Things are popping up all over

The grass is greening up (EARLY), the geese are flying over and the neighbour has spotted a Blue Bird. Spring is here. 

And popping up inside 

Tomatoes...

and outside,

Rhubarb!

I could dwell on the "oh my god it's dry!" which I can't do anything about right now. I prefer to take the "my glass is half full" position and enjoy the "OMG I can't believe how far ahead we are this year" mood. :-)

And we're off

I started our tomatoes today. In typical fashion, as much as I said earlier this winter that I wasn't going to plant as many tomatoes, and only a couple really hardy varieties, once I had the dirt, seeds, flats, etc.,  out I couldn't control myself.  There's something about looking at a seed flat and feeling the need to fill it. So...once again this year there will be six varieties and a whole pile of plants. What I don't use myself will go to the neighbours who never seem to be opposed to free tomato plants. 

Some people see dirt - I see toasted tomato sandwiches!

This year dinner will be waiting for them.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here for the past couple of weeks.  The grass is popping through the snow all over the place and it's been warm enough to walk the dogs in the afternoon without a coat.
hummingbirds.net/map.html
The next door neighbour SWORE she saw a goose the other day. I think she may just have been gassy and needed a distraction as in, "Hey, what's that up in the sky?".

A few of us in the valley are a LITTLE competitive about the feeding of hummingbirdsand Actually, if you know Me, Karen or Eve you'd know that we're pretty competitive about everything. .  This year I have secret weapon...which won't be much of secret now that I'm blogging about it. 

This site.

http://hummingbirds.net/map.html

I'll actually be able to watch the hummingbirds migrate, which means that my feeders will be up just before they get here, thus guaranteeing me an abundance of hummingbirds...and the "most popular hummingbird yard" in the neighbourhood again.  ;-)

You are what you eat...

as well as whatever you ate - just ate - a case for grass fed. 

I've been reading more and more about the benefits of grass fed animals, milk, and eggs. I began looking at grass fed vs grain fed meat when we started talking about raising a few lambs for butcher. It sure has led me down an interesting path. While we are definitely used to eating grain fed meat in North America, grass fed is simply a healthier choice. 

The differences between grass fed and grain feed meat are huge. Rather than do a bad job of explaining the differences, here's a link to eatwild.com. 

Needless to say, all of our lamb will be grass fed, and while we've been eating "happy" animals (locally raised animals who live a stress free life), I'm now going to be looking for "happy grass fed" animals to put in our freezer. 

  Grass. It's what's for dinner.

And the winners are

I've ordered my seeds and as usual, have picked out a few new things as experiments. This year's winners are:


Genesis Cilantro. I've grown cilantro before but it always seems to bolt so darn quick. Genesis is supposed to be very slow to bolt, even in hot weather. We'll see if the experts and I agree on the definition of "very slow to bolt". 

 Flash Collard Greens. The kale has been such a success that I've decided to branch out even further. Collard greens aren't exactly a local staple here in Alberta, but I figure I've got the next 6 months or so to figure out what I'm going to do with them. 

 Zefa Fino Fennel. I know fennel grows well here and have just never gotten around to planting any myself. 

T&T Seeds "Big Three" toato collection. Growing tomatoes that actually ripen before the frost hits can be a real challenge. This year I'm trying three varieties, all developed on the Canadian Prairies.  Prairie Pride is from the University of Manitoba, Charlie's Red Stalker is from the Morden Research Station (Manitoba again), and Centennial Rocket comes from the Beaverlodge research facility, which is even further north than we are. Hopefully I'll find my perfect "eating" tomato out of this bunch.

Borealis Haskaps. Technically these aren't going in the garden. We'll plant them somewhere in the yard. Haskaps are a member of the honeysuckle family.  They are also called honey berries. Apparently they produce berries that taste like a cross between a raspberry and a blueberry. They're hardy to zone 2, grow quickly and produce a lot of berries within the first few years. I'm kind of going in blind because I've never seen a haskap bush, let alone tried and the berries, but what the heck - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Roast tomatoes and sausage

Those cute little tomatoes I mentioned last weekend? This is what I like to do with them. In February. When we're months away from cute little FRESH tomatoes. 

It's a very complicated recipe, so pay close attention. 

I take a bag of frozen tomatoes out of the freezer. I dump them into a baking pan. I cut up some really good italian sausage and throw them in. I drizzle some really good olive oil over top and sprinkle the whole thing with salt and pepper. I add some whole cloves of garlic. I don't even peel them. Garlic is really mild when it's roasted so don't panic. Your friends will still want to hang out with you. 
 If the sausage is hot I'm done. If the sausage is mild I sprinkle a few pepper flakes over top. 
 Then I give it a good stir before the tomatoes thaw. That way they don't get beat up. They stay whole and cook that way.  

This is what it looks like before it goes in the oven. 

I let it sit out for a bit to let the tomatoes thaw for a bit and then I throw it in the oven at 350 degrees until it's done - about an hour or a bit more depending on how much I've made and how thawed out the tomatoes are. 
I serve it with mashed potatoes (which I make with buttermilk instead of milk or cream - which tastes great if I do say so myself)
It looks gorgeous...but I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  I tend to have a one track mind when food's ready - EAT.  

You can't name a blog Sheep Thrills

without having some sheep! 

This morning I went out...

and apparently woke them up.

They've got that "you've caught us in our jammies" look.  In case you're feeling sorry for them - stuck out in the yard with snow up to their armpits - they've got shelter - this is just their apres-breakfast napping area. Rough life these sheep have.

As usual 25T and 44U were the first ones to come visit. 

They need names. Do 25T and 44U count as names??? I just haven't come up with names that "work" for them yet. Don't worry, they know which way their bread's buttered on and have done a good job worming their way into my heart. No worry ladies - you've got a good long life ahead of you here. We've just gotten so used to calling them by their tag names that that's who've they've become - what's in a name? At any rate, I'm working on it, have tried a few, but nothing has stuck. However 25T especially, based on personality alone - she's a keeper. 

Gordon (RAMsey) and the other two girls, managed to stretch and join up to see what the fuss was about - paparazzi is not terribly common around these parts. 

 

The goal is grass fed lamb and nice Katahdin sheep, so let's hope that Gordon's been "on the job" so to speak this winter. He looks pretty content, so I'd say we're pretty safe. 

Over on the other side of the yard we've got the two ewe lambs and the whethers. 

 

The one on the left with the patch, well - she's named Patch...go figure. The brown one - she's named  Susi, because she's brown (Brown eye'd Susan - clever huh?), sweet and feisty, like the other Susi's I know.  The three white guys? Extra, Buy-Low, and Save-On (just add Foods to all of their names in case you aren't local)...and that's the life of a wether. In the grand scheme of things though this is a pretty good place to pick life as a wether... not too much work, all the grass you can eat, not a lot of stress.

And that's our sheep. I'll introduce the rest of the "crew" over the next little bit.