Van Wagner Farm

We keep our sheep and chickens in enclosures that are lined with electrified wire to keep the local raccoons, foxes, and coyotes from getting a free lunch.  However, relying on a single line of defense is not the best plan, as we discovered when a family of raccoons destroyed thirty chickens over two days last summer.  After much deliberation, we decided to get ourselves a defender of the flocks… a deterrent to vicious predators… a fierce guardian of all things Van Wagner… a sweet, cuddly widdle puppy-wuppy!

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(Puppies are difficult to photograph – he would NOT hold still and this is the least blurry picture I could get!)

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When I told various people that we had gotten a dog, the response, by and large, was disbelief.  “YOU got a DOG?” expresses the general sentiment.  Now, I do not dislike dogs, necessarily; there have simply been many dogs of which I have not been a fan.  I have known several irritating dogs.  I have known a favourite pet cat usurped by dogs when I left home for university.  I have been a long-established preferrer of cats.  All that anti-dog information notwithstanding, I have known nice dogs and have been known to pet the occasional nice-dog’s head.  No one ever said I would never own a dog.

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Wait.  I think I may have said that.

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Well, whatever.  I am now the owner of a dog.  A dog who, after two weeks of residence at the farm, has shown himself to be eager to learn, naturally reasonably smart, and content to live exclusively with the sheep in the barn.  Before I hear an outcry, rest assured: he likes it in there!  He is a farm dog.  He is part of the flock.  He is not people (this is my mantra when I am tempted to take him in the house).

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Merlin the dog is a Great Pyrenees.  This breed is a defending, not a herding, sheep dog.  Their mere presence (adults can weigh up to 150 pounds) has predators quaking in their non-boots.  Their thick, snuggly coats make them great candidates for living outside (plus, they’re not people, remember?).  For a large breed, they aren’t big eaters because they don’t waste energy trying to herd sheep: they just hang out and scare off coyotes by raising their eyebrows slightly.  This also translates to being a good family dog since they’re fairly calm (as long as they’re trained not to jump up when they’re smaller than a grown man).

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And, though I say it myself, I think we’re turning out to be pretty good dog owners.  Ewan, a boy of few words (and even fewer words discernible by the general English-speaking population), has even begun teaching his stuffed animals to “SIT!”  Cora takes her responsibility of helping him to learn the ropes very seriously and takes him on his rounds on days she’s not in school.

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So here we are: dog owners and liking it.  Who would have guessed it?

I thought I’d reacquaint you with our sheep.  Our flock has changed since the last update.  First, a little background about the Shetland breed:

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Shetland sheep are an “unimproved” or primitive breed, meaning they haven’t been selectively bred or cross-bred with other breeds to the point of not retaining either their natural colours and markings or their innate ability to breed and survive without human intervention.  Shetlands are easy lambers, good parents, and hardy in harsh living conditions (not that we’ve tested this final attribute).  They are very similar to, though smaller than, Icelandic sheep, a breed with which Shetlands are often cross-bred.  Because they have lived for generations on the Shetland Islands, isolated from any other modern breed of sheep, their characteristics have remained consistent through the generations: they have adapted to their living conditions as needed and have remained “unimproved” in the best sense of the word.

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The first Shetlands were imported to Canada in 1948 by George Flett of Saskatchewan, though descendents of this importation of three ewes and one ram were not officially recognized by the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders’ Association until 1995.  In 1980,  a flock of 28 ewes and 4 rams were imported to Canada, oddly enough, by the owner of the Cambridge, Ontario attraction African Lion Safari, Colonel G. D. Dailley, who was interested in the preservation of the rare Shetland breed.  Most North American purebred Shetlands can trace their lineage back to Dailley’s original imports.  Shetlands have since recovered from their “rare” status.

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We started our flock of Shetland sheep in July 2010.  We bought five sheep from a farm in Baillieboro, near Port Hope, Ontario:  three ewes, one ram, and a wether (a castrated male).  This original flock was made up of Meringue (named by her breeders for her beautiful, fluffy white fleece, despite the few black spots underneath), her unnamed lamb (the wether, whom we named Fidel), Bess (bearing a lovely katmoget pattern in grey), her warm-black ewe lamb whom we called Nancy, and David (the fawn-coloured, katmoget-patterned ram).

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Meringue, the flock matriarch.

Bess.

Nancy.

David.

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Spring 2011 saw the first lambs born at Van Wagner Farm: a ram and a ewe.  Bess had her ewe lamb, whom we later named Nell, on April 12th.  A week later, Meringue lambed her ram.  Both lambs have grown well and have very nice fleeces: David’s katmoget genes certainly asserted themselves.  Although Meringue’s lamb is no longer at our farm, Nell is the first member of our second-generation breeders, “David’s Daughters,” whom we intend to breed to our second ram.

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This second ram, Robin Hood (named by Cora), is a black lamb from the same flock near Port Hope, who was born in the spring of 2011 and who came to VW Farm in October.  He currently lives in a separate barn with Nell and Fidel, while David lives with the other ewes in the main sheep barn.  This is the arrangement while the ewes are in season so that we can be sure of who has been bred to whom.  While Robin Hood may be too small to have bred Nell this year, we’re sure he’ll rise to the occasion when he’s ready.  In David’s barn, Meringue and Bess were joined by Hannith, Victoria, and Cayenne in October.

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Hannith.

Cayenne.

Victoria.

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And that’s the flock.  We’re enjoying being sheepbreeders.  With this breed, there’s really nothing to it, though the intricacies of colour- and marking-identification is mind-boggling.  There are eleven recognized whole colours, each with variations of their own, and over thirty recognized markings, which can present individually or in combinations that are also distinctly named.  The genetics involved (knowing whether certain colours and markings result from dominant or recessive genes and combining parents to produce a desired lamb) get me lost in a maze of fleecy permutations.  The names of patterns and colours (katmoget, gulmoget, emsket, moorit) are poetry in Shetland dialect.  It’s a whole sheepy world we’ve stumbled into.  I like it there.

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May is halfway over already!  You wouldn’t know it by the weather, though.  Rain is nice and all, but I think we could use a break.  According to the forecast, we’re not due for one this week, but eventually it will stop, right?  Right?!?  Many farmers are lamenting the conditions – there’s not enough time between rainfalls to prepare the soil and plant.  Many folks are still flooded at least partially and anticipate a later year for many crops.

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On the bright side, we’ve got pretty decent drainage on the garden, enhanced by Zach’s trench-digging prowess (done by hand since we couldn’t get the tractor down there in the wet).  The bottom of the garden, where the zucchini, winter squash, cucumber, and rhubarb live, is reasonably dried out and the main garden is looking great.  We’ve already put lots in the ground and are considering further expansions for the other crops yet to be planted.  So far, in the ground are:
- snow peas
- snap peas
- mixed greens
- spinach
- spring turnip (a new addition this year)
- Swiss chard
- beets
- onions
- radishes
- stir-fry greens (bok choy, mustard greens, komatsuma, tatsoi, and other brassicas)
- string beans (yellow, green, purple)
- garlic (coming up nicely from the fall planting)
- corn (bigger and better this year – we’re planting about four times more than we did last year)
- strawberries (coming up nicely and already in need of weeding – gaaaaah!)
- rhubarb (well-started from last year’s roots – we hope to include it in a bigger way this year)
- potatoes (also hoping for a greater yield this year, we’ve planted three hundred-foot rows)

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We’ve got lots in the greenhouse, too.  We start all our plants from seed ourselves, so what we’ve got started, waiting for the right transplanting conditions, are:
- tomatoes (big, small, red, yellow, orange, purple, black, round, oblong…)
- tomatillos (green and purple)
- hot and sweet peppers
- leeks
- various eggplants
- head lettuces
- broccoli
- cabbage
- cauliflower
- kale (red and green)
- kohlrabi (red and purple)
- herbs (cilantro, tarragon, sage, and rosemary with basil, fennel, dill, and parsley yet to come and oregano and garlic chives coming up from last year)
- tatsoi
- summer & winter squashes (several varieties of each)
- pumpkins
- melons
- cucumbers

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So despite the late spring, we’ve got a great start on the gardening season!

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In other news, Meringue’s ram lamb joined the ranks a week after Bess had her ewe lamb.  It doesn’t look as though Nancy will lamb this year.  However, since she was a late lamb herself (she was born on May 31st last year), she may yet have a late lamb of her own.  Both lambs have taken to nursing quite nicely and have settled in well with the rest of the flock.  Shearing has continued.  The mamas are up next (we saved them for last so their lambs would be more independent when we took their mothers away for a bit).  We’ve watched some shearing videos on YouTube.  Suffice it to say, we won’t be entering any contests any time soon.  We’re pretty slow and it requires two of us to do each sheep.  In the end, though, the job gets done and we have some beautiful, soft fleeces that we will be carding and spinning for our own use and for sale.

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We’ve been really pleased with the response to our egg and chicken add-ons to CSA memberships.  We got our egg-layers early so that they would be in fine laying form by the time we begin the CSA (likely the middle of June).  Our meat chickens are out on pasture and will be ready for the first CSA week!  That seems to be the first week that abattoirs open as well, so we’ve got our timing just about right.  Chickens will also be available for sale apart from those already spoken-for via the add-on.

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Now, a game!  Can you tell which eggs are chicken eggs and which come from a turkey?  Before our second hen was exposed to the tom, we ate her unfertilized eggs in a lovely scrambled-egg breakfast!

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Bon appetit!

Well, I have had plenty of reasons for posting that I’ve saved up over the past couple of weeks.  Each thing that came up was exciting on its own, but now I have to tell them all in one go, so be prepared for some major excitement!

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We’ve had a couple of weeks of firsts on the farm.  When I last wrote, we were enjoying watching Tom Turkey strut his stuff for the ladies.  The dominant hen got to be so aggressive that the second hen had to be placed in a separate enclosure.  When the trio moves to the new turkey hut, we will try them together again, but we may end up just having hens in pens with the tom having conjugal visits with each regularly.

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Soon after Tom began showing off, the hens began laying!  It was very exciting to have the possibility of poults in our near future!  Cora, who has just completed a unit on dinosaurs (and is seriously contemplating a career as a Tyrannosaurus Rex), was thrilled to have her very own supply of dinosaur eggs.  We let her down gently.

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chicken egg -- turkey egg

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Dominant Hen laid her first egg on March 17th.  Lowly Hen began laying about three weeks later (it seems there is a correlation between turkey self-esteem and reproductive capability).  Since Lowly Hen hasn’t had any quality time with Tom Turkey, we had ourselves some scrambled turkey eggs for breakfast the other day.  Dominant Hen’s eggs have been saved up and are now incubating (it takes 28 days to hatch).

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The remaining news is sheep-related.  Zach and I tried our hands at sheep-shearing on the weekend.  Since shearing in-lamb ewes is not recommended (it can be stressful for mama and cold for newborn babies), the boys got to be our guinea pigs.  David lost on that one.  The pictures really don’t do justice to the hack-job Zach made of his coat:

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choppy and chunky is in

what have you done to me?!?

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Now, in Zach’s defense, I was the one holding David while he was being shorn.  That could have something to do with it.  However, worth noting is the fact that I cut my own hair as well as Zach’s – that was something I only let him try once.  David feels the same way.

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Fidel, on the other hand, did rather well, though he didn’t let us roo his belly.  His fleece came off a little neater than David’s did.  Survey says: Zach can hold; Heather will handle the shears.  (On a related note, electric shears are on my wish list!)

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Fidel wins in the draw of who gets to shear whom

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Finally, guess who made an appearance in the barn this afternoon!?!  Bess was absent from grazing time – and with good reason:

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Bess and her wee lamb

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Bess is Nancy’s mother. Nancy, who is a year old, was her first lamb.  This little one is yet to be gender-identified (we thought we’d give the new arrival and the tired mama a bit of space before we get up close and personal).

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welcome, little lamb!

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We’ve kept a trio of Narragansett turkeys (a tom and two hens) over the winter to breed our meat turkeys right here at home.  They’ve gotten along, for the most part, very well.  All the livestock has over-wintered in the same barn, so they’ve stayed pretty warm (three turkeys, five sheep, eleven chickens, and two bunnies make for a lot of body heat in our little hay-insulated barn, not to mention innumerable mice).
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The turkeys are starting to show their ages.  Tom is constantly trying to attract the ladies’ attention.  I keep hearing the comment that they are weird-looking, ugly creatures (not from the turkeys, but from people who come to visit – turkeys would never say such a thing).  Granted, they maybe they are weird-looking, but they are certainly not ugly.  At the risk of sounding as though Tom’s wiles are working on me, I have to say that it’s hard not to think of words like “handsome” and “majestic” when Tom shows off his feathers and beak-hangy-thing*: “Behold me in my glory, lady-birds!”

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The hens, for their part, are demonstrating little in the way of attraction techniques other than one picking on the other.  The dominant hen has been showing force to keep her competition in check.  We’ll be moving them to their new barn and pasture soon, so they’ll be on even footing again with larger indoor space as they vie to win the tom’s … er… heart… now that they are at laying age.  (Tom says, “not to worry, ladies: there’s plenty of love for everyone….”)

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(*It’s actually called a “snood.”  I prefer “beak-hangy-thing.”)

We’re well into maple season here at the farm.  We’ve been collecting sap since the middle of February and it’s really running now!  So much for March “Break” – we’re using this week to get as much done around here as we can while both grown-ups are available!
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Our maple grove is pretty small compared to some operations.  We only tap about 25 trees (our taps total 87), but there are trees and then there are *trees*.  None of our maples is smaller than about a metre in diametre.  It takes the whole family to reach all the way around each one.  They are old (we’re guessing a couple of centuries), but nonetheless sweet (last year’s sap boiled down at an average of about 28 litres of sap to 1 litre of syrup).  This year’s sap is closer to the standard 40-to-1 ratio, but hey – we’re not complaining!
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Zach has built a new evaporator from an old oil tank.  A cut here and there, a little welding, and voilà!  A whole lot more efficiency than last year’s cinder-block setup!  We’re still using the small pans, but we like it that way.  This baby boils like nobody’s business: Zach underestimated its efficiency and burned a pan.  I cried.  It smelled good, though.

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On February 18th, we had really high winds down here and one of the grove’s huge oaks came down.  We couldn’t tell from the road what had fallen (we hoped it wasn’t a maple, for obvious reasons).  On closer inspection, we discovered that it was indeed an oak (aka next winter’s fuel for the house).  This thing is enormous.  The kids had fun playing on it.
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When the oak fell, it also took out a large limb from the maple next to it.  We’ll give that one a break from tapping next year so it can recuperate.  In the meantime, we can catch the sap that’s flowing from the wound, or at least enjoy nature’s popsicles.

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So we’re boiling down and gobbling up.  How we love the spring!

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I love cake.  I was skeptical the first time I came across green tomato cake.  But then again, I turned up my nose at zucchini cake the first time I encountered it and now it’s one of my favourites.  Green tomatoes are nice and juicy and make this spicy cake moist and delicious.

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Green Tomato Cake

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2 ¼ cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil or melted shortening
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
2 cups diced green tomatoes
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
¼ cup coconut (optional)

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• Preheat oven to 350°.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, oil or shortening, eggs, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
• In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Slowly beat into egg mixture. Blend well.
• Stir in tomatoes and nuts and raisins if desired.
• Pour batter into a greased 9×13 pan. Top with coconut if desired.
• Bake for one hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

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Variation: Use loaf pans for Green Tomato Coffee Bread or two 8-inch round pans for a Green Tomato Layer Cake (frost with cream cheese icing).

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Cream Cheese Icing

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2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

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• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Green Tomatoes
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Are green tomatoes bad for you?  Green tomatoes can contain toxins called glycoalkaloids that can irritate your gastrointestinal tract if you consume a lot of them.  However, the quantity of green tomatoes you would have to eat in order to cause an upset tummy is pretty substantial.  So unless you’re planning to eat a bushel or two so you can spend some quality time with your toilet, green tomatoes are just fine to eat.  If you’re not convinced, though, you can always put green tomatoes in a paper bag or wrap them in newspaper to ripen them.
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If you’ve never had green tomatoes and are willing to try them, you’re in for a treat!  There are lots of ways to use green tomatoes: green tomato salsa, ketchup, relish, chutney, pasta sauce, chili sauce, … even cake!  Or, you can make like Jessica Tandy and cook up some…

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Fried Green Tomatoes
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3         medium, firm green tomatoes
½ cup     all-purpose flour or fine masa flour
¼ cup     milk
2         eggs, beaten
¾ cup     fine dry bread crumbs or cornmeal
¼ cup    olive oil
½ tsp        salt
¼ tsp        pepper
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• Cut unpeeled tomatoes into ½-inch slices.  Sprinkle slices with salt and pepper.  Let tomato slices stand for 15 minutes.
• Place flour, milk, beaten eggs, and bread crumbs (or cornmeal) in separate shallow dishes.
• Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat.  Dip tomato slices in milk, then flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs or cornmeal.
• In the skillet, fry half the coated tomato slices at a time, about 4 to 6 minutes per side (or until brown), adding oil as needed.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve as a side with breakfast, in a sandwich, or as an appetizer.

Tomatoes are not coming as fast and furious as they once were.  It’s getting harder to pick all the tomatoes we need.  There is plenty of green fruit, but it’s cooler out and not as sunny, so the fruit is not ripening as quickly as it did in weeks past.

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With the colder weather comes a desire to eat cozy food.  In keeping with that urge for warmth in food, we have this idea for using this week’s tomatoes:

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Broiled Tomatoes

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2 medium tomatoes (or 4 small)
Dijon mustard
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Ground cayenne pepper
3 Tbsp melted butter
¼ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup Parmesan cheese

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• Cut tomatoes in half and place, cut side up, on a shallow baking pan.
• Spread cut tomatoes with mustard and sprinkle each with a pinch of salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.
• Combine melted butter, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese.  Spoon crumb mixture over the top of each tomato half.
• Broil until crumbs are browned and tomatoes are tender.

We are sorry to say that winter squashes and pumpkins did not do well this year.  We have exactly enough to give each of our CSA members a squash or pumpkin, but it will be this week only.  Bummer.

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We’re thinking it was a combination of pollination issues, mouse/vole damage, and vine borer damage.  Triple threat!  In an area four times the size of last year’s planting, we have the same (possibly less) yield as last year.  We’re working on troubleshooting for next season so this doesn’t happen again.  That’s gardening, though!  I’m trying to write a more detailed account of the squash situation (and our proposed safeguards for next year) to be posted soon.

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Despite their low numbers, the squashes and pumpkins we have promise to be delicious.  This week’s recipe will cozy you up in this rainy fall weather:

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Roasted Squash / Pumpkin Soup
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1 small pumpkin or medium winter squash
1 medium onion (or 2 small), diced
3 apples, peeled and chopped
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper (to taste)
ground coriander
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
2 cups cooked rice
6-8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
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• Slice the pumpkin or squash in two from top to bottom.  Discard the stem.  Scoop out seeds and place both halves, hollow side up, in a small roasting pan containing two to three centimetres of water.
• Sprinkle the squash or pumpkin with olive oil, salt, pepper, and coriander.  Score the flesh with a knife to allow the oil and seasonings to penetrate.
• Cover with foil (or lid, if your roasting pan has one) and roast in 350-degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
• In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, warm butter on medium heat.  Add onion and sauté until onions are soft.
• Scoop the roasted squash or pumpkin from the shell (flesh should be soft and scoop easily from the peel).  Add to onions.  Add chopped apples and cooked rice.
• Season with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add vegetable or chicken stock.   Bring soup to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes.
• Using an immersion blender, food processor, blender, or food mill, purée the soup until smooth.  Add more broth if soup is too thick for your liking.

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• For a  more savoury soup, replace cinnamon and nutmeg with sage, parsley, or savoury.
• For a creamier soup, add milk or cream instead of extra broth as you purée.
• Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and a sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg or a fresh sprig of the herb you choose to substitute.
• When roasting the squash or pumpkin, remove the cover for the last 15 to 20 minutes to allow it to caramelize.