Cape Breton Autumn

We are writing this blog entry from the kitchen of our host home, with a pot of black tea with honey and raspberry cornmeal muffins just out of the oven. Behind us is a woodstove with a cast iron pan drying on top of it, and there's a cat on the couch to our left and another on a chair in front of us. We're sitting at the kitchen table where we played Settlers for 3.5 hours last night with another wwoofer (ended in a draw), waiting for the last of the cornmeal loaf to finish in the oven before we head out to dig potatoes.

When we arrived here Monday evening, we were first greeted by the cats and then by a wwoofer who had been here for a couple of weeks (we'll call her M for anonymity). She's also wwoofing her way around the Maritimes as a way to travel and get to know the area. We had some great times with her talking about Doctor Who and getting a crash course in wwoofing, as well as working outside mulching garlic beds, cleaning up tomato beds, planting spinach and picking raspberries. Sadly, M left today to continue wwoofing on another farm in the area but we are sure we'll see her again, either at the markets or in the future sometime somewhere :)

Our hosts (T and J) here are wonderful and have an adorable baby (F) who is full of character and very involved with everything everyone is doing. He loves to maul the very patient cats, and smack all objects (future percussionist). We've been very well fed here with mostly homegrown, organic, wheat free meals and snacks. It's inspiring to see how self-sustained T and J have managed to become. To give you an idea of the scope of their farm, here is a list of what they grew this year:
Garlic, beans, snow and snap peas, potatoes, kale, zucchini, onions, chard, tomatoes, beets, spinach, asian vegetable, endive, parsnips, squash, grapes, currants, strawberries, cucumber, corn, lettuce, rhubarb, artichoke, raspberries, arctic kiwi, carrots and leeks, plus wild blackberries and apples.

We're learning lots (composting toilets, who knew) and Cape Breton is gorgeous at this time of year. We have a beautiful view of hills covered in multicolored trees and we plan to do some hiking/walking/biking in our downtime. We'll follow up with some pictures later, once we get some work done. Hope everyone is well! Until next time.