Back Forty Living in the Lanark Highlands

A while back it was mentioned here that I became a scout bee this spring and left the hive and Hamilton and moved to the country in Eastern Ontario. I thought I would pop in and give a little tour of where we live and what we've been up to these past few months.

Tucked back in the woods in the Lanark Highlands, an hour west of Ottawa, is our little board and batten house.  Originally built in 1867, it's now renovated into a cozy open concept home with a little loft and a wood stove.  When we first moved here it felt like we were at a cottage, and some days, especially when we have a fire on outside and it smells like summer camp, it still does. But most of the time it feels like home and we can't believe we've only lived here four short months. 

We have a few acres of forest, where we have been chipping away at building trails, and a few acres of field, which are now filled with goldenrod that I hope to harvest soon for dyeing. There are a few dozen apple trees, lots of wild berry bushes, and a couple little ponds where our dog swims everyday.  The land behind us is mostly hay fields, with nothing on it but old barns.  We walk the fields daily and often try to time it for when we can see some of the most amazing evening skies. Between the sunsets and the storm clouds it's pretty great how much of the weather and the sky we can see out here.

  

With fall on it's way were preparing for winter. We're canning all our vegetables, stacking wood. It's that kind of work that takes labour and time and we don't really mind because there's something nice about readying yourself and your home for a new season.

When we first moved here one of the first things we did was put in a garden. There had been sheep on this land for over ten years so we were pretty confident we had good soil but since this was our first vegetable garden we didn't want to bite off too much. We kept the garden small enough to manage as beginners, but big enough so we would have a nice selection of veggies to eat and preserve this year. At first it was cute. I laid hay on the rows and made trellises with found sticks.

But everything grew so well that many of the supports didn't hold, plants went horizontal, and we can barely walk down the rows anymore. We've learned a lot from this first garden and now that we know how well things will grow we have plans for an even bigger one next year.

 

The garden sits between the house and the old sheep barn, which we have converted to a studio for my screen printing business. It's bright and airy and really is a special place to work.  I often head out with a coffee first thing in the morning as the sun is rising. I'm finding it such a nice creative time of day. I used to really like having the studio separate from my home, but I am really starting to appreciate this new set up and being able to easily work early morning or late into the evening if I want to.

    

Having my husband, Jeff, working from home too makes it that much better. Along with the farm we also took over a cheese making business called Back Forty Artisan Cheese. Jeff apprenticed with the previous owner over the winter, learning the recipes and tricks of the trade and he is now a full time Cheese maker, creating raw sheep’s milk cheese in the commercial kitchen off the side of our house.  

 

 

 He makes four different kinds of cheese. The Highland Blue is a milder blue cheese with a nice buttery flavor. I never even used to like blue cheese until this one. It is so good. The Bonnechere is semi-firm with a toasted rind- he actually torches the rind with a flame.

He also makes a feta and a white rind cheese called Madawaska, which is slightly creamy under the rind and chalky in the centre. It is my favourite cheese in the world. It's pretty amazing always having such yummy cheese on hand. We've had lots of visitors this summer, including a few of the Bees, and each time the one thing we know we'll definitely be serving is a cheese plate. No one seems to mind.

H is for...Hamilton Magazine and Hexagons!

Hey look, we're in the Summer 2012 issue of Hamilton Magazine! We're super flattered that they chose to do a piece on us. Hollie, Jen, and Roisin were each featured with great little write ups. And we had a fun time taking photos for the article. Thanks H Mag!

Speaking of things that start with H, this is the last week that we're collecting hexagons for our Supercrawl installation. You can drop your completed hexagons off at any of our listed drop of locations (see below) by this Friday August 31st. And if you need a smidge more time to finish yours, you can drop it off at Needlework (174 James St North) by 6pm on Wednesday September 5th. Holy moly, we can't believe that Supercrawl is in just over two weeks! We've received a ton of great contributions (some coming from as far as Vancouver!) and we're really excited to start assembling!

On Fermentation and Failure

I was really looking forward to writing this post. A post all about the time that I fermented a huge batch of delicious, full-sour pickles. I had it all planned out in my head - I would talk about how much I loved pickles, how I will never turn down a pickle, how I am that person that orders the deep fried pickles or the huge "Chilly Dilly" pickles on a stick from drive-in movie theatres or street festivals. I would touch upon how even though I have enjoyed my homemade vinegary canned pickles from the last two summers, they weren't the same as the sour dill pickles in cloudy brine that are my absolute favourite type of pickle. I would take beautiful, mouth-watering photographs of my finished product to show you, and try to inspire you to do this easy process at home yourself. It was going to be an all out pickle love-fest, and that's the kind of love-fest that I can fully get behind.

But my fermentation didn't work. Well, I mean, it did work. It only worked too well.

I did my research and most of my reading said that pickles should ferment in their saltwater brine solution for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. I bought a bushel of small, young cucumbers, picked early that morning. I scrubbed all the cucumbers and removed the blossom ends with a sharp knife, as leaving it on can lead to rot. I used fresh dill, fresh Ontario garlic and a mixture of spices made up from mustard seed, coriander seed and whole peppercorns. I filled my 5 gallon fermenting crock with the correct proportions of water and coarse salt, and weighed everything down with a plate. On top of that, for extra weight, I placed a mason jar filled with water. I covered it all with a tea-towel and tied it with some twine. I sat back and waited for nature to do it's thing.

I was diligent and scraped the forming yeast off of the top of my crock each day, and tasted them every couple of days to see if they were ready yet. They gradually changed in colour from bright green to a faded olive and it seemed as if everything was going smoothly. The smell of dill filled our house. However, I had a vacation away from home coming up on the calendar, and as that neared closer, my pickles were still not quite there yet. I would be gone for week, a week that put the pickles from 2 weeks of fermentation to 3. I enlisted my sister who was house-sitting to be on scum-scraping duty and she was happy to help.

Upon returning from vacation,  I was ready to process and can the fermented pickles pretty much as soon as I walked in the door. But it was too late, I was gone too long. I inspected my batch and discovered that my pickles had turned to absolute mush on their insides while I was away. I had never anticipated that they would have spoiled so completely and so quickly within my estimated timeline. I tried one at the bottom of the batch that was not as gooey as the rest, and the flavour was incredible. A heart-breaking failure.

Not always succeeding is something we talk about within the Beehive often. I admittedly got pretty bummed out about having to discard my entire batch. I dramatically wailed to my husband in between tears "it's back to reality and it's all spoiled picklesssss!"

It's easy to become a defeatist and give up and think that every handmade or DIY project is not worth all the time, energy and effort when one that you put so much into turns out poorly. It's easy to not try at all when the possibility of failure is lurking just around the corner. Failing at something that you put your heart into is one of the worst feelings in the world, and can shatter everything you know to be true about yourself and your abilities in an instant.

But making mistakes is one of the best ways to really learn a lesson. All of the Bees try and lead lives where we make as much as we can by hand. It's one of the principles that brought us all together as a group. Making things by hand can often be tedious and requires patience, as it's not always about convenience. As many successes that we have with our DIY projects, we have just as many failures. After picking our self-confidence up off the floor, we take our new knowledge of our failure and try and turn it into inspiration to do a better job at it the next time around. Because when you do get it right, there's really nothing sweeter.

I recently took a dress-making class at Needlework where the wonderful instructor Mary confided in me that she was so surprised to see so many of the Bees signing up for her sewing classes. She had assumed that we were all proficient sewers.

We don't know everything. We make mistakes. The most important thing is that we try. Sometimes we have to try again. And hopefully, I'm not too late in the season to pick up another bushel of young cucumbers.

Etsy + The Beehive

At the beginning of July we had the opportunity to collaborate with Etsy and host a night of crafting in Hamilton. We were really humbled when Nada, the local Etsy rep (seen in the fifth picture), approached us with this idea, since many of the Bees got their start on Etsy selling wares and handmade goods. This opportunity presented a great way to accomplish a number of things that were important to both Etsy and to the Beehive - to provide an atmosphere for crafters to meet each other, to spend time actually making something together, and to get a jump start on our Supercrawl hexagon project (if you've been making them, you know this is a big undertaking!)

We posted about it on Facebook, the blog and Eventbrite, but weren't sure how many people would attend - and we were absolutely blown away by the response! Seriously... a whole bunch of people came out! We met all kinds of amazing people that night, and had the privilege of sharing the Beehive story about how we came to be and about what we envisioned for the hexagon project.

All in all, we had a really great night and are so thankful to Etsy (and specifically Nada) for all the effort put into this event, and to Low Key Studios for take photos and for hosting - such a great space! Want to see more pictures? They're all on the Etsy Flickr page here. Hexagon-making is still in full swing, and we are so excited about all the people who have been stitching away - again, this project is seriously big and judging by the pieces that have already been dropped off, it's going to look awesome! Hexagon pieces are due by August 31st, and you can find out more about where to get supplies and where to drop off finished hexagons here!

There was a photo booth! And Kieran was there!

Hexagon Due Date!

We're having flashbacks to last year around this time when it was a mad dash to knit knit knit as many scarves as we could for Knit Night on the Brain. Luckily, paper piecing is a much more enjoyable craft to work on in the summer compared to knitting with all that heavy wool.

But it IS getting down to crunch time. And so we're asking all of our lovely friends, family and Beehive enthusiasts who are helping out with our Modular Beauty project to finish up and hand in their completed hexagons so that we can start assembling for installation. We've been trying to gauge where we are at, and we think that with all of your help, we've done a pretty darn good job and that we're going to be able to make a real statement with our fibre intervention on the street at Supercrawl.

We've extended the deadline for drop off to Friday August 31st 2012. If you're helping us out (and we love you so much for it) we're hoping you'll be able to drop off your completed pieces by then.

If you need a reminder as to where you can drop off the hexagons, any of the following locations listed below will happily take them off of your hands:

Hamilton

White Elephant – 133 James St. North
Needlework – 174 James St. North
The Ship – 23 Augusta St.
The Hamilton Public Library:
Central Branch – 55 York Blvd.
Terryberry Branch – 100 Mohawk Rd. W.
Sherwood Branch - 467 Upper Ottawa St.
Citizen Kid – 188 Locke St. S.
Cake and Loaf – 321 Dundurn St. S.
The Baltimore House – 43 King William St.
Detour Coffee – 41B King St. W, Dundas
Downtown Bike Hounds - 19 John Street North
The Cannon - 179 Ottawa St N

Toronto

Kid Icarus – 75 Nassau St.

Russet & Empire – 390 Keele St.

The Arthur - 550 College St.  

The Workroom - 1340 Queen St. W

And we promise, we've been up to other fun and exciting non-hexagon related things that we'll fill you in on shortly. Magazine write-ups! Crafting with Etsy! Adventures in fermenting! All these things and more. But right now, it's stitch stitch stitch.

Thanks, friends!!!

Hexagon Craze!

By now you've likely caught wind of our big plans for a Beehive installation at this year's Supercrawl! Our piece is called Modular Beauty and will be made up of hand-sewn, English paper pieced hexagons that will creep and grow out of unexpected places along James Street, mimicking hives in the wild.



You'll remember that last year the Beehive installed a large-scale art project onto the facade of The Brain, which was the collaborative effort of many, many helping hands. This year we’re back at it with another idea, and community contributions to this installation are not only in the spirit of the project - which celebrates the culmination of multiple efforts to make something beautiful - they are also totally essential to making this whole thing a success!




After we explained the project a few weeks ago, and let you know that we were looking for lots and lots of hands to contribute, the project picked up steam and we have a lot of interest - which is so great! We hope you’ll consider joining in on our Hive Drive campaign to generate a serious crop of hexagon clusters, allowing us to expand this fibre intervention as much as possible over the buildings of James Street North.


How can you do this, you ask? Well:

In partnership with Etsy Canada we are hosting a Hive Drive hexagon-making party on Wednesday July 4 from 6:00-9:00 (that's next week!). We are so excited to invite you to join us at Low Key Studio (an amazing loft space/artist-run photography studio & art showcase gallery located at 48 Ferguson Ave. S. in Hamilton) for a night of relaxed hexagon making. Zero experience necessary – it is a very simple craft and we’d love to show you the ropes. And trust us, once you start making these little cuties, you won’t be able to stop! We’ll provide the fabric, templates and supplies (though of course feel free to bring your own) as well as refreshments and treats. It’s gonna be a super fun night so bring friends or come on your own and meet other crafty locals! RSVP here!



Can’t make the July 4th Hive Drive or planning on making hexagons at home? We have several super-duper hive drive donation locations throughout Hamilton supporting the cause. At these locations, starting this weekend (June 30th), you can pick up hexagon templates and fabric scraps, and drop off sewn hive sections when completed. If you have some fabric you’d be willing to donate towards hexagon making, we’ll gladly accept it through these locations. Anything you can contribute is MUCH appreciated!

Here are our confirmed donation stations:

Hamilton

White Elephant – 133 James St. North
Needlework – 174 James St. North
The Ship – 23 Augusta St.
The Hamilton Public Library:
Central Branch – 55 York Blvd.
Terryberry Branch – 100 Mohawk Rd. W.
Sherwood Branch - 467 Upper Ottawa St.
Citizen Kid – 188 Locke St. S.
Cake and Loaf – 321 Dundurn St. S.
The Baltimore House – 43 King William St.
Detour Coffee – 41B King St. W, Dundas
Downtown Bike Hounds - 19 John Street North
The Cannon - 179 Ottawa St N


Toronto

Kid Icarus – 75 Nassau St.
Russet & Empire – 390 Keele St.
The Arthur - 550 College St.
The Workroom - 1340 Queen St. W



If you're not in our city and would still like to contribute, please do! You can pop those hexagons in the mail and address them to Needlework at 174 James Street North Hamilton, ON L8R 2L1. We must receive them by August 17th 2012 to make sure that we have enough time to work them into the larger piece.

Lastly, if you plan to make a bunch of hexagons at home, and you're looking for some tips, we've put together a short and simple set of instructions for you. Here we go!