Cabbage Rolls

The Farmers Wife was busy today.

The farmer arrived home to the smell of cooking.

Not just the normal cooking aroma that is the daily greeting.

It was CABBAGE ROLLS !!!!!!!!!

The Farmer loves these little wonders.

But as if some cruel joke was being played.

All 30 of them had been sealed up in foil.

YES ALL OF THEM !!!

Oh such sadness for The Farmer.

This treat is a gift to The Family for Christmas.

Even knowing what the gift is The Farmer is still filled with anticipation.

It will bring him back to his childhood.

The sleepless hours waiting.

The sheer joy of the arrival of Christmas morning.

The farmer is sure that it isn't quite this bad.

Once the smell has faded the heartbreak of having to wait will subside

A pound of garlic

The Farmer gets asked "what does a pound of garlic looks like?" all the time.

Well a pound of garlic has many different looks depending on the heads sizes.

In this pic there are two versions of a pound one has 6 heads and one has 11.

The farmer sells these for $5 a pound.

To contact The Farm email canadiangarlic@gmail.com

or call 905-892-8106

Another version of the pound is the 3oz bottle of toasted garlic powder.

The Farmer sells these in a limited quantity for $7

Here is a rundown of the process.

The Farmer Peels the garlic.

The Farmer peels lots of garlic.

Then The Farmer sets up in a nice shaded area.

The Farmer then chops and chops and chops.

He spreads the slices out in the dehydrator.

After 24 hours The Farmer grinds the dry garlic and bottles it.

 

The heat of this dehydrator is high enough to lightly toast the slices.

That gives the mix a bit of a dark look and a light toasty flavour.

The Farmer calls it Toasted garlic.

The process is tedious at best.

The Farmer only makes a limited quantity of this product.

All bundled for drying

The Farmer was in the field at 10am

It only took a few hours to finish cleaning and bundling

Well that's it all inside curing.

Now The farmer starts with the first picked

trimming roots and sniping off the bulbs.

And Then There Were None

The Farmer and The Farmers Wife are sore and tired.

The 2012 garlic has all been picked.

They still have some cleaning and bundling to do.

Tomorrow should be the end of work for a week or so.

Once the curing process is complete they will get at the next faze.

Trimming and bagging for sale will be next.

 

Once the garlic is all hanging in the barn

The Farmer will post a pic of the 2012 crop.

Garlic 2012

Well it was an early spring on the farm.

The Farmer took a few pics of the garlic field.

8145 pieces of various varieties.

Crazy for March 

The Farmer has never seen such a warm winter

After digging the 4800 head last year

The Farmer swore he would find a better way.

Introducing The Harvester.

Much easier on The Farmers back.

The rows need to be planted differently though.

There was far to much damage.

This pile is the result of harvesting 4000 pcs.

There's more to come

The Farmer is heart broken.

Every time he chops through a head.

He remembers crawling hands and knees

Planting his crop last fall.

The good ones are collected.

They are wiped off and set aside for tying.

  

The Farmer and The Farmers wife have been busy this week.

The first week of July is kind of early but

the crop is ready.

With The Farmers Wife helping

the loads were taken to the barn.

They will be hung for at least two weeks to cure.

 

Today July 6th 

The Farmer and The Farmers Wife have given up.

Its Just to hot for harvesting.

 

One thermometer at 100 and one at 95.

The Farmer doesn't care whats correct.

He just knows its to hot to work out there.

Twins Again

The Farmer was looking out into the paddock Saturday morning.

The last pregnant ewe was cleaning it's freshly born lamb.

So The Farmer called to the Farmers Wife 

They headed out with the camera.

 Now as they were watching mom lick her new lamb

another fell out with a small thud.

 So she turned and started licking it clean.

The placenta is kind of shocking

 for those not used to this type of thing

 but mama didn't want to turn her but away.

For those with a strong stomach

The Farmer has posted a video 

of mom cleaning the babies on

Youtube

Twin Lambs Just Born

Twin Lambs

The Farmer was checking on the sheep this morning.

Not expecting any surprises when he thought something.

maybe a bag had blown into the paddock.

But no there there were two bags.

And one was walking.

Meet the twins!

Its a boy !

The Farmer came home last night to a new addition.

A baby lamb was born while he was at work.

He is now enjoying the first day of spring.

Last year the three ewes delivered one week apart.

The farmer will post again when the next one comes.

The First Brew

As The Farmer promised here is

The First Brew

The Farmer remains anonymous

The Farmer pours in some H2O.

The Brew Master adjust some settings on the control panel

All set up and circulating.

The Brew Master's brother makes the trip from Toronto.

He pours in grains while the Brew Master stirs.

The entire crew

 

Time to cool and prepare for fermentation.

The Brew Master getting all scientific.

4:30 am and only The Brew Master and his favorite helper.

All others went to bed.