Seasons Greetings

Seasons Greetings and all the very best for 2012

This time last year we had over 4 feet of snow on the ground. This year the creek has skiffs of ice on it and the day time temperatures are above zero! I guess there have been other Decembers like this...but never so warm! Have a safe and happy holiday season and we here at Brooklands look forward to the spring and the tapping of the maple trees.

Fire Fighters have fun with our brush pile!

Wednesday nights is training night at the local fire hall and we have (I mean had) a humungous brush pile that had been getting larger and larger over the last couple of years. Burning it is environmentally not ideal, but it also poses a fire hazard to the farm. When we mentioned this brush pile to our local fire chief he figured it would create a perfect training opportunity for the guys on a Wednesday night! So tonight they rolled in. The pictures say it all!



That was some fire...as big as a house..and soooo hot! Our valiant firefighters had a great training session and a greater workout! They will sleep well tonight and we do not have a brush pile anymore!

Cranberry picking on our bog - a very peaceful afternoon!

So what you see is a peaceful afternoon of picking wild cranberries on our bog. We will enjoy these delicious berries all winter long. They will taste good in all sorts of delicious recipes and ward off any flues and colds that pass by. Cranberries rock! Our pooch even knows that they are good for you. We could not stop him grazing cranberries!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2011 at Brooklands

Fabulous weekend in Muskoka.

Sunny clear days,incredible colours, long walks, stacking wood for the fires, picking cranberries in the bog, good food, lots of family time!

So gorgeous and peaceful - even the pooch kissed a rabbit!!

Fantastic turn out at the farm for the 2011 Field to Fork event!

The photos say it all. Thanks to Robert Deline for sending them to us. Enjoy!

Partnership with Toronto Zoo finalized!

We are delighted to announce another amazing project with the Toronto Zoo!
Stay tuned for for updates over the coming year.

Savour Muskoka Field to Fork Culinary Extravaganza 2011!

So folks get your tickets or miss out on a really fun event!

In 2010 tickets sold out in three weeks!!!!

Eggs, Eggs and more Eggs!

Lisa just said Chickens are so entertaining.....better than TV! We could not agree more. Its been almost three weeks since we got our birds and they have developed into such colorful characters. Not going to give them names although we could. We would become too attached to them...and then we could not possibly do the needful in the fall!!! Lets not go there just yet...although we have just discovered that young laying bird meat is fantastic and sought after in SE Asia and by gourmet chefs in Europe and costs more to buy than regular free range birds!

Here are some pictures of our biddies...such happy campers!


For the first couple of weeks the eggs were smaller and gradually became more numerous. Some of those early eggs were the size of Robin eggs with no yolks inside. Too cute.
Just for laughs here is a comparison:


Layers start laying at 19 weeks and some folks claim can lay eggs for up to 3 years. Our biddies are now producing close to 6 dozen eggs per day. The yolks are a bright yellowish orange with hazy egg whites. Did you know that the fresher an egg the higher it sit when cracked open? In other words stale eggs are flat in the pan! Our eggs are like little mounds and lately we have been even getting a few double yolkers! A sign of healthy birds with lots of good nutrition and space!!

Egg Mobile is home to 75 surprised chickens

We drove down to Elmira to pick up the layers and all the trimmings to make them feel at home. The biggest surprise was that they were raised in a factory setting and when we first saw them they were in wee cages (eight to a cage) with hardly any room to move. These chickens were about 19 weeks old and beginning to lay the occasional brown egg.

So they were stuffed into five plastic cages and loaded into our van with feeders,waterers, egg cartons etc. We also stopped and picked up a pile of Ontario milled Omega 3 layer feed. Our chickens will have access to tonnes of grass, worms and plant material and this special feed that is spiked with flax seed. This makes the eggs extra special...soon we will able to sell free range omega 3 eggs, YUM!

When we got home to the farm we literally pored them into the coop that had been so diligently built for them. It truly was comparable to five star accommodation. They were locked in for the night with lots of feed and water. When the door was opened in the morning they very tentaviely all came out. It took them pretty much the whole day to get used to their freedom. It really was incredible. By dusk we had a really hard time to get them back inside...and we found four small brown eggs!

Egg mobile or port-a-potty look alike!

Our Egg mobile is almost ready. It was put together in the barn on rainy days and now has been hauled outside where the finishing touchs are being added. We have had folks ask us if it is our new port-a-potty! It does look a bit like one!! What a hoot. The Egg mobile is built on a trailer that hooks to a tractor that will haul it from pasture to pasture every few days. Our brown egg layers arrive either Friday of this week or Tuesday after May 24. The eggs that our chickens will produce will be truly free range and the best! We are very excited.

Farewell feed with farm fare to our Aussie lad!

So Stephen our Aussie intern has taken off after living on the farm with us for 3 whole months. It was great having him here. He ad planned this trip for over a year and came to Canada to learn all about making maple syrup. How he is hoping to partner with the Botanical Gardens in Sydney and try and make Maple Syrup down under. Apparently they have about 15-20 sugar maple trees in the Blue Mountains! So we sent him off on his next leg...exploring British Columbia with a fabulous feed of fresh asparagus, shitake mushrooms, potato wedgies and good old hamburgers with all the trimmings.

The most Amazing potato - YUM!

We planted 600lbs of potatoes today. This was the first planting...3 to go. Lots of color, organising and work. We focus on heirloom varieties which pack a nutritional punch, fabulous flavor and please the eye. They should be ready for the pot/oven or BBQ end of July or so. New potatoes...YUM!