My Version

Here's my version of the Chive Vinegar.  Even after a couple hours the pink is showing up and the smell is amazing?  I can't wait to put this on a salad.  They said that it's really good in potatoe salad too.  I've always put apple cider vinegar on my potatoes while they're warm so I bet this will taste amazing.  I'[m a little embarressed that you can see my wilty parsley beside it, I considered photoshopping that out.  But I changed my mind. 

I got a picture of my iris's that are blooming.  Love Iris's, as you can tell from the picture my weed garden is doing amazing!!  I gave up on that flower bed this year.  I had always just thrown things into it and it wasn't very attractive and the grass just took over this year.  So my plan is just to dig out the flowers as they bloom(so I can find them)plant them somewhere temporary and redig the whole bed and edge it with some logs or 2x4's.  Then I can replant everything in the spring and hopefully most things will live.  It's mostly lillies in there anyway and they are pretty hardy.  This yellow lilly bloomed the other day, I had no idea I had yellow lillies! It's always a surprise every year.

See the lattice in the background? That's my fence that keeps blowing down.  There's actually only half of it up right now.  I'd like to plant climbing roses all along it, I think that would look nice and disguise the fact that the lattice is all broken.

Last but now least here's a picture of Ronan, they were over last night so a took a couple to put on so you can see him.  They smell so good when they're that age!!

Can't Wait To Try This

I found this article on line and can't wait to try it, I'm going out in the morning to pick my chives!!!
I'm really interested in making flavoured vinegars and wines this year.  I got a little recipe book for country wines a month ago. I've made the rhubarb and rowan berry already, but they have recipes for onion wine, parsnip wine, banana wine, pineapple wine etc.  I'm pretty determined to make all 62 recipes!  The only problem is that they need to age for about a year.  That's a long time to wait to taste them!  I'm excited the most about the onion wine, thay said that its really good for cooking and marinating your meat.  Doesn't that sound delicous.

Chive blossoms smell ever so gently of onion and when steeped for a week or two, they give both that fragrance and their light purple color over to the vinegar. The actual process is so easy that you don’t need an actual recipe.
Pick a generous number of chive blossoms. Soak them in cool water to remove any dirt or bugs that might have taken refuge inside the blossoms. Dry them well (salad spinners are great for this) and stuff them into a jar so that it is between 1/2 and 2/3 filled with blossoms (I used a half gallon jar). Fill the jar with white vinegar. Because I’m cheap, I used a basic distilled vinegar. If you’re fancier than I am, try white wine vinegar.
Let the blossoms steep in the vinegar for two weeks in a cool, dark place. When the time has elapsed, strain the vinegar and pour it into any jar you’d like. Use anywhere you think it would taste good.

New Recipe

I made this the other night and it was so good.  As long as you like the sweetness.

CRANBERRY RICE WITH CARMELIZED ONIONS

2 1/2c      chicken broth
1/2c         uncooked wild rice
1/2c         uncooked brown rice(or white)
3med       onions cut in wedges
2tsp         brown sugar
3tbsp       butter
1c            dried cranberries
1/2tsp      grated orange peel(I didn't have an orange so I left this out but I bet it's delicious with it)

In large saucepan bring broth to a boil.  Add the wild rice.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10mins.  Add the brown rice, cover and simmer for4 45-50mins or rice is cooked.
In skillet melt butter and add onions, sprinkle sugar on top and let the onions carmelize slowly.  when they're done add to rice along with cranberries and orange peel.



Hope you like this too.  I made it with pork chops and honey glazed carrots.  Yumm!

New Chicks

On Tuesday my chicks from Shurgain came in. So we headed to Windsor in the afternoon to pick them up.  I bought 30 this time, hoping for a small loss so maybe I'll end up with 25. These aren't as many as I wanted to get but Shawn wants me to start small.  Although he is the one pushing me to get four or five turkeys. They should be here in a couple weeks.  Gotta get busy finishing up the chicken tractors we're building for them.

Here I am again.

Hi to everyone.  Its been such a long time since I've seen anyone, or even talked to anyone.  It's difficult with not having a phone.  But I'm staying strong, I refuse to pay for a landline when we already pay for a cell phone. We voted and decided to put that money towards getting the internet hooked up again so now I can at least communicate with everyone through this avenue.
I have so many pictures to show you of everything that's going on around here.  I'll start off with just a few though, I don't want to overwhelm anyone.
I'm going to continue posting from now on.  I don't know how often, I guess it depends on how dedicated I can be with it. I always did have such a problem with seeing things through. I tend to get interested by something else and wonder off in another direction.

These pictures were taken about two weeks ago, we were all outside doing yardwork and it was such a beautiful day.  My two apple trees were pruned last year so did didn't blossom at all but this year it was a different story!

Then I noticed Conner and I had to take a picture of him too :)





Exciting Day

On Sunday the 19th of October I had a busy day.  First I ran into Windsor with Shelley looked at an apartment, which she loved so I think she's taking it.  Then we ran back to the Ardoise community hall because they were having a dime auction(which I've never been to), but shawn wanted me to go and support it.  And surprisingly enough it was really fun.  They had over 200 donated items(I donated preserves) set up on tables and in front of each one is an ice cream container.  When you first walk in you buy an envelope for $1, as many as you want. The enevelope has an number on it and 10 pieces of paper inside with the same number.  So you walk around and put as many tickets in the container of the item you want to put a bid on as you want. Then at the end of it they go up and down the rows and draw an number out.  If it's yours you win.  This is what I won.

Sorry, I took the picture as I was leaving for work.  It's awful dark out isn't it!!!!

After that I ran over to south Rawdon rd and picked up 4 more laying hens from someone that wanted to get rid of them.  They're 3 years old so they're not great layers but they'll do for now until my young ones start laying. And they're my first brown speckled eggs!!

Rowan Berries

I wanted to try and make Rowan berry jelly this year.  Apparently it's an english type of jelly to serve with wild meat.  Since I have a tree in the yard I thought why not.  Unfortunatley I waited too long and most of them were on the ground from the wind the day before.  It's a long process picking those tiny berries out of the grass!!!!! Then I had to pick through them and clean them.  And by the end of it I still didn't have quite enough. I could probably make 1/2 a batch but I need crabapples and I can't find those anywhere!!! so I bagged them and shoved them in the freezer.  That's my solution for everything.