world's coolest chicken

That would be the psycho-looking black one who is poetically named Black Chicken. She was raised by a gentle-spirited hippy chick (thank you Hannah-Louise) and is just one sweet bird. She is convinced that my hands turn all they touch to edible treats and so will come running for any piece of grass I pluck, even when what she has just been eating is much tastier. I try not to disappoint her too often and have been known to sneak her strawberries and the occasional goji berry when Doug isn't looking. She is big (maybe an Ameraucana?), has beautiful gold splashes on her black feathers, and lays pale olive green eggs. I am smitten. I am also a bit worried about her as lately she seems a little lethargic and has some flaky skin around her face. She also shakes her head a lot. I'm thinking of dusting her for mites but don't want to use anything too nasty, like maliathon. Don't know if diatemaceous earth will work but it might be worth a try. Since moving away from the farm I am missing her horribly. Yes, I am officially a Chicken Sap.

if only I could add a link to the smell...

These are luscious, sweet-scented rounds of wax from this year's harvesting of the honey. Doug estimates that around 15o pounds of honey came out of the 3 hives and this was a bad year with all the rain and cold weather. The aim is to leave as much of the wax from the combs as possible when harvesting so that the bees don't have to work too hard to rebuild, but some always gets into the honey and is separated by the centrifuge and filtering processes. These are the beautiful result and hopefully I can have some of them to make candles for bathtime...

summer on a plate

I had an albacore tuna loin caught up north and tucked away in the freezer that I realised needed to be eaten soon. It wasn't easy to persuade Doug to eat (nearly) raw fish but after I briefly seared the wasabi-soy-honey marinated loin, rolled it in sesame seeds and served it with shaved cucumber, cherry tomatoes and edible chrysanthemum (shunjiku) fresh from the garden, he seemed to be converted. The flavour of the tuna was genuinely amazing - soft and luscious and not at all fishy. I try to keep my consumption of these big deep-sea fishes on the low side, but I will be back to Mavins for more of this when the albacore season starts again.

geese on lois lake

I never get tired of Canada geese, although my friends laugh at me for it, and was as usual enchanted by the social interactions of these guys on a recent fishing outing with Carl. Our fishing curse persists but we do get to hang out with some lovely wildlife.

harvest