Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Our Weekend

The Petawawa Farmers' Market continues to go well.  We have 3 more Fridays to go.  We have some new producers.  One Mom has 4 kids, well one is not quite 1.  Ella loves having others to play with and they usually play in the Mom's mini van which means I don't have to worry about Ella and strangers or the road.  My friend Lindsey often comes by with her little ones.  Ella loves playing with her little girl (she's 3).  They are so cute, they run around being birds or wander around holding hands.  I love when I can find 'proper' little girls for Ella to play with, boys are fine but they tend to be rough.

I've got more Christmas knitting done.  Two pairs of men sized socks.  These are made with Patons Decor yarn, it's nearly a chunky size.  Two of the men I knit for have size 11 feet, so I'm not using thin wool and little needles.  I'm not sure fancy, fine socks would really suit them any way.  They are more the thick sock kind of guy.

Finally got a chance to get my fruit relish made.  It's a tricky timing thing, especially up here.  I need to have tomatoes, peaches, pears, and apples all ripe at the same time.  It wasn't so hard when we lived in Bowmanville.  We'd just head to the St. Jacob's market and pick up everything we need.  It's my Great Grandma's recipe.  It's great with all kinds of meat and I like it with eggs.  This year I had one jar break in the hot water bath.  At least it didn't come apart until I got it out of the water and on the counter.

This wasn't technically the weekend, but I thought I'd share how farmers remove dead freezers.  Colin and Dad were actually able to get the freezer out of the summer kitchen without destroying anything, the back door came off its hinges but that was planned.



Since marrying Colin I've learned a lot about farming and a lot about farmers.  One of the first things I learned was that farmers aren't happy doing things around the house unless they can get a tractor/front-end loader involved   :)

It's amazing how much bigger the summer kitchen looks.  The new 22.5 ft freezer is so much shorter (width) that Colin was able to turn the utility shelf (on Colin's right) so it's against the wall.  That makes for so much more walking space.  If we could ever figure out where to put the freezer in the middle of the room we could have a party -well, not really but you know what I mean.  Here Colin's sweeping up, it's amazing what accumulates behind/under a freezer over 60 years.  I'm surprised he didn't find any mummified mice.

Having the new freezer will make getting ready for OVFC delivery day a breeze.  We're sorting the freezers out tomorrow and Sunday (after delivery day) I may even defrost one of the other freezers.  I can't wait to get everything organized.  I hate not being able to find things.  Also, it's hard when people come to the farm to buy pork.  I have to dig through and try to remember where everything is 'piled'.  Not very professional, not to mention that I can't reach the bottom of the freezers  :)

3 comments:

Niki said...

That relish sounds amazing!
I bet it is delicious.

Progress is being made at your place :) And I'm thinking you'll be saving quite a bit of hydro with a new freezer.

If we lived close to the St Jacobs market I don't think we'd even have a veg garden... it is an amazing market, I've been many times over the year and love it..not only the veg but the sausage, and salami...

On the pepper front, we now have 2 blossoms....that's it. Not a pepper in sight...I don't know what happened to the peppers this year...it should have been a good year lots of sun and heat....
Have a wonderful day
Niki

Lindsey said...

We went to No Frills on Sunday, and Addie was so excited to drive past Ella's house again :P

Paula said...

I don't know about saving hydro money. They always say that but our old freezer and fridges seem to be more efficient than our new ones. We rarely ever hear them running and never need to be defrosted. Unlike our new ones that I'm 'forever' defrosting.

We're going to St.Jacob's next week. We're going to Belinda's and it's a day trip from Toronto. I hope there's lots left.

We have 2 green peppers starting. I'm not sure we have enough summer left to ripen them.

Lindsey -that's funny :)