Saturday, August 30, 2014

a couple of nice days



it has been a beautiful couple of days even though we are all still reeling from the loss of SciFiChick. my friend Harry Flashman just received a set of books from her that he won during one of her give-aways. he says here that if feels kind of strange and i am sure that it does. but i am also sure that Sci would have wanted him to enjoy those books.

our Sweet Sandy made contact with Sci's husband, Mars, and he left a beautiful message to all of us about how much the blogging community and friends of Sci's from the internet meant to her. you can read his message here on Sweet Sandy's blog.

my friend Phelan left a comment on one of our blogs (?) saying that Sci would not want us all blubbering and would be yelling for us to get back out in the garden. she's right.

for us at The Manor it has been several wonderful days gardening, getting the fall garden in, getting the harvest in, harvesting some seed and berries. imagine - we have wild raspberries and wild blackberries growing all over our land?!?!?? the next 2 weeks are perfect for picking them and that is what we have been doing for a few hours each day. here is one small picking - we put them on the tray to let any little bugs get away before rinsing them and bagging them.



we've only been picking a few days now, the wild raspberries are really tiny but man are they sweet. the blackberries are to die for.

here's our haul so far: (minus the bucketfulls we have been eating while picking and telling each other we are not eating bucketfulls each - bahahahahah!)



by the time we are done both of those bags will be filled to the brim and made into many fine and delicious things! and now remember - these berries just grow here. we don't tend to them, we don't baby them, we don't do anything to them. we just forage. we like that!

speaking of fine and delicious things, it was my friend Sweet Sandy who taught us about taking the bottoms of celery, rooting them in water and then re-planting them. we don't have access to any local, organic celery but at this time of year we get beautiful green onions, locally, and still with all of the roots attached.



i cut off the bottoms leaving the roots intact, soak them in water for a few days, stick them in pots and blammo! delicious, local, organic green onions for months.


you just keep clipping them and they keep coming back!

in other local news - it's corn season baby. corn and strawberry season.


that's local organic corn and strawberries right there. in our nearest little town, you can't drive 5 ft without hitting a truck selling corn or strawberries. we have a ton of corn that we cooked, cobbed and froze. so far this winter, we'll be eating a ton of peas, a ton of beans, a ton of pickled radish, a ton of squash puree, and a bunch of frozen berries - woohoo! and we haven't even hit the glut of our harvest time yet - it's pretty awesome!

want more awesomeness? how about 10 and a half litres of home-made bone and veg stock? yummeh!


here's some seeds that we harvested today for our garden next year. on the left is viceroy spinach seeds that we will plant immediately to get a fall harvest of. some shelling peas. and more nappa cabbage seeds than i know what to do with!!!! does anyone need nappa cabbage seeds?


finally some proper korean bbq steak (bulgogi) done on the bbq with extra sauce made on the stove. jambaloney's awesome almond rice, some sauteed green beans and some cabbage kimchi which i swear is the best kimchi ever.

in closing, i would like to thank you all for your outpouring of comments and support on our blog, and on several other friends blogs due to our loss of our very good friend SciFiChick. it has really meant a lot to me and posting tributes to her below helped me work through my grief. having my friends Phelan and Sweet Sandy only a phone call away made all the difference. hearing from my friends Felinae, Herbalpagan and mmpaints - a group that we call the "core crew" made it all that much easier. thank you all again.

17 comments:

  1. Dern yer hide; yer always makin' me hungry! lol

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    1. my apologies, Mr. Smythe - you know how much i care about you! sorry, my friend - bahahahah!

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  2. I have a hell of a time getting raspberries to produce down here although it is possible. Blueberries just die. But Blackberries, well they are everywhere.

    Things are looking good as usual up there kymber.

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    1. PP - our raspberries, blackberries and cranberries that are on our land just do their thing and then we pick them. our friends have several blueberry farms so we don't even worry about blueberries. the only thing we can't seem to get to grow is strawberries - i think we grew about 6 so far. arghghghgh! but thankfully we have access to local and organic strawberries and they are delicious and very-well priced. we buy a pile and freeze them for the winter. we freeze all kinds of berries for the winter. we're not real big on jams or preserves but we will do a jam of each kind this year just for fun.

      thanks buddy. i appreciate it.

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  3. I LOVE corn season. Can't ever get enough of it. So dang yummy! We got our fall garden in as well.
    As always the manor looks gorgeous. But I have heard the farmers almanac is again calling for yet another harsh winter. Sandy called me as well. She is kind of like the Big Sister. Love both you guys.. Hugs to Jam

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    1. Gurlie - you and me both. during corn season i could eat it for every meal. we have not yet been able to grow corn, we only plant a few a year, but they just don't like our weather or our soil. being able to get locally and organically grown corn just down the road - woohoo for us! we eat a pile of it and freeze a pile of it so that we can have delicious corn all winter long. as for Sweet Sandy - heck, there is a reason that we call her Sweet. she is such a caring and beautiful soul - i love her to smithereens! same as how i feel about you honey. i am so sorry for the medical issues that you are experiencing with your Mother - but just know that you are all in our prayers. much love to you honey! xoxox

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  4. On my computer screen, that top picture, on first glance, looks like a painting. Too cool!

    Wild raspberries I can only imagine are delicious beyond words.

    Hope you are doing better. Big hugs to you both!

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    1. 1st Man - i swear that one of these days i am going to learn how to use my camera and then learn how to use filters and enhanced imaging. for now, tho, it's just factory settings and point and click. i can only imagine how beautiful some of the pics could be if i bothered to do any of that - bahahahahah! but thank you very much. i really think it's just the actual scenery that makes the pics pretty. there are many times a day where either jam or i just stop and stare. and one of us will say to the other - "what are you doing?" and one of us will answer "just looking". it's a pretty impressive piece of and with all of the different colours through all of the different seasons. ok, i'm blathering.

      as for wild raspberries - they are super tiny but so sweet!!! they are really delicious and you can add them to your water, yogurt, cream cheese, any thing you bake - they are lovely! and i don't know if you know this but our village is called "Framboise" as is The Manor, and framboise is the french word for raspberry. kinda makes sense to name the village that when the wild raspberries grow everywhere here.

      i am doing much better. my friends Phelan and Sweet Sandy have been taking good care of me, my other friends Felinae, Herbalpagan and mmpaints have been there, and many, many other internet buddies have been checking in. the outpouring of love for our friend Sci has made it that much easier. thank you for your comments on previous posts about Sci - they mean the world and you know that we send our love back to you and 2nd Man! thank you.xoxoxo

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  5. The corn looks sooo good and the Korean BBQ plate, well that just looks too good to eat! The picture should be in a food magazine, it looks that delicious.

    Lots of love and big hugs to you and Jamba.
    ~Fel~

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    1. oh Fel - it has been so nice to talk to you through email and i have loved every one of your comments here. thank you so much. i just want you to know how much i appreciate your loving support through all of this...and must mention again that you were THE VERY FIRST PERSON that we shared Framboise Manor with - the very first. and you were sooo supportive.

      i want you to know how much we love and respect you and the Catman! and give that B's our love as well. thanks Fel. xoxoxo

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    2. I know, I remember how excited you were about the manor. How could you not be, it's beautiful! I appreciate that I was the first person you shared it. (((Kymber)))

      The love and respect works both ways my friend. :) Love you both too. xoxoxoxo

      PS: I got a note on facebook today from FatKat he just now saw the news about Sci and if you have a way, he'd like for you to pass along his condolences to Mars. Thanks <3

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  6. Strange how your strawberries are ready now - ours are starting too. And strawberries don't have a long season either, do they?

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    1. Dani - do your strawberries normally start at this time of the year too? this is strawberry season here in cape breton. they will last about 2 weeks and then they are gone. it's interesting that you have the same strawberry season as us. cool eh?

      something else that's cool...and yes, i am rambling - an australian friend of mine that i worked with years ago sent me a very interesting link which compared climates of various places. it turns out that cape breton island has a very similar climate to northern tanzania, which is where he was from. we both thought that was very interesting.

      and yes, the strawberries are around for 2, maybe 3 weeks - and then they are gone. good thing we bought a ton and froze them for the winter months. much love to you and yours Dani. xoxoxo

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  7. We've just started on our corn on the cob and it's amazing. How do you say you preserve yours? We're also picking loads of raspberries (but ours aren't wild) and putting them in the freezer, I'll probably make jam with some at a later fate as well with some cooking apples.

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    1. hey Ken - lucky you to have just started getting in your corn. how i preserve ours is to blanch the entire cob for only 2 minutes in boiling water then take them out and rinse them in cold water. once they have cooled, we slice the corn from the cobs and then freeze the corn in big freezer bags. that way, when you defrost them, the corn won't be mushy and if you are adding it to soup or a stirfry, it stays crisp. also, we like corn as a side dish to meals, so once the frozen corn defrosts, i just saute it in butter for a minute or 2 and it seems like it is fresh off the cob.

      wild raspberries are very tiny but very, very sweet. we aren't big jam people here - i usually like to defrost some berries to throw into a fruit salad in the winter, or add them to yoghurt. but my absolute favourite thing to do with frozen berries is add a bunch of them to a glass of water. they act as ice cubes and add a bunch of flavour!

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  8. Sweet Kymber,

    I love your wild berry harvest..............it's hard to harvest these babies and not want to put them all in your mouth. Wild berries are amazing!!!!

    Your onions girlie are nice looking, don't you just love the idea of soaking the bottom of the onion to start roots for planting? You can also do the same thing with parsnips, I've tried and this process works really good.

    It's true, SCI would want all of her friends to remember her by working in their gardens, making broth, harvesting, canning, helping one another out, and just being self reliant. Not blubbering about her.

    Bulldog Man says when we get an opportunity to get up your way he wants some of your delicious bulgogi.

    Thank you for being a great friend.............aka sister.....same goes to JUGM and Phelan.....love you all!!!!

    Big hugs to you and Jam.
    Love Sandy


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  9. Well it's back to work for us serfs and I got a nice score of comfrey leaves from a neighbor so I can try out your healing salve.

    kymber you have to try out my pain and cramp salve as it really works wonders on both. I have use both coconut oil and a liquid oils like grapeseed or rice bran oil and all work well, though I up the natural beeswax from 1 oz. to 1.5 oz. using liquid oils per 8 oz. batch. I used to get stopped in my tracks by cramps via female stuff and my CIDP and using my pain salve it will take care of cramps in about 5 minutes.

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