I've discovered what it is we make in Canada. Surprised that this isn't coming in from China with everything else. I'm taking one to Europe for my use and one as a gift for my friend Pru. The Toonie next to it isn't a clue it's just to give you an idea of the size. You can have the Toonie if you can guess what it is.
Leave a comment. make a guess.
(Clicking on the photo will take you to the original flickr photo with notes to explain each item.)
Now that winter has arrived with snow and lots of cold weather I'm starting to get excited about my upcoming trip to the south of France. I fly to Paris on January 31st arriving the morning of February 1st and take a direct TGV train from the airport to Beziers arriving there late afternoon. I have rented an apartment in Beziers for the month of February and I'm looking forward to exploring this old and historic city. While I there I plan to do several practice walks in preparation for walking le voie du Puy from Le Puy en Velay to Saint Jean Pied du Port starting March first. The canal du Midi goes through Beziers so I hope to do a couple of longer walks, 2 to 3 days, along the canal trail and my friend Pru who lives near Paris sent me a guide book, “L'Herault...a pied. Du Haut Languedoc a la Mediterranee.” which is a guide with excellent maps to 54 short walks ranging from a few hours to full day all of which are within a short distance of Beziers and I hope to do several of these.
I have my Le Puy walk planned at 40 days barring any unforeseen problems and I have made a short schedule to help me with accommodations etc.:
Le Puy en Velay to Saint Jean Pied de Port
March - April 2010
If I try to average 20 KM per day the walk to the Pyrenees should take between five and six weeks.
Accommodations Le Puy:
Gite d'etape Accueil Saint Francois rue Saint Mayol tel 04-71-05-98-87 beds 19 cost 17 Euro including breakfast evening meal 10 Euro except Thursdays and Sundays. Open all year in the old town.
Gite d'etape – Appart Hotel des Capucins English spoken. 29 rue des Capucins tel 04-71-04-28-74 beds 19 cost 14.20 Euro breakfast 7 Euro kitchen available for cooking. contact@le-puy.de .
Things to see and do in Le Puy:
Pilgrim's stamp Romanesque Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Sacristy. 10 till noon and 2 till 6pm.
Climb the Puy 267 steps to the chapel of Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe (the needle)
Large statue of Notre-Dame de France over looks the town from a high rock.
The Huron Carol (Canada's first Christmas Carol)
'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
Words: Jean de Brebeuf, ca. 1643; trans by Jesse Edgar Middleton, 1926
Music: French Canadian melody (tune name: Jesous Ahatonhia)
The "Huron Carol" (or "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime") is a Christmas hymn, written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Christian missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The well known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton.
This version performed by Heather Dale, and sung in Wendat (Huron), French and English.
You Tube version of the Carol:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IG6F6E5Ac
Ilex verticillata – Winterberry
A deciduous Holly. One of my favorite shrubs. Grows wild in this area the one in the video clip is in my road side garden. Most of my property is natural forest and there is a clump of this shrub growing in the dense part of the wood. I dug this bush up and moved it to the roadside years ago when it was just a small plant. At that time I didn't know that Winterberry was a true Ilex a member of the Holly family so like all hollies it has male and female plants and you need one of each to get the nice red berries. When this plant was almost full brown it started producing a few berries every year, only five or so, which proved it was female and evidently a small amount of pollen was being carried to it either on the wind or by insects. A few years ago I went to a garden center and bought her a mate and ever since then it has produced a load of beautiful berries that stay on the bush almost all winter.
The apple with many different names. I bought mine years ago as a Pumpkin Sweet. What ever you call it, it's a wonderful old heritage apple. Very firms flesh, an excellent storage apple, great in pies or apple sauce. I also eat them fresh off the tree but it wouldn't be to everyones taste, a bit on the hard side.
(A quote from Big Horse Creek Farm's website) “The name for this apple is derived from its large size and yellowish-orange color. It originated in 1800's in the orchards of S. Lyman of Manchester, Connecticut and was first recorded in 1834. It has long been a popular apple in the South sought out for its culinary qualities. It is excellent for baking or canning, but less desirable for fresh eating. Fruit is large to very large with tough, smooth skin with patches of russet, occasionally showing a brownish-red blush. The yellow flesh is firm, crisp, juicy, and very sweet. Ripens October or later. “
What I like about it most is what it does this time of year. It doesn't drop it's fruit on the ground. I've never seen any other apple quite like it. What ever fruit is left on the tree after I've harvested all that I want, stays on the tree all winter. This is a great treat for wildlife, especially birds. After we've had a lot of cold weather the fruit turns brown but it still doesn't fall off the tree. All winter long there are birds in the tree picking at the frozen fruit and in the spring it's the first thing the robins go for as soon as the arrive.
The outdoor gardening season for 2009 is officially over, the garden beds are cleaned up and ready for winter and I harvested the last of the leeks yesterday. I have three different varieties of garlic planted in my square foot garden frames a new variety that I bought this fall via the Internet from B.C., some of the garlic that I harvested from this years crop and some that was just off the store shelf this fall. They have all been in the ground for over a month now and the only variety to actually come up and start to grow is the supermarket variety. It was only in the ground six days when it broke through the surface and started to grow. Right now it is green and healthy and about six inches tall. I will try to remember to mulch it as soon as the ground freezes. Should be interesting to see how the different varieties prove out next year.
I have got a lot of use out of the light garden that I bought last winter. It was in use from mid January last winter when I started my onion, shallot and leek seedlings through to late spring as I started the various seedlings for the summer garden and now it has been in use since mid September this fall when I planted several pots of Italian Parsley and a mixture of different Basils for kitchen use this fall and winter. They are up and doing nicely I made a pasta sauce the other day and it was so nice to have fresh herbs to use.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I just received this notification that this photo won the Maine Coast Heritage Trust photo contest prize;
Hi Dale:
I am writing to inform you that one of your photos has been chosen as the 2009 MCHT Photo Contest Winner (see attached). Thank you so much for participating in this year’s contest. Your image does an excellent job of capturing the beauty of the Maine coast. As winner of this year’s contest you are entitled to an MCHT Tote bag. Please forward to me your address and I will send it on its way. Again thanks for your participation and support of MCHT.
Sincerely
Jeffrey Romano
Maine Coast Heritage Trust
1 Bowdoin Mill Island, Suite 201
Topsham, ME 04086
I'm pleased to be the winner but I'm not sure if I had any competition. A man from the Heritage trust led a Pathfinders walk in Machiasport on August 9th and he invited any of us who were taking photos on the walk to enter the contest, he also said that as of that date there had not been any entries.
The fall foliage colour is rapidly disappearing but this maple tree in my neighbor's front yard is still a show stopper. Most of our maples turn a shade of orange or red but whatever species this one is lights up like a light bulb. A beautiful time of year but we all know what is just around the corner, all of the nice colour will be covered with a blanket of white.
It seems that every time I do another preserve I say that is the last one of the season well I think this is really it, I'm almost out of jars.
I've never even tasted Quince jelly before but I've thought about making it for years now. My two flowering quince shrubs always have some fruit on them in the fall but this has been an exceptional year for them, evidently they really liked our very wet summer. I always thought that the growing season here must be too short for the fruit to ripen, it turns yellow but stays hard until it falls off the plant. I discovered while looking on the internet for jelly making instruction that the quince fruit never does get soft, so I was good to go.
The process is simple:
1. Cut the fruit in half and remove the core and seeds, I used a tea spoon which worked well.
2. Put the prepared fruit in a heavy bottom pan and add enough water to cover by one inch.
3. Bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer for one hour.
4. Take off the heat and mash, I used a hand held blender.
5. Put the mashed quince in a double layer cheesecloth bag and hang over a bowl or container to catch the liquid. I left mine to drain over night.
6. Measure the liquid and return it to a heavy bottomed pan add slightly less than one cup of sugar for each cup of liquid.
7. Bring to a rolling boil and cook until it reaches the jelly stage. You can determine this stage by chilling a spoon full on a cold (one you've kept in the freezer)plate as soon as one of these tests produces firm jelly remove from the heat and skim off the foam.
8. Add to sterile bottles with sterile lids.
Enjoy the resulting jelly which I find a bit tart but a very nice flavour.
Well I just had to try out the canned apple pie filling to see what it was like. I used a deep pie dish so I was able to use a whole liter jar of the canned pie filling in the one pie. When I emptied the jar into the pastry I was concerned about the amount of liquid and thought it was either likely to boil over in the oven or produce a very sloppy pie. I'm please to say that neither happened. I'm not quite sure where it all went but the finished product was a very normal Apple Pie and it didn't make a mess in the oven. All in all I'm very pleased and I certainly will make more of this in the future, maybe even later this fall. It sure takes a lot of the time consuming work out of making an apple pie, no peeling, cutting, seasoning etc.
It seems to be getting colder early this year and I've started to think that my apples might freeze before I get them picked, so today I got my long handles picker out and harvested four shopping bags full of my Pumpkin Sweet Apples.
They are an amazing apple green when ripe just like Granny Smith and a great old heritage apple with good storage qualities. Best used as a cooking apple I love them baked, in pies or apple sauce. I've never tried canning them before so this year I though I would can some pie filling and apple sauce. Today I canned five quart jars of Apple Pie Filling.
This also gave me an opportunity to use my new Starfrit Apple Peeler and slicer/corer, both worked very well and only cost $11.50. The slicer only makes eight sections from each apple and I thought they were too thick for pies so I cut each section into two pieces. To keep the apple sections from turning brown before I could can them I put them in a solution of one gallon of water with two tablespoons each of vinegar and salt.
Next I made a thick syrup by cooking until thickened a mixture of 4 ½ cups sugar, 1 cup cornstarch, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, 10 cups water and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. The rest was easy pack the jars full of sliced apples, cover with the syrup, finger tighten jar lids and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes after the water returns to a full boil.
The syrup is delicious I hope it makes a good pie.
Some Pumpkin Sweet Info:
Pumpkin Sweet (Pound Sweet, Pound Sweeting, Pumpkin Sweeting, Rhode Island Sweet, Round Sweet, Vermont Sweet, Lyman’s Pumpkin Sweet, Sweet Pumpkin, Yankee Apple) - The name for this apple is derived from its large size and yellowish-orange color. It originated in 1800's in the orchards of S. Lyman of Manchester, Connecticut and was first recorded in 1834. It has long been a popular apple in the South sought out for its culinary qualities. It is excellent for baking or canning, but less desirable for fresh eating. Fruit is large to very large with tough, smooth skin with patches of russet, occasionally showing a brownish-red blush. The yellow flesh is firm, crisp, juicy, and very sweet. Ripens October or later.(Quoted from Big Horse Creek Farm website.
1. The finished product, 2. The finished product, 3. The corer/slicer, 4. The corer/slicer, 5. In a vinegar and salt bath to stop browning, 6. The Starfrit peeler, 7. The Starfrit peeler, 8. The harvest, 9. Pumpkinsweet Apples on the tree, 10. Long handled picker in action., 11. Long handled picker in action., 12. Harvest
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
One of the things that I like most about this time of year along with all of the autumn colour is the bounty of fruit that is available for wild life that are preparing for winter. A walk around my garden this morning with my camera revealed that mother nature has done a very good job this year. In this collage there are photos of Bar Berry, Bittersweet, Quince, Pumpkin Sweet Apples, Rose Hips and Fire Thorn.
Quince is so bitter that I'm not sure if anything actually eats it. The pumpkin sweet apple is an old heritage variety and I will be harvesting some soon for canning, great in apple pies. The interesting thing about this apple though is that it never falls off the tree. There will still be some of this years brown fruit next spring when it blooms again. It is much appreciated by the early returning spring birds and last year one lonely robin over wintered in my garden and was seen almost every day picking on the frozen apples.
I'm amazed the garlic that I planted in my new square foot garden project, only six days ago, is up and growing this morning. It was fresh new garlic not even sprouted when I planted it. The weather has been warm with a couple of rainy days since it was planted so I guess it isn't wasting any time getting established before winter sets in. That's a good thing because if it sets good roots before freeze-up it will stand a much better chance of staying in the soil rather than being push up out of the ground by the frost. I will have to remember to mulch it well after the ground freezes.
Recently I discovered a new Flickr feature called Galleries . With this feature you can create a gallery of up to 18 photos from other unrestricted Flickr photos on the topic of your choice. So I've been having fun creating Galleries relating to my planned trip to France this coming winter.
I plan to spend February in Beziers and the surrounding area:
Beziers Gallery
I love the fresh markets, flower markets and flea markets in France.
Markets of Beziers Gallery
The Canal Du Midi which connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean was designed and built by a man from Beziers and goes through Beziers and I plan to do some practice hiking along the Canal.
The Canal du Midi Gallery
Starting March first I hope to start walking the Camino route from Le Puy en Velay to Saint Jean Pied de Port on the French - Spanish border.
The Le Puy Camino Gallery
As you can see some very beautiful photos, hope I'm able to take some that are as good.
First crops planted in my Square foot Garden Project. The Garlic the I ordered from Salt Spring Island Seeds arrived and I planted it along with some garlic that I had in the kitchen. This will give me a chance to compare the results from the expensive seed garlic to the regular store bought garlic.
Before I planted the garlic I added a generous amount of Seafood Compost to each square foot cell and worked it into the soil. The use of Seafood Compost seemed very appropriate as the variety of Garlic that I had selected from Salt Spring Island Seeds is called Fish Lake # 3. The Fish Lake cloves are much larger then the store bought variety so I allowed them more room in the square foot cell. Each head of Fish Lake only had four cloves though which was a bit disappointing, considering the price including shipping was $13.00 for two heads. The cloves should have a good chance to set roots and get established before the ground freezes in late November or early December.
This years canning is almost finished just a couple more things to do the cranberries and the apples both of which wont be ready to pick until we have a a few frosts in early October.
The grow bag garden has been quite successful especially in my little greenhouse. I only had two hybrid greenhouse cucumber plants and they produced enough cucumbers to make three batches of pickles, one batch of dill and two batches of sweet bread and butter, and that is besides having a steady supply of cucumbers for salads and sandwiches since mid July. There were six tomato plants in the greenhouse and they did very well, mid August before I started getting ripe ones but there has been a good supply since then and I have four quarts canned for pasta sauces this winter. I had another dozen plants in grow bags in the garden but after the five weeks of rain in late June and all of July they were hit by a blight and died along with my potato plants. I didn't get any tomatoes off them and potato harvest was very small, but tasty.
I filled two more frames with compost from the grow bag garden and it took four of the eighty five liter bags to fill each one, so I should have enough to fill all six frames. The rest of the grow bags are still in use in the greenhouse and the small garden in front of the house so I will have to wait until the crops are finished growing or hit with frost before I can fill the other frames.
Next I set a dozen fence posts and put up the rabbit fence. I bought fifty feet of fence and had just enough with only a short piece left over. I decided not to put a gate into the garden, I figured that would just create a place where they could squeeze through, instead I'm going to make a stile out of cinder blocks on both sides of the fence. Hopefully rabbits aren't clever enough to figure out how to use a stile.
The day began with a visit to the hardware store to buy more nails so I could finish the last raised bed frame. After building the frame it was on to the 12 X 12 foot site where I hoped to be able to put all six frames. As I cleared the grow bags and removed the black plastic mulch from the area it became clear that if I put all six frames in this area it will be over crowded and very difficult to work around, so I decided to put only four frames in this area. The other two will be placed in another area where I already have a large raised bed. Since this new area will be the only area with a fence to keep the rabbits out I will need to remember to grow crops that the rabbits don't like in the two beds that will be outside the fence. This year the rabbits didn't bother the onions, tomatoes, potatoes and squash so I should be able to fill those beds with these crops.
I also harvested a nice crop of potatoes and squash from the containers and grow bags.
After I removed the plastic I spent a couple of hours with a garden spade tuning the soil over in the bed because it had become quite compacted from walking on it this summer. I was pleased to see that the sod that I had turned over in late spring had composted nicely.
I was able to fill one of the frames with the compost from the potato containers and one grow bag. I have nineteen grow bags left each containing eighty five liters of compost not sure if that is enough to fill the three remaining frames or not.
I divided the filled frame with cedar laths that I bought for this purpose. My square foot garden isn't divided into square feet however, for a couple of reasons, the inside dimensions of the frame ended up being 46 X 46 inches and also the width of the dividers take away from the growing space. Each section is 10.5 inches square.
My square foot garden project began last spring when I turned the sod over on a 12 foot square area of the back lawn. I then covered this area with black plastic mulch and gardened on top of this with grow bags for this summer. Today phase two of the project began with the arrival of the lumber to build six four foot square raised planters with and also the posts and fifty feet of fence to help keep the rabbits out.
I built the first planter in the driveway where I had the lumber dropped and quickly discovered when it came time to move it to the back garden that assembled they are too heavy for me to carry comfortably. So I carried all of the building supplies out to the back garden and continued the construction out there. Fortunately I ran out of nails about the same time that I ran out of energy. I got five of the six planters built and will finish the other one as soon as I get some more nails.
I ordered garlic yesterday so I need to have one of these planters ready to use as soon as it arrives so it will have a chance to get rooted this fall.
I attended the annual meeting of the Maritime Chapter of the Canadian Company of the Pilgrims of the Camino, this past Saturday. It was great to get together with people who have already experienced the Camino as wells as those who are making plans for a future Pilgrimage. Our special guest was Peter Coffman and his wife Diane who walked the Camino with the late Oliver Schroer and his wife Elena in 2004. Peter gave a beautiful presentation of that walk illustrated with his slides and the music that Oliver recorded along the way in the Churches of the Camino. We also had presentations from several of our members who walked the Camino in the past year and of course like any good maritime gathering we had a fabulous pot luck buffet luncheon.
I'm so pleased with the success that I've had this year growing Onions, Shallots and Garlic. I have never been able to grow onions of any size before and I've tried many times. This year a friend who is a master gardener told me not to plant onion sets but to start my onions from seed in the house . He recommended starting them in February, I got a little carried away and started them under lights in mid January and the result has been amazing. I harvested them all this morning and laid them out on my front deck to dry in the sun. There is a good crop of Shallots too also grown from seed and some small garlic grown from garlic cloves. I didn't plant the garlic until late spring and I think they would be larger if I planted them in the fall so that is my plan for this year.
1. Garlic, 2. Onion Cortland, 3. Onion Greek Salad, 4. Shallots Ambition
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
As I said in an earlier post I'm making plans to do another Camino walk this time from Le Puy en Valey starting the first of March 2010. I hope to be able to average 20KM per day which will give me lots of time to walk the Chemin de Saint Jacques from Le Puy to the foot of the Pyrenees at Saint Jean Pied de Port , by the middle of April. I would like to do lots of practice walking before I start on the Chemin, as a matter of fact I started last week. The problem that I always have is our bitter cold winter weather in January and February some times for weeks on end it is just too cold and windy to get any serious walking done, so I started thinking about going over to France and renting a GÎTES or apartment for all or part of February to give me some time to get in a few practice walks. The criteria that I set for my location was snow free, reasonable temperature, in a small town or city, good transportation links by both train and bus, reasonably priced accommodations, walking trails in the area and in a good location for day or overnight trips to other areas of interest. After doing some research I have settled on Beziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwest France. A small city of 69,000 very well served by both train and bus, you can take one of several TGV high speed trains daily leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport direct to Beziers in under 5 hours. Once in Beziers there is good train and bus connections to other locations of interest in the area. I'm planning to stay at an Apart-Hotel which rents studio and one bedroom apartments called Le Fonserane I have been quoted a rate of 210 Euro a week for a studio in February so I will make reservations for the whole month. They won't accept reservations for 2010 until November. Beziers is only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean and short distances from Carcassonne to the west and Montpellier to the east. The Canal du Midi goes through this part of France connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and there are walking trails that follow the canal both east and west of Beziers I'm not sure but I think the trails are the tow path along the canal. I hope to make this a two or three day walk at some point during my stay.
Up to Memramcook to visit with Christina, Dany and Amelia. Christina was telling me about the new NB license plate and the silly slogan that is written across the bottom of the plate. We tried to find one but never did get close enough to one for me to read the thing. Well on the way home yesterday afternoon there was a car ahead of me with the new plate and I was almost in the guys trunk trying to read the slogan line and still couldn't see it clearly enough to read the slogan, in order to make the slogan bilingual and get it all on one line the font is too small to read on the highway. I think there is a good chance this thing will cause accidents from people tailgating trying to read the slogan on the highway. I took this photo in a parking lot in Dipper Harbour, NB. A beautiful little harbour and I hadn't been down there in years.
Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey in southern France, another Camino walk. Not sure yet if I will walk all the way to Santiago in western Spain a distance of 1521 KM or only as far as Saint Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrenees 736 KM. If I continue into Spain I plan to go up north and walk the Camino del Norte along the north coast, when I walked last time I walked the Camino Frances about 774 KM across Spain.
When my friend Pru came from Paris to spend the summer at her cottage in Lubec she brought me a copy of, Miam Miam Dodo Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle La Voie du Puy. The widely considered best guide book for the Camino Le Puy-en-Valey to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port along the GR 65(Grande Randonnée 65). It is easy to see where it gets it's reputation excellent maps and detailed information on each village and town that you pass through as well as contact information and rates for all of the accommodations along the chemin.
Right now my plans are to start walking the first week in March. Le Puy and the surrounding area is in the Haute-Loire region and the first week of walking is at altitude ranging from 640 meters at Le Puy to 1400 meters at L'Aubrac so there is the possibility of Snow in these areas but I'm not worried I have lots of time I will either wait out the storm in a village or take a bus or train down out of the mountains.
Yesterday's Pathfinder walk was a two mile hike through private land to visit Bill Coperthwaite and his Yurts. Mr. Coperthwaite built the main Yurt 40 years ago and has lived in it ever since, completely off the grid no electricity, no running water or refrigeration. A beautiful location and a huge property the two mile hike through the forest to the yurts is all his property as well as all of the land in the surrounding bays down at the water a short walk from the yurt.
One of the links attached to Mr. Coperthwaite's website is for a BC company that makes and sells Yurt homes, so you never know when my house sells and I move to BC I just might live in a Yurt in the forest.
A great time was had by all at the third annual summer gala yesterday.
Being a vegetarian this little harvest was more than just a dinner to me, it was a feast. So wonderful to have vegetables so fresh they were just picked minutes ago from the garden. I've been amazed at how well my grow bag gardens have been doing considering the miserable summer we have had to date. Lots of rain, fog and cloud but very little sunshine. These particular crops seem to be thriving. The sun has been out for the past two days and it has been nice and warm so hopefully the weather has changed and my greenhouse full of green tomatoes will start to ripen.
I went down to Halifax to visit my cousin Grace fro the weekend and see the tall ships, around 60 of them in Halifax Harbour for a four day festival. He ship in this photo is Russian and 319 feet long, by far the largest ship in the group, nothing else even came close.
Unfortunately my two days in Halifax were not blessed with great weather Friday was cloudy and cool and Saturday was heavy fog and rain. I think the fog made great conditions for photos of the ships and the rigging though, it gives them a real feeling of the sea. I had to come back home on Sunday and it cleared in the afternoon and Monday for the Parade of Sail when they leave the harbour for the start of their race across the Atlantic it is a beautiful clear sunny day, so I hope to watch that on TV.
Follow this link to my Tall Ships Photos.
I'm so pleased with my first ever attempt at Grow Bag Gardening. I've been eating meals from the Garden for over a month now. So far I've had the oriental vegetable Joi Choi, Swiss Chard, Kale, Lettuce, Radish, and Zucchini . The Broccoli should be ready later this week. Everything in the Grow Bags seems to grow vigorously. The two outside areas where I have Grow Bags were meant to be temporary for this year only while the ground under them covered with black plastic composted in preparation for turning those areas into garden beds next year, now I'm not so sure. I certainly will continue to use them in the greenhouse. Both the greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes are doing very well in there. I should have my first greenhouse cucumbers next week and there are lots of green tomatoes already.
Proof that time does not stand still. The transformation of the St. Thomas University campus from the little University with four buildings that I attended in the early 70's to the large modern campus of today is almost unbelievable. They even managed to change the lay of the land. In the 1970's when you came out the front door of the main administration building, now named after Monsignor Martin, you faced a very steep U shaped drive and parking area. This is all gone now and the area in front of the building is a level park like are with no vehicular access. To the left of this area is Edmund Casey Hall in the 70's you went up at least ten steps to get to the front door which is now level with the walkway. Many huge new buildings have been added obviously at a cost of millions of dollars. A truly beautiful campus.
Campobello's killer rose is in full bloom. This is a rambler type rose which some seasonal residents brought to the Island a few years back. It is an amazing thing the hips in the fall are small and very plentiful and the birds love them so it has been spread all over the Island. Birds tend to drop the seeds when they are roosting in trees for the night and this provides this lovely rose with just the environment that it has been looking for, it loves to climb trees and can be found in several locations 50 to 60 feet up a tall spruce tree. I have one in my garden that I started from seed that I collected several years ago and it is going to bloom for the first time this year, it's all budded out but the blooms haven't opened yet. I'm just back from picking this bouquet on the North Road where it is in full bloom. I just noticed for the first time that it comes to two colours pink and white. Now I have to wait for mine to bloom to see what colour I have.
My friend Pru's brother in law works at NASA in Florida and sent her this beautiful photo. Part of his job is stocking the shuttle and space station with supplies that the Astronauts will need.
Very please with my grow bag gardens. Everything seems to be doing very well. Tomatoes in the Greenhouse and the small Grow Bag Greenhouse are in bloom. I've already had several meals from the Joi Choi, Swiss Chard, Kale and Lettuce. The Greenhouse Cucumbers, F1 Hybrid Carmen, are growing fast with blossom buds but no flowers yet and the Purple Star Peppers in shopping bag are almost in bloom, one more sunny day should do it. So good to have my own fresh produce this early in the season.
Beautiful sunny cool spring day and I decided to take a walk to the Light House and back. Early training for next years Camino walk from Le Puy to Santiago. My time wasn't half bad 3 hours 45 minutes and it is something like 18 KM. I am however exhausted tonight.
Plans are under way for the fall meeting of the Maritime Friends of the Camino and Peter Coffman has agreed to attend and give a presentation of his Camino Photographs. Peter gave his presentation in Halifax last fall but most of us from New Brunswick didn't do the long drive so it will be great to see his exhibit and presentation at our fall meeting. Peter walked the Camino with the late Oliver Schroer, the Canadian musician who composed and recorded the music for his CD “Camino” as they walk in May and June of 2004. I used Oliver's music as background for my DVD slide show and shorter YouTube video of my 2008 Camino.
Not sure if you are supposed to wait and harvest this when it is a whole head or cut it a leaf at at a time. A whole head would be too much for me so I've started using it a few leaves at a time and it is very good. A lovely dark green must be full of antioxidants and other good things.
A short walk out the path to the hidden garden. This area has been many things over the years, it started out as a large vegetable garden and right now it is a perennial garden and lawn. Earlier this spring I dug up a 12 foot square area and covered it with black plastic mulch so I could garden on top of the mulch this year with grow bags. My plan right now is to divide it next year with a two foot wide cross shaped path creating four 5 foot square raised beds to grow vegetables in.
Continuing the tour of my grow bag gardens starting at the greenhouse where the last video clip left off and visiting the former herb garden that I turned over and covered with black plastic mulch for this year. I have grow bags on top of the mulch and this fall I will remove the plastic and add the soil from the grow bags to the bed and prepare it for it's new life as some sort of garden next year. Right now my thoughts are an Alberta Spruce in the center surrounded by a circle of English Lavender with the rest of the bed covered with a dark mulch. Hard to say how many times I will change my mind before next year though. There is one more short video clip to do leaving this garden and walking out a path through the trees to the hidden where I have another area of grow bags to show you. Hopefully I will get that done in the next few days.
The official start of canning season and first up to the plate is Rhubarb. I use my trusted and well worn copy of Stocking Up , my 1977 edition when ever canning or preserving I find all of their instructions easy to follow and tried and true.
Quoting from the book, the Rhubarb method that I used:
Rhubarb (hot pack method)
For hot pack the water in your canner should be boiling and you should add boiling water enough to bring the level 1 to 2 inches over the top of the jars.
Wash and cut the Rhubarb into ½ inch pieces. Add ¼ cup of honey to each quart of Rhubarb and let stand for several hours to draw out juice. Bring to a boil then ladle into sterile jars filling to within ½ inch of the top. Add sterile lids and tighten. Place in canner as instructed above and process for 10 minutes . Timing from the moment that the water returns to a rolling boil. Putting the cover on the canner will speed up this process.
To sterilize the jars I wash and rinse and place in a 300 degree F over for 10 minutes. I boil the lids in water for ten minutes.
The resulting product from this method is not sweet enough to eat right out of the jar, you will need to add additional sweetener before you serve it or use it in a pie etc.
A rainy day so I decided to make a short video to document the progress in the greenhouse to date.
Today there was lettuce and radishes and an herb flavoured olive oil made with three kinds of fresh basil and Italian flat leaf parsley. The radish are the last of some seed that I brought home from France several years ago, not very many germinated so I guess they must be at the end of their life span.
