Raven Acre Homestead

14/06/2026

Everything has been brought in from the roadside to be refreshed in the shade of the garden. These last few hot days, plus a few night visits from the deer, have taken their toll. 🦌

05/06/2026

I'll have the table back out at for 10:00am until 9:00pm today. They're priced as individually marked - ranging from $1-5 today. What is out there today, in limited quantities, is:

- Oregano
- Thyme
- Lemon Balm
- Strawberries (June)

Come on by 3885 Rowe Road out in Glenora.
Check out my neighbours and the produce they have to offer while you're in the area! There's lots of lovely, local, and organically grown goodies grown out here.

25/10/2025

22/10/2025

🧄 No Vampires Here 🧄

As I kid I always wished I could be a vampire 🧛🏻‍♀️ - immortality, superhuman abilities, and all that stuff. But, in all reality I love garlic way too much.

Today I hunkered down and broke up all my heads of seed garlic. I like hard neck garlic for the benefit of garlic scapes (I make a mean pesto). Red Russian has always grown well for me & I love its flavour for cooking and preserving. I ended ip with somewhere between 150-175 cloves... I counted 150, drilled 150 holes, but then ended up with extras... So, we'll see! 🤣 It's hard to count when a toddler is telling you stories.

This garden bed is fresh this year. I broke down two rotting raised beds and went down to ground level. Once the new bed was settled in I added compost, steer manure, and mushroom compost. This is also where I grew my tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zuchini, and lovely nasturtiums. 🌸

When those plants were finished, I cut them all down to ground level but left all their root structures intact. I try to disturb my soil as little as possible. 🪱 Once the bed was cleared out I topped it up with a few inches of compost from my own composting system. Then I let the bed rest for a few weeks. 💤

Today, I drilled holes 2-3" deep (closer to the 3" mark) and dropped one clove, root side down, in each drill and covered them with soil. Once I had all my cloves in the ground, I covered the entire bed with what maple leaves I had available. I try to have 2-3" of leaves once they've compacted down, so I'll keeping adding more as the trees in my yard continue to shed.

Come Spring, I'll fertilize and then play the waiting game. ⏰ I will probably intercrop with lettuce & early greens, too. But I don't like watering my garlic too much... so I try not too plant too much in with them.

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21/10/2025

I can't say it enough - but Autumn is my favorite time of year. I thrive in October. 🍂👻 After a long birthday weekend, our household is feeling a little run down.

To help pick us back up I'm making some homemade chicken soup from scratch, starting with the stock. Yesterday I bought bone-in and skin-on chicken breasts (it's cheaper this way and you get more product for your dollar). I used half of the breast meat for butter chicken last night, the rest of the meat will be added in to the soup, the skins will be seasoned and fried in to crisps, the bones and trimmings I've roasted in the oven and they are now simmering with warming spices, garden herbs, ACV, onions, garlic, and love. This will simmer for hours before I strain the stock & start building the soup.

There's nothing better than the whole house smelling of soup, warmed by a woodstove, and looking out over the Autumn colors & misty mountains.

This is my kind of day. I am grateful. 🥰🖤

04/10/2025

Today, I am hunkering down and stringing up my onions to go in to my cold pantry. 🖤

13/09/2025

With the leaves shifting colors, night time temperatures dropping, and rain in the forecast... my mind begins to wander over to thoughts of Fall. 🍁🌧️

Fall brings soups & stews. 🍜🍲 This means I really need to get going on jarring up some home made broths! My supply is running low in the pantry.

My favorite broths & stocks to make would be - beef bone broth & vegetable scrap stock. Occasionally I'll also do chicken bone broth if I've stock piled enough carcasses!

Every now and then, I will purchase beef bones from some local abattoirs or butchers. 🦴 I line a deep baking tray with foil, put the bones directly on the tray (frozen or fresh), and I will roast them until they are a rich, golden brown. I take the fat from the baking tray and process it for tallow.

Afterwards, I simmer the bones in water & a splash of ACV for what feels like forever. 🥘 I strain the bones & sediment out, cool the broth in the fridge over night, remove the fat, and then I'll freeze some & pressure can the rest.

Pressure canning breaks down the collagen in the bone broth (which is an amazing quality of this broth). But I can only fit so much in my freezers. So, do both! I use the frozen broth first and then move on to the jarred broth later in the year.

It is so rich & nutritious. It is great for cold & flu season to sip on from a cup, or for making rich soups with, the tallow can be used for cooking & skin care.

The best part - all of the was relatively inexpensive, organic, natural, and goes a long way!

13/09/2025

We have a small flock of Muscovy ducks that free range our little homestead. 🦆 Originally, I decided to get ducks to help control slugs & bugs that were decimating my garden. 🐌🐛 As I've raised them and rotated through flocks, I have come to appreciate them for many reasons!

Personally, I like to refer to my Muscovy as either feathered dogs or tiny velociraptors (because of their vocals). 🦖 One huge perk - they're SO quiet! The hens cheep along quietly and the drake hiss and rattle like little dinosaurs. They do not quack.

Their personalities are quite endearing. They have a wonderful habit of showing up as soon as a shovel breaks dirt, at a shake of a feed bag, or any general noise of excitement. They really like to be involved in whatever is happening out in the yard. 🪏

My small flock currently consists of three adult ducks and three ducklings. The two hens are Salty & Maddison. Our drake is Alfred. Salty is our momma & sure is a wonderfully protective one! Normally, Salty is my friendliest bird. She follows me along wherever I go and she will stop and crouch down for me to pick her up. Maddison is rather shy. Alfred... he's not very clever, but he is a gentle and protective boy.

Muscovy were my choice in bird because of what I had heard of their personalities & also their hardiness. Not many parasites bother them. They don't get many physical ailments. They're very resilient in our West Coast climate. Their size is also a bonus for durability.

Maddison, just this last winter, took off one afternoon. A neighbor spotted her 3 days later & but she took flight and was attacked by two eagles. 🦅 4 days later another neighbor spotted her in their field. I finally caught her! She had been out that whole time in -3 to -14°C weather and 2 feet of snow. ❄️ The eagles tore a huge hole in her chest. I got her home & set up camp for her in my ensuite. A good clean up, wound management, re-feeding... and in one week she was healing amazingly and back outside with Salty!

Then we got Alfred to add to the mix to balance things a bit more. He's been a really sweet thing since I picked him up. A very curious guy, gentle with the ladies, he gets the zoomies, and he's a great dad! But... he can sometimes get stuck behind a twig. 🤦🏽‍♀️ Typically, the recommended drake:hen ratio is 1:5 but Alfred has been so great!

I really do enjoy them being around! You can be sure that you'll see them more in my future posts. 🥰