Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Harvest Begins!

Oh my goodness. Was our last blog post really in June?
That's utterly dreadful.
Please accept our wholehearted apologies for the neglect of this blog: we've both been swamped with workstuff and the like, and putting up new blog posts was a priority that was shoved down the list somewhere between sock-mending and defrosting the freezer.


We shall be posting on here with greater frequency henceforth, we promise!


In our last post, we mentioned that we had found a baby sparrow and were raising it by hand: the wee one is now nearly three months old, is officially a male, and thriving merrily. He lives in our bedroom, has made a couple of little nesting spots for himself around the room, and has developed a taste for cherries, bananas, mangoes, and almond biscotti. (What can we say? Our little boy has good taste.)


In more creative news, Nathaniel and I have created our first children's book! Written and illustrated as a gift for our niece Isabelle, Dispatch Ontario is a tribute to local fauna, architecture, folklore and fun, all geared for an audience aged four to seven. This is the first book in a planned series, and will be available for sale online in the very near future.

We're currently working on content for the next installation, so stay tuned for news on that front!


Now that August has arrived, we're starting to see the fruits of our labours in terms of the few edible plants we've nurtured in our little garden over the past couple of months, and from the looks of it, we'll soon be barraged by more cherry tomatoes than we know what to do with. The heirloom beans are coming in full swing, and our heritage squash and pumpkin plants are starting to flower too! Another trip to Urban Harvest will be in order soon to buy more seeds to keep in storage, and we're saving as many seeds as possible from our own garden. (Do you know how to collect and store tomato seeds, beans and the like? If you're at all interested, leave a comment below or email us directly, and we'll write a blog post on how to do so.)


I hope you're all taking the opportunity to visit your local farmers markets as often as possible to revel in all of the gorgeous food that's coming to full ripeness now. We're heading to Whittamore Farms this coming weekend with a group of friends so we can pick some of our own vegetables, and we've been relishing the produce that's available at the St. Lawrence Market as well. The other night, we had a lovely friend of ours over for supper, and Nathaniel baked what was quite possibly the best vegetarian lasagna I've ever had. Using only local, organic ingredients from The Sweet Potato, he created a multi-layered, gluten free paradise with eggplant, zucchini, sweet potatoes, his own secret tomato sauce, and an assortment of cheeses. Absolutely gorgeous.


Is there a particular recipe that you like to make as summer draws to a close?