News

RSS

Filtered By jo dickins

Reflecting on the Season

December 13 2017

The winds pick up. The dull grey clouds roll through. Even in the sunlight it doesn’t feel bright and the sun goes down at 4:30 in the afternoon. I had to shut the water down in the kitchen and barns and blow out the lines to prevent freezing and rupturing the pipes. I’m still tying down the vines to prepare the vineyard for its annual hibernation. It’s a different time now. It’s almost hard to imagine summer these days on the farm.

Gently Steering the Ingredients

The last couple of days of tropical heat and humidity have convinced me that we have come through the long, cool, wet spring and have arrived at summer. Shimmering heat and the cacophony of tree frogs and cicadas has replaced damp coolness and sinister, carnivorous May flies. The veil has lifted.

Many Stars Aligned

Today I contemplate going into the vineyard to continue pruning the vines. If things dry out a little bit, it promises to be a good year. The vines are loaded with nascent bunches of fruit. It remains to prune each vine to establish the right architecture so that each will produce a limited number of bunches with the highest potential for quality and ripeness.

A Cane Raising in the Vineyard

Prince Edward County is a unique place in so many ways. I am reminded of its farming history every time I walk around outside and re-examine the older buildings on my property. Along the creek, near the highway and close to the village road, there is the crumbling ruins of a blacksmith shop and a mill powered at one time by the water flowing in the creek. I also see remnants of the tomato canning factory that was once active here; blanching baskets and labels that read, “Taylor Made” Taylor, the family name of the cannery owners more than 60 years ago.

The Warm Tone of the Cherry Wood

One morning a few years ago, my dad called me to let me know that he had to cut down a large cherry tree that was on their property in Wellington. I think it posed some kind of danger to the house. He had heard about a man with a portable sawmill and called him to come and not only cut the tree down, but saw the trunk into planks for lumber. My dad wanted to know if I wanted to come by the house to watch this operation. I was intrigued right away.

150 Stories

Recently, both Jamie and I were invited to attend launch events to celebrate the publication and exhibition of "150 Stories" at the office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, at Queen's Park. I was thrilled to contribute a photograph to this project to accompany Jamie's story.

Warm Autumn Reflections on the Summer Dinner Series

October 17 2016

There was a tang in the air. The leaves on the trees glowed with their Thanksgiving colours that Andy Goldsworthy finds so fascinating. Chase and I made sure there was plenty of firewood around. We would need to get the wood stove going in the loafing barn Saturday evening for the first time all summer. Victoria wanted the Tom Dean “Mercy” burning barrel close to the entrance so that everyone could see the fire from their seats. Crispy Confit of Pork was to be one of the hors d’oeuvres on the ridge so we needed to burn a fire there too.

Jeff Connell at the Summer Dinner Series

Sometimes it takes stepping away from one’s usual focus to gain perspective and a better understanding of what makes the work one is engaged in, unique. This small journey outside the box inspires one further in one’s own work, closer to home.