Time for Pies, Pies, and More Pies....

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We have been very delinquent this month when it comes to our weekly blog. Our main reason is the fact that we are now at the height of tourist season ad the Tea Room is keeping us very busy. So far visitors have come from the US, Europe and even as far away as South Korea.

To make matters worse, this is also the prime time for harvesting. Our Saskatoon berries are now done, but the Raspberries and Black Currants are producing an incredible amount of fruit.

The Black Currants look great this year

The Purple (Red, Yellow and Black) Raspberries are also ready for picking.

As a result, we've progressed to make Black Currant Linzertorte and our first Raspberry pie of the season (with no less than 8 cups of fruit per pie!).

Ready for the oven...the first Raspberry pie of the season.

Elsewhere on the farm, we've also had the opportunity to be surprised by our first sight of Okra. We had been given some Okra seeds this year and thought it would be fun to try this lant in our raised beds. The plants are actually quite beautiful when mature and and even more so when blooming.

Blooming Okra plant

We've even had a chance to taste our first Okra pods. A quick note should be added here. We have never been fond of Okra, finding it a little too slimy and gelatinous in most dish we've tried in the past.

It turns out, there are ways to overcome this. One is by soaking them in an acid (vinegar, lemon or lime juice), the other is to simply roast them in the oven with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. This is what we tried and we were actually amazed. We'll be definitely making could use of these plants.

Now our favourite way to enjoy Okra.

This is also the season for Summer Squash. When these start to grow...there's just no stopping them.

We decided to take advantage of this seasonal vegetable by preparing the vegetarian answer to our Tourtiere for the Tea Room. We call it a "veggie pie" but it is a pie simply loaded with both green and yellow Summer Squash.

Simmered for at least 45 minutes with olive oil, lemon zest, fresh thyme and a tough of nutmeg, this mix makes a great pie filling. To add a bit of additional flavour, before baking we shred into the mix some good aged Ontario Cheddar and some fresh mint. The result is simply delicious.

You can't go wrong with this Summer Squash mix. Just add lemon zest, thyme, nutmeg and olive oil... and simmer.

We'll close this week with another lesson learned.

Our home and barn offer a lot of nooks and crannies for birds and critters to nest. The birds in particular tend to make a mess of our verandas.

To counter this, we decided to use plastic decoys (owls) to scare away nesting birds. The lesson learned: it does not work.

We nestled a large plastic owl in the front of the barn. The result is that Turtle Doves paid no heed to this natural predator and made their nest just some 4 feet away. We are now proud parents of 2 chicks which patiently await their parents for feeding time.

Our decoy.....

Two well behaved Turtle Dove chicks paying no heed to the owl next to them!