Local Superfood Sunchokes

It's time for our final harvest of sunchokes.  We can't believe it's mid December and we are still digging in soft garden soil. The ground is not frozen, there is no snow!  The sunchokes benefit from a light frost, as their flavour sweetens, so we were happy to wait.  Our final harvest is now in.

Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus) are a locally grown, easy to cultivate superfood.  They are native to eastern North America.  The plant is tall with a yellow sunflower at the top (in fact they are in the sunflower family).  Once they are planted in one spot, the roots will spread quickly and are hard to ever completely dig up (so choose spot wisely).  They are also known as earth apple, sunroot, Jerusalem artichoke, and other common names.  They are incredibly healthy, offering high levels of iron, B vitamins (especially vit B1), fibre, potassium, vitamin C, and are low-medium glycemic so easy on blood sugar.

The down side is that they don't store for very long.  They need to be kept in the ground as long as possible until near the eating time, best dug fresh and eaten that day.  They taste something like mashed potatoes when cooked - they can be steamed, boiled, baked, shredded and fried, and used as you would a potato.  We like them steamed with butter and salt, and some freshly chopped herbs like parsley, chives, dill, sage or basil.  If we don't have fresh herbs, the sunchokes are wonderful with pesto.\

We are happy to share our sunchokes with locals - so if you want sunchokes in your garden next year let us know.  We can share sprouts or roots in the spring.

In the garden

In the garden right now:

~ tomatoes (had our first few, many more coming), zucchini, loads of braising greens
~ berries (raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, red and black currants, chokecherries)
~ loads of herbs (basil, oregano, dill, chives, mint, parsley, cilantro, and all the medicinal ones!)
~ peas coming to an end - letting a few pods dry on the vines so we can plant again next year
~ beans ready in a week or so
~ grapes will be in abundance very soon, just ripening
~ greens - chard, kale, spinach (almost done), lettuce greens, wild greens (nettle, dandelion)
~ just a few cukes (oh, we forgot to give them enough water this spring)

Local Super Food - Chokecherries!

We've been noticing an exceptional berry harvest this year (other than strawberries) - the wild berries like mulberries, service berries, raspberries, and also grapes, as in greater abundance than we've seen in many years.  This was the same for the chokecherry tree in our own yard (well two, one is a volunteer that has self-seeded and is also bearing loads of fruit!).  While eating raw chokecherries should be avoided, they  do make lovely jam, wine, syrup and juice.  We are also going to try making chokecherry fruit leather this year, following this recipe idea here.  Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) are considered some of our greatest "local super foods", along with elderberry (Sambucus nigra) as they are high in anti-oxidants and rich in vitamin C.   When using both chokecherries or elderberries the seeds need to be removed, and both of these berries need to be cooked or processed, not eaten raw.  They take a bit of work to pick, pit, and process, but oh they are worth the effort.

Save the date! Organic Seedling Sale at Little City Farm May 24 from 9 am-12 noon

Local homegrown herbals! New! Our soaps & salves now available through Bailey's Local Foods!

We are happy to announce that some of our homegrown herbal products are now available for purchase through Bailey's Local Foods.  This will make the purchasing and pick-up more convenient for local folks who already place regular food orders through the Bailey's online system, and pick orders up at a convenient uptown Waterloo location!

Through the Bailey's site you'll now find our handmade natural soaps, including baby soaps, shampoo bars, assorted body bars, and shaving bars, and even laundry stain stick bars.  You'll find our salves including mama belly balm, calendula healing salve, back ache balm, and all purpose healing salve.  You'll also find our lipbalms - peppermint with red clover, or lavender & local honey.  One of the things that makes our soaps & salves unique is that each uses locally grown herbs such as calendula, lavender, sage, red clover, arnica, and comfrey (grown naturally or sourced from a local organic farm), as well as only pure oils and essential oils for gentle, natural healing.  We work with our herbs from start to finish, including harvesting at their peak, by us, in small batches so we know exactly how they were grown, dried and prepared.

We are very excited about our Herbal First Aid Kits and can't say enough good things about them!  They come in a convenient travel tin that fits into backpacks or bags so it can easily be taken on hikes and kept on hand for when it's needed.   The first aid remedies included are useful for headaches, sunburn, bug bites, minor cuts & scrapes, splinters, heat rash, digestive upset and motion sickness, and much more.  A complete description of the remedies included in the Herbal First Aid Kits is listed here, and also comes with each kit.

A complete line-up of our herbals is also now available through our online Homestead Herbals Etsy store, and we can arrange local pick-up here at our location to save shipping costs.

Fresh syrup!

Well...after collecting sap from our 8 trees (we're just a small homestead in the city!) for 2 weeks and boiling the sap down, we came out with just over 2 litres of delicious syrup!  What a fun learning experience, small-scale that is was, with so much anticipation and incredible results.  Remember, these were syrups made from Black Walnut and Manitoba Maple, not Sugar Maple.  There was lots of tasting at all stages: sap from the tree to thickening syrup, and in the end both our syrups are delicious, yet very distinct flavours that are different from other maple syrup.  More wild and nutty tasting, and oh, so satisfying!  Just another one of those projects we've wanted to try, as we continue to learn to make our handmade life here at our little city farm.  I'd do it again next year, or even look around the neighbourhood to see if other homeowners would like to either share their trees or do their own tapping and share the boiling (in that case we could build a larger evaporator and boil on a fire pit).

Eating our pancakes this morning was the perfect blend of seasons - made with the last blueberries of the past year's harvest, yogurt topped with our last jar of home canned peaches, side by side with this fresh new syrup was the ending of the old year and starting of a new year of production, garden and harvest.  Happy spring!

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy. 

Fresh blueberries

This weekend we had our first taste of local organic blueberries!  It's an annual pilgrimage to make our way to Walkers Blueberry Farm near New Hamburg, to pick enough for the winter and eat our delicious fill.  As you can see, on hot day it's wise to go early and then get some rest  under the shady bushes...

We love local honey

A friend and third generation beekeeper called this week to see if we wanted to try some of her newly harvested honey.  She came by with samples of honeycomb that tasted of sweet spring meadows, and two large jars of the most delicate lavender-scented clover honey - and, best of all, she was interested in bartering her delicious honey for our handmade soap and preserves.   She also sells her honey at the Mill-Courtland Community Centre neighbourhood market each week.

Kitchen projects right now

The kitchen was a lively place this week as we continued to put away the harvest for the coming winter months.  The tabletops, counters and shelves have been full, lined with vegetables and fruit waiting to be processed.  Newly harvested wild foraged apples made into apple butter, pies and apple sauce; garden tomatoes and eggplant chopped up to be slow-roasted with garlic and herbs in the wood-fired oven for a hearty winter sauce; cucumbers made into crock pickles using our favourite recipe from Wild Fermentation; grapes pressed and made into jelly; basil made into pesto and packed into jars for the freezer; peaches sliced and frozen for winter smoothies; organic raspberries picked at Organic Oasis saved for winter; hot cayennes and jalapenos tied into bundles to hang dry in the kitchen; plums into chutney...

First egg

First tiny egg from the new hens!  How they are growing...

In the news - appetite growing for local food

Little City Farm had a nice mention in the local newspaper in an article about the increasing interest in buying and growing local food - here is the link: "Appetite growing for local food".

Summer picnics - loving zucchini, cucumber & Ontario peaches...

We are enjoying all the fresh local food available these days - in the garden, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes...and at the market, Ontario plums, apricots and peaches!   The fresh fruit is such a treat.  For a quick outdoor lunch picnic today:  a rustic zucchini pie, and a cucumber-peach salad. 

Rustic Zucchini Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
7 Tbsp margarine or butter
4 Tbsp water
pinch of sea salt

Topping:
sliced cherry or plum tomatoes, sliced zucchini (Italian Largo worked beautifully), a drizzle of olive oil, a handful of fresh herbs (we used green and purple basil, oregano and thyme), and your favourite cheese (we used goat feta and local mozzarella)

1) Prepare crust.  Roll out into a large oval on lightly floured surface.  Place on lightly greased baking sheet.
2) If you wish, brush crust with lightly beaten egg yolk.  Then layer topping veggies and herbs in concentric circles or other designs on the crust. 
3) Top with generous amounts of fresh herbs, and a drizzle of olive oil.  Sprinkle on cheese.  Roll up sides of crust to form a rustic crimped "pie" edge.
4) Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until crust is golden.  Serve warm, on a rustic wooden platter or cutting board, sliced into squares.  Serves 4.

Cucumber-Peach Salad
2 large peaches, diced
1 large cucumber, diced
1 tsp sea salt
2 green onions, chopped finely
handful of fresh dill and oregano
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil or hemp oil
1 tsp lemon juice
(1 tsp sugar or honey, if you wish)

Combine all ingredients well.   Serve chilled as a refreshing salad on a very hot day!

From garden to table

End of the week round-up...

what's new in the garden - the asparagus patch in full production; strawberries, currants, cherries, pear and apple trees blossoming; eggplant and pepper seedlings all planted into sheets of black plastic covering the ground, and under a temporary hot house made of raised coldframe tunnel to give them a growing boost; 60 plus tomato seedlings planted (15 varieties - in particular we are excited about our favourite Cherokee Purple, Mennonite Orange, and a new Berkeley Tie Dye which seems to be a prized tomato among "local food" chefs for it's complex flavours); carrots, spinach, bunching onions, radishs, peas all coming up...

what's on the supper table these days - rhubarb, herbs and wild edibles in full swing - fresh rhubarb & dandelion spritzers; garden sorrel soup; wild leeks; wild nettle & goat feta pie; free-range eggs with scrambled with garden chives; homemade spelt pasta with fresh parsley pesto; wood-fired pizza with last year's tomato sauce and fresh basil and oregano from the garden; many many cups of fresh mint tea (a blend of peppermint, chocolate mint and ginger mint is currently my favourite combination); fresh garden salads with dandelion, salad greens, wood sorrel, wild violets, kale flowers, red orach, arugula; red & green kale stir-fry; rhubarb crisp with last year's mulberries; ...and more to come...