough chicken. Stand me on the worst street corner in downtown Toronto in the middle of the night and I will be completely comfortable with what is going on around me!  Gangs, drugs, prostitutes, drunken leering men and homeless people... it's all normal to me. But strange sounds in the forest? I guess it's a question of familiarity.

When the dogs and I safely got back to the road, I noticed that I had lost my favourite hat. I looked behind me and debated on going back to get it, but my imagination offered horrifying visions of packs of coyotes and wolves attacking and ripping us to shreds for a nice evening meal.  Bears too. Yes, it's very silly. I figured I'd come back to get it the next day when I'd talked myself back into a rational frame of mind.

It snowed all night.

I went the very next day but couldn't find it under the snow (it is white and fluffy after all).

Over a month went by. I figured that it was either hidden in the snow and that I'd find it in Spring or (how romantic) that a small animal came upon it and took it to their den to use as an awesome sleeping bag. Then we had this wild and seemingly never-ending January thaw. Last Saturday, I asked Stuart if he could take me for a walk in the woods. As we entered through the path, my husband mentioned how since the snow had melted so much, maybe we could find my hat. I walked up the creek and found it, sticking out of the snow, white and fluffy! I tried to pull on it but i was completely imprisoned by the ice.  I pulled on the string but the pom-pom was also stuck in the icy stream and the lace snapped!

Sunday and Monday (yesterday), we had a massive rain fall and Stuart and I went to the wetlands to look at how high the water had risen and how the creek had turned into a raging inferno.  "Well, you've surely lost your hat for good now!" Stuart said.

We went to look for it and though the once tiny stream was raging almost as much as the large creek, there was my hat, all muddy and looking like some sort of road kill. Both the pompoms had broken off, and it looked nothing like my white fluffy hat but after a good washing with dish soap we were finally reunited!

 

Even my friend The Farmer took pleasure in the fact that...

The Hat Came Back:

Punkle Photos

This is my life in the country.

Lady Butcher

**WARNING to those of you who don't like gory meat images: there are LOTS of them in this post**

This long January thaw brought the untimely - though not unfortunate - defrosting of Squealer II, who was hanging in Matty's mudroom. Although he had done all the work of caring for them himself (my husband Stuart had gone halfers at the sale barn* and on the day of slaughter), Matty generously gave us our half of the remaining piglet. Squealer I had the honor of being roasted on a glorious bondfire on New Year's Eve and tasted wonderfully delicious, to say the least.**


Stuart went to pick it up  the day before yesterday and since the van was full to the brink with tools and demolition materials, the half of what once was Squealer II had to be strapped to the roof of the vehicle for the journey home.

Hence,  yesterday's assignment was to butcher this giant piece of pork (it was actually pretty small, a mere piglet, but seemed rather large to me, on my kitchen counter), while my dear husband went to earn some money to pay for the oil to heat our furnace.

I should mention that I'm not usually the butchering kind of woman. In my urban past, I bought my chicken boneless and skinless from the supermarket, in fear of having to be reminded by those pesky bones and veins and tendons that I was eating an animal. Now that I live in a place where everyone "makes" these animals that we end up eating boneless and skinless, I've got to stare it right down in the face. Now.

So I brought the carcass in from the cold room into the kitchen and set it on the counter. My heart was beating fast. Emma's eyes grew to the size of loonies when she saw what I pulled out of the bag.

I poured a shot of rum in my coffee and clicked play on the healthy butcher video link that Matt sent. The Healthy Butcher

I soon realized that I needed a saw.

I decided to use a garden bow saw. I cleansed it thoroughly, of course. It wasn't the best choice but it did the job in the end.

The primal cuts:

 

Who would have known?

He he he

I ended up making some mistakes, but I learned a lot in the process and the result was: one fresh bone-in ham (skinless, oops!), a picnic, ribs, shoulder, hocks and loin. PLUS some pig feet and skin for the dogs!

I froze most of it except for the loin (which for some reason, didn't turn out when cooked in a delicious cranberry and orange sauce topped with peach slices) and the ham (which sat in a brine of spiced apple cider, salt and brown sugar for 24 hours before being roasted in the oven).

The dogs ate their pig feet last night and they love us more today because of that.




Footnotes:

* A sale barn is a place where livestock such as cows, ponies, lhamas, pigs, sheep and goats get auctioned off by farmers, to other farmers or restaurants.

** I was forbidden to name the piglets upon their purchase, but I did so instantly anyway, without truly meaning to.