Mark Your Calendar! Annual Handmade Holiday Sale coming to Little City Farm Dec 7 from 9 am-2 pm

Featuring 8 local vendors including:
Sew Oiseau - original handmade clothing and accessories from recycled fibres
Your Time Candles - handmade pure beeswax candles
Once Upon A Tree - fine wood turnings (bowls, cutting boards) from fallen trees
Homestead Herbals - natural herbal soaps, salves & botanicals
Recycled bicycle art & jewelry
Eco journals, children's eco toys & handmade dolls
Wool slippers & felted wool ornaments
Organic baked goods & more surprises!

Holiday preparations

We are getting ready to celebrate the longest night of the year - solstice.  We've made some favourite foods (cookies of course, but also these hearty wintery crackers cut into stars, acorns and hearts), dipped lots of candles to light up the house, and in time for Dec 22 are attempting to create our first ever chocolate yule log (Buche de Noel) with this delicious flourless recipe!  

Instead of a tree we've brought in pine and cedar branches, rosehip branches, yellow and red osier dogwood branches, and pinecones - all from the yard - to decorate the doors and tables.  The wild rosehips have started to sprout leaves after about a week in a jar of water, which is a lovely reminder of the spring to come. We also have our gratitude tree, a large collection of yellow dogwood branches in a vase where we've hung felted acorns and bird oranments.  We added our thoughts of gratitude written on slips of leaf-shaped paper, remembering all we are thankful for at this time of year and hopes we have for the new year ahead.   Wishing you all well for the holidays and new year!

Hearty Wintery Crackers
2 cups flour (organic whole spelt)
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds, ground finely
1/4 cup each hemp seeds, sesame seeds
1-2 Tbsp millet
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water

Mix ingredients well, and form into a ball.  Roll out dough on lightly floured surface.  Cut into shapes.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes on ungreased baking sheets, in 350 F oven.  Serve with cheese, apple butter, jams, or soups!  Or package into containers to give as holiday gifts.

A Little Bird Told Me Craft Sale Vendor Profile: Jesse Robertson Re-Cycled Crafts

Over the weeks leading upto our annual handmade holiday craft sale, "A Little Bird Told Me", on Sat, Dec 10, we are highlighting each one of the participating vendors.  Here is a short interview Jesse Robertson, Re-Cycled Crafts:

Little City Farm: Describe the products you will have at the Little Bird Sale (e.g. materials you use, who your products are geared toward, your process, etc).

 

Jesse: I collect and recycle used bicycle components to make unique crafts. The pieces are professionally brazed, so are very sturdy. Things I’ll be displaying will include candle stands, candelabras, bottle openers, and more.  The candle stands hold tea lights or tapers, and the candelabras hold three of either. Some of the bottle openers include an integrated 15mm wrench, and all have been rigorously tested on a standard ¾ inch beer bottle cap. These re-cycled crafts are great for anyone who enjoys cycling, candle-lit dinners, one-of-a-kind conversation pieces or… well, opening bottles.

Little City Farm: How did you learn this craft/art?

Jesse: I’ve been working as a bicycle mechanic for over 5 years, and I’ve always been interested in finding potential new uses for the interesting looking bits of worn out components. The pieces are primarily brazed by a friend, and the rest has been trial and error!

Little City Farm: What inspires your craft/art?

Jesse: A love of bicycles and their parts, and re-imagining uses for things that would otherwise be thrown away.
 

Little City Farm: Describe how your craft/art is eco-friendly?
 
Jesse: The components I work with have all lived out their useful lives on bicycles, and would otherwise have been thrown away. No new components are used in the process.

Little City Farm: Favourite music to listen to while you craft? 

Jesse: Usually something by Tom Waits, but I’ve also been on a pretty serious Leatherface kick lately… or any good anarcho-punk.

Come find Jesse and his recycled bicycle artworks at A Little Bird Told Me Sale on Sat, December 10th at 508 Duke St W!

A Little Bird Told Me Craft Sale Vendor Profile: Laura's Honey

Over the weeks leading upto our annual handmade holiday craft sale, "A Little Bird Told Me", on Sat, Dec 10, we are highlighting each one of the participating vendors.  Here is a short interview with Laura Stirling, 4th generation beekeeper, of Laura's Honey.

Little City Farm: Describe the products you will have at the Little Bird Sale:

Laura: I will offer gift sized jars of pure raw honey as well as beautiful sections of natural comb, presented in a small decorative container.  There will also be rolled, tapered beeswax candles as well as the "pillar" variety.

Little City Farm: How did you learn this art/craft?

Laura: I am blessed to be the fourth generation of a family of beekeepers.  My great grandfather, Hubert Burke began keeping bees as a profession in the early 1900s.  His son, Douglas Burke continued the tradition, expanding the buisness and managing a large apiary.  My father Randy Burke, began his own apiary in Manitoba and as a little girl I helped my father in his many bee yards.  It was there I learned that bees are a facinating insect, readily approachable and certianly nothing to be afraid of.  I enjoyed watching my father work, helping by smoking the bees, as well as stealing pollen from easily accessable pollen traps!  I recently decided to invest in my own hive and had a profitable first year.  Next year I hope to expand by purchasing additional hives for my bee yard.

Little City Farm: What inspires your art/craft?

Laura: My deep love of the natural world continually inspires my desire to keep bees.  It is very satisfying to open a hive and see freshly drawn out comb, filled with honey produced by the bee who harvests nectar from nearby flowers.  Not to mention pollination, which allows each of us the priviledge of enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables every year.  I love being a part of this natural process.

Little City Farm: Describe how your art/craft is eco-friendly.

Laura: The beekeeper not only harvests the honey, but also concerns themselves with the honey bee's health and well being.  I monitor the health of the brood (young) and regularly check for and if need be, treat for disease.  This promotes the continued health of the honey bee, which as I am sure some of you know, is under some strain right now due to climate change.  Beekeepers are also actively concerned about the use of new genetically modified seed, as some of these seeds are engineered to destroy insects when the fruit is ingested.  Bees consume the pollen of these plants and it is unknown whether they are able to tolerate it.  In addition to this, over the years beekeepers have been an active voice against the use of pesticides, as any pesticide will kill the honey bee. 

Little City Farm: Do you have favorite music to listen to while you work?

Laura: The sounds of the world around me while I work - wind, bees humming and birds!

Find Laura and her beautiful honey and beeswax products at the A Little Bird Told Me Sale, Saturday December 10 at Little City Farm (508 Duke St W, Kitchener). 

Little break from the homestead

A little holiday trip that almost didn't happen...life is so busy that it's easy to put off a holiday, much as it is needed.  Each year we usually try to get away on a small camping trip in early September.  It's the perfect time to go - the weather is still warm enough for swimming, the cooler nights invite cozy campfires, and we have the trails and beaches nearly all to ourselves.  So, we decided we needed to go.  We madly canned our ripe grapes into jelly and tomatoes into sauce the night before leaving, put our other to-do lists on hold, found a few friends willing to look in at our homestead while we were away, packed simple foods and warm clothes, and headed out to the Pinery (a beautiful provincial park on Lake Huron, less than 2 hours from here).  It's amazing what a short break from the everyday routines can do - we walked the forest trails, ran along the sand dunes, swam in cold water, built sand sculptures, had a birthday picnic on the beach, ate smokey food cooked over a fire - the family togetherness was wonderful and now we are back at the homestead with renewed vision for the fall projects ahead. 

Don't Miss - Sat, Dec 11 - A Little Bird Told Me Craft Sale, 10 am-4 pm at Little City Farm!!

December is here, and it feels like the festive winter season is upon us!  We want to wish everyone well for the holiday season, the coming Solstice, and longer days that are ahead...

If you are local, please drop by to say hello during our annual  
A Little Bird Told Me Craft Sale, this Saturday, December 11, from 10 am-4 pm.  We'll have 9 vendors, beautiful works of art, handmade one-of-a-kind gift for everyone on your list, and lots of socializing while you are here! 

Solstice garden!

Chilly day with brilliant sunlight reflecting off snow drifts, sliver of a moon in a crisp dark night sky...freshly chopped wood, baked apples stuffed with cranberries and almonds, a long leisurely winter walk through the woods, cozy dinner of local potato-leek soup with fresh sourdough bread and steamed kale uncovered in the garden, friends dropping by unannounced their arms filled with holiday treats, time to relax with other mama's sipping fantastic homemade eggnog as the children played...the solstice this year from start to finish was a glorious day, and now we look forward to longer days as we move into the new season ahead.

Some of our favourite garden catalogues just arrived in the mail (William Dam, Cottage Gardeners, Greta's Organic, West Coast Seeds...) and we anticipate spending many of our long winter nights infront of the fire, while paging through these seed lists and drawing up plans for next year's garden. Wishing everyone all the best for the solstice, holiday season, and new year ahead. Here are a few photos of our solstice garden and house. The crooked little white spruce will become our indoor festive tree this year, for only a few days as it needs to be put right back out into the cold to overwinter before it's planted in our yard next spring...

Halloween for a locavore

Ok, it's halloween. I much prefer the tradition of the "Dia De Los Muertos" (or Day of the Dead), which happens in Mexico on Nov 1 & 2. This is a celebration that focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The holiday is connected to the American "All Saints Day" or "All Souls Day" which also stake place on those days. Traditions of Dia De Los Muertos include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Scholars trace the origins of Dia De Los Muertos to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess named Mictecacihuatl (or "the Lady of the Dead"). Food, skulls, candles and so on (equated with our halloween) have come from this holiday.

Similar holidays are celebrated in many parts of the world; for example, it is a public holiday in Brazil where many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain there are festivals and parades, and at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray to their loved ones who have died. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and in Asian and African cultures (thanks Wikipedia!).

And we have halloween. So, what does a local-food inclined person who believes more in the traditional ritual mentioned above, and who does not want to support a multi-national corporation like Nestle, or hand out more sugar and chocolate to kids that are already getting bagloads of it, do? I like the idea of people on the street observing a common celebration, even if it has become a little skewed over the years, so I do want to participate in some small way. We can't give out apples or handmade treats anymore (at least to people who don't know us), as people don't trust anything that's not made in a factory setting and triple plastic sealed. I tried giving out non-food items like colourful fancy pencils and stickers one year, but this did not really go over very well. It didn't feel very good to see so many disappointed young faces, even if I was trying to teach an alternative.

Well for the people who we do know, including the parents who walked the young toddlers around, I made up pumpkin cookies (using local organic pumpkin). For those who didn't know us, I had granola bars (store-bought, alas), sesame snaps, and organic fruit leather. I felt pretty good about the selection, both in terms of what we were offering being fairly healthy yet still exciting enough to a trick-or-treater, and the response we got from kids (even the older ones seemed to appreciate the option of organic goodies).

Here's that pumpkin cookie recipe. Really easy, very tasty. You can leave out the chocolate chips and add more spices to get more of a pumpkin pie experience.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup veg oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, optional

Mix well. Bake in preheated 350C oven, on greased cookie sheets, for about 10 minutes (until golden and lightly firm).