Growing Food Year Round

Mastering Cold Frame production takes more than enthusiasm for food gardening to produce a winter crop. A friend built me two cold frames in early autumn. The resulting excitement over the newest project exceeded my knowledge of how to plan a winter garden. Having mislaid the copy of “How To….” by Island garden guru Linda Gilkeson it was necessary to fall back on my own resources. So, the planting began in early September and I choose kale, collards and cabbages. It was a very warm month and by early October the plants had shot up to three feet in height with unusually broad leaves…green veggies on steroids. By December they were pressing against the glass roofs of the cold frames.
None of the plants really developed into recognizable vegetables, just lots of deep green leaves. The next months have been spent giving away bundles of crisp garden produce to anyone who comes by to peer at my monster plants. Determined not to waste any of this crop I have relied on my signature dish of chiffonaded greens, seasoned with ginger and garlic. Every meal served with a steaming heap of unidentified glistening greens has been a pleasure. What’s been gleaned from this experience is that the amount of fertilizer should be reduced and the glass roofs removed in the heat of day. A greenhouse thermometer might also be a good idea!

This season the cold frames, which are built on top of my raised beds are being cleared of the winter’s stubble, refertilized lightly and planted with cool season veggies. These are starter plants such as spinach, lettuce, arugula, baby bok choy and green onions purchased at the nursery. That will keep me supplied with some salad greens until it’s time to replant with the traditional summer fare. The two cold frames are a humble collection of discarded wooden posts, scavenged storm windows with a skirting of greenhouse quality plastic. The only expense was the skirting. Each pane is independent so all one needs is to lift up the pane in order to gather whatever one needs for the meal.

I have a very small greenhouse and summer season plants can be started there and will be ready for transplanting in early June. My goal is to succeed as a year round gardener and to share this enthralling experience with emerging gardeners who read this column.

Making Maple Syrup

Learning To Tap Syrup from our Bigleaf Maple is a fascinating process and many islanders are successfully producing maple syrup for home use and for sale. It has become a small cottage industry in the Cowichan Nanaimo area. The annual Bigleaf Maple tapping demonstration will be held tomorrow, Saturday Feb. 2 at the B.C. Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. Here’s an opportunity for readers to learn the secrets of extracting gallons of maple juice from our handsome Western Maples and converting the sap into rich tasting maple syrup. The program includes a tapping demonstration, syrup tasting, luncheon with maple flavoured treats, talks with syrup vendors and of course a demonstration on boiling and syrup making. It may be a bit chilly outdoors but there will be a large wood burning evaporater filled with hot sap. You can bundle up and keep warm while enjoying a bit of maple syrup therapy and sipping on a cup of maple sap mint tea. There will be steam train rides to delight the youngsters. It is short notice for Up Islanders but if you are going call 250-715-1113 Ext. 4 for info or go to www.bcforestmuseum.com. There is a modest entrance fee for the family and the demonstrations continue all day. This rapidly growing industry started on Vancouver Island and has spread to Washington, Oregon and California.

While In Duncan you may want to include the second annual Islands Agriculture Show held on both Friday Feb. 1 and Saturday Feb. 2. It is located in the Cowichan Exhibition Centre and is a unique opportunity to showcase the agriculture industry on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. There will be more than 60 exhibitors plus farm seminars that will be of interest to the general public as well as the farm community. For further info go online at http://iashow.ca/ or call 1-250 748 0822.

Many Of My Readers experimented with planting the root end of green onions in order to regrow them. My trial worked well and I was able to “harvest” the next generation of greens. However, when I left the root ends in the soil for a another attempt at regrowing them again all I got were a few exhausted stems struggling to stay upright so I gave them a quick and merciful end. However, I learned that organic onions are the only type that will produce a second crop. As this was an experiment performed on my kitchen windowsill it will be interesting to see if a set of green onions, grown outdoors, can reproduce a second crop if the roots are left in the ground. That really will be sustainable gardening.

Did You Know that North Island College has a course on Feb. 10 called Edible Landscaping. You can have your garden and eat it too! Learn everything you need to know from expert Helena Hartwood about variety choice, bed preparation, planting and harvesting.

Blogging For Ideas Can Be Fun

Blogging For Garden Ideas can be fun and I stumbled across an amazing idea on the Internet. I was searching for a green onion relish recipe when I spotted a sub-head “Regrow Your Green Onions On Your Windowsill” . Now that stopped me in my tracks. I am presently experimenting with regrowing green onions outdoors by using the left over root base after chopping off the green leaves for a salad. This works by snipping off about half an inch of the white end of the onions and sticking them into a bucket of basic soil. They are starting to push up green stems from the core of the original onions but the process is slow and the plants don’t look too happy. However, the writer of this blog claims there is an easier process to quickly reproduce a clutch of green onions. In the writer’s words…”Pop your scallions in a glass of water and they clearly begin to grow. I chopped off some green onions and stuck them root-down in a Mason jar above my sink. I topped off the water once or twice when I saw that it had mostly evaporated, but other than that I did nothing” The blogger goes on to say that she was surprised to see how fast they grew. Within a day or two there was fresh growth, and within a week they had 3-4 inches of fresh green onion on top. She then snipped a handful of leaves to mix with scrambled eggs. Within days there was more new growth. She’s wondering how long a person can keep a set growing. Some of my knowledgeable readers must have experimented with this idea. Contact me at msostler@telus.net so that we can share your successes…or even your failures, as growing food plants is a continual learning process.

A Clutch Of Chicken Lovers will be making an appearance at City Council in late January to present our case for the approval of a Poultry By-law in Campbell River. We need your support to join us at City Hall so mark the calendars for January 22nd and if there is a change we’ll post the time and date in the local papers. Most communities on Vancouver Island now have poultry bylaws. Major cities around the world have similar bylaws and it’s about time we joined the flock.

No Patio? No Balcony? No Problem

No patio. No balcony. No south facing window? That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy picking a few fresh greens grown right in your living room this winter. You can start by buying a bag of turnips from the farmer’s market or health food store. Eat some of them chopped in strips and enjoy their mellow crispness. Shredded, they make a wonderful addition to your salad. Slice them in wedge shapes and roast them crisp with a bit of olive oil and a dash of Cajun pepper. Now, for the secret of growing fresh greens. Take a few of the smaller turnips and place them in an attractive container, toss in some dirt and stick the pot in a window corner. Miraculously, using only their stored energy the turnips will begin sprouting delicious greens, even if the light is insufficient. It is amazing. Just make sure the turnips have not been dipped in wax. Sometimes producers do this to prevent the turnips from regenerating on the store shelves. If you do have a south facing window save it for your precious winter herbs and find an east or west facing window for your newest experiment in winter food production.

There is still time to plant a few herbs and veggies in November. Broad beans, also known as favas, are a highly nutritious vegetable. They are sturdy, robust and useful as a replacement for garbanzo beans in hummus or as a base for pestos and soups. If you plant them this month you’re going to need a very sheltered part of the garden. A cold frame or a cloche would be ideal to protect them for the next few chilly months. Just be warned…they will grow up to six feet so you may find them bursting through the roof of the average cold frame. You will have to remove the roof and devise another way of protecting them once their growth spurt begins. Another plant that is more than willing to prevail despite bone chilling rain and frozen ground is garlic. There is still time to plant this pungent friend according to the WestCoast Gardening Guide. Garlic is a bulb that that requires nine or ten months of growth. So that means it will be July or August before harvesting. When you finally lift your very own home grown garlic from the warm summer earth you’ll know the long wait was worth it.

Did You Know That…it’s the right time to mulch your perennials with wood chips, leaves, straw and kelp. Don’t dig deeply around your plants as it disturbs the micro biological relationship of the plants with the other growth surrounding them. Remember to mulch, mulch, mulch before winter really sets in. Also wood chips are preferred to bark mulch as the chips have more nutrients and decompose more readily…that’s according to the advise of the course presenter at a North Island College “Lettuce Grow” program. Those NIC courses are so full of information for the fledgling as well as the experienced food gardeners. If you love gardening you’ll love these courses so why not join us?

Three Emerging Professional Farmers

If It Weren’t For The Dedicated Efforts of three commercial food farmers in this city and the support of North Island College (NIC) Continuing Education Dept. food growing programs we would still be treading water these past three years on the vision of becoming a self sufficient community. Kira DeSorcy, who was just awarded the city’s prestigious Stewardship Award, is in the forefront of our “young farmer” movement. Since last winter she has been managing the food production of a remote farm cooperative on Cortes Island. Overlaying that she’s been teaching a program on agriculture and backyard gardening and has developed a film series in conjunction with the city and NIC on food security. The course called “Lettuce Grow” included backyard gardening and small scale agriculture. The series attracted an unexpectedly large turnout and received great reviews. That became the impetous for designing the winter program which is now in progress. It includes bi-monthly events and workshops . Topics range from mason bees to organic gardening, permaculture and hydroponics. Check the NIC Continuing Education website for dates and registration.


Connie Kretz, owner of Coastal Roots Vegetables, is in her fourth season of food production on the Hudson family’s farm in North Campbell River. Working alone, with occasional help, Connie grows more than 20 different crops on an acre of land. She has developed a highly successful box program which supplies a stylish container of freshly picked vegetables every week to her client list. The program wrapped up on Oct 1st but the energetic Ms. Kretz doesn’t take that date as a signal to slow down. She is now preparing soil for her personal winter garden. This includes a broad selection of cold-hardy plants including lettuces,chards and onions.

Third On My List of Active Farmers are Steve Ross and Michelle White of Ross Mountain Blueberry Farm on Peterson Rd. They established the farm three years ago and it has been a long stretch of back breaking work to arrive at where they are today. This summer they harvested their first crop of lusciously plump blueberries, not enough for commercial purposes, but a harbinger of great returns when their bushes reach maturity in the next year or two.

The Putting Your Garden To Bed event attracted a great turnout at St. Patrick’s Church library last Saturday. The Comox Strathcona Waste Management on-site educator Elaine Jansen invited master gardener Lorraine Waring of Courtenay to present a program which included advice on bedding down the veggies as well as lawn care, pruning shrubs, composting and fall planting. One topic that particularly interested me was her admonition to lime, lime, lime. She strongly believes that Vancouver Island soils are very deficient in this valuable mineral and suggests we amateur gardeners can easily test our own soil with an inexpensive kit purchased by mail from West Coast Seeds.

Did You Know the horticulturist at world renowned Kew Gardens in London says you can insect proof your garden with a simple spray mix of one egg yolk, a litre of water and one tbsp. of baking soda. Now, that sounds easy!

What Has New York Got That We Haven't?

What Does New York City Have that Campbell River hasn’t got? Legal chickens in their back yards…housed in coops on their fire escapes and on their roof tops…that’s what they’ve got. And here we are in our pleasant seaside community housing potential criminals who are secretly raising chickens under bushes, in their basements or cooped up in derelict cars in order to avoid the fearful eye of the bylaw officer. We know you’re out there…you residents of Willow Point and Campbellton and Quinsam Heights. You are forced to go undercover by your desire to have fresh eggs for morning breakfasts, gardens free of black slugs and destructive insects, pesticide free berries and veggies for your families plus plenty of droppings for the compost pile. More than a year has passed since the city conducted public surveys and posted very specific questionnaires on the development plans for the communities. The question of support for backyard chickens received full support from participants except for the No Vote of a former mayor who confided in me that he thinks chickens are dirty. Perhaps, as a child, he was chased by a depraved chicken. On the other end of the stick another retired mayor secretly raised chickens for many years inside municipal borders and thinks the naysayer mayor is “crowing in the wind.”

The Agricultural Steering Committee, of which I am a member, will be coming forward to city council in late September to appeal for a poultry bylaw that will allow these cuddly cluckers to live life to the fullest. It will free their masters from the terrifying possibility of finding a bylaw officer checking under bushes and peering into basement windows. A poultry bylaw will be a gift to the environmentally concerned residents when we can at last keep family birds with big benefits. Chickens have great personalities and are interesting to observe. They will joyfully eat and recycle all our kitchen waste, thereby reducing municipal organic waste. They provide insect control and contribute rich fertilizer for gardens and composters. They allow families to take control of their desire to “eat local” and become more food secure. And…best of all… the city’s support for a bylaw will allow Campbell River to join the ranks of island municipalities with visionary ideals. Those include Victoria, Oak Bay, Metchosin, Esquimalt, Saanich, Langford, Duncan, Nanaimo and Port Alberni.

Could Spaghetti Become The New Gourmet

Could Spaghetti be Gourmet? Well, it could be pretty close to gourmet if you take a fresh bowl of steaming pasta, a ladle of tomato sauce and top it off with a dollop of pesto. Definitely, the addition of pesto would upgrade your repast from good to outstanding. Basil, the main ingredient in pesto that has such an impact on sauces and salads, is not easy to grow. But, there is a way around that impasse. My solution is to buy a mature basil plant in the grocery store, find a spot in your kitchen with at least partial sun and your basil will produce a regular supply of deliciously pungent leaves for months on end. The trick to keeping your basil reproducing is to regularly nip off the upper leaves. This means there will only be one or two sets of leaves left on each branch. It is astounding to see how quickly the plant regrows. Now try mixing basil, pine nuts, a garlic clove, olive oil and Parmesan cheese in the blender. Freeze the pesto in an ice cube tray and then transfer the squares into a freezer bag. Use these as a topping, not only on pasta but on baked fish or grilled chicken. For those not partial to basil you can always replace the herb with cilantro or parsley and still have a great dish.

Sowing A Winter Harvest Garden in August while the summer sun is still producing abundant food may seem a bit strange but it captures the essence of sustainable gardening. The twelve vegetable varieties that are suggested are cold-hardy and will grow slowly, or sit dormant, while awaiting the harvest. Some of those on this basic list will benefit from the protection of a cold frame, a cloche or mulch, but all of them can be enjoyed well into December and sometimes into the following spring. On this list are arugula, cilantro, corn salad, lettuce, parsnips, brussel sprouts, carrots, collards, kale and turnips. Read the directions on the back of the packages to assure your selection is a winter seed. You can create a very inexpensive cold frame by buying a large class window frame at the Habitat For Humanity Restore on Willow St. Prop the frame on an angle against a south facing supporting wall. This would work for a yard, a patio or a balcony garden. Just tuck your plants in under the cover, water when necessary and make sure they are mulched well with leaves or straw to protect them from cold days. You could be munching on your own greens all winter long.

Did You Know That…seaweed, which is abundant on our shoreline, makes a fabulous liquid fertilizer. Half fill a drum or garbage container with seaweed, top it up with water and let stand for three months. The beautiful rich liquid is very strong. You must dilute it in a solution of one cup of seaweed to four gallons of water. Your plants will love you and so will the earthworms.

Potatoes In A Bag

Potatoes Are Trumps when it come to small space gardening. Who would have thought you could grow a crop of spuds on a patio or a balcony. One of the cleverest uses of space has to be the potato bag. To produce an abundant crop of potatoes in a bag you need to grow long stems. In fact the longer you let the stems grow the larger the crop. To save the cost of a bag you could use a large gunny sack, a sisal type feed bag or a bulk coffee bag. Here’s how it works:


1. Roll down the sides of the bag until it’s about 12 inches high
2. You’ll want full sun and a leak proof container to sit the bag on
3. Add eight inches of soil into the bottom of bag and bury the seed tubers in soil
4. Water every few days so soil stays moist
5. After two weeks or so stems will peek through soil. Once they are six inches high add more soil or compost, leaves, straw, etc. to cover all but the top set of new growth. Keep doing this.
6. As the soil line gets higher, unroll the bag to match the line
7. Continue adding soil and mulch up to about two feet from top of bag

In two months or less the potato flowers will bloom. Harvest two weeks after the entire plant dies off. By then the bottom of the bag should have rotted out so just grope around in the soil and choose the small spuds first for a great dinner treat. If you need more details please go online and you’ll find lots of info for growing spuds in tall containers. July is not too late to start so head off to a local garden shop and pick up a few seed potatoes.

If Your Garden Isn’t Warm enough to grow heat-loving basil then try picking up a fragrant smelling pot of this wonderful herb in the local store. Set the plant in a sunny spot near a window sill and it should produce a steady supply of leaves for months to come. The trick is to regularly nip off the top greens. This means there will only be one or two sets of leaves left on each branch. It is astounding to see how quickly the plant reproduces. For a treat try mixing basil, pine nuts, a garlic clove, olive oil and Parmesan cheese in the blender. Freeze the pesto in an ice cube tray and then transfer to a freezer bag. Use it as a topping on baked fish or transform a basic plate of spaghetti into a gourmet meal with a dollop of pesto.

Plusses For Taking Busses

There Are Plusses For Taking The Busses. Winning a BCTransit bus pass for a 30-day trial period created a doorway to a brave new world. That personal pledge at the April Earth Day event, when I acquired the card, was a serious undertaking. Firstly, how was I to lug home groceries? That was quickly solved by discovering that most markets do home deliveries. What about heavy bags of my beloved chicken manure and ocean soil? That was a set back as the stores don’t load manures into the same trucks that haul food. Relying on a friend that was going downtown quickly solved that problem. Attending my many meetings, especially evening events, was tricky as the last busses depart the Community Centre at 915pm. My appreciation for the trials of a Quadra Islander deepened. My fall-back position was to use the car for meeting.The plusses outweigh the strategic planning that goes into taking a simple bus ride. The frustrations that are a daily part of using public transportation are the same things that make taking the bus actually pleasant. The act of sharing space with a stranger, maybe having a bit of a chat with passengers or the driver, connects us to our community in a broader way. Despite having to use my car several times during the month when my “strategic” plans collapsed, I still contributed greatly to the carbon footprint reduction. $130 which equates to two tanks of gas was saved by not having to fill up. The monthly bus pass, at $35 for seniors is a bonus. I just can’t pass up a good pass so I’m renewing my card for the month of June!

A Group of Food Garden Fanatics including agricultural plan supporters and city hall staffers visited a most unusual farm last week. Hans Rhenisch and his wife Dorothy moved from the Okanogan to land near the old UBC farm and have spent the last four years transforming it into a model site. Essentially they practice a form of agriculture which is comparable to the permaculture system. After the surface weeds are cleared and the top soil gently loosened seeds are sown on the surface and covered over with a topping of finely ground bark mulch, sand and aged animal manure. The land is not deeply cultivated and as Rhenisch, a retired plant pathologist, explained to us, “Digging down into the soil disturbs the micro organisms. They become disconnected from each other. It is like a symphony orchestra. It does not work in harmony when you change the players around.“ Standing there surrounded by strong, healthy insect free vegetables and fruit trees was certainly a confirmation of his system. He referred us to the book “One Straw Revolution” by M. Fukuoka. Rhenisch’s farm is an adaptation of the ancient Asian farming system and is a most inspiring place to visit.

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GROW FOOD?

Who Says You Can’t grow food on a north facing balcony? City staffer, Diana Bell has defied the naysayers by producing a wonderful array of veggies grown in pots on her South Dogwood Street condo. Her eclectic array of containers includes Tyee spinach, Bright Lights swiss chard, Butter Crunch lettuce, and Red Leaf romaine. Her herb pots produce spearmint and chives. Cages are used to support zucchinis, cucumbers and Sweet 100 tomatoes. At the peak of daylight hours her balcony only gets reflected light and direct sun around the side of the building from about 6pm until sunset. Diana says the tomatoes which normally ripen in 60 days take double that time before harvesting. “The taste is incredible despite the long wait”, exclaims this enthusiastic gardener. She also grows edible violas. “They look so beautiful scattered amongst the greens and they really perk up a plain garden salad”, she adds.

Being Inspired By Directions On Cooking Dandelions in a local cookbook I headed out along a canyon trail in search of fresh leaves and buds. They aren’t hard to find, just make sure they are growing well back from the trail or roadside to avoid contamination from vehicle fumes. The directions for cooking these tasty leaves can be found on Page 31 of the Quadra Island Cookery ll book. The recipe is so basic, just a bit of oil or butter in the pan, grilled onions and a pinch of salt and a squirt of lemon juice. Just a simple idea but this dish is brimming with nutritive value.

The Earth Day Film Presentation at the Tidemark Theatre was so inspiring that it has caused me to take revolutionary action regarding my reliance on my humble Honda CRV. I won a bus pass door prize to be used during the month of May. Someone nearby remarked “You could give the pass away to someone who really needs it”. “Well wait a moment,” I thought to myself, “maybe it’s really me who needs to change my driving habits. Well you can see where this discussion was headed. Listening to the film presenters profound change of life style as they reevaluated their wastefulness motivated me to take a personal “No Driving” pledge for the month of May. As I have a midmonth appointment in Victoria I will exempt myself for that one trip but other than that I’ll be either cycling of taking the bus to town. As two fill ups with gas in a month cost between $100 - 130 the earth will not only be benefiting by my lighter footprint but so will my wallet.

WHAT COULD BE NICER

“What Could Be nicer than fresh spinach, lettuce and greens early in the spring?” That line caught my attention as I perused the latest edition of the local garden club newsletter. Sally Watson, a dynamic member of that growing organization, is reminding us all to start planting our spring vegetables patch. She goes on to say, “This is the time of year that gardeners get restless and the easiest “fix” is to have something growing on a window sill in our houses ready to go outdoors when the soil warms to the correct temperature for the vegetables in question.” That is 10 degrees for the early starters. Sally goes on to explain that “experienced island gardeners will tell you that it simply isn’t worth putting vegetable plants or seeds out in the garden too early - nothing will happen until that rush of warm spring air arrives to warm the soil and start everything growing. This does not preclude starting things off indoors so that you are well ahead when the warmth arrives. As the days get longer this gets easier and easier”.

Sally tells us that she already has a pot of garlic 9 inches high in her kitchen window growing great guns and her spouse, Malcolm, has small cauliflower and broccoli plants “resting” in the greenhouse waiting for the warmth to arrive, as well as lettuces in the cold frame and onions in the garden that have overwintered and will take off early.

One of the great benefits of belonging to our garden club is that those of us who are eager to learn more about the secrets of growing food benefit by listening to “the masters” and then sharing what we learn with others. I am experimenting, for the first time, with overwintering vegetables. The onions and garlic which were planted in the late summer are thriving despite snow and lashing rain. The broad beans, planted in October have really taken a beating due to some severe wind and snow storms. The plants are almost two feet tall and are tied to sturdy stakes. After a severe temperature drop they wilt totally yet once the air warms they rally once more. I am looking forward to the beans ripening in late spring as they are rich in nutrients and will make an interesting substitute for the tinned garbanzos used in my family’s favourite hummus recipe. A slow walk around the mucky garden after each storm is a great way of cheering oneself up and sustaining that important sense of anticipation.

HANDS IN DIRT EXPERIENCE

Breaking New Ground for a hands-in-dirt experience is the start of an interesting collaboration between North Island College and the city’s Land Use Dept. The joint project, Backyard Gardening and Small-Scale Agriculture, begins in mid-May and includes four sessions. It is exciting to hear that Kira DeSorcey will be the instructor. She is a former Timberline student and the inspiration behind the Edible Courtyard garden which has become a learning centre for students at the school interested in food production.

The course is designed to attract first time gardeners who are interested in healthy eating as well as those who are taking it a step further and want to learn about the small scale farming business. Kira is a horticulture technician, permaculture designer and the garden manager at BlueJay Lake Farm on Cortes Island. She currently does edible landscape design and particularly enjoys creating community and school gardens.

What make this course so special is that it includes hands-on learning in the campus garden as well as visits with local growers and info on the city’s plans to encourage and attract new farmers. I’m planning to enroll in the course and I hope to see many Urban Gardener readers joining me in this new venture. The fee is $95 and to book space please call the North Island College office.

Worms In A Tub farming is an easy way to raise those lively Red Wrigglers whose mission in life is to convert your kitchen waste into rich brown compost. There are tubs designed especially for raising worms but they can be costly. A local lady who recently retired from the business of growing worms has a few tubs for sale at the very reasonable price of $55 each. That includes the instructions on how to set up your worm farm. Her contact number is 923-8431.

ARE WE GUILTY OF GULPING

Are We Guilty of gulping down our meals in order to get on with the next activity… or do we savour our food slowly while enjoying each mouthful?

My friend Lesia revisited France this past summer and returned exclaiming that the French still have such reverence for food. As they settle down at the table the first few minutes are spent contemplating the presentation and asking such questions as where the cheese was produced or what herbs were used in the preparation of the appetizer Only then are the utensils lifted and the tasting begun. This is not about food snobbery but shows a profound respect for the whole process of planning and consuming meals. On the other hand my food writer friends tell me that the French are entrenched in a fossilized style of culinary arts. A new generation is rising that has created a reform movement called Le Fooding. This younger generation is fiercely challenging the snobbery surrounding French food while still embracing the idea of food as a pleasure, something to discuss and enjoy.

So here we are on the other side of the pond where many of us select our foods with a totally different criteria. We may ask “Is the recipe simple?” “Can we cook it in less than 30 minutes?” These are valid questions and we all ask them, especially those families where parents are working and time is a precious commodity. Perhaps our dining habits just need a bit of tweaking. There is nothing more pleasant than having all family members sit down to the meal at the same time. It creates a sense of celebration and is likely the best opportunity that busy people have to develop the idea of family togetherness. It is also an opportunity to discuss the ingredients used in preparing the meal, encourage the discussion of these flavours and help youngsters to appreciate the production of food. If you were raised in a family where the art of slow eating was entrenched then you received a precious gift. It is never too late to adjust one’s eating habits and pass the gift along to others.

Potato Wedges are divine! If your youngsters are old enough to help with chopping foods this is a great way to involve them in the fun of meal preparation. It is also a slick way to use up odds and ends in the fridge. Take two pounds of white or sweet potatoes, a half cup of olive oil, some salt and fresh garlic. Try thyme, sage or rosemary for extra flavour. Wedge-cut the potatoes and toss them in with the herbs and the oil. Roast uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 40 min. or less if you are using yams or sweet potatoes. There’s a bonus if you have organic potatoes as it isn’t necessary to peel them. An over ripe tomato or a bit of dried up cheese lurking in the back of the fridge can greatly add to the taste. Beware! One can get addicted very easily to potato wedges.

CHIFFONADING IS QUITE POSH SOUNDING

Chiffonading is a posh sounding description for a very simple leafy vegetable dish. “Chiffon” is French for “rag” and is a cooking technique in which herbs or leafy greens such as spinach, beet leaves, basil or kale are cut into long thin strips. This is accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them tightly, then cutting across the rolled leaves with a sharp knife, producing fine ribbons. Cut out the stems first if they look tough. I did a column on chiffonading almost two years ago, not that I used that particular word at the time to describe the process. However people continue to stop me in the street and ask for the kale recipe and I love to share the steps that convert the nutrient rich kale into a delicious addition to your meals.

So…here we go. In a heavy frying pan melt a tablespoon of oil and a knob of butter in medium heat. Toss in a small spoonful of grated ginger and the same amount of chopped garlic. Then add a tablespoon of water. I often add a pinch of sugar if the leaves are coarse. Mix the greens well with the other ingredients and use a heavy lid on the pan. After three or four minutes, on medium heat, pop the lid and the kale should turn intensely deep green and be ready to serve. It will make a delicious addition to your plate as well as a visual treat.

In September, as mentioned in the past column, I visited Powell River in order to experience the annual Edible Garden contest. I picked up two new ideas from a contestant in Lund, which is north of town. He had cleared a small garden site out of a deeply forested area and was successfully producing a variety of food stuffs and fruit. He told me one of his secrets for growing great grub was to feed the plants horsetail tea. Now that interested me was I am so enamoured with the new famous chicken dung tea. He claims that because horsetail has such deep roots it draws up nutrients from the earth that are not available to shallow rooted plants. To prepare the tea he harvests armfuls of the plant and chops it into smaller lengths. It is then left to soak in a large barrel for a couple of weeks while it gradually turns to a deep green brew. He then siphons the liquid out of the barrel and uses it in the same way that we traditionally fertilize our plants.

Composting our kitchen waste is a fairly easy process but what to do with the coarse stalks left over from clearing the garden and cleaning out the handing baskets can be a problem. The horsetail farmer made it look easy. He took a big clear plastic sack and tossed in all the garden refuse and small pruned branches. Then he sprinkled in a bit of water, tied the sack up and left it lying on the ground in the direct sun. He claims that by next spring all his scraps will have turned to sod. Now that is a tidy solution and if it works it is actually a brilliant solution! That’s one I must try.

CITY TAKES A QUANTUM LEAP

City Council Took a quantum “Green Leap” into the locally grown food movement last week when councilors officially approved the Agriculture Plan. The steering committee, of which I am a member, formulated the plan and recommendations for a strong agriculture sector to be developed in Campbell River. It was a great moment for our team. A year has passed since we received funding from the Agriculture Foundation to retain a researcher and a soil specialist to assist city staff and our committee to prepare a plan.

Readers of this column were surprised to learn that one third of municipal land is designated ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve). The research has now confirmed that there are specific areas in the community including the Willis Road, Duncan Bay Road and Airport South areas that have high soil values. These are equivalent to rich agricultural lands in the Vancouver delta area. As well, there are very accessible areas for possible commercial greenhouses.

Vancouver Island once produced more than half of the region’s food requirements. In the past 50 years this number has dropped to an average of less than ten per cent. The sad stats for local production show that we produce less than one percent of our food needs in Campbell River. Agriculture is now re-establishing itself on the Island and the Ag. Plan committee’s vision is that Campbell River become more sustainable with the production of local food, grown on it’s own land. This is an exciting time to be setting new directions and looking at new ways to strengthen our economic diversity and become part of the exciting locally grown food movement on Vancouver Island.

POWELL RIVER GREENS OPENED OUR EYES

We’re Being Left in the dust, when it comes to dirt, by our progressive coastal neighbours. A mid-August day trip to Powell River to attend the 3^rd Annual Edible Garden Contest really opened our eyes to the possibilities of food gardening. Whether one’s property is at 750 feet or down at sea level, whether the land is carved out of a clearing in the deep forest or a perfectly groomed display in a posh residential area, it is possible to produce remarkable amounts of nourishing food for the family table.

I have been following Powell River’s progress online since 2006 when this gutsy little community of 18,000 announced it’s intention to begin a 50-Mile Eat-Local challenge. My daughter, Kathie Klassen, and I were eager to see what they had achieved since that radical idea of eating local was first launched. Checking the map, the only other shopping area inside the boundaries of that circle is the Comox Valley. But at almost $30 roundtrip for a foot passenger on the ferry, shopping for food outside of Powell River doesn’t make economic sense.

The garden contest covered as far out of town as Lund so we were fortunate to have Kevin Wilson, an avid member of the town’s garden community, to act as driver/tour guide. What interested us particularly was the fact that three out of the four properties we toured were literally carved out of clearings surrounded by deep forest. One stop was at Pete Tebbutt’s site. He was one of the shareholders in a six family acreage known as the Craig Road Co-op. The veggies were thriving despite a healthy supply of rocks that were being removed one by one. What really amazed us was that he was growing greens and tomatoes on property that was sited 750 feet above sea-level.

In a future column I will share more details about specific gardening techniques used by Powell River residents that will be inspiring to readers. Meanwhile, I want to list the number of organizations that have renewed themselves or sprung to life since this amazing community embraced the “radical” idea of growing and eating local food; The Edible Garden Tour, The Community Resource Centre which organizes the Winter Farmer’s Market, A Good Food Box which has set up a bulk produce buying program, Kale Force which meets every second Wednesday of the month in the Community Centre to share a potluck and conversation about food and gardening, P.R. Food Security Project, Skookum Food Co-op, the Skookum Gleaners which was formerly known as the Fruit Tree Project and lastly, the P.R. Food Literary Council.

What inspired me about Powell River was the enthusiasm and pride we experienced at every one of the ten gardens we visited. It is a community sharing a common vision and a belief that they are making a difference in the quality of their lives and the security of their food sources…enviable goals for sure.

A MIRACLE, CHICKEN DUNG TEA

The Ultimate Gift for a food gardener… a gunny-sack of chicken manure. No one but a couple of elderly farm kids could understand the thrill. My friend Walter and I were thinking back on childhoods in the 1930s raised by families that maintained large food gardens. There was no such thing as running to the store and returning with bags of purchased food. We vaguely remember lugging home a small sack containing salt, pepper or tea, sugar and flour which would cover the essentials but very little else.

However, we both vividly remember the dripping sack of chicken manure that hung in a huge barrel of water, outside the woodshed. Our families used the liquid inside the barrel, which we referred to as “Chicken Dung Tea”, on veggies, flowers, young treelings and in fact any growing thing that looked like it needed a shot in the arm. As a recent surprise gift for me Walter spotted a 60 gal. blue drum at the local auction and was the successful bidder for a modest $10 bill. He dragged the drum home, drilled a hole near the bottom for a spigot and filled it to the top with water. Next he found a metal bar that fitted nicely across the top of the barrel and from that he hung a gunny sack filled with about 10 pounds of chicken manure.

I viewed the operation with childlike enthusiasm and every morning I pulled aside the lid to peer into the depths and check if the manure was gradually dissolving into the water. Walter said “wait at least two weeks” but that didn’t suit my impatient nature so on the seventh day I twisted open the spigot and filled my watering can with this delicious offering. Flowers, veggies, blueberry bushes, fruit trees and roses all got a generous dose of the chicken dung tea and I quickly used up the contents of the 60 gal. drum. Since then we have made and used two more barrels.

Now I want to tell you without exaggeration my 10 tomato plants literally shot out of the ground. They are now averaging between four and five feet high in fact getting so rangy that I clipped most of the tops off as the fruits are beginning to shape up and too much foliage will weaken the plants ability to grow tomatoes to full size. The three rose bushes are remarkable as well with dense green shiny leaves and exquisitely formed rosebuds. That humble sack of chicken manure in a dirty old gunny-sack turned out to be the “bestest” present I ever had!

There’s an Edible Garden Tour on Aug. 7 held at Powell River which sounds fascinating. Gardeners over there are kicking off the sixth annual 50-Mile Eat Local Challenge and the third year for the edible garden tour. What a great way to see how other people in the region are producing some of their own food and I hope to see you there. The tour includes Lund, Wildwood, Westview, Cranberry and Townsite. Here’s an opportunity to view what other small communities are doing to promote the locally-grown food movement which is sweeping across the islands. For more info check Google for Powell River’s third annual Edible Garden Tour.

THIS INTRUDER, SORREL, CAUGHT MY EYE

Sorrel Is An Amazing perennial and its versatility continues to surprise me. It arrived in my patio garden last summer, uninvited. The seed was likely dropped there by a passing bird. The first inclination is to yank out any identified weedy plant but there was something about its leafy greenness that caused me to relent. It survived the harsh waterfront winter and this spring when I was scratching around in the raised bed looking for a herb to punch up my store-bought lettuce the intruder caught my eye. In the early stage Sorrel looks rather like Romaine in appearance but with a distinct lemony bite. It turned out to be just the right addition to add taste and interest to a limp leafed head lettuce purchased in a local market. As well it is brilliant in a pot of potato soup combined with early chives and lightly grilled onions. My sorrel is now beginning to bolt but it is producing stems full of tiny seeds. If you are curious about this ancient plant send me an email at msostler@telus.net and I will search out a source for seeds or mail you a few seeds from my garden.

Speaking of “Bolting” have you gardeners noticed that so many of your plants are going to seed, practically as soon as they are ready for picking? My information was passed on by a local garden club authority who explained that the long very cold spell in May shortly after plants had begun to mature gave the wrong message to the affected plants. Poor things thought winter was arriving and as their mission while on earth is to reproduce they immediately went in to seed production. Fortunately, I now practice succession planting and had a wide array of young seedlings sprouting in containers on my sunny window sills so I was able to replace bolting plants with young starters.

“But How Do You Really Know It’s Organic?” is a question posed by so many cynical acquaintances as I confidently laud the benefits of organic vegetables. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, after a two year phase-in period for Canadian farmers and operators, has announced that effective 1 July 2011 products labeled “organic” in Canada must carry the label “Biologique Canada Organic” logo. Now in full effect, the regulations have leveled the playing field and given domestic and foreign consumers confidence in the organic label. In addition to providing consumers with confidence at home, the Canadian organic system is trusted by our two major trading partners, the United States and Europe. Recognition of Canada’s organic standards by both the European Union and the U.S. shows that our standards are amongst the best in the world and opens up a huge new market overseas for our organic products.

On July 25 The Local Agriculture Steering Committee, of which I am a member, will bring forward to City Council the plan for developing a strong agriculture sector in Campbell River. Many of readers will be surprised to know that one third of the land within the city borders is designated Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) . The committee has spent the past year, with the assistance of staff and land specialists, identifying areas of Campbell River with strong soil values and the potential for agricultural use. Vancouver Island once produced more than half of the region’s food requirements. In the past 50 years this number has dropped to an average of less than 10 percent. Agriculture is now re-establishing itself on the Island and the Committee’s vision is that Campbell River become more sustainable with the production of local food grown on its’ own land. This is an exciting time to be setting new directions and looking at new ways to develop our community and become part of the exciting locally grown food movement on Vancouver Island.

EARLY SPRING CAN ENHANCE A MEAL

That Long Rainy Month of May is thankfully over. It did create a deepening sense of despair that the growing season would never begin. I had a great yearning to begin eating something produced in my own garden and the only three plants in the patch that were bursting with enthusiasm were the perennial parsleys, chives and sorrel. The huge Portuguese kale had taken a battering over the winter and despite the lure of consuming those big crunchy leaves I left the plant to recover. Making do with what was available I chopped up one cup of chives and parsley, two cups of left over cooked potatoes, two free- run eggs, and mashed them all together with herbed seasonings. Shaping them into large patties they were grilled in a hot cast-iron pan. Served with a slice or two of locally raised bacon makes an irresistibly good quick meal. I am just discovering the wonders of growing sorrel. It is a big deep green leafy perennial, rather like Romaine lettuce in appearance with a distinct lemony edge. It certainly punches up the flavour of a store-bought lettuce when there is nothing else in the garden with which to create an interesting salad.

Checking Out Other people’s gardens is a constant source of inspiration and this time I took my friend and mentor, Georgene Price along for the ride. Georgene is well over 90 years and yet has an abiding delight in the wonders of the garden patch. Last year she sold her Candy Lane home and moved into a waterfront condo at Willow Point. Leaving her beloved vegetable garden behind was a painful wrench but it didn’t take long to find a niche. She immediately volunteered to oversee the Sybil Morgan Andrews cottage garden where she had spent so many happy hours years ago learning to paint under Sybil’s tutelage. It was obvious that tending that small garden wasn’t enough for Georgene’s boundless energy. The next task was to take on the development of her son Gordon’s back yard. He’s working out of town now and she has a generous space planned out and already partly planted. It is most likely that she will plant far more than she could ever consume but her son and her neighbours will be the beneficiary of her generous spirit.

Spin Gardening is an off–shoot of Spin Farming. That is essentially what Georgene is doing. The gardening part of the spin is where a person, who does not have land, offers to cultivate a vegetable garden in someone else’s back yard in exchange for keeping the owner supplied with fresh grown food. This concept, on a larger scale, was pioneered in Canada by Sasktoon farmer, Wally Satzewich and his partner Gail Vandersteen have become an urban phenomena throughout the country. Satzewich is now renting around 25 backyards in the city totaling about a half-acre of growing space. He and his partner make a good living on their market sales. In Victoria Spin Gardening is wildly popular and not only are these gardeners providing food for the property owners but are marketing the surplus at either a market garden co-op or a direct-to-the door system. It is exciting to see these new developments on Vancouver Island that reduce our dependency on shipments from the mainland and also provide us with fresh high quality foods.

THE MYSTERY FARM REVEALED

The Mystery Of The Farm Property under development at the corner of Peterson and Evergreen Road is solved. The answer is Campbell River’s first organic blueberry farm! Former financial advisor, Michelle White, was more at home in a well organized office until intermittent visions of a career as a farmer finally took precedent over life at a keyboard. She realized she had to respond to the calling of her heart. “ I observed the great shift that is taking place in our society,” explained Michelle. “People are becoming more aware of food production and its’ quality. They are awakening to the demand for organic food, raised locally. I saw clearly that being involved in food production was the answer to my search for a meaningful direction.” Michelle and her husband, Steve Ross, were fortunate in that they already owned the acerage on Peterson. A soil analysis showed quality earth with a high acidic content suitable for crops such as blueberries. They checked the property laws with staff at city hall and found that Bylaw 3205 was surprisingly flexible and allowed for nursery or large crops in specific residential areas.

The couple could have chosen to develop multi residential housing or patio homes on the three and a half acres but chose farming instead. The blueberry site takes up an acre and Michelle is mulling over the possibilities for specialty crops on the remaining land. She told me that vast numbers of people have been stopping by when she is working outside and ask what is going on. She knows that in many cases the sight of their small farm activity is inspiring many other passerby’s to reevaluate their own properties and the possibilities of planting small commercial or personal crops in the Quinsam Heights area. Watch that corner for new developments.

As An Ever Increasing Number of cities and rural areas have adopted poultry bylaws and the latest to take the leap is Saanich Municipality. They join Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria and New Westminster, and many smaller towns around B.C. in welcoming hens into residential areas. Generally the bylaws limit the number of cluckers to four and the backyard enclosure must be roofed and cannot exceed eight or nine square meters in area. Other than the production of warm, fresh eggs every morning the other great benefits of chickens are the deposits of manure rich in nutrients and the efficient way those cluckers hoover up all the garden pests without your needing to use pesticides. In terms of a poultry bylaw Campbell River is so far behind the movement in food self sufficiency… l would suggest that our city is a “little chicken” when it comes to change.