CITY COULD COVET CUTE CLUCKERS

What Is Campbell River Missing that Victoria, Burnaby, New Westminister, New York, Seattle and Portland, plus countless other cities already have? Local resident, Connie Thiessen knows. The answer is a bylaw allowing residents to raise chickens on their property. In her letter to council, from which she has given me permission to quote…” In a time of economic stress when we are urged to grow our own food and buy locally, the lack of a chicken bylaw eliminates most residents from utilizing one way of maintaining a locally grown and inexpensive ‘green’ diet. Chickens love vegetable scraps. What better way to compost than by turning your scraps into quality protein”.

Thiessen pointed out that recently a neighbour complained to a by-law reinforcement person regarding her friend’s chicken coop which is within city boundaries, alleging that it was attracting rats. “Granted, rats are in the area” states Thiessen “but living close to the water, rats are a fact of life here and other neighbours have stated they’ve been trapping rats long before my friend’s four lovely hens arrived. These hens are now due to be destroyed within a week or so and our family and neighbours will mourn the loss of the best eggs available.” The four hens produce four eggs a day.

She continues “Hens are not noisy. Roosters are. They nearly purr with happiness when you feed them the leftover lettuce shavings. They cluck sweetly in the morning around 9am and like to brag about having laid an egg. “ Thiessen is calling for city council to formulate a bylaw ensuring a clean, humane, liveable policy to provide residents with a rewarding way of feeding their families. Another resident, Helen Sikora, contacted me to see if I had any “pull” with council. What I can do is join with both ladies in urging council to seriously consider the request. So…what do you say Mayor Charlie and councilors. We need some warm and fuzzy good news lately and permission for a couple of warm, fuzzy chickens could be the perfect antidote. As an after thought what about a “stay of proceedings” on the imminent death sentence of the four cute cluckers who were recently served with their papers?

Life In An East Facing Condo on the waterfront has its benefits but the downside is the icy cold north wind that has been blowing almost daily. However, my tubs of vegetable greens are thriving on the deck and I have been harvesting every day since early May to create crisp, intensely green salads. I snip off the outer leaves of kale, butter and leafy lettuce, chives, arugula, chard and a mix of herbs. Toss in a few leaves from the basil on the window sill, a couple of tomatoes and tiny chunks of goat cheese and I’m as happy as a rabbit on a golf course. The greens are all cool weather cruciferous plants and reproduce so quickly that I have enough salad fixings to share with the neighbours. Keep your basil indoors until we get some consistent warm days and remember to snip that wonderful plant from the top down so as to force the growth.

A Composter Small Enough To Tuck under the kitchen sink sounds like a solution for those of us in small spaces. My cousin Bridget, who lives in Kyoto, wrote to tell about her and companion Tad’s recent experience with a Bokashi Composter. It’s a small bucket with a lid and a spigot at the base of the container. They toss in kitchen waste including leftover cooked food and sprinkle it with something called EMBran which is a decomposing agent.
In about 10 days it produces a nutrient rich liquid which is drained off through the spigot. It can be used as a powerful liquid fertilizer and the remains of the compost can be spaded into your soil. They keep two buckets on the go. Their neighbor has been using this system for a year and says everything is growing much bigger and tastier than past crops. Bridget is raving about the Bokashi. You’ll find lots of info regarding this system on the internet and there is a Vancouver contact which should show up in the search.

THE VANCOUVER ISLAND DIET

It Was Only a Matter of time and now the “Vancouver Island Diet” is attracting all the buzz. First it was the 100-Mile Diet originated by an amazing young Vancouver couple, then the 50-Mile Diet that mushroomed out of Powell River and now the focus is shifting to an all-island diet. A group in Cowichan Valley seem to be the source who are spear-heading the movement. Their manifesto caught my eye and to quote a few lines: the Vancouver Island Diet means not only eating food produced on the island but supporting our local farmers, fishers and food producers by providing them with a decent livelihood. It means taking the trouble to seek out producers of all kinds of products that we use on a daily basis and making the very political decision to shop locally. It means asking the managers of local stores to clearly label which foods and products are from the island. For more go to… http://www.vancouverislanddiet.com/

Having Just Finished Barbara Kingsolver’s latest and hottest book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle where she recounts her move back to a West Virginia farm with her family, I encourage you to ask for it at the local library. It is an absorbing story of a family taking over their old farm and learning to restore and plant the land in order to produce all their foods for an entire year. One of Kingsolver’s greatest concerns, when they were still existing as commercial consumers, was the distances food traveled to reach their table. Her experience has prodded me into doing a similar count. Let’s see…fresh flowers from Columbia, 6,000 air miles, tomatoes from Mexico, 2,500 miles, fresh peas from China, 7,000 air miles, goats cheese from Quebec, 3,500 miles. Well, you get the idea. If one is sincerely trying to buy locally it means peering at every label and asking the retail staff endless questions. If we all put pressure on our retail stores we will soon get clear labeling telling us what is island grown, what is B.C. grown and what is Canada grown. Of course there are many things we can’t get in this country but it supports our farm industry if we always start by thinking “Island First”.

The Edible Plant Workshop I attended earlier this month gave a whole new meaning to “Eating Locally”. Colin Buss and Luisa Richardson lead our group of 20 on a trek through a Simms Creek tributary and it was a revelation to discover that so many plants that we hardly glance at can actually sustain life, if necessary.
Retired archivist, Irene Ross, listened intensely, taste tested all the plants we were shown on the trek and the following day tried out some of the native greenery on her husband, Dr. John Ross and her brother-in-law. Luncheon included Miner’s Lettuce, fiddleheads (from the base of Lady Ferns,) Maple Tree shoots, the young needles from Douglas Fir, Salmonberry shoots as well as its flowers, and berry-like heads from a plant known locally as Snap, Crackle & Pop. The salad was topped off with a vinaigrette dressing. The diners consumed the greens with gusto and proclaimed the meal a success!

60,000 Honey Bees on the Vancouver Conference Centre roof, runner beans on the lawn at London’s City Hall? In the search to bring you interesting items on what’s happening in the grow-your-own food movement it is astounding to see this quantum shift throughout some of the world’s greatest cities. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson is drawing up plans for community gardens surrounding the Tower of London and Marble Arch. The Hayward Gallery will soon have a vegetable patch on its roof. At Vancouver’s Fairmount Waterfront the chef harvests fruits, veggies, herbs and honey for his menus and even has apple trees ripening amongst the skyscrapers. Even New York has turned green and a civic dinner was recently served to a group of eco-chic types which included Bronx Collard Greens, Brooklyn Beans and cocktails with Muddled Berries foraged from Central Park. Now where does Campbell River rate amongst these metropolises? Stand by for an exciting announcement on what is planned for the just installed green roof on our City Hall. http://www.islandfocus.bblogspot.com/

BUSINESS IS BLOOMING IN GARDEN SHOPS

Business Is Blooming in local garden shops as residents’ enthusiasm for growing food gardens increases. Retailers tell me that seed racks are being quickly depleted and baskets of starter vegetables are flying off the shelves. The homegrown vegetable movement seems to be sweeping the province, according to news reports.

“Harvesting” the Cut & Come Again garden evokes a feeling of satisfaction, especially when you’ve waited weeks through this chilly spring weather to sample the crops. That’s the way Jurgen and Inga Kettler expressed their pleasure when telling me about their first meal of mixed greens freshly picked from tubs on their east facing deck garden. For their premiere luncheon they added a few organic tomatoes, herbs and a splash of organic oil. Yum!

In my deck pots I have a mixture of young plants purchased at the garden shops as well as a variety of salad greens started from seed. The miracle of “harvesting” is that you can go on eating from the same tubs of veggies until the weather becomes very warm in July. At that point your plants will “bolt” and produce a flower head. Let them dry out and recover the seeds from the head. If they’re organic those seeds can be planted again in late August and you’ll have vegetables growing in the barrels all winter long. Imagine on Christmas Day wandering out on to the deck with a basket looped over your arm prepared to snip a basketful of crisp greens for the holiday table. You’ll be bragging so hard your guests will groan…with envy.

There is a technique for cutting the leaves so that the plants can reproduce. In fact there are two systems. Either take a pair of scissors and clip off the top of the plants…like giving the plants a hair cut…or the other choice is to clip only the outer largest leaves from the plants. Whichever way you chose, it provides you with an endless supply especially with spindly plants like chives, mizumi, arugula and lettuce. It takes a leap of faith to shave off all those leaves but it works. The next crop will bounce up in a couple of weeks. Clip basil differently. Remove greens from the top down to the last two large leaves. The plants will reproduce surprisingly quickly.
Make sure your basil is sitting on a sunny windowsill...too chilly outdoors yet to move it.

A Mittlenatch Reader Called to ask if I knew anyone who would like to share space in their very large garden. She and her husband also have a small greenhouse and produce so many edibles that she calls their garden the “Zero Mile Diet” as opposed to the “100 Mile Diet”. If you need garden space and/or are willing to help them manage their garden the email is jndandeloin@gmail.com. Now that’s a very neighbourly action. They moved here from Saskatchewan where “spin gardening” was born in Canada. That a type of gardening where a farmer rents out land to allow others to raise crops for personal use or resale at farmer’s markets.

The First Farmers’ Market of the year opened on Sunday and the great news is that there will be local farmers selling local produce. We appreciate the huge effort the Comox Valley farmers have put in through the years to haul their produce up to our Sunday market. Now we can enjoy their produce as well as “support local growers and buy close to home” This is a small step in fulfilling the mission to become a sustainable community.

Did You Know there was an Edible Native Plants workshop held Saturday at the Sportsplex. That was a chance to discover many of the edible native plants in our area and where to find them. I jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the nutritional value of native plants and how to prepare them for sustenance. Watch this column for future workshops on this subject.

SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

The phrase, Square Foot Gardening keeps popping up wherever people are discussing growing food in very limited areas. Small space gardening is what this column focuses on so I keyed in to Google and up came a puzzling array of sites. I wanted to read what Mel Bartholomew, the originator of this concept, had to say about the subject and I located his site at http://www.squarefootgardening.com/. Mel, who lives in the eastern U.S., was a traditional gardener until he became fed up with having to manage such a huge spread with its accompanying weeds. He invented the concept of planting in a raised bed measuring 4ft. by 4ft. and discovered that using a formula for planting, he could produce a season’s supply of fresh veggies for his family of four by gardening in four raised beds. He has a video on his web site showing the step by step process. I’m excited by this idea as he developed the plan 25 years ago and it has been tested thoroughly by a generation of gardeners. For those of you with large pots and balconies you can still adapt his ideas to your limited spaces. If you are planning Cut & Come Again plantings, it is possible to replant the pots at the end of the summer growing season and have herbs and fresh greens throughout the winter, as well as a few root vegetables.

West Coast Seeds Catalogue 2009 is an excellent reference booklet and provides a chart and simple directions for when to begin your seedlings, when to transplant them outdoors, when to harvest and when to plant for winter eating. The booklet is free and the only garden shop I know of presently that has the catalogue is C.R. Garden Centre. As well a book that is strongly recommended is Year Round Harvest- Winter Gardening on the Coast, by Linda Gilkeson.
To locate my past 2009 columns in Google please go to www.islandfocus.blogspot.com

CLIPPING FRESH HERBS

You Can Capture that “Mother Earth” feeling just by growing a tub full of herbs. They are easy to raise and aren’t too fussy about the condition of the soil in which you plunked them. You can clip fresh herbs all season long or leave them for harvesting in the autumn. Drying out the leaves and grinding them in a pestle and mortar will give you that cozy feeling that you have just fulfilled the first steps in providing for the family table.

Herbs like heat, about six hours of sun a day, so leave your shady spaces for the Cut & Come Again (C&CA) plants. As these ideas we’re writing about in this column are targeted on small space gardening we should work our projects around tubs on the patio, balcony or deck. A wide tub would be ideal for a pungent selection of herbs tucked in together and maybe a few nasturtiums or rockery plants tumbling down the sides of the tub for a splash of colour.

Start by planting some hardy faithful herbs such as oregano, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, tarragon, sweet majoram, savoury, and lemon scented geranium. That mix is generally referred to as a “chef’s blend”. For a bit of sophistication try adding a few lavender blooms and that transforms the humble mix into an “herbes de provence”. It’s easier to pick up starter plants at the garden shops for perennials such as rosemary, bay leaf, and lavender. Later on this summer I’ll come back to the subject of herbs as we move into harvesting our precious little crops.

There Are Wonderful starter trays with clear plastic elevated lids in the garden shops. They are inexpensive and create an immediate greenhouse on your windowsill . Just add three dozen small peat moss container cups, fill them with organic potting soil and your chosen seeds. In a couple of weeks or less those seeds will be peeping up at you and ready for transplanting in mid May. In fact, if you leave the lid on you could gradually acclimatize the plants to the outdoors by setting the tray on the deck during the days.

How Cool Can You Get? The provincial government employees’ union BCGEU newsletter has a column in the spring publication called Cool Communities. They are interested in the position that municipal councillors are taking on food security related issues as well as protection of agricultural land, preserving the UBC Farm and supporting the infrastructure for farmer’s markets. In fact, they did an online questionnaire to gather opinions of candidates prior to the last election and forwarded the results to environmental and food security groups. Good show BCGEU! That’s what rethinking the use of our Island land is all about… gradually shifting our understanding of how fragile our food supplies are…remembering that only 6% of the food we eat is grown on the island. Herbs grown in pots, replacing flowers in tubs with edible plants, supporting the local outdoor food markets, asking the store mangers to bring in more island grown food is how we can each begin to take those small steps towards creating food security.

There Are Endless Sites on the web that provide you with the specifics of food gardening as well a couple of excellent west coast magazines that deal with all the vagaries of growing stuff in our climate. Check the list of linked blogs that I've posted and you will be surprised at the garden information that is available. A Powell River writer’s new blog examines in detail the issues surrounding the food movement and posts an interesting selection of topical blogs. Some enthusiastic citizens kicked off a campaign a couple of years ago called The 50-Mile Diet and it has been a great stimulus to the number of Powell River people who are now operating small farm gate markets and others who are throwing themselves into the joy of growing food for their own families and sharing their experiences on-line.

PLANT A CUT-AND-COME-AGAIN GARDEN

March Is The Month when fingers get itchy for doing something with the soil. Many of you emailed me to express an interest in the the Cut & Come Again garden that I referred to in my first column. So…let’s take a look at the steps to be taken to become a fully fledged small space gardener!

This is the perfect solution for those of us who are wanting to grow leafy salad veggies and herbs in pots or tiny spaces. The plants I suggest are cool season lovers and by late July or Aug. the plants will bolt and then you replant for the winter crop. The best part of the C & C garden is that the outer larger leaves can be snipped off as they mature and the plants will keep producing.

Extra Easy To Grow and a real favourite is oriental mizuna. The plant has dark green feathery leaves which are mild and sweet. It’s ready in 45 days and is delicious in salads and stir-fries. You can direct seed into the soil or start the seedlings in small containers, like egg cartons. In order to get an early start that’s what I’m doing on the kitchen counter. Once they reach an inch in height I’ll transfer to larger containers but keep them indoors. When the weather is warmer in late April they’ll go on the deck in my large patio pot, in a spot where there is protection from the high winds and frost. Other vigorous C&C veggies are mibuna, Chinese broccoli, oriental mustard, spinach komatsuna, deer tongue, red merlot and arugula. Swiss chard thrives in cool weather and looks delicious in the pot with its red, yellow and purple stalks. Kale is another favourite and I love the deep green colour in salads and stir-fries.

You Can Direct Seed right into your soil but it’s better to wait until mid May before beginning this type of planting. Remember to choose a section of the deck or garden that doesn’t have too much direct sun as these are plants that love some shade. Because this type of seed produces edibles in 40 to 45 days what a wonderful way to capture the interest of small children in beginning their first garden ventures.

You’ll find a great selection of these particular seeds in the garden sections of local stores. The packages are clearly marked Cut & Come Again. Some stores carry organic seeds and one of the real benefits of organics is that when the plants mature or die off (bolt) you can harvest the seeds for the following year.

Glad You Asked about the process for freezing parsley Lois. Don’t wash it before popping it in a small freezer bag. It will stay crisp and surprisingly pungent for months. You can either snip or slice off whatever you need for soups and garnish for salads.

Growing Herbs is Magical and next month we’ll talk about growing herbs in pots. Last autumn I grew five different herbs on my deck. When they matured I dried them on a spot atop the fridge. They were then ground up together to create an Herb du Provence and stored in small jars. Five months later there is only one jar left and when I open the lid and inhale the deep pungent scent my nose quivers with delight!