All sun and no rain

It's not often that you simply cannot remember the last time it rained and we don't like to complain, but our little transplants are thirsty and fading! Plus, with the risk of frost hanging over us (since we are still only in Spring after all), this month at the farm, as well as physically exhausting seems to be mentally tiresome with the question...how much do we gamble? Risk seeding (with no prospect of rain), risk putting plants out (with chance of frost) or leave it all in the greenhouse (spend hours watering and risk being behind if the season comes early)....The one sure thing is that the damn grass needs cutting and of course, that loathsome lawn tractor is out of action once again.
However, we've actually been exploring other exciting options such as jetting off to New York City for a fabulous weekend to enjoy a lifestyle we can no longer keep up with! I have also been delving into the wierd and wonderful realm of plant spirit medicine (ie. talking to plants and listening to what they have to share).see more here
We've finally got the tea blends with petals and herbs a little more organised and they seem to be going down well at the market. The dandelion beer tastes awesome, so much so that I now plan to make a whole keg - though did have one bottle explode which was quite a frightening (not to mention very sticky) event. Lilacs are in bloom, mint has overtaken the herb garden, perennials are battling with the weeds and lupins are starting to appear. Bring on the rain so we can start feeling like a flower farm!

Growing madly and wild harvesting

Greenness is all around - hurray. Seedlings and weeds are springing up in all directions, the madness has well and truly begun. Luckily we had 2 fabulous German wwoofers (volunteers) staying for a week to lend us a couple of very helpful extra hands. Together we transplanted into the green house, mulched, weeded, sowed seed, planted potatoes and attempted to train Bertie with a plastic duck, among many other useful tasks. They even put up with my raw food escapade (raw apple pie) and helped taste my new herbal and black tea blends with flower petals. We are certainly missing their manpower (and cooking!). As if we weren't busy enough with actually growing veggies, herbs and flowers, we are continually side-tracked by nature's bounty on our door step. The latest creations from our wild-harvest include; dandelion vodka, beer and wine (though we have to wait until winter solstice to taste that one), and we've been enjoying our first trout lily bulbs and fiddleheads. I've even managed to get Jamie to eat wild burdock root and I have a sinking feeling he is roasting dandelion root in an attempt to reduce our coffee consumption! Thankfully the weather is mild, even hot on occasion, and everything is doing well, in fact, working outside has been totally pleasant...sadly this reverie will never last in Nova Scotia...here come the bugs!

Fiddleheads ready for harvesting...

Salad with dandelion leaves, flowers & trout lily bulbs

The raw apple pie -  a great breakfast dish!

Dandelion vodka .... may be needed once the flies & mosquitoes arrive..

Onions & leeks are in

Field preparations are underway

Sweet Stuff

The stoves have been blazing this past month boiling down fresh maple sap and turning it into delicious syrup. Though with so many seedlings to water and seeds yet to sow, distracting Jamie's watchful eye from overseeing the boiling, much of our sap turned itself into maple butter and not syrup. But it's so completely delicious we are not complaining. Also delighting my sweet tooth are the  freshly dug parsnip which stayed buried in the ground over the winter, miraculously without rotting, and were dug up the other week as soon as the ground was soft enough. I have never tasted any vegetable so sweet and we don't seem to be able to pass a day without parsnip featuring in some shape or form on the table: roasted, in soup, in patties, bread.. cake....! We've got 4 new chickens who delivered lots of eggs in time for Easter despite attempts by Eddie and Bertie to get uncomfortably up close and personal. With spring in the air we had a much needed enormous bonfire to clean up junk ready for new stuff. The snow has gone revealing our bare fields and with them the realisation of all that work ahead of us. But with all the little seedlings sprouting up, looking green and bright, we can't help but feel excited.