the harvest begins

The new Freedom Rangers

With meals coming in from the gardens every day, all that spring work is very rewarding. It is very satisfying for us to sit down to a full farm meal.

raspberries for dessert 

Noah tops basil for pesto 

Zucchini is here in full zuc glory. I'm not sure why but Noah always feels a need to plant out fifteen or twenty zucchini plants, good thing it's early in the season, we are still enjoying eating lots and friends are eager to take it away Any favorite recipes or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Please leave them in a comment form for everyone to see as I'm sure I'm not the only one with surplus. I've already thought of feeding them to the chickens and cows. 

We moved most of the flock back down the road as the rain has kept the grass growing.
We had to leave poor ,Brother, behind he is getting to big to be with the other ewes and was not happy.  Old William  is with him for company and he took about at day to settle down. Here he is crying until hoarse. It really pays to be a ewe around here. 

And what goes better with lamb than garlic. Noah pulled the first of our garlic last week. Last September CBC radio interviewed a garlic farmer from Denman Island he said to plant your garlic on the full moon at midnight fully naked to get a good garlic crop. Noah and Lyra planted it at about ten at night last October full moon ,fully clothed, it seemed to work out just fine. I do tease Noah about how much better it would be doing if he had planted it naked. All he says is it's to cold in October.

keeping the vampires out of the feed room

Rain & Sun

rose petals for drying

The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers. 

Robert Louis Stevenson

We don't have a red and white cow or a meadow, but I still feel the same way about Fifi. Our little calf who is named" Ferdinand" is doing great. Thank you to Sarah for the name suggestion. Growing, frisky and has figured out how to nurse all four teats.  I shook up some butter last week, of course it's all gone, just look at the lovely golden colour. Lyra would go into the fridge and just ask for a little spoon full. Custard is on the to do list. It's really nice to have the fridge becoming more and more empty and the garden fuller and fuller. I'm pretty sure my fridge is just for dairy in the summer anyway. 

Garden #2 grows

Another 123 freedom ranger chicks arrived yesterday evening. I still have a few left for sale so give me a call or email to get on the list. Thank you to Anna for picking them up, my back thanks you and my three year old for not having to spend hours in the car. The chicks are snug under the hover and hopefully just as healthy as the last batch. I drop another fifty off at South End Farms as well. Where Jill and I had a chance to chat about some exciting  ideas for next year. Because we both are going to have so much time on our hands soon with our due dates two days apart. Here are some farm pictures from the last few weeks, haying took over there is still seven sheep, two hives, milking cow and calf, two veggies gardens, greenhouse, a hundred meat birds and fifteen laying hens to care for here at our place. 
 It's summer want to go swimming? 

in all it's golden glory

The bees are doing great in the heat, I got to try a bit of warm honey, very good just a little smokey from Noah's finger. They love the new frames we made them. 

Lyra learns how to trim hoofs 

Freedom Rangers at four-five weeks

Welcome Home

The hay is in, cue the rain. I didn't get out in the field much other than to drive the truck, but my feet hardly reach the petals anymore. Am I shrinking or growing? I was much to busy holding down the fort and bringing food to the field.  Other than a quick 7 pm drop by to milk, Fifi, Noah was always home long after I went to sleep. Our farm kept me very busy while he was away, working and haying. Everything also takes me about two or three times longer than Noah as I have to carry smaller amounts. But I have to stay nothing died and I actually got food put away and a lot of weeding done.

We cut twelve hundred bales of hay this year on the South End of Quadra Island. It's interesting that almost all the fields where we cut hay have been farms for over a hundred years. From what I heard some days seemed more successful than others using a lot of "vinatge" equiment had it's ups and downs. Meaning things broke. Over the week Noah and Etienne both started to look more like real third world farmers. Tanned/sunburnt, dirty, puffy eyed and I'm guessing they lost about five pounds.  But in the end our second cut received a great complement from Mark saying "this was nicest hay he's ever seen on Quadra" and he drove away with 70 bales.  We also have first and second cut avaible for sale from the barn (thank you to our neighbours for the barn).  Just call us and I'll set up a time for someone to meet you.
Look for our hay at the Quadra Fall Fair this September. Check out the Quadra Fall Fair website for more information
lhttp://www.quadraisland.ca/fall-fair/index.html

talking grass, unless Jerry can get them talking trees 

much deserved ice cream break 

my favourite view of the hay, leaving the field.

Good Morning

What a day! I woke up this morning at about 6:30 hungry, as usual.  The first think I noticed was the sound of the raven's calling.  I graped a peach of the counter and started sleepily over to the pasture. The grass was still wet and peach juice dripped down my arm, I still felt dreamy as I walked around looking for the cow. She was in the very back paddock and there on the grass before her was her newborn calf. Still wet, he must have been born only a few moments earlier. It was so sweet to see them together in the morning light. Fifi nugged and the little bull calf slowly got up on his woobly legs for his first steps. I stayed watching them until Fifi gave me a look.  I headed back to the house and crawled back into bed with wet grassy feet. We are looking for a name so send me your ideas, we usually let Lyra name the animals but we aren't letting this one get named Strawberry Shortcake Fluffy Sleepy Cloud.

little milky face 

first frolic after a belly full of milk 

July will on fly by

As Etienne and Noah meet in the driveway this sunny morning, I can tell they are excited about cutting hay. The sun is finally out and it's expected to be warm for the next few days. If I was a "real" farm wife I'd have been up for hours making a large breakfast and packing them a good hardy lunch. But I am not, just a seven month pregnant mortal who guards her sleep jealousy. For I only have a few months left of it. I am bringing them a picnic lunch:) I have been to busy lately to blog. The canadian long weekend was very busy. Noah brought home a five foot bush mower on friday. I'm going to spare you the many teenage quality joke adds. You now can hire Noah and Etienne to bush mow. Saturday and Sunday brought more bailer work, emotions flew from a full on happy dance to a mild depression. Massey Ferguson is not in operation right now but I it will be.  Bailing will still happen just at a slower pace. Thank you to Coady for all your help over the weekend. I didn't get a good photo of the three of you, but you really do make the canadian poster together.

     

nothing that ice cream and beer can't remedy

I was able to get the rest of the seed in for our winter garden crops in and our animal fodder. The garden is now full of work and all the lettuces can be replanted. Despite the cool, rainy weather  the garden is growing. We got to eat the first new potatoes and I topped by basil to make pesto last night. The meat birds are growing well and it's amazing how much grass they eat in twelve hours.

I really try hard not to make this a food blog. But this fresh pasta recipe is so good I have to share it. If have time to make pancakes you have time to make fresh pasta. The dough is easier to work with if you make it after lunch, tightly cover the dough and leave it on the counter until dinner time.

1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup durum semolina flour
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Some every exciting news Hillcrest farms was blogged about on my favourite food blog. Check it out http://www.ripplerockcooks.com/
If you want a food blog follow this one.

Late June brought out the roses, honeysuckles and lavendar. Lyra and I harvested lavender yesterday.

Can you smell the lavender?

Monday night was date night for Noah and myself. We headed to Paul's to make our own frames. It was nice to sit and chat, this is something I can see myself doing over many winter evenings. As frame building is a mix of building and crafting my hands where always busy. We talked bees of course and got around 30 frames built which Noah added to our hives the next day. Beeswax is another one of my favourite scents and we went home smelling of beeswax with our minds humming with beeing ideas.