Final garden clean-up

This extra extra long fall has given us a late November chance to do one last clean up in the gardens, our final outdoor herb and greens harvest (calendula is still blooming!), plus our latest garlic planting ever!  The greens are abundant in the cold tunnel, growing nicely under the hoop cover - and abundant in the indoor passive solar greenhouse too.  We are looking forward to winter harvests of kale, chard, spinach, chives, mizuna, arugula, tatsoi, and others.

Autumn Farm Day! Oct 10 with PIE + PIZZA! At Little City Farm from 11-1 pm

 


Don't forget - just over a week away is our first ever Organic Pie & Pizza Pop Up Shop here at Little City Farm as a way to celebrate the fall harvest season.

We'll have a delicious assortment of freshly baked organic pies for sale (I love pumpkin, but think I'm most excited about the salted caramel apple pies we'll be featuring!), and wood-fired pizza by the slice.  Come on out for pies & pizza, meet friends & neighbours, celebrate the fall harvest with us, and enjoy the last of the warm fall weather in our garden beside the cob oven.

Sat, Oct 10 from 11 am-1 pm
Hope to see you here!

Going to Seed

We had our annual Seed Saving Workshop here on the weekend.  Our guest facilitator Taarini Chopra from Seeds of Diversity was here to lead the group through all the details to know about saving seeds from the home garden - first of all why to save seeds! Then basic plant botany; distances between varieties to avoid cross-pollination; when to harvest; how to harvest; how to dry (and which seeds dry on the plant); specifically saving lettuce, beans, peas and tomatoes; and lots of interesting hands-on activities like shelling dried beans, and opening soaked fava beans to find the little sprout inside ready to burst out.

There is lots of seed saving information on Seeds of Diversity's website here and below are photos of some of the plants in our garden that have gone to seed - such beautiful and diverse seeds they are (we are very good at letting things go to seed around here - partly unintentional as this time of year is just so busy, and partly intentional as we want to save seeds and let seeds stand for winter food for wildlife.)

Making grape juice - the easy method

This year is proving to be THE best grape harvest yet in all our seasons living and gardening here.  Ironically, the falling of two large beautiful old trees in a high wind storm a few weeks ago has helped immensely in the grape success.   Now, where there used to be deep shade for much of the day, we get full sun shining down on our ripening grape vines all day long.  With all this bounty we needed to find quick ways to harvest and preserve. Having a young baby here to care for, means limited time for long canning projects - so we discovered this easy and quick method of making grape juice.  12 beautiful litres done in 30 minutes today!

Easy Grape Juice Method

1) Fill litre jars with 1 cup grapes (cleaned, destemmed and washed).  Concord, or other grapes.
2) Add 1/4 cup sugar to each jar (upto 1/2 cup if you want a sweeter juice).
3) Fill each jar with boiling water, leaving 1/2 inch head space.
4) Top jar with clean lid and canning ring.
5) Process according to canning procedures for 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve the juice, simply strain it into your glasses and compost grapes.
Makes easy, delicious, beautiful juice.

First snow today - beautiful and fleeting

Thankfully this morning's beautiful dusting of snow has already melted.  We still have so much to do around here!  The barn/greenhouse reno needs to be closed up - the roof is on, the greenhouse glass is being put on today, one door is framed, a few others need to come...

But the yard and garden were beautiful none the less, and quite thrilling to our daughter, and maybe even the chickens who were not quite sure what to make of it.  Some of the herbs (like the mints, chives, parsley, dill, sage, thyme and savory) are still looking just fine for harvesting, and our cold frame still holds kale, chard, spinach, and fresh cilantro, and we have planted to covered grow beds with meslun and other greens for late winter eating.  I also found a few handfuls of the sweetest wild grapes still left clinging to the vines on the back porch.  However, it does feel like we are coming to the ending of this season.