Naturally Sweet Dreams: Red Berries, Brown Eggs, Minty Kombucha, and Apple Granola — Homestead Highlights — Description

Some things are addictive to the point of obsession. You know what I mean if you’ve ever sat in front of a computer or game console long enough. Ever had Tetris shapes float before your eyes the moment you close them for some shuteye? Marc was being taunted by luscious red raspberries the other night. Very sweet dreams.

Picking raspberries caused some very sweet dreams!

That’s right, Noëlville Berry Farm is now into its raspberry season, which will only last another week or so. Don’t have time to go picking or want to save your back? Let us pick ’em for you — better place your order soon!

The strawberry season is now officially over. Thanks to all our customers! We hope you enjoyed your berries. We sure had fun picking them for you!

Happily, we picked many for ourselves, too. We got plenty to freeze and we’re sure to have enough to take us through the winter. Plus, we did end up buying a Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator, so we’ve got some dried strawberries on hand.

Strawberries can bring on sweet dreams, too.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to make enough to sell, but we’ve already tried some in our homemade granola. Delicious!

For my part, I was surprised to see that the berries really soften in yogurt. Now I can’t wait to see how the dried raspberries turn out!

With luck, we’ll have enough of those to offer to our customers…

We did dry a banana and an apple to see what would happen, and threw that in the granola, too. Mmm! Especially with the new apple butter and agave nectar combo we tried out. Might just do that one with no strawberries and more apple next time…

Let us know if you want to give it a try for yourself!

We've also been experimenting with different combinations in our kombucha. We've tried turmeric and ginger green tea and Moroccan mint green tea. Very yum! I like the turmeric and ginger blend best.

And we've switched to organic cane sugar, but diabetics who want to try an amazing all-natural detox beverage should note that we're also planning on trying a batch with honey instead of sugar. Contact us to try some! Prices may vary depending on the ingredients.

Update!

We've learned a lot since this was written! Find out why we would now hesitate to sweeten a kombucha brew with honey in Kombucha Revisited: Correcting Misconceptions.

Red sex chickens clucking about outside their coop.

More good news — we finally got our laying hens at the end of June! We've got 35, but they're still young so we only get 28 eggs per day so far. We'll top off at about 30 eggs per day within a week or so. That's almost 18 dozen per week!

While we've got a sign up at the highway and they usually go pretty fast, definitely let me know if you want some so I can save them for you.

Picturesque scene from Rib Mountain on the Ottawa-Temiskaming Highland Trail near Temagami

It's not all work and no play here, though. Marc and I adventured on Canada Day weekend to Temagami's wilderness, backpacking up Rib Mountain on the Ottawa-Temiskaming Highland Trail.

That's a whole other story which you can read about by clicking the link above, but here's the punch line: our car's finished.

We're trying to get another vehicle ASAP because, astonishingly, blueberry season has already begun! We're really hoping it'll be a lengthy one, but place your order soon, just in case!

Update: If you prefer to pick your blueberries yourself, then check out our wild blueberry picking tips!