Friday, December 20, 2013

Snow

We don't get snow all that often here so when we do I have to rush out and document it.  This is what we woke up to this morning.  This would normally be a harvest day for Market but knowing it was supposed to snow we did all that yesterday.  As we are harvesting mainly root crops they hold really well and won't be  hurt by the extra day.  It is supposed to turn to rain any minute now so we're enjoying it while it lasts.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Marmalade

When we go to England there are several typically English foods that we have to eat: Cream teas, Ribena, (black currant juice drink), draft hard cider, fish and chips, English bacon and....marmalade.  You can get English marmalade here but you have to hunt a bit for it and there are so many more brands over there.  In the olden days before terrorists plots in shampoo bottles we used to bring back a bunch of it with us.  Now I have to make my own.

I get my bitter Seville  oranges from a place in California called Ripe to You who specializes in unique citrus varieties.  My favorite recipe is one from David Lebovitz.  I've got the first part of the first batch simmering on the stove right now.  I'm all out of last year's batch so I can't wait. 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Hunkered Down

 Almost every winter at some point we get a NE'er.  Arctic air from the interior of Canada flows down the Fraser Canyon and swoops down upon us with its icy blast.  We rarely every manage to get snow first as this air is very, very dry so without the snow to mulch and protect plants we have been hustling around mulching vulnerable things like the dahlias.  In this climate dahlias can't survive unprotectd but a good thick mulch of leaves has brought them through winter after winter and it is much easier than digging them.  I will dig them every 3 or 4 years as the plants get so big we can't get between them to harvest the flowers.

We also through a mulch of leaves over the last of the potatoes and several layers of Remay floating row covers over some of the carrots,
 Joel dug about 175 lbs. of beets and about 50 lbs. of our yellow carrots and put them on a pit with a foot or so of dirt over them.  That will keep them fine for several months.  He harvested a bunch of cabbages and kohlrabi and rutabagas which can be kept just fine in the greenhouse which being unheated just manages to stay above freezing in this sort of weather.  We will sell them at market this month.

Joel's Mom brought us the last bud of her Graham Thomas rose today before the cold weather killed the flower.  Such a pretty thing and it reminds us that spring will be just around the corner.