This update has been brought to you by the letter “L”..... hmmmmm, I sense a theme...

Well, I honestly didn’t expect this to come so close on the heels of my last update but to be honest I find writing these blogs therapeutic and in a lot of ways relaxing and cathartic as I venture into the forbidden arena of procrastination…. that moment when your list of ‘to does’ is so long that it just grinds you to a halt…. where the thought of prioritizing churns your stomach and pains your head…. Well I’m there… again apparently… and I honestly think Farmer Luke is there too… that awkward tone hangs in the air…. he chops wood and I blog.

so lets begin……

LLAMAS!!!!! Yup ~ crazy super fun as I never thought I would ever say we have llamas!! Funnily or not, I can’t help but say each time I see them “hey there Llama Llama Red Pajama” *NB children’s book…. a series actually… it’s like my farm animal earworm. They are really cool to look at and luckily we got them from a small farmer who had handled them often so they are really friendly too! Farmer Luke got heaps of information about them when he picked them up like; how to handle them (apparently they are easily herded with a rope), their reproduction (the only time a Mrs. drops an egg is after Mr. has paid a visit... he gets the motor runnin'.... who knew!), the explanation for their crazy teeth (their teeth don’t stop growing much like a beaver’s), their temperament (after a 20 minute struggle to get them on the trailer… which they had never been on before and Farmer Luke was pretty much new to.... well…. to it all! ......only one spat and it was at the last minute when he tripped... they are patient and sweet llamas.... as llamas go..... so they say). It really is a crazy new adventure…… cuz, of course we’re totally lacking in crazy new adventures….. right?... ahem….. sarcasm should not be wasted..... stay-tuned as our adventure continues

meet Mrs. BABACAKE.... named by Ms. Forrest Rea

meet Mr. Mashed Potatoes.... named by Mr. Fab Finn

Finally, meet Mrs. Amikwa..... named by Granola Girl and means Beaver People of the Algonquin Nation  

So that brings me to…..LIVE TRAP…. ya..... well..... that continues although we’ve had no deaths since the traps were reinstalled and set nightly (like we need another chore, ahhhh the life of a farmer!). This is a good thing for sure…. but along with the good thing is the lingering thought of when, if ever, that good thing will end. It’s not such an elephant in the room as much as a tiger waiting to strike. Good times! As the air hangs heavy with thoughts of what ifs and whens Farmer Luke has taken to chopping an inordinate amount of wood….. and I blog…. I guess productive procrastination isn’t too bad!

a place of productive therapy.... why stew when you can chop things in half?

Finally, I come to the delicious LEMON CUCUMBER ready for picking in our garden…… they really are delicious…. not necessarily lemony as the name connotes, as you see the ‘lemon’ is associated with it’s appearance:

this is an organic heritage variety and just as delicious as the APPLE CUCUMBER

This year we chose to take a backseat to our market garden in order to make room and inevitably time, for the fencing, barn completion, cows, llamas, sheep, turkeys, chickens, eggs…. honestly it’s a wonder why we would even bother drawing the line, why not add one more to the mix? Well, we kinda did. We went crazy on potatoes… our herb garden is completely overflowing… we have more beans than we can pickle….. and apparently we’re going to be having organic salsa verde for the next year and a half. So what does this mean; besides failing in our attempt at ‘avoiding’ a market garden? It means I’m in overdrive trying to figure out new and creative ways in which to use these amazing ingredients. We don’t have enough to sell individually but we have just enough to highlight something in a new value-added product each week. Besides the amount of time this takes in terms of planning and the eventual execution, I truly LOVE this aspect of the farm. Nothing feels better than producing something from the bounty of your own harvest…. yup super cheese I know.... but I'm serious.... NOTHING! I mean it’s why we do it…. right?! …. oh wait…. there is one other thing that feels better than making these gastro delights and that’s getting feedback from the people that buy our stuff and come back time after time. THAT. FEELS. AWESOME. It affirms where we are going and my specific contribution to it. I idyllically want to be a farmer but honestly, my skills are in marketing and in the kitchen…. I’m not about to swim-up-hill at this stage… but I won’t rule out venturing into the field in the future….

creating with the bounty of our harvest #luckyme

So back to the garden….. one last piece of advice and lesson learned… SUNFLOWERS. I LUUUUUUUURVE ME some sunflowers!!!! They put a smile on my face and they put colour in the garden. The second year we planted our raised beds at home Farmer Luke decided to plant a few sunflowers as a surprise for me. It was a sweet thought and one that didn’t go unnoticed… there were maybe 4 that first year… the next year we thought it was pretty cool that they had multiplied to around 10... YAY! "more happy flower time!" I thought.... well…… this year there are upwards of 35! Oh, and these aren’t the little cute sunflowers you can cut and put on your dinner table….. OH NO….. these are the bee loving bird buffet giant variety…. the kind you say HOLY CRAP look at the size of that flower!!! COOL RIGHT? um…. ya, if you weren’t trying to grow herbs, peas, strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, celery, etc… UNDER THE SHADE OF A GIANT SUNFLOWER!!! Kinda counter productive if you ask me. Something tells me we would have had more ‘fruits’ of our labour had we more direct sunlight…. just sayin’….. mental note for next year eh!? OH... on the other hand we did discover the fertilizing benefits of “steeped chicken poo tea”…. amazing stuff and so far it seems intuitive Farmer Luke got the formula just right the first time.... live and learn I guess!!!

perhaps harvesting sunflower oil is in our future?

So there you go and look at that... I feel better already! I think I’ll go and research new chicken jerky flavours……. or maybe I’ll draft that letter I promised I would send today…. either way, I feel clearer for some reason and ready to prioritize….. well kinda.