4th week of October 2008

Red Bok ChoyMornings are quite chilly for working outdoors and it's amazing how early darkness arrives. So the afternoons are spent doing the last of the garden clean-up and trying to put the garden shed into reasonably neat order for next year. Potatoes are being sorted and put into the basement, shallots are being divided between seed and eating piles and onions are being braided or stored in bags. Meanwhile we are still harvesting things for fresh eating like this red bok choy which looks like it could belong in a vase as well as in the stir fry pan. I'm happy to see the green of cover crops coming up over many of the garden areas. The rye, vetch and wheat will provide good protective cover over winter and then add plenty of organic matter when disced under in the spring. They capture the goodness of the sun and rain and transform it into fertility for the next crops - a truly amazing system.

Apple CakeWe butchered the last three sheep and after several days of hanging to cure the meat, we are cutting up the meat for the freezer grinding some into burger. This week's meals have been a "study in lamb" with ground lamb over noodles, lamb ribs, lamb stir fry, lamb stew with potatoes and lamb stew with lentils and barley. The streak of lamb meals ended when it was time for another birthday feast and our seven year old requested baked chicken and mashed potatoes for the occasion. His special meal was topped off with apple cake slathered in whipped cream.

Now that the sheep are gone, we are researching goat possibilities. The sheep didn't work well in our fencing system as their wool insulated them from getting shocked by the polywire fencing used in the intensive grazing paddocks. We are hoping goats will respect the electric fencing better but perhaps we are dreaming... Until then we'll enjoy looking over goat cheese and goat milk soap recipes.

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