It's been a long time ....

Greetings one and all, Margaret and Ken here once again after a very long time. As you probably figured out we have been very busy with our new restaurant and with things at home. We won't tell you everything in this post 'cause that would be way too much reading at one go.

We will however, present a brief overview of our activities upon which we will elaborate in future posts. In addition to the usual activities of gardening, sugaring, wood cutting and such we have also embarked on a few new activities as follows: we have expanded our livestock to include the pigs we spoke of previously, a mare named Belle and a Welsh pony named Daffyd or Dyffed (depends which of us you ask), a female goat named Baby, a buck (goat) named Jake and three rabbits (whom I call Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail). Surpise, surprise, we now have baby rabbits, who'd a thunk! The pigs we acquired are pot bellied pigs named Wilbur and Stewie. Wilbur is a kind of stay at home piggy but Stewie, he's the exploring kind of pig. More on the adventures of Stewie the Intrepid Explorer Pig in a future post. There are new gardening experiences to share and knowledge to pass along as well as a story about Gus, our late lamented male goat (he was an explorer too).

That's all for now. A short post for sure but it is good to be posting again and we have made a commitment to post at least once a week if not more.

Till next week,

Margaret and Ken

Catching up

Catching up 
Wanted to give you a quick update on what we have been doing lately..
We have been very very busy , but good busy. Gardens are mostly all planted with the exception of the larger garden at home , it is a fantastic opportunity to have planting space here at the store and at home. We can use . the space at the store to have a community garden plus teach So I am going to take full advantage for sure. The gardens here are now full of a variety of squashes, peas, onions ,broccoli, cauliflower,peppers, watermelon,cantelope,tomatoes,beans,eggplant and cabbages...haha,,,sheep wont get them at the store ,
At the house we have even a larger variety planted and are excited to show all of you who are attending our event in July what we are growing this year. We will be working on the reading room soon and will keep you updated on how that is coming along. We will also keep you updated on our upcoming cider making weekend ...finally will get a chance to use the cider presses . Should be a ood year. Our fruit trees are looking wonderful this year , so we should get a good yeald of everything from apples to nectarines,plums pears cherries peaches ,,, keep your fingers crossed
See you soon
Margaret and Ken

We're baaack!

Greetings good gentles, it's been a few months since we have posted any updates so we'll try to include everything we've done since January.

JANUARY

Get ready for the sugaring season
Wood (as always)
Livestock (chickens and sheep)

FEBRUARY

Rent a restaurant (yes you read that right)
Get things ready for the restaurant

MARCH

Open the restaurant (called MAGGIE'S)
Make upgrades to the restaurant
Maple sugar (late April)

APRIL

Finish the boiling for maple sugar
Start the spring chores

MAY

More spring chores
The Restaurant

In January Margaret and I spent our time dealing with the livestock, getting wood in for the month and making sure the maple sugar pots and pans were ready for sugaring. I finally got a very sweet little sugar pan made up at a local metal fab shop called VANDEX Inc. I dealt with a chap named Fred who was very helpful and he had a stainless steel sugar pan made up about a week after I ordered it. It is 32" X 18" X 8" and boy does work a treat. I used less fuel to boil the same amount of sap as last year. I also used a couple of the big pots from last year to preheat the sap before it went into the pan. This kept the boil going fairly constantly. It takes about an hour to get the sap to steaming temps and another 30 minutes to full boil. I processed about 750 litres of sap and got 11 litres of syrup. That's a ratio of 68:1 which is not great, however, we did reduce the syrup to a fairly sweet syrup so our actual ratio is more 35:1 which is really good.

Sugaring this year was a little disjointed with us being involved in getting the restaurant ready to open. I will say however, that new pan made all the difference in boiling time with actual time spent firing the pan was only 40 hours instead of the previous 60 or so hours. Time saved,  fuel saved and we have a sweet, somewhat bitter syrup to enjoy over the year.

Till next time (which will be tomorrow), take care
Margaret and Ken

Just a report on the sausages. I brought them to Guelph for the family to taste test and they are nummy...they are drier than store bought but tastier with the thyme and apple. Being pure meat makes them drier, guess adding a bit of fat to the mix might help with this..But over all very nice indeed.

We have spent the morning making sausage . Pork legs were on sale so we took advantage of the opportunity. These sausages are flavored with onion, apple,honey and thyme. They are lovely. It is cold enough outside to freeze them but we will have to eat them before the weather changes again.We will give lots away. Somehow we have to adjust to the weather changes that are happening. We cannot rely on some of the old methods that have worded so well in the past. We used to be able to freeze easily now the weather is not reliable ...what is it like in your area?
We in fact have started to research warm weather area preserving techniques. Odd for us here in Canada huh?

We now have a freezer

We have a freezer....
Now i am sure you are wondering how we have a freezer  while we are living as close to the year 1865 as possible and do not use hydro. Well let me tell you. My beautiful husband has converted a window in the cold room into a freezer box. He took out the window glass and boxed the frame in. He covered the outside end with fine wire mess and screening to keep critters out. On the inside or inside of the cold room he added a door to his box and voilla we now have a freezer.It will of course be temporary , winter only but it will be wonderful to use for the time we can. Mother nature will provide us with the necessary cold free of charge , no hydro. So we can safely say...we now have a freezer,

Part 3 Cooking up the offal...kidney

Kidney....According to Mrs Beeton veal kidney is much more tender and much more preferred than cow. All of her many recipes for this organ gives instruction to remove the core after slicing .This is easy to do . Although I rarely if ever remove the core I will have to do that and see what the difference is . Kidneys are lovely stewed slowly . I do mine, stewing slowly with beef and a variety of vegetables and spices.Heavy on the mushrooms. I also generally add a cup or two of red wine to this stew. After everything is beautifully tender I drain the meat and   thicken  the drippings, I add this back to the meat and put all into a baking dish.Cover with a puff pastry and serve as a beef steak and kidney pie, What do you do with kidneys??

Part two cooking up the offal.......liver

Mrs Beeton's book of household management written in 1865 describes liver as "often used for frying, As it is  very lean it is often cooked with some of the inside fat or crow or with bacon"
Served as an entrée.
But I have also found recipes for liver pate especially chicken liver pate.
Liver can be eaten from any beast,cow/calf, chicken ,sheep,or pig.The tenderest is of course calves liver.
We still fry liver today but have learned to add other ingredients to perhaps liven the taste. I cook mine very quickly dredged in flour and fried in butter. I marry this with a creamed bacon,mushroom,onion white wine sauce.
Anyone have liver recipes they would like to share??
M 

Waste nothing.Cooking up the offal.... Sweetbreads

I had a lovely visit in London this afternoon, in a beautiful home with wonderfully progressive people making a difference in the world. They were Rotarians boxing cookies to give to people in the city..Wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

As usual talk turned to food. Why is it that always happens?
We discussed sweetbreads which is one of my favourite foods if cooked correctly. Hard to find today because in my opinion we have forgotten the rules of "waste nothing"
Sweetbreads are described as either  Heart sweetbreads or throat sweetbreads which comes from the thymus.
Mrs Beeton's book of household management written in 1865 describes sweetbreads as a delicacy ,sold at fancy prices.Cooked in variety of ways and served as an entrée.
Sweetbreads come from cows.Either calf's or full grown. They also come from lambs . Naturally calf and lamb sweetbreads are much more tender and require less cooking . Whereas beef sweetbreads need to be cooked longer and slower.Often in stages.Sweetbreads are boiled gently or braised.Cooled and peeled and finished according to your recipe.
Anyone wishing a few varieties of period sweetbread recipes please ask and I will be happy to post.
This is a wonderful food and it is a shame that these parts are being turned into animal feed because we have forgotten their loveliness as an entrée.

Cutters/sleighs

Hi everyone 
We finally have our cutters/sleighs. They are beautiful and I will take photos tomorrow and post them for you to see. It is wonderful to have such beautiful pieces of history . You wonder who owned them and where they travelled in them.

Letter writing

This is a piece I posted to our facebook page regarding letter writing

Letter writing in the year 1865 was used much the same as we use computers today. or perhaps even the telephone.The postal services were very good and in most cities thousands of letters travelled daily. There were couriers, and if you were "well heeled" you would have your own courier. I have letters dating back to the 1700's Anyone having the opportunity to read old letters will be thrilled at the detail they contain. You can tell if they have travelled long distances or have only travelled a few blocks by their content. You will be thrilled by the gentle manners expressed even on paper during the time period. Letters flowed with conversation. Generally starting off very formally regardless the sender or the receiver. Occasionally there will be codes and it is fun trying to figure what they are meaning. I love the conversation found in letters gently written , I love the peace in writing and the thought it provokes. I have a few friends who hare my love of writing with dip pen and ink and we letter write on a regular basis. It is calming and genteel. Try it sometime. Listen to the pen and the noise it makes on the paper. Listen as you dip your pen nib and tap the excess ink off. Listen to your mind thinking about your words...it is a whole different experience indeed.
Anyone wishing to join our letter exchange is more than welcome.
I will continue this tomorrow.Pain is making me sleepy today.

Thank you to Circa Antiques owner Doug Long

Well everyone wonderful news.
We have the dress hoops.
 They are fantastic and light as a feather. I will examine them better in the full day light . Before I tell you the other items we found I have to encourage you to visit the antique shop in Watford Ontario.The shop is called Circa Antiques. Owned by Doug Long. Who is obviously in this business because he loves history.He is knowledgeable about everything he has in his shop . Has unusual items such as a food pusher used by babies to learn how to push food onto their spoons. Wonderful piece. Plus Doug has a steady stream of Bob Dylan playing , making you wanting to never leave lest you miss a song. So please visit his shop. We purchased some spiels, a bed warmer complete with screw cork, a hat brush for Kens top hat, many tools. Such fun looking around. Oh and the loveliest game table usable on both sides . I can hardly wait to have guests over to play parlour games, I also cannot wait to show my sewing friends these hoops. A piece of history one rarely sees.
And to add next week we will be picking up our cutters. I will be sure to post pictures of them. Now all we need are the horses to pull them. see you soon.
Margaret and Ken

Fall day

Greetings 
Wow cool fall day today. getting the greenhouse winter ready. And the chicken coop. Dug some beautiful potatoes from the garden . Thank goodness for the warmth of the kitchen stove and plenty of hot water for a much needed warm bath. I am tired tonight and will hit the hay early ...well as soon as the birds go to bed.

Hoops

Hello everyone on this wet Saturday evening 
We were invited to a B'day party for  twins who turned 1. Lovely gathering and they looked so beautiful in their new outfits. 
On the way home we happened on an antique store. Lots and lots of things we would have bought had money not been an object. But the one thing I am going have to go back for was an original hoop . It was for a young girl but it was in absolute perfect condition.  I have never seen an original other than in pictures . I am hoping the shop owner will make a deal with me . I will keep you posted for sure
Until next time 
M

July 20-21 2013 weekend fair

Please keep in mind our weekend fair next summer


Living Victorian in a Modern world
           Weekend Fair
           July 20-21 2013

More detail to follow . We hope to teach participants why we are doing what we are doing, how we are doing it and how it is affecting our lives . And what we plan for the future.
So if you are interested please mark the date on your day timers.
Tell as many people as you can
If you want to do a demonstration please contact us..
Until next time
Margaret and Ken

From our facebook page a post

We are having a relaxing day and discussing the "Living Victorian" fair we are planning for next July. Suggestions welcome .
We are also planning our Cider making weekend for next fall. Have some interested participants already. If you want to make your own apple cider please let us know. We have our beautiful presses and you are more than welcome to come and use them. We will have other projects to work on that weekend too. Perhaps sausage making???

Storage for almost anything

Greetings again: I've started on the storage area we need on the side of the shop. 5' X 22' in total and 8' tall. We accumulated some sliding doors last summer, 6 in all, and I'll be using 4 of them on the storage shed. Pretty swank huh!?? Not really, they'll be doing service as windows, not doors. This will eliminate the need for electric lighting, portable lamps or flash lights will be sufficient additional lighting at night should we have the need to hunt something down after dark.

I'll have some pictures later and post them as a group. Look for them on our Facebook page "Victorian Year 1865". The storage shed will be the second last major project for this year. My last project will be the cold room for the garden vegetables and preserves. (strangely almost completed before the shed ... hmmm!!)
Lots of shelves for squash, potatoes, carrots and whatnot. Yummy veggies to enjoy all winter!

Till next time,
Margaret and Ken

Hunting for hay

Greeting all: A few weeks ago I spent about an hour on Kijiji hunting for hay at reasonable prices. I am out of touch with hay costs apparently because I was very surprised at the cost per small square bale, anywhere from $3.50 to $8.50 a bale plus delivery. Wow! i say again ... Wow! Definitely need to be on the ball next summer for sure. We are looking for about 100 small square bales and I don't want to pay $1000 for them! I guess I'll need to get a scythe handle, put my blade on it, sharpen it up and start cutting by hand.

We'll need straw for bedding as well, again, about 100 small square bales. I see straw runs about $3.50 to $5.50 a bale. Not as much as hay, but still an expense.

Lesson learned, pay attention to prices for forage and try to get a much a possible for the labour it takes to harvest it. The same goes for straw. Can you say "hot and sweaty?" I can, it's been a long time since I did any serious hay or straw, it should prove interesting to say the least.

Till next time
Margaret & Ken

To be thankful for

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you .
We had a wonderfully full day this past Thanksgiving weekend. Had our Grandsons Aidan and Jude stay the weekend.Jude learned the art of making pumpkin pie from the pumpkin out and apple jelly from the apple peels and cores. We enjoyed 4 types of squash for our Thanksgiving dinner this year and Jude has become an avid seed saver .Labelling the containers he scraped the seeds into. Most of our dinner was vegetable in manner with the exception of a lovely turkey with sausage stuffing .Oh and cranberry sauce made with help from Jude .We ate our fill and then went for a  2 hour walk in the fields , the bush, through a corn field and finally home. It is hard for this grandma to climb fences with skirts on . But it made everyone laugh.
A good day had by all
Until next time
M

Recipes and menus

I have had a comment asking if I would be willing to share recipes . Absolutely.If there is recipe or a food item any of you would like to know how to cook in period style please ask. Cooking has remained very much the same in the past couple of centuries. The variety of food has decreased unfortunately as we have become accustomed to wasting a good majority of the beasts that give their lives to sustain us . But preparation is similar. Methods of cooking has changed , by that I mean the appliance we use. You will be pleasantly surprised...macaroni and cheese anyone?
So if there is a food item you would like the recipes for please feel free to ask. I have done much research in this area in particular. Not that any of you who actually know me would be surprised.
Until next time
M