is spring here yet? New babies have arrived!

Winter is just not going away here.  It is Easter Sunday tomorrow and we have a chance of snow again on Monday.  So we are doing the things we can do to prepare for spring.  My Spinach is doing great, picked about 4 lbs so far since the begining of March and we have 5 new baby ducks in the barn.
They are two weeks old and just as cute as they can be.  Our single adult duck (female) has taken to sleeping with them and doing a lot of quacking at them.  We are hoping she will teach them the ropes.
We received over 30 inches of snow this winter and a lot of rain also.  Our pond is completely full and the ground is mud! As the ranchers say:better mud than dust! We are hoping the drought wioll be eased this year.
Trees are all budding except my fig and olive tree, the last ones we planted in the fall.  With the drought I may have lost them.  I'll wait till mid-April before I replace them.
Our cold frame box kept us in greens over the winter.  We had 3 months of Pak choy, radishes and now I have lettuce. I planted some bush beans, today, for an early pick. 
Our crazy rooster kept eating all my swiss chard.  We had to clip his wings so he can't fly over the fence, that was sadder to Steve than losing the swiss chard!
Now we wait to see if all the fruit trees will bud and bloom in late April. And, if warm weather ever gets here we will plan out last tilling and start to plant.

Hummus recipes

I love making hummus and so many friends love eating it.
Here are a couple of recipes
First, the basic
Ten two different versions

Classic Hummus
1  can garbanzo beans or Italian chick peas (meme chose)
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp salt
2cloves fresh garlic minced
3tbsp tahini. Sesame paste
1tsp white pepper
2tbsp plain yogurt
2tbsp lemon juice
4tbsp olive oil
Place beans , tahini , spices and garlic in food processor, pulse until chopped
Add yogurt lemon juice and process with motor running add olive oil through the feed tube until completely blended.
Scoop out into a bowl
Voila

Artichoke hummus
Same recipe as above but use 1 14 oz can artichoke hearts quartered and omit the yogurt
Add more garbanzo beans if consistency is too loose

Sweet red pepper hummus
Same recipe as above but omit the yogurt and add 1 12 to 14oz jar of roasted red peppers drained and chopped
Enjoy!

Too much snow

Fruit Pruning time!

These are photos of our granny smith apple tree blossoms from last spring.  It won't be long before the warm sun will bring new blooms again. Today Steve and I worked for several hours pruning all our fruit trees.  Our Jonagold trees in Jim's yard were the worst.  They haven't been pruned in 10 years or so, much needed cutting took place and as we left the trees you could almost hear a sigh of relief.  They certainly looked taller too.
So, inventory, we have two granny smith trees,  two Jonagold, two pear,  two Alberta Peach, one mission fig an olive tree and three areas with grapevines.  Defintiely enough to keep us hopping!  Now we have a nice big pile of apple wood for smoking. Bring on the pork butt!

It may be winter but we are still busy!

Over the holiday break from work, we are still keeping busy at the farm.

Here are photos of the mushroom starter we recieved as a gift for Christmas and the first harvest of mushrooms we picked on January 5th.  Yummy lobster mushrooms.  We made chinese stirfry veggies with them and teryiaki chicken for dinner!

Also, I had some pureed pumpkin left from the summer batch, which I had frozen.  I made Pumpkin Bread with marbled chocolate and then tried a recipe adapted from Martha Stewart for pumpkin cream pasta.  It was outstanding!  It will become one of my regular recipes for sure.  Just make sure you go for a good run the next day.  It's not light!

Pumpkin Cream Pasta:

1 lb fettucine, cooked  as instructed

1 medium onion diced

1 tsp fennel seed

4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cooked bacon bits

1 cup heavy cream

1 pinch of mace

1 cup pureed pumpkin

Combine onion, fennel seed, butter and oil in a saute pan until the onion is tender.  Add the bacon, mace, cream and pumpkin until warmed thoroughly.  Stir frequently and keep at a low temp.  Add cooked pasta and adjust with salt & pepper.  Serve immediately with fresh grated parmesean cheese.

Merry Christmas from Epitherrien Farms

Steve and I started to holiday with putting up the outside decorations and having a small snow ball fight.  Grey, our pet rooster didn't like the fact that Steve's snowballs met the mark each time he threw one, he came to my rescue.  Feathers fluffed and head spiked out he ran straight for Steve.  Of course he doesn't do anything once he gets to you, just wants you to stroke his feathers.  Weird bird.
Dinner that night was Butterflied pork chops with a sauce from Bobby Flay that will be a regular in my kitchen now, Pomegranate black pepper sauce.
1/2 cup pomegrante molassas
2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp prepared hot horseradish
Mix all ingredients thoroughly and warm to blend flavors.  Spoon over seared pork chops, Heaven!
Bobby Flays original recipe makes more of the suace and he serves it over roasted turkey.
I served the pork chops with southern greens cooked with vinegar and chilies, swiss chard and collards from the garden.
The night before Christmas eve we had a Quebecois dinner.  First Course Poutine!  French fries served with unaged white cheddar cheese curds and a hot gravy type sauce.
Second Course was Tourtier! American's would not know what this is but it is a pork pie that melts in your mouth.  Ground pork, onion and a special spice mix that is the key. Two crusts golden brown served with ketchup. Yummy!
  The texture was a bit different than Meme's because this original recipe calls for a potato rather than french bread as a base with the ground pork.
Third course was a Turket leftover soup, recipe from William Sonoma.  Turkey stock, left over turkey meat from Thanksgiving, fresh tomatoes, carrots onions, white beans, wild rice and you actually use a cup of left over turkey gravy to thicken the stock a bit.  Outstanding!
Christmas eve will begin with Shrimp Cocktail (feast of the one fish here in land-locked-ville) then
Ham with Fire Glaze (the glaze is a mixture of Red Pepper jelly and apricot perserves) Fantastic!
Served with Asparagus risotto and roasted root veggies with a salad of greens goat cheese and pomegranate, balsamic, maple vinaigrette.
Pies: Pumpkin Maple (Derek's favorite), Cranberry Pear with oatmeal struesel topping (of course pears what else), Creme Breule Custard pie with a caramel base (it tastes like flan) and assorted Christmas Cookies, sugar cookies, espresso crinkles, mudslide cookies and gingerbread men.
Christmas day will include roast turkey with bourbon maple glaze, stuffing with pears, pomegranate and mushrooms, served with sweet potatoes and beet & sweet onion salad.  Yes Beets!
Altogether a festive and great

Thanksgiving prep- Spiced pears and cranberries.

I ordered my fresh turkey and will pick it up Tuesday night.
Wednesday night I will brine the turkey in my huge stock pot filled with water, 2 cups maple syrup and 1/2 cup salt.  That will swim in the brine until Thursday morning.
Stuffing with be with sausage, celery, onions, cranberries and the two quince I have left in my tree.  The chickens ate all the rest!  Quince tastes like a buttery pear but has the consistency of apricots.
Since  I was working with the pears, I  peeled many more and made spiced pears with cranberries.  This is really good heaped on a bed of mashed potato and celery root puree.  Or you could poach pears, cut in half,  in Chardonnay then serve with the pear canberries in the center of the pear.  Yummy and pretty!  It's also great as filling in Crepes with whipped cream on top and a glass of Cognac.  Viva La France!  Here is the recipe for
Spiced Pears and Cranberries
12 cups pear peices, cut from bartlett pears peeled, seeded and cut into chunks.
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp anise seed or two whole star anise
1 cup fresh cranberries
Mix all ingredients in a large stainless steel pan, bring to a boil and  simmer for 1 1/2 hours stirring frequently.  Skim off any remaining foam and spoon into  in glass jars and cool.  This will keep in the fridge for at least two weeks.
 We will have our usual candied sweet potatoes with butter, bourbon and maple syrup.  Thank goodness Steve is bringing home more Canadian Maple Syrup.  We just can't have a holiday with out it.
I am looking to eat out of the garden for our Thanksgiving feast as we did last year, so I think we will have beet green warm salad with oranges and pomegranate vinaigrette and  brandy cream carrots as sides with the turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes.  Apple pie, pumpkin pie and pumpkin chocolate swirl cheesecake for desserts.
Dinner will be served at 4:00 PM Thursday.  Call if you want me to save you a seat!
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!  And don't eat too much!