Lazy days of summer?...early treat...



My inspiration to blog is around me each and every day - but.... to find the time....This heat is different, hope she keeps going truthfully.  I want tomatoes and peppers this year! Ahh, the first field harvests. Lettuces;  huge heads of deep green romaine, large and fluffy red & green leaf, soft and melty green bostons and 'Sangria' reds.  Each day for lunch Ben and I whip up a new salad creation to savor.  A fav around here is certainly homemade ceasar with big chunks of real bacon and a dressing with enough garlic to kill what ails you! But a simple green and red leaf mixed, or boston/butterhead with a light olive and balsamic with our radishes beats the heat and keeps the stove off other days.  Stir frys with Quinoa and our fresh field bok choy and tatsoi with a newly aquired taste for 'miso' (a fermented soybean flavouring) and buckwheat noodles (inspirations from our farm friend Kera) are other new digs we are enjoying sampling.  Along with early field harvest comes the great task of planting everything else in orderly fashion and weeding what is already out there....and then comes greenhouse no. 3...my baby heirlooms....Hanging hundreds of strings, suckering and gently twining the plants up, up, up while I examine the blossom formation and excitedly greet the start of green fruit forming!  We had a great visit from our friend and chef Ezra Title & gang on Tuesday.  Most know Ezra and crew from 'Chez Vous' the folks that make the most amazing, amazing breakfasts at select specialty farmers' market in Toronto.  He is also the chef in the television program "The Healthy Gourmet".  His first visit to our farm should render another, as I love to treat up the foodies and chefs in my life, so they were granted free and roaming access to our 'volunteer green garlic' patch and overwintered leek patch ONE day before Ben was scheduled to plow 'er under!  It was such a joy to share our greenhouse heirloom planting with the group and the rest of the farm!  Well, as we speak, Ben is rolling in with the big white market truck from another great day at Dufferin Grove Organic Market.  Sun just finished setting on some beautiful poppies (another gift from my mom..)...Time to feed the man and get ready for another long but worthy day or harvest tomorrow, and I hear it will be more seasonal temps - NOT that I'm complaining!  Cheers everyone, enjoy the food we bring on in 2010!! Hey, and Smashy:  good luck with exams and kicking grade 11 to the curb!!!!  ;)

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