Missing in Action

You may have noticed we were MIA last week, no market, no blogging, no anything. The plan was to have a glorious holiday, and we did manage a great day out in Saanichton, we did some berry picking and hit up the petting zoo at Dan's Farm with two of our favorite people. Then tragedy struck and we both came down with a dreadful combination of cold and allergies. The rest of the week was spent watching Band of Brothers and eating the spoils of our day foraging berries.


Not to worry, we are back on track and can't wait for the market this week!

Oh Deer, What Could the Matter Be?

The other morning after Matt had let the chickens out and headed off to work I was woken up at 6 in the morning to the sound our our chickens being tortured. Upon inspection it seems chickens are not fans of deer. What three big deer were doing in our yard I do not know... perhaps our apples really are that good!

(A note on the video: please remember before watching that I had just woken up and still haven't learned video editing.)

A perfect use for tomatoes

Well, tomato season is just on the verge, and once you can get your hands on some fresh, local beauties, here is one of our favourite ways to enjoy them.
You will need:
1 Baguette
6 medium size tomatoes
1 bunch of fresh basil
A splash of vinegar (a nice red wine or sherry would be good)
A generous amount of olive oil
A few cloves of garlic
A few sprigs of hard herbs, we used thyme, rosemary and sage.

This will make enough to feed 2 hungry adults as an addition to a main course.

Cut the baguette into slice about ½ inch thick. Heat up a ¼ cup of olive oil in a large frying pan (try to get it hot without letting it smoke.) When it’s hot, remove from the heat at put the thyme, rosemary, sage and a sliced clove of garlic into the oil. Swirl them around in the oil, and remove once they are cooked a little (be careful, the garlic will burn easily and give the olive oil and unwanted flavour). Place the pan back on the heat, and once it is hot again, carefully add the sliced baguette and fry both sides until golden brown.

Once the baguette slices are cool enough to handle, rub both sides with a piece of garlic, and then rub them again with the cut side of a tomato. Cut the tomatoes into bit sized pieces, tear up the basil and put the toasts, tomatoes and basil into a large salad bowl. Drizzle with a quality olive oil (we used Affiorato Extra Virgin Olive Oil which you can get for $16 from Plenty Epicurean Pantry @ 1034 Fort Street. www.epicureanpantry.ca ) Add a splash of vinegar, a pinch of salt and a few cracks from your pepper mill. Toss together and enjoy!

We ate this with Qualicum Bay Scallops and yellow wax beans from Square Root Organic Farm (find them at the Moss St. Market every Saturday.)

Baguettes

Baguettes cooling and waiting to be wrapped early Saturday morning before the market.

Little Helpers

While Matt toiled away with the never ending job of de-weeding the yard the chickens were close at hand helping. Please note our recently broken chair courtesy of an over excited game of Bocce Ball.

And So It Begins

One of the draws to our new home when we were house hunting was the size of the back yard. It was left for so long, it was a shamble but we had a dream and that dream was chickens. It took us seven months, but we captured that dream!

With the help of a fellow Moss Street Market vendor, Evelyn of Terra Nossa Farm we now have 4 beautiful brown chickens whom we love and adore!

Terra Nossa farm is a beautiful all organic family run farm on 26 acres in Mill Bay. They raise pigs and turkeys and chickens oh my.

Before picking up our new lady friends we were lucky enough to get a tour of their farm and now 4 chickens seems too few and our yard that was huge now just doesn't seem to be enough. Oh the grass is always greener.

This husky is one of their next door neighbours, who raise and raise their own sled dog team! I have always always wanted a husky and was drooling over them as they drooled over the chicks.

More on our 4 new friends comming soon,

Rebecca