Scenes From Fairburn Farm

Water Buffalo

The Chicken House

The view from our window

We can't wait to return. The Sunday Lunch was amazing. Four hours of lovely local food and wine, at a communal table with wonderful company. If any of you are ever in the area, you really do have to have a meal there at the very least. But we slept well in one of the beautiful rooms and woke to the sound of a rooster. Love it! Try to spend a night or two if you can.

Now we're off to make more memories in the Okanagan, then on to our most beloved of places: Parksville!

Jelly Jar Cocktail

Fill a jelly jar with crushed ice.

I am using my Grandma's vintage ice-crusher from a-way-back. It has gathered dust for a good decade in my storage room, but now I have discovered the wonder of it. No more dusty shelf for this baby! (until winter perhaps...)

1 ounce rum

1 ounce lime juice

1 ounce mint syrup

Pour over ice and top up with sparkling water or club soda. Very mojito-ish in flavour, but quick if you make a mint syrup and have some squeezed lime juice in your fridge. I do because I need quick access to mojitos once the mint is up in my garden. Isn't that why everyone grows mint? For mojitos? Anyway, this cocktail must be served in a jelly jar on a sunny porch, preferable with a breeze. If you love mojitos but don't like the mint leaves in your drink (I do, but perhaps I'm odd that way) try this. And you will thank me as all your worries melt away...

PS: I throw about a cup of sugar and 1 1/2 cups water into a pot, bring it to a boil, throw in a handful of mint leaves and let it steep off the heat for a while. Maybe 20 minutes? Don't recall. Then strain and keep in a jar in the fridge, ready for a cocktail at a moment's notice!

PPS: Terrible photo, but I keep drinking them too fast to take a better shot...

I Heart Cowichan

Wow, a photo that I am in, not just taking. Here we are at our most favourite place in the world, Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville. What, you haven't been? What are you waiting for???

We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary a couple of weeks early with a three night getaway all ALONE! We spent Friday night in Parksville at our family home there, then Saturday morning hit the road toward the Duncan Farmer's Market, and the rest of the Cowichan Valley.

What a weekend. I HEART the Cowichan Valley. We've always wanted to go and we weren't disappointed. We ended on the highest of high notes with a Sunday lunch at Fairburn Farm, and a night in one of their lovely rooms. After a farm-fresh, organic (and delicious!) breakfast Monday morning, we were ready to return to the land of parenthood. And what should await us upon our arrival?

Lice. Two of the kids infested. Good times, good times. What a way to "ease" back into it.

I can't figure out how to intersperse photos and words on this blog. Any help in that direction would be most helpful. I will post more about our awesome travels over the next couple of days.

In the meantime, check out Fairburn Farm. No, really, right now. And then go there. Do not hesitate. If you are someone who enjoys and appreciates the Slow Food movement, farm-fresh food, simple and relaxed livin', you simply must go as soon as you can. We want to move there. Just to pitch a tent and help them with the farm chores if nothing else. And cook pizza in the firewood oven. All pizza should be cooked that way.

Now, back to hair combing/picking/etc...

We Be Jammin'

Oh, I love jammin'. Which is a good thing, since I have picked or purchased 48 lbs of strawberries this June!

So far this year:

Strawberry Jam with Vanilla Bean and Honey

Strawberry Jam with Vanilla Bean and Agave

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Tayberry Jam with Bramble Bush Honey.

And I've just begun...

I love Pomona's Pectin because you don't have to add as much sugar, or even sugar at all. I've been mainly making my jams now with honey or agave. I use about 4 cups mashed berries, one split vanilla bean and about 1 cup of honey or agave.

There will probably be another batch of strawberry jam and at least one more of tayberry in my near future. I was so happy to see tayberries at Emma Lea today. Hurray! I must go back to the u-pick soon. I loooooove them! Then we'll move on to raspberry, apricot, peach...

Zucchini Never Looked So Good

I had to document this accomplishment!

Roxy's Birthday Cake.

Three Tiers for Three Decades.

It's Chocolate-Zucchini Cake, because that is what she loves. I swear, this cake is my one and only reason for growing zucchini in my garden. Well, that and a few other yuumy baked goods. As a vegetable side dish? That rarely crosses my mind. As a base for sugar, butter, spices and flour? Oh yeah.

Happy Birthday Roxanne!

And The Final Bell Has Rung

School's out!

I have been out of blog action for a few months - oops. No camera, no time, and probably other excuses too. I'm too tired to think of them right now.

But I now have a lovely new camera - a Canon G10 that I got for Mother's Day - woohoo! As soon as I can figure out how to make enough memory in my darn computer to download my many new photos, I'll really be back in action!

But for now, I am just glad to say that school is out.

We love our little Annex, we really do. But we are not morning people. Well, we used to be early risers (and I still am), but we weren't get-up-and-go-ers, if that makes sense. We'd rather get up early and hang out in our pjs most of the morning, drinking tea and reading. My kids have moved into a later sleeping schedule, so it is so great to not have to wake them up every morning and drag them out the door. Please, oh please, children, keep going with the 9:30am wake-ups you've been doing on the weekends. How lovely a summer will I have then? I mean, that would be about 2 hours every morning to myself!

We also aren't very good at schedules and having to be certain places at certain times so we are day-camp/summer camp free! That means lots of days to fill for me as the summer break is ten weeks. Right now I am super excited, but I know after two days listening to the Bickersons (as I call my two older kids) I will be counting down the weeks until school begins again! Oh, I hope not.

We have started our Summer List. They aren't finished yet; most likely we will add to it over the next day or two. I'll post it here when it is done so I have to follow through!

As in the above photo, one thing on my list for sure is eating outside as many days as possible! That photo was taken back in May, I think. I can't believe how much the garden has grown since then. June has been good to us this year. Although looking at the photo is reminding me of the loaded raspberry bushes that we promptly killed a day or so later by moving to another area. What idiots we were. Lucky for us, those raspberries have forgiven us in the past and come back to bless us with their yumminess the following year. I am mourning the raspberry vodka I make with our garden berries every year. Although it will taste pretty awesome with u-pick berries too! Yummmmm.

Summer vacation. Awesome.

We Are All In This Together

I discovered the best way to feel a renewed sense of family and community connectedness this Spring.

You simply have to meet Peggy O'Mara.

See? Simple!

As a Mothering subscriber, I have read Peggy's words eagerly with each issue that comes through my mail slot. But meeting her in person was better. She is real, and she is open, and I just love those two qualities in people. Especially people who are in a position to influence how others may raise their children.

I was lucky enough to spend three days with Peggy, first at the lovely Tea Party fundraiser put on by Lunapads, and then at the Healthy Families Conference. With all the inspiring things that came out of those events, what has stayed with me most was Peggy's openness about the highs and especially the lows of running a magazine like Mothering, and her excitement at the suggestions put forth by some local, entreprenurial Mamas during the Tea Party. There was such a sense of community, a sense of "we're all in this together", and it was amazing to be part of it. She is the best kind of people, really. She is down to earth.