Downton Abbey at the Farm

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This week was all about our Downton Abbey High Tea event. We had very good attendance and certainly had a great time hosting this. In fact, we're seriously thinking of turning it into an annual event.

We simply all had a great time.

For the event, we transformed our High Tea. Beginning with a glass of Cuvee Catharine and a tossed salad, all participants tried a variation of our High Tea tiers. This included finger sandwiches made with Norwegian smoked Salmon and dill cream cheese; Asparagus rolls with a bacon spread, and our new Niagara Coronation Chicken on a croissant.

The latter was a trial for us. Although we have regularly served Tuna salad, Tuna itself is not a sustainable catch so Chicken is likely to become part of our menu rather fast. Coronation Chicken is very common in the UK. Originally developed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Coronation Chicken is a chicken salad usually based on curry spicing. Today, many recipes use Mango chutney.

Niagara being a great source of Peaches (and obviously not Mangoes), we decided to put our own spin on this classic using our very own Peach Chutney. We feel good enough about the results that this will surely be on the menu by next year.

The Downton Abbey High Tea Tiers

The sweets portion of the High Tea was also changed somewhat. Although it still included our cream scones with clotted cream and home made jam, we changed everything else. It included a Strawberry Pavlova, a puff pastry swan, a Mexican Chocolate cream pot and a Black Currant and Elderberry tart. For those that could still manage more, we finished everything with a Raspberry Rumpot trifle,

Some participants walked away with prizes and everyone was provided with a small gift to end the afternoon. The event for us was simply delightful and we just hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.

Next up? We're bringing back our Oktoberfest event which is now planned for the afternoon of October 3. So it's now time to dig up the dirndls and lederhosen.

Elsewhere on the farm, the tomato crop is doing rather well. In fact, we are having a hard time keeping up. Our "gargantuan" Marizol Gold and Cuostralee Tomatoes are generating so much that we are forced to quickly transform them into Tomato relish and now even soup. We tend to like roasted tomato soup and the Marizol Gold make for a light non-acidic yellow tomato soup which we enjoy as much as our patrons.

Beautiful Marizol Gold Tomatoes

Finally, we have discovered a new pest on the property.

First hint of this happened a few months back when we were harvesting our Black Raspberries. After one day of harvest, they all disappeared! The culprits: Wild Turkeys.

Every morning now, for the past few months, a group of wild turkeys have been vociferously rummaging in our berry rows. Although we've come across inoffensive ways of preventing deer from munching on our crops or saplings, these birds are going to be somewhat more difficult....short of a shotgun :)

Joking aside, we admire these beautiful birds so much we're not likely to kill any. Besides, it turns out oddly enough that Wild Turkey season is in the Spring (not the Fall as you would expect it).

Wild Turkeys rummaging on the Farm.....we now need a decoy of some sort.