The "Leap" Year......




Each year I do the same thing: try and squeak 'lots' of seed in before March! It is still very cold and not cost effective for us to fire the middle greenhouse yet and no point creating more stress for myself panicking as I can't plant stuff out till the fear of frost is gone anyhow. If we have a crappy, cold April like last year with little sun (Ohhhh I dread this!!) I couldn't push the plants along if I tried! I sit and stare at the seed logs from last year making sure we are on track and trying desperately to be just a 'touch' earlier (aka 'better') than last year. "Long time yet. Relax woman." is usually Ben's response to my useless worrying. You can truly annoy the hell out of someone by wandering around the house evenings shaking seed packets!! LOLOLOL, poor Ben. (I do wish we had more of a 'Californian climate' though.) It's a hell of alot of work to fill the greenhouses, so the sooner I start, the sooner it fills seems to be part of my annual reasoning. Now are the days I'm dreaming tomatoes as I seed each unique variety. I'm proud to say I have 74 different kinds of heirlooms seeded now! The challenge will be to keep all the varieties straight at harvest time. I have visions of my tough, strong, healthy tomato plants I start early. The ones that have rooted down hard because I cropped them good and monitored my watering. The ones that have stems almost the diameter of a loonie yet bend like an elastic!! And that tomato smell of the foliage. I open my eyes to a sea of snow, chill to my bones but get the hell out there with Ben to create the plastic barrier in the middle greenhouse so when we have to fire it up, all the heat will not disappear through the cracks in the glass. Hey, hello March! Truly nice to see you again! Our little retro tune for the week has been: "Small Town Boy" by the Bronski Beat. Check it out for a nice 80's flash back!
Homemade Mayo

My chickens are laying again! Time to make some REAL mayo! This is soooo easy!

Separate three eggs yolks from the whites. (save whites and make a boring egg white omlette later on.) Place 3 yolks in medium size bowl, put in 3 teaspoons of vinegar and get out your whisk! Whisk and add drop by drop oil. (Canola or veg. works, but why not use Olive for it's health benefits instead!) You have to mix the oil in slowly until it binds, then you can get a small stream of the oil going in while you continually mix. The amount of oil to use for 3 yolks for me is generally half a cup, but go with your own desired consistency. I then add seasonings: I add a tsp. of sea salt. 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. of garlic powder. AND THEN I add fresh minced GARLIC! Depending on the season, I make all different kinds of flavours. Dill is really good! Lemon rocks too! My mayo is very yellow because our chicken egg yolks rock! Use a bit of this, some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and yet MORE minced garlic to create an amazing salad dressing! I'll include lots of recipes for dressings as the season progresses! As you can see in my one pic, I'm just getting ready to plant my herb seeds!! Eat well, stay warm, MARCH is here!!!!

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