Just Like Grandma

My Grandma has been a hugely influential figure in my life. She has been a great role model to me in life, love, faith and the kitchen. When I would go over as a child to the farm she and grandpa lived on it seemed we would always end up baking or making something. Tea biscuits, cookies for every occasion (Halloween, Valentines, Spring, Friday....you get the idea), and applesauce; delicious, warm, apple sauce. Its come to the point in time at Hill Giant Farm when our apples and pears are finally beginning to ripen enough to be processed. Today I thought of my Grandma a lot as I used her Apple-saucer to make my yummy pear sauce.

My apple-saucer.

There's a great story behind this apple-saucer. In 1952 my Grandma was invited to an aluminumware party- kind of like a Tupperware party, only everything was aluminum cookware. She had been saving her egg and other money for quite some time, for what she wasn't sure. When she got to the party, she was enamoured by the deluxe item; a 15 piece canning set-pots, strainers, apple-saucer, sieve, etc. She bought it that night and paid cash, a proud moment for a common farm wife. Over time some of the pieces have been retired, dented or lost. But there are still a few pieces left. A few years ago when she realized that I was stepping up my canning endeavours, my Grandma honoured me with the gift of her Apple-saucer. I was, and still am, so excited to own it. It's nothing fancy, but it sure does a nice job on making sauce. 3 metal legs attached to a thin metal circle creates a stand and holds the strainer piec
e. Once the boiled fruit is placed inside the strainer you squish it through the sieve with a big, brown, wooden pestle. It works quite well!

For those of you who are interested in how to make pear sauce, it's actually quite easy. I've listed instructions below.

1. Wash several jars and sterilize by boiling in water for several minutes. Place snap lids in warm water in a small dish.

They aren't pretty, but they'll sure be delicious!

2. Cut the ends and any bad spots off of the pears. Cut pears in half and throw into a large pot. Don't worry about taking out seeds or cores, that will get separated out later on.

3. Add water until the pot of pears is about half full. Boil over high heat until all of the pears are soft enough to be broken with a

spoon.

4. Place a strainer over a bowl. Ladle pears in small batches into a strainer of some sort (the finer the strainer the better) and use a wooden spoon to press the flesh of the pears through the holes. The peel and seeds will stay in the strainer and can be composted. Or, if you have an apple-saucer, this is the stage at which you would use it.

Saucesome!

5. Remove jars, one at a time, from the boiling water and fill with the pear sauce. To each 500ml jar add 1/4 tsp of nutmeg and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. Mix the spice into the sauce with a non-metallic utensil (if you use metal the taste will transfer). Leave 1/2 inch of head space.

6. Place snap lid and ring on the jar. Place filled jars into a hot water canner or bath and boil for 15 minutes, making sure the jars don't tip.

7. Remove jars and let cool. You should hear the snap lids pop as they seal. If a jar does not seal within 2 hours, re-boil it.

There you go. Simple, delicious, and nutritious. You can use the same easy method for apples too. Enjoy!
Megan

Good Looking Farmers

It's Wednesday and Megan is feeling "punny." Here's a great photo of the two of us.
We're "outstanding" in our field!

Standing in our field of mixed grain,
which is under-seeded with alfalfa and clover.
Combining begins on the weekend.

Think of the Money We Saved!

Between equipment breakdowns, the weather, and the fact that we both work full time off farm, we've been struggling in the area of hay this year. We have several tonnes of grain, some corn and some old hay. We have lots of pasture....it's the hay production that's been a challenge. We admitted that we were going to need to buy some hay, and Randy found somebody selling it well under the going local price. The reason it was so far under the local price is that it was in Tobermory-which for those of you who don't know is at least 1.5 hrs from our place (going the speed limit).It's also become a high tourist area because of the National Park, its designation as a UNESCO biosphere, and the spectacular views and clear water.

Heading south on Highway 6, just north of Wiarton.

Randy has been going up to "the Peninsula" (where Tobermory is) his whole life. His family are well known by the locals and its amazing to Megan how often that comes in handy. His great uncle was a minister on the peninsula and his grandfather was a fisherman and despite both having been dead for over 15 years-they're still remembered. The problem we faced on this "epic" journey was how to haul 3 tonnes of hay home and not get in an accident with the tourists. But, being as we're always up for a challenge, particularly if there's money to be saved, we hooked up the 16 ft x 12 ft, 10 ft tall wagon to our old farm truck and set out.

The MTO diagram of a slow moving vehicle sign.

Taking as many back roads as we could to the last major town (Wiarton) we then had no choice but to head onto Highway 6 (a single lane in each direction highway that runs through the centre of the peninsula). The speed limit is 80 km/h, and we were going 60 km/h which is pretty good when you consider that we were hauling a huge wagon! The problem with towing a wagon is that it sways if you go too fast-unlike a trailer that can handle higher speeds. Despite our slow moving vehicle sign being prominently displayed (and reflective fluorescent ORANGE!) we got passed like crazy.


See the link http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/vehicle/smvs.shtml for info on what to do when you approach a slow moving vehicle.

Now, we expected to get passed, after all we were going only 3/4 the speed limit and while we were as much on the shoulder of the road as possible, we were partly on the road. There are blind hills and curves all over the place north of Wiarton. Constantly people were passing us; up blind hills, around severe curves, on solid lines. It got so out of hand that on 2 occasions the traffic was 3 cars abreast in the same direction on a 2 lane highway. Someone would come out to pass us and another person would pass them on the shoulder while they passed us in the opposite lane. It was unbelievable (stupid), and more than a little unnerving.

However, it was worth it. We got there in one piece and found some pretty good hay to bring home. We also met a really nice family, consisting of two elderly sisters and their nephew. All 3 have lived for their entire lives on the peninsula. Once the elderly ladies (78 and 84) were done throwing down hay from the mow for Megan to take to the wagon and Randy to stack, they invited us in for tea. It was delightful. Part way through the process Megan thought about taking a break but decided she couldn't let herself be outworked by the sisters. All in all we figure the adventure saved us $750. So we're doing it all again next Monday. Wish us luck!

P.S. If any of you would like to donate money to help us purchase a barge or a work boat so that we wouldn't have to drive up again, we wouldn't refuse your contribution :) With a barge we could have taken more of the 50 tonnes of hay that is remaining.

Getting Fleeced

So recently we've begun a new venture at Hill Giant Farm. Our friend Anna, of Anna's Custom Yarn Barn (https://www.facebook.com/CustomYarnBarn) asked if it would be possible to order some roving from us. For those of you who don't know, roving is the step in fleece production before it is finally spun into thread or yarn. Because we have approx. 500 lbs of raw fleece in our barn, as we speak, we said "Sure." The next step was to set about figuring out how to make it happen. Thankfully, we know a very talented and helpful woman who has been working with textiles, including wool, for a long time. After some instruction from her, we set out on our own.

The first thing you need to know about fleece when it comes off the sheep is that the outside is as dirty as wherever the sheep has last been. We sheared our sheep on a rainy day at the end of May, so needless to say, they were muddy. Also, sheep produce a natural oil called lanolin which is used in handcreams, soaps, shoe polish-you get the idea. Lanolin is what keeps the fleece waterproof and the sheep dry. By the end of a day handling the fleece your hands are really soft. If you happen to wear leather boots/shoes when you jump in the wool bag, they get a good polish and waterproofing. So our first step was to wash the fleece in order to remove as much dirt and lanolin as possible. To do this you need lots of really hot water and dishsoap. So, naturally, we fired up the turkey deep fryer and filled the pot with water. Once the water reached 200 Fahrenheit we poured it onto the fleece (covered in soap), stirred it to get everything wet and let it soak. We did this about 6 times per 64L bucket of fleece. Some people do this step in their washing machine but we weren't ready to risk the well being of our new front loading washer.

Heating the water.

Unwashed fleece.

Ikea bed frames come in handy. Drying fleece.

Having washed the fleece the next step was to dry it. To do this we spread the fleece out on what we believe to be an old Ikea wooden bed frame that was left here by the previous owner. We also used this same bed frame on shearing day to throw the fleece New Zealand style. The frame propped up on sawhorses gave lots of room to spread out the fleece and allowed for good air flow to help dry it. Point of interest, it takes 3 days to dry fleece when the humidity is 85%, and only 12 hours when the humidity is 10%.

The drum carder with a layer of fleece.

The next step would be to pick the fleece, which is just taking the fleece and pulling the clumps apart. There are machines that will do this for you, but we don't have one so we did it by hand. Once the fleece is picked you can begin carding it. Our friend kindly arranged for us to borrow a drum carder from the local spinners and weavers guild. It fits nicely on a table top and is hand cranked. You begin by taking the picked fleece, in small sections, and placing it into the feeder tray. There are two drums that rotate in opposite directions. On the drums are lots of small metal tines that grab and comb the fleece. The fleece then builds up around the second drum. When the second drum gets full you take the doffer (a long metal stick with a handle) and carefully remove your fleece batten rolling the drum in the opposite direction. The only difference between batting and roving is the width of the piece of processed fleece. Roving is more of a narrow piece for spinning into wool, whereas the batten is wider and used for insulation in quilts and clothes. Batten can also be steamed together to make felt.

Clean and soft batten.

It's pretty neat to be able to say that we can take fleece off of sheep born and raised on our farm and turn it into a new product. It gives us a new appreciation for the amount of work that people used to have to go to in order to cloth themselves. It has taken us days to process a very small amount of fleece and we would still have to spin it and then knit it to make just one pair of mittens. Makes you think.

Well That's a Surprise!

Surprises, life is full of them. Sometimes surprises are great; like discovering $20 in your winter coat the first time you put it on for a new season, or finding eggs in a birds nest as you walk through a field. Other times surprises aren't so nice; like finding that predators have gotten into your chicken pen. We have a lot of surprises here on Hill Giant Farm, of both the "woohooo" and "oh crap" variety. This weekend, we had a very pleasant surprise.

On Saturday evening as we went to put our sheep in for the night we noticed that one of the ewes was hanging back all by herself. This isn't really typical behaviour so Randy went to investigate why. As he got closer to her he hollered "she's hanging back because she had a lamb." I thought I heard him wrong at first-we've been done lambing for about 6 weeks. But nope, I heard him correctly. Ewe 685 gave birth to a big, healthy, beautiful ewe lamb, in the middle of June. Both Mom and the lamb are doing well. Given the unexpectedness of her arrival, we have christened the lamb Surprise. She's awfully sweet and is blessed with a very good mama. Below are some pictures.

Surprise is a little shy at first (if you look you can see her little legs
 behind Mom). Here she is hiding behind her Mama.

Getting a little braver. But still sticking pretty close
to Mom.

Mom and Surprise share a tender moment as Surprise
stops for a drink.

FAQs About Shearing Sheep

Whenever people learn that Randy and I live on a sheep farm there are always a lot of questions. Do you shear your sheep? Why do you shear them? What do you do with the fleece? Do you raise your sheep for fleece or for meat? So, being as shearing has recently come and gone and our sheep are running around "naked" I thought I'd devote this post to answering these FAQs. If you have other questions that aren't addressed, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below.

The sheep wait to be shorn.

Do you shear your sheep? Why? The answer to the first question is yes, although not in a technical sense. In a technical sense we hire a very talented and personable shearer who comes in and does the actual shearing for us. Shearing is a very specialized skill that takes a long time to master (it takes about 10,000 sheep before they say you've really got the hang of it). On our end there is still lots of work associated with shearing. First we build a chute to get the sheep in a single file line, then we hook that chute up to the shearer's gate for easy access to the sheep on an individual basis. The chute is also connected to a holding pen so that they can't escape and are more easily guided into the chute for shearing. Once they are sheared the sheep are let out into a large pen to wait for the rest of the flock. Throughout this whole process the lambs are separated from their mothers, often for the first time, and it is REALLY noisy as they protest this short term arrangement. 

Sheep shearing.

The second stage of shearing is dealing with the fleece itself. The fleece is gathered up and taken to a sorting table where I and my helpers (this year a couple of adorable kids and my lovely aunt) pick all of the poop and straw and other debris off of the edges of the fleece. Once the fleece is picked clean it is rolled up like a big blanket and carried up a ladder to be dumped into an a-frame holding the giant wool bags. As the wool bag becomes full, I climb into it and jump on the fleece to compact it (it's really fluffy and bouncy) and then more fleece is added until the bag is jammed full. My heaviest bag packed so far was 254 lbs. The wool bag is then sewn shut and rolled out of the way. This year we had about 2.5 bags of fleece.

As for why we shear our sheep the simple answer is because it would be inhumane not to. Sheep have an internal temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, that is 2.3 degrees warmer than us as humans. They also carry on their backs in the form of fleece insulation that is so thick and so effective that in the winter snow collects on their coats and doesn't melt from their body heat. Now, imagine how hot and sticky and uncomfortable you are on a 30 degree day with high humidity. It's even worse for the sheep. Often by the middle of May the sheep are beginning to pant on warm days. Shearing is something we do for the well being of the sheep. It is done to keep them cool and to enable them to endure a summer living on pasture eating a healthy and natural diet.  

Our neighbour supervising.

Climbing up the A-frame.

Do you raise your sheep for fleece or for meat? Hear at Hill Giant Farm we raise our sheep for both, which makes them dual purpose, however, the fleece is very undervalued compared to the meat. Ewe lambs are kept for breeding and to continue and expand our flock, while ram lambs are sold on an individual basis to neighbours and friends to put in their freezers, or are shipped to the livestock market in Cookstown, On. If you're interested in being one of our lamb customers you can always email us at hillgiantfarm@gmail.com for more details and recipe ideas. 

What do you do with the fleece? Like many other industries the sheep industry has been hit by globalization. Within Canada there are very few places that you can sell fleece to and expect it to be processed within Canada. The price for fleece is also very low. Currently, we sell our fleece to the Old Mill in Blyth. Raising sheep for fleece in Canada would be a difficult way to make money. 

Nap time on the wool bag.

So that's the skinny on shearing sheep. Do you have other sheep related questions? Other farm questions? Go ahead and ask in the comments below and we'll make sure we answer them. 

Megan

The Butcher and the Bobolink: Randy's Thoughts on the Connectivity of All Things

The male bobolink can often be found resting on
 the tips of blades of grass.

This time of year is the time when we need to start cutting hay. There is a lot to be considered; weather forecast for 3-5 days, how tall the hay is, how much of the alfalfa and clover is in blossom, when will I have time, and finally have the ground nesting birds fledged their young. We have a lot of ground nesting birds, in particular we have a lot of bobolinks. Apparently, though its not evident at our place, the bobolink is a species at risk in the province of Ontario. They are a prairie bird that migrated to Ontario and naturalized after one of the greatest deforestation efforts in human history and the clearing of the Carolinian forest to make way for agriculture over the last 300 years.

As an ironic aside, the concept of deforestation for agriculture was only half followed through on Hill Giant Farm.

We recently learned through OSMA (Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency) that sheep farms now account for the majority of bobolink habitat in Ontario. This presents us with a paradox. We are asked to consider the birds when making haymaking decisions while at the same time being in a position of loss on the farm if our hay crop is poor or not big enough. If we don't have good quality hay we can't sustain the farm and by extension, we can't sustain and protect the bobolinks.

All of this has led Megan and I to discuss at great length the complexity of interconnections between things. I'm asked to protect the bobolink because they prefer my pasture while our neighbour, who feeds his dairy herd on corn silage, is not asked to
do anything at all as his method of farming makes his farm undesirable to ground nesting birds. The larger questions of why the bobolink is in trouble now in Ontario and why are they plentiful on sheep farms seem to be largely overlooked.

It's often the large systemic questions such as this that are overlooked. Why does poverty exist in certain areas more than in others? Why do so many people leave rural communities? Why do we forget to celebrate the simple things in life? Everything is connected. We need to ask what are we going to do about these problems in the here and now. But we also have to ask how and why things got this way. The bobolink and the local butcher provide a parable that shows this connectivity.

The sheep at Hill Giant Farm taking advantage of
pasture on the front lawn.

There was a farmer and for many years he kept cattle and sheep, chickens, a few pigs, an orchard and a garden. His cattle would graze in the pasture, his sheep would follow the cattle and finish grazing the field while the chickens and pigs would eat the by products of the kitchen and the garden. Keeping most of his land for pasture and hay, he would plant a field of grain per year. Natural habitat for birds and other small animals was plentiful. In the fullness of time he could sell his grain to the grist mill or the brewery and send his fattened steers and ram lambs, his pigs and chickens to the butcher who would in turn sell the meat. But what happens if we take the butcher out of this story? The farmer can still produce in this way but he can't sell his livestock, and therefore he can't make money, and therefore his method of farming must change. The further he has to drive to the butcher, the more he has to pay the butcher to cover costs incurred, the less profitable his farm becomes. Naturally, he is forced to make decisions, such as to downsize his herds and flocks leaving his pastures and hay fields unnecessary, and he plants more crops therefore removing valuable habitat for birds such as bobolinks. We see this kind of connection between everything all the time on the farm. Often these kinds of observations on connectivity are dismissed as being nostalgic or backwards, non-progressive, and that's a shame. If we thought more in terms of how what seems like one small thing (a bird) depends on other small things (a local butcher) we might find things starting to change in our society.

Where in your own life do you see two seemingly unrelated things being connected to one another? Share your observations with us in the comments section below.
Randy