Chilly October days and every morning, bright and early we head for Wilno for the final transformation of our beloved Red Canoe Cafe and Wilno Station Inn into a prosaic rental dwelling. I am cleaning grease from the top of the kitchen cupboards and cursing several of our unmotivated cooks and kitchen preps...I am folding bedspreads and thinking of our many inn guests who became friends. I am removing the paintings and the books and the giftware and thinking of all our openings and soirees and events...the patio with white twinkle lights on a sultry August night, those magical musical evenings with Ian Tamblyn and Cara Luft and Sneezy Waters...the Film Festival...Philosopher's Cafe...poetry afternoon.
November 1, we'll lock the door for the winter and our new tenants will take over the residential part of the building. I will be writing 50,000 words as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel WRiting Month) and I will be bringing home 30 East Friesien dairy ewes as part one of my new life as a cheesemaker.
In the meantime, come on out to our farm on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 pm for a visit, a farm tour if you wish, and a snack of some kind of homemade tasty treat. Our farm shop and freezers are open for business for orders large and small. We have organically raised lamb, pork, beef, chicken and eggs...local eating at its best!!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Navajo-Churro ewes for sale
Must sell some of my flock as we will soon be taking over a 30 ewe flock of East Friesien dairy ewes.
For sale:
Alexandra: 18 months old. Cream coloured. Lovely horns. Mother is Dorset/Navajo/Jacob
Had twins this spring.
May: Two years old. Navajo/Jacob cross. Brown with black face.
Single lamb this spring.
Brownie: 18 months old. Blondie/russet fleece. Navajo/Jacob. horns. Beautiful fleece.
One lamb this spring.
150.00 each delivered within an hours drive. 613-628-9986. Ask for Joanne
For sale:
Alexandra: 18 months old. Cream coloured. Lovely horns. Mother is Dorset/Navajo/Jacob
Had twins this spring.
May: Two years old. Navajo/Jacob cross. Brown with black face.
Single lamb this spring.
Brownie: 18 months old. Blondie/russet fleece. Navajo/Jacob. horns. Beautiful fleece.
One lamb this spring.
150.00 each delivered within an hours drive. 613-628-9986. Ask for Joanne
Saturday, October 16, 2010
end of an era, end of the summer
It is eight pm on Saturday evening and I am sitting here at my kitchen table in my pj's and bathrobe amidst the following items. Aprox 12 bags of organic chicken feed piled in the sunroom, six boxes of kitchenware from the Red Canoe Cafe, all the pots from our five ayem perogie-cooking marathon for Taste of the Valley,coolers, bins, a pile of sweaters and mittins and scarves (it is very cold at six ayem at the Cobden Fair Grounds). The old Belanger kitchen range is toasty warm, the sheep and hens are safely in their beds and I have had two glasses of "girly wine" and a hot bath. I am celebrating the end of one life and the beginning of another.
This weekend marks the official end of the Red Canoe Cafe and the Wilno Station Inn. I will be exploring a lot of my ambivalent feelings into my novel when one of my characters, Orleen,decides to close her diner and take off in her RV for parts unknown. In the story, she hooks up with a band of lesbians called the Van Dikes and tours off to New Orleans, but that is a future plot development.
We were up at five ayem this morning, preparing for the Cobden Taste of the Valley. We boiled and fried up about 300 perogies,loaded the travelling freezer with pork, beef, lamb and chicken. In the past two days, I have roasted and pureed pumpkin and baked scones, biscuits and pumpkin loaves from morning till night. All this was piled in the truck and the trailer. We fed the chickens and threw hay to the sheep and dressed in about four layers of clothing, set off for the Ag Hall in beautiful downtown Cobden.
I love Cobden. I love Cobden's hearty plaid shirt farmers, I love their sweet small town main street, I love the view of the lake as you hurtle down toward highway 17 and I love the Cobden Sales Barn and my teenage excitement sneaking out of Opeongo High School to see Pierre Fontaine....another story for my novel...
My visit to Cobden today was more prosaic with a full day of selling meat and baked goods and perogies at the last and final Taste of the Valley for 2010. Despite early morning clouds and a brisk wind, we had a goodly number of buyers and potential buyers. Finally, at three pm, chilled to the bone and weary, we packed it up and headed home. No more early mornings for farmers markets, no more late night waiting for inn guests, no more dinner rush or lunch groups...much as I loved it all, it is now over. Tomorrow morning I am mistress of my own destiny!!! After I weigh a half a pig worth of pork,clean up todays kitchen mess, deliver a twig settee and a painting to Barrys Bay, take two sheep by trailer to Silver Lake and attend to my writers group the rest of the day IS MY OWN!!!!
This weekend marks the official end of the Red Canoe Cafe and the Wilno Station Inn. I will be exploring a lot of my ambivalent feelings into my novel when one of my characters, Orleen,decides to close her diner and take off in her RV for parts unknown. In the story, she hooks up with a band of lesbians called the Van Dikes and tours off to New Orleans, but that is a future plot development.
We were up at five ayem this morning, preparing for the Cobden Taste of the Valley. We boiled and fried up about 300 perogies,loaded the travelling freezer with pork, beef, lamb and chicken. In the past two days, I have roasted and pureed pumpkin and baked scones, biscuits and pumpkin loaves from morning till night. All this was piled in the truck and the trailer. We fed the chickens and threw hay to the sheep and dressed in about four layers of clothing, set off for the Ag Hall in beautiful downtown Cobden.
I love Cobden. I love Cobden's hearty plaid shirt farmers, I love their sweet small town main street, I love the view of the lake as you hurtle down toward highway 17 and I love the Cobden Sales Barn and my teenage excitement sneaking out of Opeongo High School to see Pierre Fontaine....another story for my novel...
My visit to Cobden today was more prosaic with a full day of selling meat and baked goods and perogies at the last and final Taste of the Valley for 2010. Despite early morning clouds and a brisk wind, we had a goodly number of buyers and potential buyers. Finally, at three pm, chilled to the bone and weary, we packed it up and headed home. No more early mornings for farmers markets, no more late night waiting for inn guests, no more dinner rush or lunch groups...much as I loved it all, it is now over. Tomorrow morning I am mistress of my own destiny!!! After I weigh a half a pig worth of pork,clean up todays kitchen mess, deliver a twig settee and a painting to Barrys Bay, take two sheep by trailer to Silver Lake and attend to my writers group the rest of the day IS MY OWN!!!!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
What's for supper? New organic family packs.
At the Red Canoe Cafe, we were never in a quandary as to "what's for dinner?" One had a menu, one shopped and prepped and prepared that menu and the entire issue of last minute choice was neatly avoided. It's much like wearing a uniform...less spontanaity but much less last minute agonizing.
With that in mind, Donegal Heritage Farm has organized the month long "Organic & Local Family Pack" complete with recipe and menu suggestions. Follow our plan and feed your family of four at least three hearty organic meat-based meals per week. Growing kids need the protein and energy and even the natural fat which comes in lean pasture raised meat. And tired moms will be surprised how energy returns when a little red meat becomes a regular feature at the dinner table. As for Dad...most Dad's are all too happy to sit down to a juicy pork chop or a succulent burger.
So here's a sample pack priced at 100.00.
One large roasting chicken split in half= Two roast chicken dinners and leftovers for chicken fajitas, chicken sandwiches, chicken salad and chicken soup.
Four pork chops: grilled pork chop dinner. Add potatoes, rice or vegetables.
One smoked pork hock: bake with baked beans. Throw left over bone into pot of split peas for soup.
4 lb beef roast: Pot roast dinner, beef tacos or stir fry, sliced roast beef sandwiches.
4 lb lean ground beef: Burgers, shepherd's pie, meat loaf.
1 Pkg lean breakfast sausage: Sunday breakfast or a stir fry.
1 Doz organic brown eggs: Omelet, quiche, egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs.
Fill your shopping cart with a large bag of onions, a bag of rice, a bag of pasta, a bag of yellow split peas, a bag of dried white beans, a bag of carrots and a bag of potatoes. Add garlic, couple cans of stewed tomatoes or use fresh from the garden, a bag of flour tortillas, cheese, your favorite herbs, a couple of loaves of your favorite bread, mustard, pickles, sour cream, ketchup. Put bread produts in freezer to stay fresh and stash the rest in the cupboard and fridge. You probably already have cooking oil and flour and sugar and all those staples on hand.
Week number one: Sunday Dinner: Saturday night: Thaw one half roasting chicken: Sunday afternoon brush thawed chicken with oil, sprinkle with herbs such as oregano, rosemary. Set chicken in roast pan. Add 1 cup cold water. Surround chicken with onions, potatoes and carrots, cut in fairly large pieces. Roast, UNCOVERED, for about two hours or until internal temperature indicates 180. Remove chicken and veg from pan, add another cup of cold water. Bring to a simmer and loosen up bits from bottom of pan. Strain into a smaller pot. Add one heaping teaspoon flour or constarch to a half cup cold water and stir with a fork until lumps are gone. Slowly pour flour mixture into gravy and whisk until smooth and simmer for a minute. Serve gravy over chichen and veg.
Remove left over chicken from bones and store in fridge. Put bones into plastic bag in freezer or fridge until needed for soup. Don't throw out left over gravy...add it to fajita mixture for extra flavour. You get the idea!!!!
With that in mind, Donegal Heritage Farm has organized the month long "Organic & Local Family Pack" complete with recipe and menu suggestions. Follow our plan and feed your family of four at least three hearty organic meat-based meals per week. Growing kids need the protein and energy and even the natural fat which comes in lean pasture raised meat. And tired moms will be surprised how energy returns when a little red meat becomes a regular feature at the dinner table. As for Dad...most Dad's are all too happy to sit down to a juicy pork chop or a succulent burger.
So here's a sample pack priced at 100.00.
One large roasting chicken split in half= Two roast chicken dinners and leftovers for chicken fajitas, chicken sandwiches, chicken salad and chicken soup.
Four pork chops: grilled pork chop dinner. Add potatoes, rice or vegetables.
One smoked pork hock: bake with baked beans. Throw left over bone into pot of split peas for soup.
4 lb beef roast: Pot roast dinner, beef tacos or stir fry, sliced roast beef sandwiches.
4 lb lean ground beef: Burgers, shepherd's pie, meat loaf.
1 Pkg lean breakfast sausage: Sunday breakfast or a stir fry.
1 Doz organic brown eggs: Omelet, quiche, egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs.
Fill your shopping cart with a large bag of onions, a bag of rice, a bag of pasta, a bag of yellow split peas, a bag of dried white beans, a bag of carrots and a bag of potatoes. Add garlic, couple cans of stewed tomatoes or use fresh from the garden, a bag of flour tortillas, cheese, your favorite herbs, a couple of loaves of your favorite bread, mustard, pickles, sour cream, ketchup. Put bread produts in freezer to stay fresh and stash the rest in the cupboard and fridge. You probably already have cooking oil and flour and sugar and all those staples on hand.
Week number one: Sunday Dinner: Saturday night: Thaw one half roasting chicken: Sunday afternoon brush thawed chicken with oil, sprinkle with herbs such as oregano, rosemary. Set chicken in roast pan. Add 1 cup cold water. Surround chicken with onions, potatoes and carrots, cut in fairly large pieces. Roast, UNCOVERED, for about two hours or until internal temperature indicates 180. Remove chicken and veg from pan, add another cup of cold water. Bring to a simmer and loosen up bits from bottom of pan. Strain into a smaller pot. Add one heaping teaspoon flour or constarch to a half cup cold water and stir with a fork until lumps are gone. Slowly pour flour mixture into gravy and whisk until smooth and simmer for a minute. Serve gravy over chichen and veg.
Remove left over chicken from bones and store in fridge. Put bones into plastic bag in freezer or fridge until needed for soup. Don't throw out left over gravy...add it to fajita mixture for extra flavour. You get the idea!!!!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Mid August at the farm
The Canadian summer is so short! Last night I left the cafe at 7:45 while our last three tables were still eating. Josee and Tom will finish up so I could get back to the farm before dark to make sure my sheep are all still alive!
I did my usual speedy back roads trip home...down the highway, shortcut through the Stone Church road, up 512 for a couple of miles, turn left at Alexa's house and down the long straight hilly stretch, then turn right, make sure none of Paul Hartwig's livestock is on the road, turn left, wind along for awhile till you come into the hamlet of Cormac. Make the sign of the cross at the shrine of St.Ann...see if AnneMary's lights are on at Kitt's General Store, glance right up the highway to see where old Patsy Dunnigan used to live and look left to where he's now buried in the Cormac graveyard.
Head for Eganville on 512. New gardens growing daily at Seeds of Creation...it looks like an ambitious project with a farmstand and a new house and row upon neat row of gorgeous vegetables. Drive, drive, drive past Heideman's Mill and past Donnie Howard's hayfields and past Mike Petrini's lovely new home and turn right onto the Donegal Road.
Now I can take off my seat belt and if this was the olden days,back in the eighties, one could safely crack open a beer at this point in the journey. But it is not the olden days so will wait to get home for a glass of low alcohol "girlie wine" mixed with club soda and ice.
A deer and fawn have been leaping across the road here almost every evening. They graze in our long lower hayfield and come down here for water. Past our neighbours laneways... Alvin's farm...the log house I still think of as Rick and Joan's home...the Wingle driveway...our little corner of the Ottawa Valley has seen its share of sadness and tragedy in the past twenty-five years and not one of these neighbours has been spared.
And then the sharp turn and the cattle gate and the long straight driveway up to the house and barns on the crest of the hill. On a warm humid evening such as this, the smell of cattle is the first thing that greets one's nose. A scattering of cowshit on the driveway and long ribbons of mist in the two long fields on either side of the driveway.
Up to the second gate and greeted by the lights on in the barns, the sound of pigs squealing for their supper, geese honking, chickens cackling, cats racing for the house, sheep bleating, cattle bawling. 8:45 pm. Home at last.
I did my usual speedy back roads trip home...down the highway, shortcut through the Stone Church road, up 512 for a couple of miles, turn left at Alexa's house and down the long straight hilly stretch, then turn right, make sure none of Paul Hartwig's livestock is on the road, turn left, wind along for awhile till you come into the hamlet of Cormac. Make the sign of the cross at the shrine of St.Ann...see if AnneMary's lights are on at Kitt's General Store, glance right up the highway to see where old Patsy Dunnigan used to live and look left to where he's now buried in the Cormac graveyard.
Head for Eganville on 512. New gardens growing daily at Seeds of Creation...it looks like an ambitious project with a farmstand and a new house and row upon neat row of gorgeous vegetables. Drive, drive, drive past Heideman's Mill and past Donnie Howard's hayfields and past Mike Petrini's lovely new home and turn right onto the Donegal Road.
Now I can take off my seat belt and if this was the olden days,back in the eighties, one could safely crack open a beer at this point in the journey. But it is not the olden days so will wait to get home for a glass of low alcohol "girlie wine" mixed with club soda and ice.
A deer and fawn have been leaping across the road here almost every evening. They graze in our long lower hayfield and come down here for water. Past our neighbours laneways... Alvin's farm...the log house I still think of as Rick and Joan's home...the Wingle driveway...our little corner of the Ottawa Valley has seen its share of sadness and tragedy in the past twenty-five years and not one of these neighbours has been spared.
And then the sharp turn and the cattle gate and the long straight driveway up to the house and barns on the crest of the hill. On a warm humid evening such as this, the smell of cattle is the first thing that greets one's nose. A scattering of cowshit on the driveway and long ribbons of mist in the two long fields on either side of the driveway.
Up to the second gate and greeted by the lights on in the barns, the sound of pigs squealing for their supper, geese honking, chickens cackling, cats racing for the house, sheep bleating, cattle bawling. 8:45 pm. Home at last.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
What I did on my day off....
This is how life unfolds these summer days.
Yesterday was Monday morning and supposedly our day off so we awoke in our own bed at the farm. We have started taking Sunday afternoons off after 13 years in retail and hospitality and usually make it back to Donegal by about four pm on Sunday afternoon.
It was a gorgeous sunny morning, with the late summer mist hanging over the big open back field at 6 a.m. I carry my coffee cup around with me while feeding chickens and checking on the sheep and by 7 am we were on the back roads heading for Wilno.
Our inn guests were literally waiting at the cafe door for their breakfast of French toast, organic sausage & local maple syrup. After their departure, I went down to gather the laundry and make up the two suites as a house inspector was slated to arrive at 11 am. At ten ayem, our server called to announce that she was "weak, tired and had a rash on her belly" and would not be in for her shift. All uncompleted tasks thus immediately became mine for the doing. Decided not to open for lunch as we had a meeting with a real estate agent scheduled for noonish and of course we had to get back to the farm to take Junior Piglet to the abbatoir before five pm.
One thing after another and finally raced out of the cafe at 2:30 bound for Donegal. Tom loaded the pig box and then both of us dragged a reluctant Piglet from his siblings, secured him in the crate and headed for Reiches. I had previously promised mother I would clean the apartment at Fairfields where she and Dad live so Tom dropped me off there and continued on his way.
I did laundry and dusted and swept and did it all very slowly and deliberately to illustrate to mother that I was doing it RIGHT. (The fact that I have been running an inn for 13 years doesn't hold much water with my mother...she still doesn't believe I know how to do the laundry correctly).
That aside it was a pleasant enough afternoon with lots of conversation and I stayed to have supper with them in the Fairfields dining room.
Tom in the meantime was back at the farm mowing the lawn and waiting for Henning to return from a long days work at the job site on the Siberia Road (a 1.5 hour drive from the farm). It takes two strong men to load the four horned ram lambs who were to be delivered to the abbatoir this evening. That task was accomplished by about 8 pm and Tom picked me up and we headed for Reiche's for the second time in less than six hours. The lambs went willingly into their pen which was next to Piglet and I was happy they were reunited in their final hours.
Pitch dark by the time we arrived back at the farm. Henning still doing chores but took a short break while we all had a glass of white wine and caught up on the days news. To bed at ten pm and managed to read about three pages of an Englishwoman's memoirs of life in a primitive village in the Algarve before falling asleep.
Only to be awakened at 3:30 am by a wild chorus of wolf howls which sounded close enough to be in the barnyard. Tom got up and turned on the porch light and that shut them up. Then at 4:30 the henhouse erupts with crowing and cackling as the hen's lights come on. At five thirty Scooter starts whining piteously at the door to be let out. At six thirty, the truck and trailer started up under the window as Tom and Henning prepared to load two pigs for the third trip to Reiche's. I had planned to go along but opted instead to spend some time studying my sheep in the stable....several of them are lame and can't figure out why...and no light was thrown on the subject after twenty minutes of observation....but I did see that Freckles is looking less than perfectly healthy...she's thin and swaybacked...but has nursed three big lambs all spring so that could account for her frazzled condition.
Next stop: the henhouse where I filled the nests with fresh hay and discovered a large clutch of eggs hidden UNDER the nest boxes and a very irate red hen sitting on them. There's part of the reason our egg production has dropped off!!! The would-be mommy is intent on brooding eggs. I ruthlessly removed them and chased her out of her hidey hole and pitched the whole lot of eggs into the compost pile. Who knows how long she's been hoarding them and its not the sort of thing you want your egg customers to discover!!
Henning found a dead hen yesterday so dispatched her to the manure pile, weeded some of the tomato plants fighting for air and light amongst the giant mutant pumpkin plant taking over the garden and swept up two full dustpans of dust, grass, hay, dog hair and the likes from the downstairs floors.
Tom back now from Reiche's and we had a rare treat...bacon and eggs for breakfast! Watered the orchard lambs, gathered more eggs,tied up the gates protecting the round bales in the back barn (sheep keep knocking them down and nibbling at the underside of the bales which results in eventual collapse and possible death of sheep who happen to be underneath as the bales weigh hundreds of pounds.)
Ten ayem on the road again...headed for Wilno and the cafe...another "Day Off" successfully spent.
Yesterday was Monday morning and supposedly our day off so we awoke in our own bed at the farm. We have started taking Sunday afternoons off after 13 years in retail and hospitality and usually make it back to Donegal by about four pm on Sunday afternoon.
It was a gorgeous sunny morning, with the late summer mist hanging over the big open back field at 6 a.m. I carry my coffee cup around with me while feeding chickens and checking on the sheep and by 7 am we were on the back roads heading for Wilno.
Our inn guests were literally waiting at the cafe door for their breakfast of French toast, organic sausage & local maple syrup. After their departure, I went down to gather the laundry and make up the two suites as a house inspector was slated to arrive at 11 am. At ten ayem, our server called to announce that she was "weak, tired and had a rash on her belly" and would not be in for her shift. All uncompleted tasks thus immediately became mine for the doing. Decided not to open for lunch as we had a meeting with a real estate agent scheduled for noonish and of course we had to get back to the farm to take Junior Piglet to the abbatoir before five pm.
One thing after another and finally raced out of the cafe at 2:30 bound for Donegal. Tom loaded the pig box and then both of us dragged a reluctant Piglet from his siblings, secured him in the crate and headed for Reiches. I had previously promised mother I would clean the apartment at Fairfields where she and Dad live so Tom dropped me off there and continued on his way.
I did laundry and dusted and swept and did it all very slowly and deliberately to illustrate to mother that I was doing it RIGHT. (The fact that I have been running an inn for 13 years doesn't hold much water with my mother...she still doesn't believe I know how to do the laundry correctly).
That aside it was a pleasant enough afternoon with lots of conversation and I stayed to have supper with them in the Fairfields dining room.
Tom in the meantime was back at the farm mowing the lawn and waiting for Henning to return from a long days work at the job site on the Siberia Road (a 1.5 hour drive from the farm). It takes two strong men to load the four horned ram lambs who were to be delivered to the abbatoir this evening. That task was accomplished by about 8 pm and Tom picked me up and we headed for Reiche's for the second time in less than six hours. The lambs went willingly into their pen which was next to Piglet and I was happy they were reunited in their final hours.
Pitch dark by the time we arrived back at the farm. Henning still doing chores but took a short break while we all had a glass of white wine and caught up on the days news. To bed at ten pm and managed to read about three pages of an Englishwoman's memoirs of life in a primitive village in the Algarve before falling asleep.
Only to be awakened at 3:30 am by a wild chorus of wolf howls which sounded close enough to be in the barnyard. Tom got up and turned on the porch light and that shut them up. Then at 4:30 the henhouse erupts with crowing and cackling as the hen's lights come on. At five thirty Scooter starts whining piteously at the door to be let out. At six thirty, the truck and trailer started up under the window as Tom and Henning prepared to load two pigs for the third trip to Reiche's. I had planned to go along but opted instead to spend some time studying my sheep in the stable....several of them are lame and can't figure out why...and no light was thrown on the subject after twenty minutes of observation....but I did see that Freckles is looking less than perfectly healthy...she's thin and swaybacked...but has nursed three big lambs all spring so that could account for her frazzled condition.
Next stop: the henhouse where I filled the nests with fresh hay and discovered a large clutch of eggs hidden UNDER the nest boxes and a very irate red hen sitting on them. There's part of the reason our egg production has dropped off!!! The would-be mommy is intent on brooding eggs. I ruthlessly removed them and chased her out of her hidey hole and pitched the whole lot of eggs into the compost pile. Who knows how long she's been hoarding them and its not the sort of thing you want your egg customers to discover!!
Henning found a dead hen yesterday so dispatched her to the manure pile, weeded some of the tomato plants fighting for air and light amongst the giant mutant pumpkin plant taking over the garden and swept up two full dustpans of dust, grass, hay, dog hair and the likes from the downstairs floors.
Tom back now from Reiche's and we had a rare treat...bacon and eggs for breakfast! Watered the orchard lambs, gathered more eggs,tied up the gates protecting the round bales in the back barn (sheep keep knocking them down and nibbling at the underside of the bales which results in eventual collapse and possible death of sheep who happen to be underneath as the bales weigh hundreds of pounds.)
Ten ayem on the road again...headed for Wilno and the cafe...another "Day Off" successfully spent.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
The bear is dead!!!!!
The bylaw officer in our township says the nuisance bear has been shot near the McGrath Road. Thanks the goddess, now I can perhaps let the sheep out again during the daytime...with only the wolves to worry about. Can't wait to be at the farm full time so I guard the fencelines with my trusty firearm. (First I need a firearm and the skill to shoot it but that should be an easy obstacle to overcome in my hunting-mad family).
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