Part of the excitement of being newby farmers is realizing that we won’t have to buy groceries anymore. (Well, except for toilet paper, etc.) We’ve been trying to find a replacement for sugar, since we can’t grow sugar cane here. Honey is one excellent option, but it’s a few years away for us. Then we read about stevia, which is a plant – I think it looks like mint – and one leaf of that plant is equivalent to two teaspoons of sugar, when steeped in a cup of tea. Aside from the perk of being able to grow it ourselves, it also has zero calories, zero carbs, zero everything-else-evil, AND won’t ultimately give us cancer like aspertame. A diabetic coworker cautioned me that stevia has “a taste,” so I bought a wee box of packaged stevia at Country Grocer so we could try it out. I’m drinking a cup of tea now, with milk and one packet of stevia.
Findings include: definitely tastes more powdery than crystal-like; excellent level of sweetness; I could get used to this.
I’m not sure if it’d be any good in pies, but I’ll try it out eventually. There’s a whole conspiracy theory behind stevia. Since it’s natural and evil-free, it’s the obvious sugar-replacement of choice, and in Japan (I think) it really is the #1 product. The USA, however, has restricted or outlawed stevia from commercial sale, and I even read in one farm magazine that the gov’t is trying to outlaw growing stevia. Whatever. It suits our purposes nicely, and will provide an interesting product for us to sell. At Country Grocer, as a processed product, it cost me $12 for 100 packets. A box of 180g of loose powder costs $15. While we won’t have the resources to process stevia to its full strength (30 times sweeter than sugar), we can certainly sell the leaves.
Perhaps this would be a good time for my disclaimer: while I am an honest person, I also have a very “creative” perception of the world, and tend to misremember facts in order to make an argument or improve a story (like father, like daughter). This is generally a harmless habit, but please do your own research before basing a thesis on this blog.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 – I hate baby birds
I’ve had a very anti-animal day today (except for the bunnies, of course, love them very, very much). At 2am or some other ungodly hour I woke up to TWEET TWEET TWEET TWEET directly overhead. At one point I thought it was just my nose whistling. But no, it continued for a very very long time, and my theory is that there is a nest of baby birds in our roof. (We haven’t put the soffits up yet, so it’s open season for any animal that wants to live in our ceiling insulation.) Stupid baby birds. Stupid us, for not putting the soffit up before nesting season.
Seeds, seeds and more seeds.
In other news, our house is full of seeds. We’ve received our orders from Stokes (minimal, since they treat their seeds), Dominion, Salt Spring Seeds, Green Space Design, and West Coast Seeds (the majority of our budget, at over $700 worth).
For those of you wondering what we’re growing this year, the answer is: EVERYTHING. No exageration. We have seeds for: lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, beets, radishes (I don’t even like radishes), stevia (see above), peanuts, loofah (yes, loofah), wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, squash, pumpkins, artichokes, potatoes, onions, chives, parsley, cilantro, mint, hot peppers, regular peppers, tomatoes, AND SO ON.
It might be excessive. However, we fully intend our farm and garden market to be a raging success, so we must be prepared.
Also: great idea of the week . . . I want to name our garden market The Garden of Eatin’. Ha ha.
Today is our one year, nine month anniversary, which is not special enough to deserve celebration but worth noting nonetheless. One year and nine months doesn’t seem like a long time, but in that time we’ve moved four times, changed jobs, settled in Duncan, bought property, embraced a massive mortgage, bought a truck, built a home, and have essentially transformed from government yuppies to farmers with day jobs. Not too bad in less than 2 years! (Although I am dreading the complicated tax calculations we’ll have to do this year.)
In other news: the past two movies we’ve rented and watched were TERRIBLE (Oceans 13 and Music & Lyrics), and we’re scared to watch any more for fear that Hollywood has finally become unbearable. We really like movies. Please don’t ruin them. Our third rental for the week, as yet unwatched, is Knocked Up, which has been recommended by Banker Nils and my family. Fingers crossed.
Today, Brock returns to work for the first time in 13 days. His holiday was spent designing and building a greenhouse, surveying the property, planning where we’ll plant things, digging, and other farmer-activities. How strange that he’s back to wearing a suit and commuting!
I go back to work today too, although it won’t be as tramautic for me since I’ve worked a few days over the holidays. I’m not too happy about this impending stretch of No Holiday Time, though. I like a lazy weekday every month or so.
Oh, and another farmer first: I made turkey stock yesterday! Last week, I stuck the Christmas bird carcass in the freezer (as advised by Brock’s aunt Shelley). I pulled it out yesterday, smashed it with a hammer to make it fit in our soup pot, and boiled it in lots of water, with celery, parsley and carrots (from our garden!!!) for three hours. Our home smells turkey-greasy and wonderful. Today I will skim the rest of the fat off the stock, which is in the fridge now, and freeze it in ice cube trays for soup use. Brock and I are notorious for not eating leftovers, so I’ll have to make a special effort to use the stock within its three month expiry date.
Enough rambling . . . it’s breakfast time. (One day, that will mean eggs from our chickens and bread I’ve made . . .)
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Saturday, January 11, 2008 – The electronic housewife
I am drinking tea, wearing my new Christmas flannel pjs, and:
– washing clothes
– washing dishes
– baking bread
all at the same time. My Super Multitasking abilities are due to the wonders of modern technology – specifically our washing machine and a bread maker that I borrowed (possibly long term) from Brock’s mom. The dishes are air-drying. Nonetheless, I feel very domestic and productive. I think I shall fart around on the internet as a reward.
Last week I helped Brock assemble the greenhouse he’d been building. It’s about 12 feet by 8 feet, wood frame mounted on concrete blocks, dirt floor (actually muddy clay, due to recent rain), and wrapped in poly. It’s a beautiful thing, and has already survived a week of wind, snow and rain. Today Brock intends to build a door. We are very excited about this greenhouse, because it’ll help us start our seeds without infringing on precious indoor space.
Oh, and the turkey stock I made earlier this month turned out quite nicely! We used it to make turkey soup (thereby using up the rest of the turkey meat). It tasted REALLY bland, despite all the yummy barley, rice and veggies I’d put in it, and both of us were heaping salt into our bowls (very unusual behaviour for both of us).
BROCK: “What sort of seasonings did you put in here?”
HEATHER: “Seasonings?”
Brock’s dad saved the day with some chicken boullion. It was edible after that. If I can figure out how to make good soup, we’ll be set for meals all next winter . . .
I just checked on my bread. I’m making rye bread as my First Ever Loaf. I love rye bread, especially toasted wih peanut butter. The thing I always hated about making dough – and probably the reason my bread never tasted right – is the kneading. Baking shouldn’t have to be so physically demanding. That’s why the bread maker is perfect. If I want to bake something in the oven, the machine will still knead the dough for me. Or I can be completely lazy and just have to add all the ingredients. It’s 10 minutes into the bread making process and nothing appears to be happening, except that there’s a crack in the mound of flour. Nothing’s been mixed yet, no cooking or anything. Fascinating.
The current Issue of Contention between Brock and me is how we spend our time. I have always believed that winter is for hibernating. For humans, that means getting lots of sleep, eating hot meals, watching movies and reading books. We are conserving energy for the rest of the year. Brock, however, wants us to be prepared for the spring growing season, which means preparing the soil, building greenhouses and cold frames and raised beds, writing up a business plan, sketching crop rotations and companion planting, ordering seeds and so on. I suspect the solution here lies in compromise, and usually we manage that, but occassionally Brock will get frustrated that we’re not working enough, or I’ll get grumpy and bored and want to watch a movie. I suppose it’s kind of funny that this is what we “fight” about, rather than the huge mortgage we share, the upcoming debts we’ll face as new farmers, etc.
Oooo, the bread machine is making noises!!! I think it’s mixing!!!!!
My first-ever loaf of homemade bread. (Made with a breadmaker, of course.)
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Friday, January 18, 2008 – I hate winter
Winter sucks. Especially now that Christmas & the related vacation time is over! I do not enjoy cold weather, or darkness, and winter involves both.
We have been spending our winter nights doing some combination of the following:
– sleeping (we keep falling asleep at really early hours, like right after dinner)
– perusing seed catalogues and making Lists
– speculating as to how rich we’ll become and/or what we’ll do if this summer is a financial catastrophe
– watching movies (when I can talk Brock into it).
We’ve found a new wonderful magazine, called Small Farm Canada, and there’s an article in the current issue about miniature breeds of cattle. They’re so cool — about the height of a big dog, but a cow. You can eat them, milk them, and do all the usual things you do with cows, but they’re wee. I love it. A great attraction for our farm, with 2-person portions of beef and fresh milk . . . perfect.
Speaking of livestock, Peter and Delilah are pretty happy these days. Delilah is a typical young bunny. I cleaned out their Villa last weekend and Delilah actively supervised the whole process, while Peter just hung out by the water bottle. I’m excited about building a proper summer-time yard for them, so I can interact with Delilah and get to know her better. She’s like a pleasant version of Caramel.
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Monday, January 28, 2008 – Wearing my pjs, watching the sun rise
This weekend we finalized our seed order, which was quite an exercise. Brock fought our VERY SLOW computer to maintain an excel spreadsheet of our list while we debated the usefulness of various veggies (e.g. no one really likes radishes, and the rabbits won’t eat the leftovers, so let’s not bother with them this year). Meanwhile, we’re growing enough tomatoes to feed the Cowichan Valley. Mainly because I want to can tomatoes, can sauce, sun dry tomatoes, and make enough salsa to last us a year (we go through a lot of salsa).
As a result of this “to do,” Brock ended up spending the entire weekend inside with me, which is very unusual. The ground was frozen despite blue skies and sunshine both days, though, so his time was better spent indoors. It’s funny, that everyone we talk to about farming asks what we’re growing right now. It’s winter. Even in the Cowichan Valley, it’s winter. There are carrots and beets and some frosty cilantro in the garden, but even the bunnies won’t eat any of that. Interestingly, the greenhouse Brock built reached 16-degrees inside yesterday, which is mighty impressive. The mice love it.
I posted a few more recent photos on Facebook yesterday. Something to watch for is Brock and my new wardrobe. I take credit for starting The Layered Look, but Brock has embraced it fully. My favourite outfit for a day on the farm is: warm socks, gumboots if outdoors, sweatpants (preferably my fleece pair, unless they’re already muddy or covered in seeds/burrs/straw), a tank top, one of my weird apron dresses with pockets, a bunch of hoodies/jackets, my toque, and some mitts or gloves. Brock wears warm socks, his gumboots, his sweatpants, shorts overtop, and many layers of shirts. Then his orange jacket and a toque or hat. These have become our (slovenly) uniforms. I heard the other day that what you wear to the farmer’s market is important. It’s a business, after all, and you want to present a professional, tidy image. We’ll have to dress up for the farmer’s markets. How peculiar. I think I’ll get T-shirts made (we love the phrase: “Keepin’ it Rural”) so we’ll look relatively put-together.
Also, a development in my “writer on the farm” career: I’m proofreading for Small Farm Canada! I love it so far (one issue in). Brock and I get a sneak-peek at whazzup in the issue before it hits the printers. And I love editing, especially farm articles since then I absorb them especially well.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 – Playing Hooky
I took today off work, and it’s been wonderful. I rented four episode of Numbers, a harmless, often over-dramatic crime show, and have managed to watch three throughout the day. I made a loaf of whole wheat bread. I had a wonderful breakfast: egg, bacon, fried taters and baguette bread with butter. I sewed. And now I’m making dinner: pizza, from scratch. I was shocked just now when I realized the irony of making dough and mozzarella from scratch, BUT NOT THE SAUCE. How weird. The sauce is the easiest part!!!!!!!! Oh, Brock’s home — gotta go.
Heather McLeod is a mystery writer based in British Columbia, Canada.
