Canadian Acres
Farming in the North
Stuffed Baked Pumpkins
As I sit down to write this post, I realize that it’s been almost a month (A MONTH!) since my last update. How is it that as we get older, time seems to speed up? Because when I was 7 and had little to do with my day, I seemed to have more time than I could imagine…
This past month has brought full force winter to the farm. It began with a warm spell of muck and slush that basically demolished our road into the property. Yay! This meant that we had to either quad or take the side-by-side (thank you Timber!) to and from our vehicles which were parked anywhere from 1/2 mile to 2 miles up the road. hoo.ray. So everything we owned was muddy, icy, dirty and cold by the time we either got home or got to our vehicles to go into town. Just imagine what it did for my social life. I loved being the girl with mud on her yoga pants. Every. Single.Day. Anyway, we persevered for 3 weeks and I can finally celebrate the fact that it is -2 degrees Fahrenheit (I have to decipher now as I think sometimes my Canadian friends think I’m slow) and the road is frozen and travel-able once again. What has my life come to that I celebrate -2 degrees. Ugh.
During this time I decided it would be a good idea to not only sign up for an art class 1-2 nights a week, but also sign up for a 30 day yoga challenge at a local yoga studio. I am always up for a good challenge. I guess I’m starting to see where my blogging time went. We also hurriedly finished some chores around the farm before the ground froze and had many fires burning at the same time (pun intended).
In my attempt to keep my sanity, I have been relying on prepping dinners early in the day and letting them cook or bake for long periods of time so I can attempt to get my sh*t together.
After being inspired by a few recipes that revolved around stuffing goodies into a sugar pie pumpkin, I decided to try my hand with ingredients I had in my possession – because at the time, this is what transporting my groceries looked like…
A lovely blogger by the name of Georgia Pellegrini posted this amazing looking recipe that has fancier ingredients, but the basics allowed me to go rogue. And I was in luck because the night I threw these babies into the oven for 90 minutes 2 hours before I had to go to yoga, Clay shot a deer… I can attest that they are just as delicious cold as I’m sure they are hot from the oven.
Stuffed Baked Pumpkins
- 2 small or 1 medium sugar pie pumpkins
- 3 pieces of bacon, chopped
- 4 sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, minced
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup kale, shredded or finely chopped
- 2 cups stale whole wheat bread chunks, 1/4 – 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup of Gruyere cheese cubed in similar sized pieces as bread
- 1 cup of cream with a pinch of nutmeg
- Salt & pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet. Cut a circle into top of pumpkin around stem (like a jack-o-lantern) and clean seeds and innards from inside as well as from top. Save seeds for roasting or feed to chickens – the love ’em. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkins and place on parchment paper. Saute bacon until crisp and add sausage. Cook for about 3 minutes and add in garlic and onion. Cook for an additional 5 minutes and add walnuts and kale, stirring to wilt the kale and cooking until everything is hot and smells delightful. Season to taste. Add mixture to bread chunks and cheese and mix thoroughly. Stuff into pumpkins. Add salt and pepper to the cream/nutmeg mixture and pour over stuffing into each pumpkin, making sure that the mixture becomes moist. I did this in steps to ensure the bread absorbed some of the liquid. Place lid on each pumpkin and cook in oven for 90 minutes – 2 hours. It’s done when pumpkin is easily pierced with a knife.
Voila! These look beautiful to serve individually and we ended up cutting them in half to eat. Rave reviews from the deer hunter and the leftovers were magnificent… plus gave me some freed up time to get to yoga without mud on my pants.
Farewell for now… time to butcher that deer – there truly is a first time for everything.
~Katy
Our 2014 Harvest
As the days grow colder and more of the leaves fall to the ground, I find myself thankful for the year we’ve had. Also, thankful for Canadian Thanksgiving and the fact that I now get to celebrate two Thanksgivings. Sweet!
This weekend we spent time with family sharing the bounty of the agriculture season in the Peace Valley, made some new friends, laughed, drank wine & whiskey and it turns out, Canada is starting to feel a little more like home. Clay and I have been working our tail feathers off trying to get some projects finished up before the snow comes, and throughout it all, I’ve been squirreling away our harvest slowly but surely. I’m amazed at how much we gathered this year without even having a legitimate garden. Thank goodness for foraging on the farm, a small hugelkultur bed and some very generous neighbors, family and friends.
It all began with the purchase of some month old chickens and the onset of saskatoon season. It took some time for the chickens to grow, but saskatoon season was ridiculously bountiful this year. Starting in July, we started to notice the small purple and red berries ripen and the amount of black bear sightings grow. I’ve never had a fresh saskatoon and didn’t know much about them, but wowza… we have a gold mine on the peace valley hills of our farm. There was much fun to be had picking them, and had many a friend offer to help with the labor – for payment in fresh berries of course. Happy to oblige. I successfully put up 60 lbs of saskatoons in the freezer, made 7 pints of jam and 3 liters of cordial. I usually make my cordial with Everclear, but apparently BC doesn’t sell the amazing 90 proof alcohol… lame. Next year will warrant a trip to Alberta I suppose. This year will have to settle for vodka.
After saskatoon season died down, it was time for the chokecherries to ripen. I’ve also never had experience with chokecherries and was glad for insightful friends to point out our bushes. My mom and dad came for a visit during chokecherry season and I enjoyed picking and exploring with my mom, who happens to love chokecherry syrup. 20 pounds of chokecherries went to the deep freeze.
Some family went on vacation and gave us access to their raspberry bushes, which we gladly filled our pails. We picked enough for 7 pints of jam and 3 liters of cordial.
I planted two heirloom tomoatoe plants, 2 zuchinin plants and 1 sugar pie pumpkin vine in my small hugelkutlur bed on the south side of our house. It proved to be a powerhouse producer and gave us fresh zucchini for 2 months. With the onset of a very early snow (September 7) I pulled the crop into the house and came out with 30 lbs of green heirloom tomatoes and 3 sugar pie pumpkins. Not too shabby, especially for my first attempt at tomatoes.
I waited for the tomatoes to ripen and ate them fresh plus roasted 20 pounds with garlic, herbs and olive oil – they too ended their journey in my freezer. Recipe found here.
Visiting the local farmers market and fruit stand, I canned 10 quarts of dill pickles and 10 quarts of honey vanilla peaches with rosemary. I picked up 3 whole wild sockeye salmon and turned them into my famous jalapeno teriyaki smoked salmon. It felt good to butcher a salmon again and pull out the smoker. A little piece of home.
The chickens started to lay eggs and I ended up with 5 laying hens and 8 roosters. The ladies started laying the first week of August and with 10 weeks of laying time behind us, we’ve gathered almost 20 dozen eggs. 5 of the roosters were butchered and thrown into the freezer.
As fall settled on the Peace River, crab apples came into season and my neighbors were having trouble with bears ruining their crab apple trees. I graciously offered to help harvest to help lighten the load. My friend Shellie and I spent a brisk day picking apples, drinking tea and watching Sandhill cranes settle in the fields near by. I froze 40 pounds of crab apples when all was said and done and I was quickly running out of space in the my freezer.
Whew… well, so far that’s it.
Last week brought two trips to the U-brew in town and with the help of some lovely ladies I’m fortunate to call my friends, we made a batch of chokecherry wine, saskatoon wine and two batches of crab apple wine. It should leave me with 15 bottles each of saskatoon and chokecherry wine and 30 bottles of crab apple wine. Happy girl!
The only things left to do are finish roasting more tomatoes acquired from our lovely crab apple neighbors, butcher 10 more chickens and hopefully harvest both an elk and a white tail deer (my favorite). We still have some time.
Good lord, no wonder I’m tired and ready for winter 🙂 Although, the work is never done and it will all just turn into cold work. But at least at the end of the day I can sit down, relax and enjoy a glass of harvest wine. I think we may be getting the hang of this homesteading thing…
Happy Harvest to you!
~Katy
2014 Harvest List:
- 20 lbs frozen saskatoons
- 7 pints saskatoon jam
- 3 liters saskatoon cordial
- 15 bottles of saskatoon wine
- 7 pints raspberry jam
- 3 liters of raspberry cordial
- 15 bottles chokecherry wine
- 10 lbs frozen chokecherries
- 20 dozen farm fresh eggs
- 20 lbs of Cherokee purple roasted heirloom tomoatoes
- 3 sugar pie pumpkins
- Loads of fresh zucchini
- 10 qts dill pickles
- 10 qts honey vanilla peaches with rosemary
- 20 packages jalapeno teriyaki smoked salmon
- 5 chicken bodies
- 30 bottles crab apple wine
Autumn Colors & Ugly Chickens
The Peace River Valley has come alive with the season of fall. The colors of the Peace hills are gorgeous and I am lucky to have an amazing view of them outside my windows. Everyday they grow more beautiful, and everyday we draw closer to duh-duh-DUH… winter. Now winter is not my favorite season, but it’s got to be higher on my list than most since I am a Northern girl through and through and, well, have spent most of my life in the cold and snow. It’s a beautfiul time of year, but nothing screams nature’s creativity like fall.
The deer are finding their way back to the fields and the coyotes are having yipping parties at night. We are busy harvesting, preserving and working at putting the farm to bed for the winter. After sitting down last week to compile our “to-do” list before winter hits, it dawned on us that we had a 1,000 things to do and about two weeks to do them… sweet. Story of our homesteading lives I suppose.
And then… it happened. I heard a familiar noise coming from the sky. The unmistakable sound of the sand hill crane. Every spring in Alaska you hoped and wished to hear that sound. It meant the spring had truly arrived and all was well with the world. They were always a delight to see on the beach, always a special part of the Alaskan summer.
Anyway, here I was, in British Columbia, a very long way from a beach and I swear, I heard them call. This spring we had a mating pair of sand hill cranes rest by our dugout on their journey up to Alaska. I was ecstatic. Not only did it mean spring on the farm, it also meant I didn’t have to miss out on this little piece of home.
Well, this elusive sound graced our farm last week. Thousands of sand hill cranes came to stay. It’s the largest migration event I’ve ever witnessed and it was breathtaking. For days, you heard flocks and flocks arrive and pass over the house. I stalked large groups in our fields in an attempt to photograph this glorious event and came up with a few good images to share. They are skittish birds for sure.
What a very lucky place to be. I’m so happy to have witnessed it and my heart is now full of their wonderful song. Goodbye cranes, see you next spring.
In other news, I got more chicks. Yes, I know, I’m officially a crazy chicken lady and I’ve come to terms with it. I couldn’t help myself. The woman down the street had more Gerty’s, and mother-of-all-that-is-adorable, they looked like this.
In pure Katy fashion, I took the ugly one.
It has s split beak which is a deformity in the chicken world so I got it for free. And I’m in love.
I also took a few Bantam Frizzle Cochins to boot. I call them my stinky-crazy-haired bunch, the lot of them. Maynard is stoked on more babies in the house and checks on them regularly, and Wyatt is stoked on the open bag of chick food in the guest room.
We also got KITTENS! After Clay discovered a mouse had taken residence in his hockey bag, it was time to get some barn cats. Introducing Sushi (black) and Sake (tabby), the newest additions to Canadian Acres.
As Fall comes to a close in 2014, I am happy and thankful. Happy that we’ve accomplished so much these past few months and thankful my house is full of laughter, kittens and ugly chickens. Thus is life on the farm.
Stay warm and don’t judge me if my house smells like a barn, I’m working on it.
~Katy
Citrus Vanilla Kitchen & Coop Cleaner
Dear Vinegar,
Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways ~
1. Kitchen: you make my salads, my soups, my pie crusts and my overall health delightful. You keep my veggies pesticide free and my eggs debris-less. Don’t forget you’re mighty skills in the preserving department.
2. Water: Thanks for keeping my dogs and my flock of chickens healthy. Apple Cider Vinegar keeps us all working just right.
3. First Aid: I use you to clean my dogs ears and in a pinch, clean out wounds and owies.
4. Cleaning: My oh my, the power you have. I use you in my laundry, in my bathrooms, in my kitchen and in my chicken coop. Wonderful, beautiful you.
Yep, that’s right, I love vinegar. This new obsession kind of came naturally with the homesteading adventure and I’ve been so amazed at the power it holds over my household. And how much I’ve fallen in love with it’s smell. Seriously.
I’ve always used vinegar in my cooking, but until recently fell short on using it as a disinfectant and cleaner. I have allergy induced asthma and I began to notice I’d have flare ups every time I used chemical saturated cleaners in my home. Um… not cool. Especially since I share my home and spaces with critters who have smaller and more sensitive respiratory systems than I do. What to do, what to do.
After some very thorough (internet) research, I found a whole wide world full of DIY natural cleaning recipes, most of which starred my long lost love, white or apple cider vinegar. It was on like Donkey Kong.
I even used it to clean out Wyatt’s ears when he got a NASTY ear infection a few weeks ago. An infection so bad we gave him the nickname Dead Body because well, that’s what he smelled like. A little solution of 1 part apple cider vinegar 1 part water helped him redeem his place as just smelling like horse poop. Phew.
In the beginning of my chicken adventures, I knew I couldn’t use harsh chemicals to clean out their coop. Chickens have very sensitive respiratory systems and I didn’t want to upset any of my soon to be hard working ladies. I ordered a book called Fresh Eggs Daily (also a great website here) as a guide to natural chicken keeping and I fell in love the ideas and recipes it had to offer. This lady knew her stuff, and the use of herbs, garlic, apple cider vinegar and white vinegar just made sense. One of my favorite recipes from the book is a Citrus Vanilla Coop Cleaner that can also be used in the kitchen. I was skeptical about the the smell because vinegar can be strong, but since vodka is so expensive where I live, I gave it a try.
The smell took some getting used to. The first time I used it I was not completely sold, but the more I used it, the more I loved it. So, I thought I’d share!
Citrus Vanilla Kitchen & Coop Cleaner from Fresh Eggs Daily
- 4 oranges (or 6 limes, 5 lemons, 2 grapefruit, or a mix)
- 2 cinamon sticks
- 2 vanilla bean (great Costco snag)
- Bottle of white vinegar (or inexpensive vodka (which doesn’t exist in Canada))
- 2 one-pint canning jars
- Spray bottle
Peel the citrus and divide the peels between the canning jars. I then proceed to juice the citrus and drink it. Break the cinnamon sticks in half and add. Slit each vanilla bean and add to the jars. Pour enough vinegar or vodka into each jar to completely cover the peels leaving at least 1/4 inch headroom in each jar. Screw on lids and set jars in pantry or on the kitchen counter to age. Shake the jars every few days to mix. The spray is ready to use when the liquid starts to turn an orangish-tan color, usually within one to two weeks. Strain the contents into a spray bottle and enjoy! The cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans can be reused for a second batch, but use fresh citrus peels.
I usually double the batch and use large mason jars… between the husband, the dogs and the chickens I go through a lot of cleaner.
There you have it, an awesome all-natural chemical-free kitchen and coop cleaner.
Thank you vinegar, I love you.
Does anyone out there have any uses I missed?
~Katy
Fall on the Farm 2014 – A week in photos
Last September brought sunshine and warm temperatures. This September brings an early, gorgeous fall full of surprises. We’ve had snow, sun, wind and an amazing display of color. Hunting season is upon us and we are hoping to harvest an elk and some deer for the freezer. Our evening walks have turned into hunts as we are lucky to have over a thousand acres to explore. Clay packs his gun, and I pack my camera.
Fall has proven to be just as busy as our summer season as we begin to put the farm to bed for the winter. There is much cleaning, mulching, harvesting, preserving and playing to be had. What a wonderful life to live.
Wishing you a beautiful and busy fall season.
~Katy
Canadian Acres 