smitty55

Doug the leeks are basically the first thing to green up in the bush. Head out for a tour in early May and you should be able to spot them if they are there. These ones have been up for a while in this pic.

Went out for my final pick of leeks today. This cold weather was a blessing, I could actually cover up well to keep the skitters at bay. Turns out I almost didn't even need any bug spray, this cold snap knocked then right down and I couldn't even hear the buzzing. Unlike the other days during the hot muggy weather when the skitters were crazy. I went out during that as the leaves were really starting to turn yellow fast. The bugs were so thick I decided to put on my mesh bug jacket, man those things trap in your heat so much it was literally like being in a sauna wrapped in plastic. I managed to last an hour and got 7-8 pounds. Next day my daughter came over for a pick. She was all sprayed down but only lasted maybe fifteen minutes before the skitters drove her out of the bush. Today I went to a different spot and about 30% of the plants were still green. In maybe 1 1/2 hour I got just under 8 lbs. I never use a shovel and always do my best to only pick the bulb and leave the rhizome and roots in the ground. Going to make up 5lbs of ramp butter and going to pickle up a few jars with a new recipe to try. I got a good 10 lbs of fiddleheads this season too so I'm happy with my spring foraging this year.

That was a good laugh Dave. I've seen that one before and I think it was about hockey then as well.

I make a lot of real good soups over the course of a year but at this time of year there's one very special soup that is at the top of the list. It's called Wild Country Cream Soup, apparently the recipe came from an old Harrowsmith magazine however I couldn't find any reference to it on google at all or their archives. It's a quite rich cream soup with fiddleheads and leeks(ramps) as the stars along with mushrooms and green onion supporting. The flavour is really amazing as one would expect with a full cup of chopped wild garlic in it, along with a little zing from cayenne. Even better that I can go out beside the house and pick the leeks like I did this afternoon. The owner of the property where I do my main picking requests a batch each year. Pic doesn't really do it justice, when chilled the soup if quite solid, when hot it's still thick and creamy, even a small bowl goes a long way. Cheers

It's been heavy with black flies for the last week or so around here but this heat wave has knocked them down pretty good but now all of a sudden the mosquitoes have shown up so not near as bad, they hardly leave a mark.

Heya Todd. Bad enough you can't get to Kipawa at all, even worse is the forum getting hacked. Know any experts on forum admin, I'm sure Greg would love some help. Cheers

That works real good and you can even change flavours.

I have both of them but haven't watched yet. Good to hear.

A neighbour buddy of mine has been guiding for well over 30 years and he swears the best batter comes from Brodie xxx self rising flour. For breading he uses Zatarains Fish Fri blends, they're a 125 year old company from New Orleans. I saw him post a pic of it just recently. Whenever I'm over at the Walleye Lounge there's often a box on the counter. Not in this case though, Jim had the place spruced up real good for the tv crew. This was 7 years back, there's been solid improvements to the seating and other changes since then. This used to be used as a real garage, complete with a hoist mounted in the loft at one time. It's a huge log structure, more than double garage wide and with a high peak and large loft. It matches the even more impressive log home. I can't recall exactly what that floor cost him but I think it was up towards 20G, it's real nice. With apologies for the side track

I'd say a little behind this year. Mine are up maybe 10" or so. I've just been munching on stems so far, they're so mild when the plant is young. Fiddleheads however seem to be still dormant, I checked today in a sunnier spot and nothing started yet. Here's some pics from a few days back, one right beside the house and the other on a hill behind the house.

Came across this very interesting article linked on another forum. As usual the incompetent liberals haven't really thought this gun ban very well with their attempt at bypassing legislation by using an OIC. A real good read even though it's a year old and still mentions the election. https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1876479-A-must-Read-A-real-good-insight-that-was-forwarded-to-us-SHARE-WITH-EVERYONE!!!! Also if anyone here is affected by this here's a link to the proper form 68A to apply for a judicial review. http://ontariocourtforms.on.ca/en/rules-of-civil-procedure-forms/ Cheers

Then again sometimes there no rhyme or reason for where they pop up. In this case on a gravel pad where I park my quad a couple of years back, go figure.

South facing slopes are always the first to produce, once they slow down there move to north facing areas.

Now that bread sure does look good.

That's kind of what I figured but after looking it up they do show some longer stools

My guess would be muskrat, they eat mostly vegetation.

Well on today's menu was my Puttanesca recipe. Wifey even has it down pretty good now, so she made it while I was out today. So that was a great excuse to make another loaf of bread. Changed it up a bit this time, used a full tsp of yeast instead of 1/4, bumped the salt up to 1 1/2 tsp and added 1 tbs of olive oil to the batter. I would say the bread was a bit softer with the oil, had more flavour with the extra salt and rose faster with the extra yeast. Wifey seemed to think she could smell it more as well while it was baking. And of course the Puttanesca was excellent, we had it with garlic shrimp this time and she kept going on about what a fabulous meal it was, who needs restaurants. For anyone interested that recipe is on pg 132. Cheers

Way to go. This is how I helped myself stay quit. Once I had a week behind me I just told myself I know I can do it again because I already did it. Same after two weeks, then a month, and so forth. Then I started adding up the pounds of tobacco that I hadn't put through my lungs and the coin I hadn't spent and I felt even better. Worked for me. Good luck.

Well my daughter gave a a turkey carcass from the weekend as she can't be bothered to make stock and soup. She has it figured out now, get Dad to do it all and then get soup for nothing. But that's OK, I ended up with 4 qts of soup. So that was a perfect excuse to break in my new dutch oven to bake some artisan bread. Talk about easy. No proofing of yeast, just a 2 minute mix of the ingredients including using hot water. Only a 3-5 hour rise to double in size, a quick fold over and shaping by hand and on a sheet of parchment paper and place in bowl while oven and pot is warming to 450°. Remove dutch oven, place paper and dough in pot with lid on and in oven for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake further for 10-15 min to crisp up crust. Turned out fantastic, nice crispy crust and nice and soft inside with a texture similar to Sourdough. All for less than 5 minutes of time. . I can see it now being a regular occurrence in out kitchen.

Interesting, all I've ever used is milk almost to the top of the layers. Scalloped potatoes are always in a creamy sauce for me. Lot's of onions and black pepper along with flour and butter between each layer. Sometimes I'll add cheese or bacon.

So someone on line mentioned about dutch ovens on sale at CTC for great prices. It wasn't in the flyer but when I went online they have some great deals on Paderno cookware. Sure enough their 6.5 qt dutch oven regular price $339 is on sale for $99 and the 5 qt. is on as well for $80. Needless to say I phoned up my local store and had them hold one for me. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/paderno-dutch-oven-red-6-5-qt-1423479p.html#srp On a side note, that store in CP is as of 6pm now going to be closed for anything but online ordering so you may want to check your store. Cheers

Max usb current is .5A for USb2.0 giving a max 2.5W output. USB3 rises to 900mA max so 4.5W Cheers

Actual recommendations are 2 tbs per quart. I used to use lemon juice but didn't care for the taste in my tomato sauce so I switched to citric acid. I/2 tsp per quart and zero flavour change.

This bread is unlike any fresh bread you'll ever have, it's very dense and heavy. It doesn't have to be canned at all, any loaf pan, soup can or juice can can be used, for me it was more about trying something very different. The process is the same regardless, it's steamed in a water bath. Cheers

I'm only talking about the Boston Brown bread here, it's actually intended to be steamed. All I know is what I made turned out great and it's a very unique flavour. I guess if someone was concerned it would be easy to freeze, whether in the jar still or removed and wrapped. I wouldn't be interested in trying other breads. Cheers