HEIRLOOM PLANTS for Sale
2013 HEIRLOOM TOMATO PLANT SALE WEEK of May 25 to June 1st $4 for 3″pots CASH Only
Starts Sat May 25 9-5 daily up to and incl Sat June 1st at the farm in large greenhouse
This year I have red, yellow, orange BEEFSTEAK tomatoes in 2″ (small) medium and large. I have PASTE tomatoes, CHERRY tomatoes in white, gold and red and EARLY varieties. I also have celery, lettuce and peppers.
THERE WILL ALSO BE FRESH RHUBARB
198 Concession 4 Tara, Ontario call 934-3890 or email heritageinfo@bmts.com for more info.
Plants offered have been grown organically from seed saved here on the farm. We also offer heirloom pepper plants and lettuce. A variety of paste, cherry, beefsteak, some small some large and some early will be available.
Help preserve food for the future one seed at a time. Open pollinated heritage varieties. Organically grown in natural soil. We take great care to preserve original genetics. These seeds & plants are NOT man-made, NOT gmo, and NOT new and improved. They are what our creator made. They have an internal intelligence stored for centuries in these precious seed gems. Favorite family heirlooms from around the globe. Plant the seed and eat in the past. More and more people are planting gardens and growing their own food. Taste the difference in flavor and feel the difference in energy. These older varieties were designed to grow in soil.
- Grow Your Own Tastes from the Past
Spring is Sprung
Spring is Sprung! Time to get growing.
Tara Spring Goats
The weather turned like summer for two weeks. Nine and ten-hour days outside. We enjoyed our early spring tonic of fresh spinach,swiss chard, lambs quarter weeds and dandelion greens growing in the ground in the greenhouse. I made my once a year miso soup with dandelion greens, soba noodles and miso. Our spring menu is hard-boiled eggs with raw spinach salad and spankapita (quiche with spinach, garlic) and enjoying the last of our potatoes with fresh butter and chives.
I was glad I didn’t get all the onions and lettuce out in the garden as it turned cold and miserable and had to turn the heaters back on in the greenhouse. It is now starting to feel like a long weekend ahead with lots outside work. All the local farmers markets will be opening, Sauble Beach cottages open up and we try to get most of the garden in. Hopefully early potatoes. The peas and spinach we seeded that warm week are poking thru the ground. Feeling optimistic for a more normal growing season.
The land dried up nice and Rob got his oats planted and this week we are disking and hope to get our heirloom corn in tomorrow. I got some lettuce and onions in and hope to get the Brussel sprouts and cabbages in tomorrow. We sampled our new batch of anise goat farm sausage. Very good! 100% meat (no filler) and all organic ingredients stuffed in real intestines. We have been playing with the kids and some of the lamancha girls (Spanish breed with no ears) are the cutest monkeys. They are so curious and learn from the mom. We offer free choice DE (diamataceous earth is silica and dewormer) and after a month they are nibbling on hay plus fresh milk. Below is a little smarty who balanced on her moms back and got up to drink out of the water trough.
Spring Farmer
On my way home Thursday I almost did a ditch drive. It was surreal I nearly went back to take a picture. I think we all live in the same world and have been aware of the wet weather, rain, melting snow and that the land is wet?! Nothing unusual and actually quite normal for April. APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS.
A tractor was out on wet land ploughing. I wonder if they don’t know or don’t care the damage they are doing? Any experienced farmer who is connected to his land would never go on the land too early or too wet. That land will be like concrete..compacted and hard.
THERE IS A TIME A SEASON AND A REASON.
Flash Frozen Plum
Trees Apr/13
We look forward to spring. We feel a different energy in the air, hear happy birds chirping and see emerging green life start to regenerate. We have to restrain ourself and grow slowly with nature. There is so much to be done to prepare for the growing season. The downside to country living is the sounds of heavy spray trucks on the road and smells that make you gag. Some land stewards can’t wait to dump their liquid manure lagoons that have been festering all winter. If my home was in the soil I’d run to bottom of the earth. Most soil life suffocates and dies leaving no one to do the job of digesting this toxic waste. Surely this cannot grow any sweet food or nutritious grain. I am so thankful we have been given a better understanding and love of the land to be careful that we don’t kill or damage living things that are there for a reason.
Goat Kids
March/April 2013 Kidding around time at the farm.
Look at my Little Man
Alpine
Rob and I are in the barn a lot these days. Always a surprise what pops out. Soft sweet cuddly newbies. New life, another new generation.
Our maternity ward is filling up. We have over 22 kids. Easy births with a good balance of twins 2 girls or 2 boys or 1 of each. We handle them as soon as we can no mummy sucks here.
Coffee
They don’t run from us, we run from them. They jump like little dogs, if we sit down they jump on our back, nibble our hair and ears.
In my opinion goats are the neatest animal. Unique personality, curious, clean,like people and attention and are easy to train. If healthy and fed how they would eat in nature they can give birth easy be full of pep and vinegar and live till 9-11 years.
I prefer to ignore the loud screams and go out after 1/2 hr or hour. Then they are born, being licked off and trying to get up and suck some immune giving colostrum. We can tell if they are close by bagging up, tail up in air, the tendons drop the kid into the birth canal. When they are in labor the Lamancha usually suffer quietly, chew their cud rapidly, some arch back .
and CREAM
twins
Some come out real fast others may take a day. Sometime new moms are not quite all there so need a little help. They back up so kid can’t get the teat. Each time the kids fall down makes them stronger and more verbal. An innate intelligence has them sucking and reaching even while mom is licking them off. Perfectly formed little soft hooves bright eyes and so clean.
We are supposed to be downsizing but we need to lock up “daddy” or put him out to pasture. We make cream cheese and a soft feta. Excess goes to the 2 Tamworth pigs. They will all be out on pasture roaming the hills soon. We love our girls, they love the food we grow for them and we enjoy the food we grow on their manure.
Heritage Tamworth Pigs
We leave the kids on mom for 3 months then the males go for meat. Females we De-horn. We see such well attached udders on these 7th generation. They are for sale to the right environment. Would make nice hand milkers. We have worked at culling and keeping the best for health, birth and milk. Our does have teats kids can suckle. The milk industry has huge ones our kids would gag on. Most of those kids are put on a pail with rubber teats.
What is unique is to see a pile of kids and a doe will come over sniff and cry (saying time for dinner) and the kid will get up and answer. I have also seen the kids walk up to a doe and sniff for its mom. They can tell by the smell which ones are theirs. So if born during the night they bond.
Winter on the Farm
This winter on the farm has been most challenging. December was busy decorating, baking and relaxing thru Christmas. Enjoying roasting duck,chicken and goat we have lovingly raised here. January and February seemed to really drag. Boring, grey days and inside too much. With the activity from the solar flares affecting us, earth and air it seemed a lot of folk were staying close to home trying to cope day by day.March was time to plan the seeding and garden.
The tourist area near Owen Sound, Sauble Beach and Port Elgin and the farming community shut down for winter. Tough times … lay offs, no work, threats of foreclosure. This tests our survival skills and staying power, definitely a reality check on what is necessary like food, gas, heat and hydro.
We have and can do it. Fortunately for us we eat very simply and can make a variety of meals from scratch with few supplies. No driving, shopping just stop spending. It really makes you wake up and realize how much we can do without. Below is the Inca Pea Bean a pole bean . Delicious!
We have learned to love a complete meal with a bowl of beans or potatoes and sprouts. We alternate with our eggs, our frozen fruit and fresh ground flour from grain we grow. A treat was the Cherokee White Eagle corn we grew, dried and ground into cornmeal.
Cherokee White Eagle
Heirloom Corn Meal
Fresh cornbread with butter and maple syrup. We are not as active so don’t need as much. We try to practice food combining so when we have meat add a salad or veggies no potato. When we have starch (potato, squash) we do not have meat only veggies or salad. We never have dessert after a meal or drink with our meals. Fruit and yogurt only for breakfast. The more raw food we eat that is where the enzymes are. Try counting how many times you can chew your food before swallowing. This gets more mileage.
Fingerling Potatoes
Fingerlings are the newest exciting potato choices. They are tasty and colorful. A fingerling is a long thin-skinned fingerlike potato. The texture is firm and waxy when cooked so make an ideal potato for salads and frying. They don’t absorb oil as readily and don’t go limp in salads or slow cookers. They are great steamed, sautéed and baked.
LaRatte was developed in France and gives good yields. They were introduced to Paris markets late 1800′s. Another name might be Corne de Belier and Saucisse de Lyon. LaRatte has a earthy, nutty like mushroom flavor. Flesh is yellowish-white. Over time the potato sweetens. Tubers are 6-8 inches long, bit bumpy and slightly bent like a horn. Some pair with smoked food or wild game.
Roseval or French Fingerling has dark red skin and deep yellow flesh. It is flat oval and not so bent. It is waxy and flavor more delicate with a hint of hazelnuts or butternuts. Good new potato and for storage. Steam with skin on (this is where a lot of flavor is) then serve with oil and vinegar dressing.
Roseval
French Fingerling
I have grown the Russian Banana fingerling and the Pink Fir which is knobby like ginger root and is similar to Rose Finn Apple but a lot smaller. For me they are time consuming and fidley to prepare but they do taste fantastic.
Sieglinde is a newer available Austrian (1935) heirloom fingerling. It is oval and yellow inside. Makes a nice baked potato.
For the best storage the earth should be left on the potatoes. Now that the daylight hours are longer and our cold storage is not so cold they are starting to sprout getting ready to grow.
At this time of year (Apr/13) nature knows it wants to grow. Our garlic sends out a green shoot (like onions)which is the start of the stem.
One potato ,two potato, fingerlings galore, give me more!
ROSEVAL French Fingerling
yellow/red inside Gorgeous!
We grew 10 varieties of Heirloom potatoes in 2012. Some tried and true that we grew, saved seed and keep growing like red Chieftain, German Butterball and Roseval French fingerlings. Some new ones such as Bintje, Early Ohio, Green Mountain, and fingerlings called LaRatte (France 1800) Rose Finn Apple (England) and Sieglinde (1935 Austria).
In my opinion potatoes are a wonderful food. We got a great yield from the late planted (end June) heirloom potatoes. The early ones still taste fantastic but are smaller. Small power packs with flavor and nutrients. You can bake, roast, boil or fry. Eat them alone or with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. So good. Fingerlings should have skin left on so I brush and scrape off bumps and wash well. Left overs make a tasty potato salad or fry them. The German Butterball I do in pressure cooker then mash, add goat milk, garlic or dill and instant “potato soup” loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein and starch.
Heirloom Potato
German Butterball
Our potatoes are low in sugar and low in sodium and a balanced food. They can be sliced and baked in the oven. The German Butterball is yellow inside, mashed you hardly need butter or salt. The LaRatte has a nutty flavor and the Rose Finn is unreal.
Feedback from customers and friends are that our potatoes are meatier, great flavor not hollow inside (boron deficiency) and don’t turn black when peeled. We do not wash the dirt off they store better that way and keep them in a dark place. From September until next June we will have our own home-grown tatters and have a good amount of seed to sell for like-minded growers next spring. Like all our heirlooms they have their own flavor so need little else to eat and enjoy. For some reason you just want to keep eating. Like the body says yes good stuff. I never have potatoes with any meat. They go great with greens, salad and we saute our red beets,red cabbage and have that on top of the potatoes.
Heirloom Pink Fir
TOMATOES, BIg, Bad and Ugly
Ripe White,Green & Orange
Once you get a taste of what real tomato FLAVOR is you forget about the looks. Similar to the saying ” it’s not what is outside but what is inside that counts”.
Looks were the reason tomatoes were gene spliced, fish genes added,modified and a perfect round hard red tomato was born. Perfect for shipping long distance. Deviating from the original lost the flavor and nutrients a real tomato once had. Years ago we questioned this, sourced the old heirloom seeds and have tasted for our self the difference. Comments like I can’t eat tomatoes, but yours I can and wow they taste so good. This is the only kind of tomato I will ever grow to eat. Taste and nutrients that nature can grow in good soil.The down side is they are not marketable when ripe. Some are huge, they have cracks, dents, black spots, are ugly, misshapen.
AZYOCHKA Russian Heirloom Sweet Juicy Fantastic Flavor
Soft when ripe one might think its “bad” or over ripe. What should be crucial to consider, is not looks but what nutrients you get, how it was grown and where. The proof is the flavor and how your body reacts to eating it. I understand why years ago they needed to create a tomato they could ship and would keep forever. Man and those amazing new scientists are still doing it…creating new food for you and me. What they don’t get is that they have lost the quality and the nutrients from the original designer. There is NO comparison.
Red Beefsteak Ganti
.Today I see in Zehrs and other health food stores “Heirloom Tomatoes” As a grower I see the difference..they are waxy looking and harder..yes smell like a tomato but most likely have been grown in a greenhouse with added fertilizers etc. Again NO comparison and unfortunately you will see more “Heirloom” plants become available at local nurseries. If it’s a new fad everyone sees $$$. Yes it is still better than the hybrid or GMO tomato and will have a better flavor. The educated consumer and I know the difference is in the soil and how and where it was grown. Know the Difference by growing your own.
Get Your Goat
Fall Fluffers Playing
This year we see our 7th generation of raising goats with healthy genes in a closed natural system.
Since we stopped shipping raw milk we have reverted to a natural system. We leave the kids with mom for 5 months. It is so interesting to compare these kids to humans. For the first day or so mom stays in the barn and the kid sleeps and eats. The rest of the herd is running outside so soon the little one goes out too. You can hardly see them bouncing in the long grass but they cry back and forth to find mom. 
Usually the doe will stay inside to kid but this year we had 3 born outside up on the hill. One evening near dusk was good thing Rob looked out in field and he saw one alone. He walked out and here she was licking off her little girl. She wouldn’t leave it so Rob carried it in. If we had not seen her most likely a coyote would’ve got the little one and maybe mom. This is a sign of nature at its best and healthy animals. They are up and sucking within a 1/2 hour.
Twins M/F first colostrum
And my favorite is ACE pure black with ears. She is a twin. Her sister is peach with ears. When I squat down she jumps up my shoulder and my head. She is so shiny and fluffy. A real doll.
We are very particular about what we eat. As educated consumers and growers we are aware of quality and what is the difference. Mass production is NOT quality. It is cheap food. It may be tender and taste good with all the spices but the cellular structure is poor and once dead breaks down very quickly. I do not use onion or spices when I do a roast. It is pure meat flavor. The minerals and calcium from the bones come into the broth which we use. The 2 barn cats get the liver and hearts raw. We see the colour of the fat and liver. This reflects the health of tissues and organs. It is pure meat no fillers or GMO wheat, etc. No vaccinations, no dewormer chemicals, no antibiotics. We also have proved beyond a doubt that genetics is very important. Inserting genes, mixing and matching is NOT normal. Todays fast grown meat is bad. Older people who lived on the farm won’t eat turkey anymore it is so tasteless and tough. Why would I go out and buy meat when I have it in my backyard.? I only eat chicken, goat and this year we will have our own duck. When we eat meat, we food combine and only have vegetables or a salad no starch. The quality of goat meat we have here you will not find in any store.
Organic pastured
Goat Roast
Email heritageinfo@bmts.com for ground meat, shoulder & leg roasts.
Feast with Fresh Food
This is the time of year I love. A chance to get creative. Make a recipe with fresh ingredients from the earth. Lots of sweet peppers in an array of purple, green, yellow, gold and red. Celery stalks that are small, some hollow but sweet in the middle. Lots of tomatoes,yellow and red beets, onions, garlic, fresh raw milk from the goats, our own eggs, our own fresh ground wheat, potatoes. We don’t need a grocery store!
Sweet DoeHill & Georgescu Chocolate
Heirloom Peppers
How about pureed celery soup with potato and milk. I can make a fresh custard from scratch with our eggs, milk, and organic cornstarch. Ground up popcorn meal and our flour to make a crust with basil for a chopped pepper Quiche. Made raw ground cabbage and carrot salad. Took out some ground meat for meat loaf or goat burgers with curry. Baked the beets. Must make a beet borscht soon.
Made a chopped red beet, onion,red cabbage stir fry sauted with cider vinegar and maple syrup served with mashed potatoes. Simple but satisfying. We are full of good food. When you have quality and get nutrients and energy from your food you need to eat less.
Heirloom Tomato Soup
with Mini Goat Meatballs
Tried a new recipe with tiny goat meat balls in fresh pureed tomato for a soup. Yum! Lots of beets and no one likes them. We try to have them one to two times a week. Great blood purifier and keeps the bowels moving.
One night made wheat dumplings on top of fresh blended tomatoes baked in oven. Not the sort of thing you would ever get in a restaurant. Not the quality nor the taste. Rob is still taking raw carrots and peppers in his lunch. I have a basket of large green beef steaks wrapped in newspaper that will continue to ripen. We are still having tomato sandwiches and they taste so good. I do not buy them in the store.
Today made some soft goat ricotta cheese. Fresh milk this morning boil to 180 add white vinegar to make the curds, strain and soft cheese to spread, add garlic, dried dill, basil OR I can make a cheesecake by adding eggs, sugar and bake. No added cultures how fresh is that!
Tomorrow morning we will have pancakes with blueberry, raspberry banana puree and maple syrup. We alternate breakfast with our fresh fertilized great tasting eggs and our own homemade bread, our wheat that we soak and cook and eat as cereal with fresh milk. Soon the dry corn we will grind into meal and make into a porridge or cornbread. Can’t wait. This is what makes the planting, picking worth it. The eating!
