Misty the Australian shepherd

Misty (sometimes called “the Mist” or Mystery) was a hero around the farm recently. She had treed a black bear who had come up a flight of stairs to our back door looking for food. The bear was never seen again after Misty chased him up a pine tree.

Misty, demonstrating that size doesn’t matter, treed a field mouse in a blueberry bush. Click on the picture below to enlarge.

Misty trees a mouse

November dandelions

Dandelions are attracting bees on a sunny November day. The late bloom of dandelions started in August and will persist until winter shuts them down. They bloom early in the season til May and then late in the season. For a full discussion of dandelions click on the category “Dandelions” on the right.

Click on the picture below to enlarge and you will notice a dandelion bud waiting to open. When everything else has shut down the dandelion is still in bloom.

November dandelion

Blueberry pie and pectin

Research from the internet reveals two things that could possibly be true about fruit pectin. 1)PROLONGED heating will gradually destroy the pectin. 2)Pectin is related to improved flavour.

To test these ideas Anne cooked some frozen blueberries and added a little corn starch. Overcooking was avoided. The cooked blueberries were allowed to cool for a few minutes and then poured into a precooked pie shell. A layer of frozen Duke blueberries were added followed by another layer of cooked blueberries. Click on pictures to enlarge.

frozen berries added

more cooked berries

 The pie was allowed to cool and refrigerated for a couple of hours. The picture below shows how nicely it jelled. The layer of frozen Duke berries added a nice texture to the pie. Taste tests are ongoing but results so far are promising. More tests are needed. This is fun!

blueberry pie

Canadian thanksgiving

This year the Canadian thanksgiving fell on October 13. For the readers of this blog we offer a couple of fall arrangements. A frost a week ago has helped turn the blueberry leaves red. Each variety of blueberry has it’s own colour ranging from orange to burgundy. In this picture Gladiola are set against the red blueberry leaves.

Gladiolas and blueberry leaves

 The next arrangement is composed of purple beautyberry, globe thistle, hardy hibiscus and dogwood seeds. Enjoy! Click on images to enlarge.

Thanksgiving arrangement

 

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Durable Draper blueberry

This is the first year to experience the Draper variety of blueberry since it is a new variety. We left some bushes unpicked to see how the berries would survive. In spite of several rainy days the tough Draper skin shows amazing resistance to splitting. After a rain a week ago many ripe Bluecrop berries split making them unsuitable for fresh market. Continuous rain for the last two days has left the Draper in the condition shown in the pictures below.

Draper blueberry

  

To see how late these Drapers are see a picture below of some Elliots which have already had a light picking and from the picture you can see they will be picked again soon. (Elliots are a very late berry.) Drapers seem very forgiving as to when they are harvested which is a huge plus for a grower. The thick skin of the Draper should carry lots of antioxidants for such a large berry. They should be eaten fresh with yogurt or anything that can supply a flavour boost. Click on pictures to enlarge.

Elliot blueberry

Anise hyssop in flower

The easy part of starting Anise hyssop is the germination and transplanting. The hard part is convincing chewing insects and slugs that this is not their favorite meal. There is some loss at this point but the advantage is that blossoming can be expected to continue right through to frost. This plant has appeal to both honeybees and bumblebees.

Anise hyssop

We are hoping the mint flavour of the hyssop will combine with our other nectar sources to provide some distinctive honey.