urban Gardener

Are We Guilty Of Gulping

2012-01-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

Are we guilty of gulping down our meals in order to 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 A Posh Sounding Word

2012-01-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

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.

Did You Know that you will never have to throw away a half used lemon…ever again. It is a terrible thing to find a lovely lemon turning soft and mushy in the fridge fruit tray. To avoid such waste all you need to do is take the balance of your unused lemon, cut it into slices and pop those in a freezer bag. The next time you need just one slice for a garnish or to chill a drink you can reach for your freezer bag and there’s a perfect slice.

2011-09-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-09-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Miracle of 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.

Urban Gardener #28

2011-09-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-09-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

Early Spring Greens 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 ggardens 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.

2011-04-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-04-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

The Edible Courtyard at Timberline School

The Edible Courtyard, a creative garden plan by a dynamic former student at Timber Secondary School, is now underway in the school’s spacious interior court. Kira DeSorcy, who recently graduated from Camosun College’s Agricultural Division, is heading a group of past and present students, including Louis Patterson. They are in the process of building the garden to include raised planting beds, First Nations edible plants, dwarf fruit trees, berry and culinary herbs border, garden shed and classroom shelter. The project has so far received funds from NIC and Renewable Resources Co. and Core Systems which manufacture green alternatives to wheelchair accessible pathways. Students are also planning an Environmental Stewardship Day at Timberline Secondary School which will involve workshops, presentations and a marketplace. In particular the market is open to display for companies that offer eco-friendly products and information to their customers. The event will be held on Apr. 21^st at Timberline and for those interested in participating in the market please email kira.desorcy@hotmail.com .

If Your Fingers Are Itching to begin the planting season early here’s a suggestion for a satisfying crop that can be direct-seeded into your pots and garden strips. Salad greens are the answer. Try arugula, corn salad, raddicchio, lettuces, oriental greens, peas, spinach and swiss chard. These suggestions were taken from a west coast planting chart and within weeks you will find yourself picking fresh, crunchy leaves for wonderful evening salads. Using these seeds last season my deck pots were bursting with greens by mid May.

Basil Is My Favourite Herb which I use generously for flavouring tomato dishes and sprinkling on salads. Start seeds indoors and wait until mid June to move the generally finicky plants outside. They thrive when placed under the sheltering leaves of your tomato plants. Pick a hot spot on the deck, preferably against a wall and those deliciously pungent smelling plants will continue to produce faithfully, all summer long.

The First Community Garden to be constructed on municipal land is due to open officially on May 15. Meanwhile the founder, Chelsey Holley and her happy band of 14 excited gardeners are charting out the plot lines at the Laughing Willow Community Gardens. It’s located at the corner of Simms Road and Lawson Grove. The plots will measure 4 by 20 feet and are well suited to the square foot gardening concept which focuses on intensive small space growing areas. As well there are raised beds planned for wheelchair accessibility. Actual construction of the site will begin in early April and an open house is planned for 15 May. Funding for startup has come from Greenways Land Trust, the Lions Club, Rotary Club and several small businesses. Sundance Café has set up an ongoing fundraiser by donating the cost of a paper cup for each customer who brings in their own coffee mug. The nearby Presbyterian Church is donating indoor meeting space and Chelsey says this is only part of an amazing community effort to establish the much welcomed garden. There are still spaces available for both wheel chair access and ground level sites. Chelsey will welcome your interest at 926-0279.

2011-02-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

With the Interest in Home Grown Food sweeping Vancouver Island there is a corresponding desire for beginners to just jump in and join the parade. The gardening guide I rely on is the West Coast Seeds Catalogue. You can order it online or the one nursery here that carries it is Campbell River Garden Centre. The seed company makes it so easy for neophyte gardeners to be successful right from the start. The vegetable planning chart for coastal B.C. takes away all the anxiety of what to plant and when to start. For instance you could be starting your basil indoors now and keep it in potting soil on the kitchen windowsill then place it outdoors in June.

The biggest mistake the newbie gardeners can make is charting out too much space. That’s why it is strongly recommended to start out with filling a few pots on the patio or small containers on the window sill. Another hugely popular concept is Square Foot Gardening. The idea was originated by Mel Bartholomew. If you follow his plan it allows you to grow 100 percent of your harvest in only 20 percent of the space. The best part is there’s no digging. Just build a 4 foot by 4 foot bottomless box. Lay it down on the existing soil, remove grass and weeds and fill the boxes with a high quality soil mix. For a family of four he says you’ll need a total of four boxes. He claims that if you follow his directions you’ll have the most sensational gardening experience of your life. His book is available in the library or go online to his site The Official Site of Square Foot Gardening.

For Readers Asking me to repeat recipes and ideas for small space gardening please go to my blog at Campbell River Urban Gardener. All my columns for the past two years are archived in the column to the right of the screen on the opening page. So many readers have exclaimed over the recipe for cooking kale. In fact, you can use the same process on coarse outer leaves left over after preparing beet leaves, broccoli buds and cabbage heads.

Here’s Another Idea for turning the much maligned beet root into a delicious treat. This lonely veg is a powerhouse of nutritional value but it gets passed by when busy people are shopping and planning the evening meal. It just takes too long to cook…unless you try my way of producing a succulent steamed beet in 10 minutes. Take a half dozen medium size beets and cut them crosswise in circles about half an inch thick or less. Melt a good knob of butter and mix with olive oil in a thick bottomed frying pan on medium heat. Cover with a lid and and 10 minutes later you’ll be serving shiny red, juicy, mouth watering beets and with no loss of nutrition as they cook in their own juice.

2011-02-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

Salad Before, Salad After, Salad in Between…what is the answer. Travelling back and forth to the U.K. and Ireland in order to care for an elderly sister has made me very aware of the many differences in the preparation of food and the times of day in which the meals are taken. When in Ireland it is quite likely that salad isn’t served at all or may be included on the same plate as the main meal. In the U.K., due to its proximity to Europe salad served after the main course is de riguer for the more sophisticated classes but not necessarily adhered to by the less privileged. In France the order in which food is served is highly ritualistic with salad unquestionably following the main meal.

Listening to a debate on BBC Radio I gained from the discussion the understanding of why the order in which food is served is really a matter of the tummy’s ability to digest whatever is sliding down the gullet. Vegetables are more easily absorbed by the body if eaten separately. Meats and chicken require a more acid environment so the most natural process would be to eat one’s salad first.

In Europe Class Differences Still Count, one only needs to read a Jane Austen novel to realize the past is still with us. Her rules described breakfast as being served around 1000 am, as befitted a leisure class. (This distinguished them from the lower orders, who ate very early before going off to work.) The next main meal was dinner served at 700pm preceded by afternoon tea at 400pm. As most of the population now adheres to working hours, lunch which is called dinner over here, is quite a substantial meal followed by a late afternoon tea and then supper/dinner, again generous portions, served around 700pm. In France the enormous midday meal, followed by a siesta, is what the country revolves around. The French come to a halt for a leisurely three to four hours before returning to the workplace at 400pm. As a leading member of the European Union this enviable lifestyle doesn’t fit well with the standard working hours of its fellow members. The French are reluctant to change but despite their reluctance the shift is taking place.

Ireland, is now digging out from under the collapse of the Celtic Tiger years. This small nation, once considered the fastest growing member in the European Economic Union, is now facing potential bankruptcy unless the EU is willing to bail them out. In the glory days of the boom with all that wealth available for the first time to the working classes the Irish took to Take-Out meals with a vengeance. Reluctant to give up their newfound leisure time the Irish began to pave over their front gardens. In fact many citizens loved their pavement so much that they ordered the back gardens to be paved over as well. Now that the good times are over the Irish are learning to cook, some for the first time. Book stores are flooded with material on meal preparation and food gardening. The next instruction books one can expect to see on the shelves are manuals on how to remove all that tarmac that surround their cottages so that they can experience the joy of growing one’s own food.

CONVERTING KALE TO A DINNER TREAT

2011-02-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Turning A Big Flat Green Kale leaf into a divine dinner ingredient is a bit of a stretch but it can be done. Take a few of those large outer leaves and slice out the tough stem. Fold the leaves over to create a loose roll and cut them across the grain. Try and slice the leaves into narrow ribbons, about ¼ inch wide. In a heavy frying pan melt a combo of olive oil and a knob of butter. Grill a tablespoon of chopped ginger and a similar amount of chopped garlic. Frying them for a minute should do it. Toss in the kale, sprinkle ½ teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoonful of water. Now, cover with a heavy lid and set on medium heat. Five minutes later pop the lid and you will discover a heap of intensely green, tender, delectable leaves. I do this recipe constantly and it never loses its appeal. Preparing veggies this way is going to make you feel good about what you are feeding the family because you haven’t lost any nutrients or had to pour excess cooking water down the kitchen sink. You have just captured all the intense colour and goodness of the food. You can transform any coarse outer leaves, including cabbage or beet leaves that show up in your garden or your shopping bag, into life sustaining edible food.

Having A Grown Grandson who has Celiac Disease (CD) has made me very aware of how difficult meal preparation can be when one is suffering from this disorder. CD is a medical condition in which the absorptive surface of the small intestine is damaged by a substance called gluten. This result in an inability of the body to absorb nutrients: protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals which are necessary for good health.

Celiacs generally get relief from eating a gluten free diet. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, triticate and barley. It is the gluten in the flour of these grains that is the trouble maker according to info I checked on the Canadian Celiac Assoc. website.

It is really time consuming to check out the ingredients on store bought products… and eating in a restaurant is like treading around hidden land mines. So when I discovered this week that Locals Market is featuring gluten-free meals prepared on site and gluten free baking supplied by Sylvie’s Market it sounded like a winning collaboration. Crackers made with grated cheese, oregano and potato flour served with their renowned clam chowder is an irresistible combo.

RAISING WORMS

2010-09-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Raising Worms is An Amazing Experience. All you need is a small container or tote box on your back deck. My experiment is turning out well and all I did was fill the tub full of soil and some shredded paper, spade in a handful of red wiggler worms given to me by a friend, and enough water to keep the soil lightly moist. Feeding the soil with finely chopped left over vegetable and fruits , the worms receive a steady supply of food which they convert into nutrient-rich castings. Two or three pounds of green kitchen refuse including tea bags and coffee grinds a week is enough to keep them happy. To create the perfect environment I drilled air holes on the sides and added a cover. It would be a plus to find a tote with a spigot to drain off excess water. That way there is no danger of those little wrigglers becoming water-logged. The compost they create is considered “black gold” as the castings are far more beneficial to plants than any man-made fertilizer, according to a website called WormWatcher. It will provide you with step-by-step guidelines and pictures to assure you get the right start.

Thanks to an alert Quadra Island reader I was reminded that mashing “regular” potatoes with the skins on isn’t a great idea due to the possibility of chemical sprays and fertilizers that penetrate the spud. In past years I have spent long periods in Ireland helping to care for an elderly sister and that’s where I became enamoured with eating mashed potatoes with the skins on…the diff being that they were raised organically. In the past purchasing foods grown organically wasn’t possible on the average budget but the gap is closing. Consumer preference for uncontaminated food is changing the marketplace. There’s a very telling guideline on the web called “The Dirty Dozen Foods” - http://www.delicious-healthy-eating.com/dirty-dozen-foods.html - and there you can find the list of chemically raised fruits and vegetables that should be avoided, if possible. There are varied lists available but generally bell peppers, celery and potatoes take the top spots.

BIG FLAT GREEN KALE

2010-09-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.celiac.ca/EnglishCCA/eceliac.html

It is really time consuming to check out the ingredients on store bought products… and eating in a restaurant is like treading around hidden land mines. So when I discovered this week that Locals Market - http://crlocalmarket.com/index.php - is featuring gluten-free meals prepared on site and gluten free baking supplied by Sylvie’s Market it sounded like a winning collaboration. Crackers made with grated cheese, oregano and potato flour served with their renowned clam chowder is an irresistible combo.

A GARDEN IN A BAG

2010-06-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

Experimenting With the Various Ways to small space garden has opened up a world of opportunities. Here’s my latest project and this time it is definitely “in the bag”. When you live in a condo with a 20 foot wide deck there is only so much space for pots of flowers and veggies. But what about the outer walls or the fence that divides your space from the folks next door? Reading about a New York high rise gardener who hung large bleach bottles suspended on ropes from the inside frame of his one large window reminded me that anything is possible. He cut away half the side of the bottles, filled them with potting soil and compost and planted them full of trailing vegetable plants. One spring in Ireland, while I was looking after an elderly sister, I successfully grew spinach in a shopping bag on the side walk. That provided me with fresh greens for the next three chilly months.

That led to the idea of filling up colourful shopping bags with soil and trailing veggies and hanging them on outer walls and fences. Well, why not? And shouldn’t every great idea start with a trip to the Salvation Army to select the equipment? I found a wonderful assortment of coloured shoulder bags and sagging purses. The bags I chose each hold about a gallon of soil. The idea of using standard shopping bags was rejected after discovering that at least two gallons of soil is required and the bags are then much too heavy to suspend from the fence…although perfect for seating on an unused walkway. If you are going to try this idea remember to cut holes in the bottom of the bags for drainage.

As I am in the process of moving, my friend has agreed to using his small space for the latest brain wave. So far I have planted one trailing tomato, a zucchini and a patti-pan squash. Next planting will include scarlet runner beans and strawberry plants. The display at the moment looks definitely rag-tag but I do believe that when the vines of all those plants are tumbling down the wall, laden with succulent greens and fruits, and the colourful patterns of the bags are showing through the foliage, that all this effort will be worthwhile.

TO PEEL OR NOT TO PEEL - THE POTATO QUESTION

2010-05-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Spending So Much Time in

Ireland

these past two years has given me many new ideas on the preparation of food, particularly the humble potato. Potatoes are served everywhere in great abundance. Even rather posh eateries, which generally serve from a steam table, go overboard. Unless you call out a plea to stop, your server will happily place great dollops of fried, boiled and mashed potatoes on your plate. That’s all three on the same dish…hardly room for a green veg, a thick slice of Irish beef or a ladle of rich gravy.

The most interesting thing about the Irish way with a potato is that it is most often mashed with the skin on. Now that is a phenomena I wasn’t accustomed to despite being raised by Irish parents. My mother’s idea of cooking spuds was to cover them totally in cold water and bring to a roaring boil. When done the potato water was poured off and into the sink. Yikes! Well my dears gather round and I will now explain the process for producing a perfect dish of mashed potatoes.

As you are likely aware, there are many vitamins and minerals in the skin of the potato. Leaving the skin on adds precious nutritents. Red potatoes or Yukon Golds are the best candidates for skin-on mashers as the skin in thin and smooth. The red skins give a lovely colour and your guests will clamour for this recipe. Now, slice potatoes into one inch wide rounds, place in a steamer and cook until just soft…about 15 minutes. Drain the water into a bowl and save for your soup stock container. Place a clean tea towel inside the potato pot and leave for five minutes. This will absorb any excess steam and stop the potatoes from becoming soggy. Then it is time to take out that masher and chop them up before adding either milk or butter. Adding milk a few drops at a time allows you to mash the potatoes to perfection and control the soggyness that happens when you splash in too much milk. Don’t forget a lovely knob of butter and there you have it, a dish loaded with nutrients and the perfect comfort food. Explain to the kids that those enticing red flecks are a secret ingredient.

FROM LOGGER TO LOCAVORE

2010-04-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

That’s Not So Difficult when you have lived
your life repeating the mantra…”Buy Local”. When Onion Lake Logging was struck hard by the economic slowdown Ron Everett, a partner in the business, launched into his new venture with gusto. We’ve all watched the old Arby’s restaurant on 11^th St. arise from its “ashes” like a Phoenix and slowly transform into a bustling food market and very cool eaterie.

Aptly named, the Local Market & Café is a reflection of Everett’s belief system, one that he incorporated into the logging business as well. The first thing that catches one’s eye when entering the market is the wonderful mix of woods used in the furniture, display cases and wainscoting. The material comes from the wood waste left on the logging sites after the trees have been felled.

The selection of veggies, meat and fish in the containers leaves absolutely no doubt that the customer is buying local produce. “ My first choice is to support ‘mom & pop’ farms” explained Everett. “Our meats such as beef from the Sayward Valley and McClintock Farms, bison from Island Bison on Hamm Road and Mennonite beef from Black Creek are processed at Gunter Bros.” He said that there is a full time Govt. meat inspector on site there at all times. Tannadice Farms pork is also packaged by the same processor. The chickens are processed at Sunshine Farms where the certified inspector is in attendance three days a week. Shellfish is brought in from the waters of Quadra, Cortez and Read Island and packaged at Walcan.

A steaming bowl of seafood chowder, prepared by Chef Gernot Arps, is a life-changing experience. Chef Gernot is European trained and has performed some kind of magic on his recipe. My friend and I both ordered a bowl of chowder the other day. She is a serious foodie and actually writes a blog on food and wines so it was interesting to watch her reaction. She was like Pooh Bear with his pot of honey. Humming quietly to herself as she consumed each spoonful, when the soup was finished she very daintily licked clean each mussel and swimming scallop shell . I was expecting her to lift up the bowl and also give it a through lick!

It’s Time For You Avid Small Space Gardeners to get the seedlings started and prepare your outdoor containers. Just make sure the top 12” of soil in the containers is replaced with fresh high quality compost. The weather resistant stir fry greens such as arugula, corn salad, kale, collards, oriental greens and spinach are the among the few veggies that can be safely direct seeded into your pots prior to April. West Coast Seeds has a planting chart in its spring catalogue that is an invaluable guide. So far the only place I have located the booklets is at C.R. Garden Centre. Starting a garden journal is a great way to mark the passage of time and recall the performance of last season’s plantings.

OUR TOWN, THROUGH THE EYES OF AN EASTENER

2010-03-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

Showing Off Campbell River to my friend from Ontario last week was a reminder of how special it is to live on our beautiful coast. Food expert Anita Stewart, who has authoured 14 books on Canadian regional foods, was on the west coast to host a culinary conference in Vancouver. She managed to slip in a side trip over here and I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with her. It was one of those glorious early spring days on the Island when everything sparkled, even the air. Anita is always eager to find out what’s new in regional food and farm initiatives so what could be more fitting than to head off to Connie Kretz’s fledgling commercial vegetable gardens at the Hudson family farm. There were still a few over-wintering crops to examine including arugula, raddichio and kale. Connie is now experimenting with soil conditions and crops that survive our long winter rainy season but her first year in the farm market business has produced a fine summer crop and the next season will be worth waiting for. It was Anita’s first opportunity to view this splendid waterfront property. With the back drop of ancient trees framing the Discovery Passage and sheep eyeing us warily as we tramped the Hudson farm trails, nature provided us with a perfect show.

The Bigleaf Maple Sap-Tapping Workshop I attended at Duncan in mid February was another recent regional activity that interested Anita. Fortunately, I came home from the workshop with an extra bottle of maple syrup which I shared with our guest. She was raised in Ontario where maple syrup production is just part of the local food mix and I was curious about what her reaction would be to our island product. I observed her with some anxiety as she sipped on her first spoonful of local syrup. It passed the test! She was surprised at its quality and impressed by its taste.

Winter Dinners Are My Favourites with heaps of mashed potatoes, at least two or three vegetables and a lovely piece of local fish or Island beef and a generous ladle of sauce to complete the feast. I almost always include Brussel Sprouts, which are at their peak in the winter months, when a good frost helps to sweeten their leaves. They are so full of valuable nutrients it is a pity so many people don’t like them, including President Obama. I have a cooking technique which I will share with you. Prepare yourself to be amazed! You may be able to convince your entire family to munch a few sprouts. Heat up your frying pan and melt a large dollop of butter or margarine plus add half a teaspoon of brown sugar. Cut the sprouts in half, lengthwise. Arrange them face down in the pan and cover with a lid. Don’t add water. Cook them at medium heat for about five minutes. You’ll know they are ready if the sprouts turn intensely bright green and can be pierced with a fork. Remove immediately and serve with a smile. If they pass muster with you the readers, then let’s send the recipe to Mrs. Obama.

COULD GOATS BE THE NEW CHICKENS?

2010-02-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

Urban Gardening Is Taking Off in North America but nowhere more than on the west coast. California, Oregon, Washington and B.C. have always been leaders in new trends so it should be no surprise that a bylaw approving urban backyard goats has been approved in major cities in all three American states. The City of Vancouver has been leading the way in our province by supporting downtown gardening ventures. Vancouver’s council members may soon be facing a recommendation for zoning changes to allow goats to reside within their city’s boundary. For some, owning a Pygmy or a Nigerian dwarf goat is purely about companionship of an intelligent, affectionate animal that grows no bigger than a Labrador retriever and is funny, full of antics and keeps the landscape tidy, according to an article in the City Farmer Newsletter . In Seattle city council voted unanimously to allow each home three goats under 100 pounds each. The council’s action resulted from a spirited campaign by the city’s Goat Justice League with the motto “I’m pro goat and I vote”. League founder Jennie Grant says many people are drawn to goat owning by the back to the land movement that disdains milk and meat from large factory farms.

Could Campbell River’s city council consider such a bylaw? Why not? There is a refreshing new breed of staffers gradually filling positions at city hall who are totally in touch with the massive changes sweeping North America. They grasp the importance of urban agriculture and its vital contribution to environmental sustainability, food security and economic prosperity in our urban lives. Later this year we can expect work to begin on a new Official Community Plan. There will be town hall type meetings where we can bring our ideas and visions for community forward. We need to form an umbrella organization that advocates and negotiates for land access, community gardens and favourable city bylaws. The time has come to speak out effectively for goats and chickens and “cabbages and kings”.

Speaking of people who are taking effective action on changing our food procurement habits, Connie Kretz has returned to Campbell River after many years spent in Taiwan. During those six years in Asia she worked as a copy editor for an English language paper. When not checking out stories Connie dreamed about returning to the farm which her grand father Tom Hudson developed so many decades ago. “My parents Diana and Jim built their home on the farm property and I was raised with cows, sheep, hay fields and raspberries so the idea of establishing a market garden just evolved naturally. I saw that the community was becoming aware of the value of locally grown food and that gave me the courage to convert my dream into an action plan”. This past summer she had produced enough vegetable products to stock a booth at the Pier Street Market. It was a successful first venture which included selling produce at the farm gate as well. She is now considering other ways in which to connect with residents who are committed to locally grown food. One of her innovative ideas is to develop a cadre of customers who agree to a weekly delivery of seasonal vegetables from her farm. She says the idea makes sense in reducing the commercial footprint. So rather than have several dozen customers driving to the farm she will deliver to their door. To support Connie in her new venture, Coastal Roots Vegetables, give her a call at 250 204 4598.

LEARNING TO TAP FOR ISLAND SYRUP

2010-01-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

Learning To Tap A Bigleaf Maple Tree can provide you with an endless supply of sweet syrup. The chance to taste the unique flavour of West Coast maple syrup attracts people from all over Vancouver Island to the Maple Syrup Festival held in Duncan each spring. Last spring 2,000 islanders showed up and the coordinator, Aimee Greenaway, told me that they are expecting an even greater crowd for the next event to be held the 6th Feb at the BC Forest Discovery Centre. She said that almost half of the visitors to last years event were from outside of the Cowichan Valley and it has become a truly Vancouver Island wide attraction.

We think of maple syrup as an eastern Canadian product but those who have sampled the island supply say it surpasses the taste of any imported product. The festival is more than a syrup tasting opportunity. Visitors can participate in tapping and syrup making demonstrations, taste testing, syrup finishing, hot maple tea samples and a maple cooking demo by a celebrity chef.

On a wild food foraging workshop I attended last spring we learned how to strip the young maple shoots of the thin outer bark in order to reveal the pale green inner core. The stems were crisp with a very subtle sweet maple taste. The flowers as well are quite sweet and can be used as a unique addition to a wild greens salad, in fact they could be used as an additional ingredient in a fruit salad and be an interesting talking point for your guests. I am so intrigued by this use of maple shoots that the next addition to my patio food garden will be a small maple stump. The maple outstrips any other hardwood tree in its ability to produce prolific numbers of young shoots and what a fun way to learn to value the much maligned Bigleaf Maple. You will never again think of it as a nuisance tree with enormous leafs that strain your patience and your back as you rake away at the autumn supply of unwanted ground cover.

Spring Comes Early To The Island and with it the opportunity to poke around in the woods for edible greens. There will be workshops available to those eager to learn about wild food harvesting in our bio-region and there are wonderful books available as well. My recent purchase is Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples but there are several other books available covering the harvesting of edible native plants in our specific area.

Harvesting Our Most Popular Native Fruit is a different matter. If you’ve ever flown over Vancouver Island in September you may be able to spot those gorgeous pools of flaming red cranberries. There is little chance of walking amongst the plants and munching a few berries although cranberries are a native North American food plant. Now under cultivation in 88 Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island farms, more than 80 millions lbs. of annually harvested cranberries make it the largest berry crop in the province. The next time you are sipping on a chilled glass of Ocean Spray cranberry juice the berries likely came from the province.

TEA WITH TIBET

2009-12-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

What A Pleasure be remembered for some special event or activity in one’s life. I teasingly asked my youngest son what he’d remember me for. “Your soup,” he replied without missing a beat. “I often think of when we were kids and those huge pots of Saturday soup you used to make and the basket of chunky baking powder biscuits.” That was a delightful reminder that basic nourishing foods can be the touchstone that triggers warm memories of family life. That remark tied in with my good fortune in being able to have the five Tibetan monks, who were performing at the local art gallery, to lunch a few Saturdays ago. What on earth to feed them was my first response. But, when in doubt I always turn to my old soup pot. Watching these five husky men and their driver delve into their bowls of 9-Bean soup followed by murmurs of satisfaction, reminded me of my sons so long ago slurping down overflowing bowls of soup and looking around for seconds.

In Talking To Friends about meals and ingredients it is always a surprise to hear that there are contemporaries who don’t enjoy making soup. It is such a wonderful basic food and in these times when families particularly are having difficulty with the costs of feeding their youngsters an inexpensive bowl of soup can provide a high level of nutrition. The secret ingredient in fabulous soup is the stock. I keep a large jug in the freezer and every scrap of cooking water from steaming or boiling vegetables is poured into the container. I also toss in any turkey, chicken or beef bones. As well I freeze broccoli stalks, coarse green leek leaves and overripe tomatoes. Now this will surprise some readers, but all my eggshells are crushed and added to the container as well. The shells are highly nutritious as the lining is a wonderful source of hyaluronic acid which supports healthy joints and skin. Once the shells, bones and veggies have simmered gently for a few hours then discard them by using a strainer. You now have a broth enriched by calcium, minerals, vitamins and the hyaluronic acid that can be used as a base for any soup recipe. If you follow these suggestions for creating a rich stock you will wonder why you’ve neglected making soup for all these years.

Sometimes I Do a “Clear The Fridge” soup by pulling out the vegetable container and using fresh uncooked left-overs, particularly potatoes. They help to thicken the soup. Another basic ingredient of most soups is onions. Just take the time to sauté the onions in a splash of oil for about five minutes before adding them to the other ingredients. That releases a delicious sweetness that greatly enhances the taste. If you like a soup that is a combination of creamy and chunky then take half of your cooked soup and either mash it or whip it in the blender and return it to the pot.

Who Was The Great Writer Anonymous that said “ The discovery of a new soup does more for the happiness of humanity than the discovery of a new star”. It’s true that food remains one of our greatest pleasures. And, when the food is satisfying to the soul as well as satisfying to the body, then we’ve got a winner when we make a delicious pot of soup. According to a favourite food writer, Jean Hoare, a French proverb says that a well made soup keeps a coin from the doctor’s pocket…which is another way of saying that a bowl of chicken soup will fix us right up. For comments email msostler@telus.net To refer to previous columns that appeared in The Mirror please google Urban Gardener Campbell River.

WILL COUNCIL CHICKEN OUT?

2009-11-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Will Council Chicken Out on a bylaw to raise backyard hens? A recent report says that we can expect a omnibus rezoning amendment for Quinsam Heights to be prepared which will include a section herding horses, sheep, goats and chickens into one bylaw.
Already the cluck, cluck, clucking has begun about how much space a horse requires as compared to the space needed to raise a few chickens. The report states that councilors are willing to agree on one point…that chickens are smaller than horses! Good thinking.

If the urban chicken issue is lumped in with other farm animals it will get fowled up in the hot debate that is sure to follow. We need to separate the question of a chicken bylaw and bring it forward on it’s own merit for the City of Campbell River rather than entangling it with the Quinsam Heights zoning. If Victoria, Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Ladysmith and New York City have urban chicken bylaws do we need to squawk over a few hens. Ask Esquimalt about their bylaw. The spokesperson says they haven’t received a single complaint since it was approved 18 years ago.

There Is A Need for city councils everywhere to get involved in the support of community food sources. According to a researcher there is a flock of chicken and fresh food activists across this country, standing up for the right to keep egg-laying hens in their backyards. A current green Party report states that 85 per cent of Vancouver Island’s food was produced locally 25 years ago, now it’s down to only 10 per cent. We all remember what happened last winter when a snow storm cut off fresh food delivery to the Island. Within three days the grocery shelves were emptying fast. This is the best example of what is meant by food security. If we can grow some of our food locally and raise chickens for their eggs and meat then we are taking small steps towards food sustainability…we become part of the solution.

Chickens provide healthy, pesticide-free eggs. They consume kitchen waste, produce great compost for the garden, make great pets. Times have changed and we have to think about being environmentally smarter and being sustainable. Raising chickens fits that goal. We activists are buck-buck-bucking for change.

Foraging For Mushrooms trek, sponsored by the Museum, attracted my interest and I was fortunate to tag along as the course was fully booked. The local mushroom expert Sequoia Letosky led us along a Beaverlodge Land trail and from there we veered off into the bush. The first fungus along the route turned out to be the deadly Amanita. With our leader instilling the fear of God into us, we neophytes peered timidly at every sighting after that warning. Despite anxieties it turned out to be a great learning experience and I particularly was excited about discovering the Lobster mushroom. These fungi are an intense orange in colour and can be found around or under rotting logs. One needs to get down on hands and knees and scratch around as they are not obvious at first, being generally covered over with soft moss. The lobsters do not have the traditional shape, more like shrivelled potatoes. I filled up my small basket and left for home in a state of great anticipation. I washed them thoroughly, cut away the black spots and grilled them lightly in butter and bacon fat with a sprinkling of pepper. Served on a toasted slice of whole wheat sourdough bread my meal turned out to be akin to a religious experience! I can hardly wait to go back to same area. This time I’ll take a compass as it is very easy to get disoriented, especially when one is crawling around on one’s hands and knees.
For comments msostler@telus.net

BUT CAN SHE GROW A CAN OF GUINESS

2009-10-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Watching Our Irish Neighbor experience planting her first window garden was a great reminder that growing things can be a joyous experience. Our friend Maureen looked on this as week my sister Shelagh and I replanted our window boxes with a selection of wintering herbs and veggies. She was emitting clucking and ooohing noises which is a strong sign that she had caught the growing bug. So off we went to the local garden shop with Maureen leading the way, in search of some good over-wintering starter plants and a four foot long plastic window box. Chives, parsley, mixed lettuce and pak choi were her choice and a small bag of organic compost. We also added a six pack of deep purple violas to the list as they provide colour and eye appeal throughout the coldest season.After the window box was planted and she placed it outside, on the kitchen window sill, she stood there entranced. Her son Jamie commented, when he saw the display. “Oh b’God, now me mudder is growing them greens we’ll have to be after eating the stuff”.

While In London three weeks ago I visited my cousin Rebecca’s allotment garden. She lives in a flat on the 14^th floor near New Cross. The mixed population is dense and obtaining a much sought after allotment often means a long wait to qualify. Taking the train through Wales and south through central England to London I spotted allotment gardens every where, but particularly under bridges, railway right-of-ways and empty lots.

Rebecca’s site includes 67 other plots on a steeply sloped terrace beside the railway. Each plot has it’s own small garden shed, some ornately constructed and others just a few planks hammered together with a sheet metal roof. Nevertheless, each plot is someone’s tiny kingdom and the shed becomes a place to brew a cup of tea, munch on rough cheese sandwiches and observe the bounty of one’s toil. Rebecca’s plot is roughly 20’ by 40’ and has room for four types of berry bushes, artichokes, asparagus, runner beans, onions, spuds, salad stuff, courgettes, leeks and eggplants. Tomatoes didn’t do well last year so this season she has them in grow bags propped up against the shed. The camaraderie amongst the gardeners was a pleasure to watch and the mix of plot holders is like a mini United Nations gathering.

When I Return to Campbell River at the end of September I will be interested to see the progress that has been made on expanding the community gardens on St. Peter’s church property. Gold River also has plans to designate property for allotment gardening as does Quadra Island so that indicates a growing interest in encouraging people with limited space to take advantage of community property.

Here’s an interesting item spotted in an international paper. Neilsen Canada reports that demand for canning supplies has gone through the roof and sales are up more than 100 per cent over 2008. I remember the pride our mother took in lining the cellar shelves with jars of fruit, jam and vegetables. Nothing can compare with the earthy pleasure of growing one’s own food and storing supplies for the winter months. Our lives are changing so rapidly and one cannot open a newspaper without being made aware of the impact of our lives on the planet. The effect of our short sightedness is becoming increasingly obvious but we are also witnessing a shift in the way we treat the earth around us. Consumer demand for alternatives has meant that organic food has grown from something only lentil munchers ate to mainstream produce. We can make a difference, simply by growing some of our own food and the pleasure it gives is immeasurable. For your comments please email msostler@hotmail.com

MEMORY OF A FOOD GARDEN

2009-09-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Capture The Memory of your summer food garden by gathering your mature herbs which by now should be ready for the drying process. If the herbs haven’t already dried out due to the intense heat of this summer then pick the sprigs and lay them out to dry on a baking sheet. The top of the fridge is an ideal spot. In a week or two they should be ready for grinding. My favourite method of processing is to use the old fashioned bowl and pestle system. Popping the herbs into a blender is just as effective but one loses the hands-on feeling of creating something special. A favourite herb mix is called Herbs de Provence and you can give it your personal touch by adding dried wild geranium or a touch of ground lavender. This basic French mixture that you will love is equal parts of rosemary, thyme, savoury, majoram, basil and oregano. The fragrance from this combination is gorgeous and enhances any food you are preparing and if you have enough for extra jars they will be treasured as small gifts.

I’m Still Here in Carlow, helping to care for an elderly sister but expect to be home in a few weeks. It’s surprising to discover that Ireland has no bottle recovery policy. As we have no car we enjoy strolling two to three miles a day to the shops and library where we use the computers. We equip ourselves with a spare plastic bag and, operating under some strange “Canadian” compulsion, we pick up bottles and beer cans rolling around the streets and under the hedges. And elderly woman stopped us on the street the other day and asked why we were picking up the garbage. Explaining this compulsion prompted her to sigh. “Jaysus, Mary and Joseph ye poor tings and ye have no car at all”.

Our Totally Dedicated Campbell River Beautification Committee would be stunned if they surveyed the state of the local Carlow streets, which actually display downtown signs boasting that the city, the same size as Campbell River, won the Tidy Town Award in 2007. The old Irish are particularly charming with a wonderful attitude towards life so I shall learn to cast my eyes on the impossibly lovely hills…the “Forty Shades of Green” that surround us, and avoid peering down the alleys and byways.

Did You Know that stinging nettles make fabulous fertilizer juice? Well, that’s so, according to a local friend who told me to cut down the huge stinging nettle growing at the back of the property and chop it up into small pieces. Then I am to place the pieces in a bucket and cover with water. After about six weeks, according to my advisor, it will turn into a dark green slurry. Then it’s time to strain it and place in a lidded container. I can then add a few tablespoonsful to a watering can and it makes an outstanding liquid fertilizer. If any readers have tried this idea successfully please let the rest of us know. It’s always exciting to discover a simple, new method of producing organic fertilizer at virtually no cost or effort. Drop a line to msostler@hotmail.com .

MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME

2009-08-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Make Up For Lost Time and start planting now. Not everyone is so well organized that they can meet the spring planting deadline. The good news is that this is a great time to start planting a garden that will allow you to harvest greens in the autumn and root vegetables in the winter months. Now is the time to take advantage of “follow-on” crops…a new buzz word. With good planning you will be able to avoid the “hungry gap” by ensuring an almost continuous supply of at least some veggies right through the cold season and into early spring months. By now most of your spring plants will have bolted and that gives you with plenty of space to be infilled with starter plants from the market, or seeds to be sprinkled onto the top soil.

In The Weeks Ahead consider planting either quick maturing vegetables such as beetroot, kohlrabi, red chicory, spring onions, leaf lettuce, oriental greens such as arugula and spinach. Those that are particularly suitable for overwintering are leafy cabbages, Swiss chards, kales, spring cauliflower and broad beans. Quick maturing crops such as the lettuces, spinach and radishes may be ready to harvest in six weeks whereas the cruciferous plants such as cabbage and sprouts may take up to 18 weeks. In a large ceramic planter on my condo deck I seeded a few red potato sprouts in May. As I am still in Ireland my friends harvested my mini red potatoes last weekend and emailed me a mouthwatering description of Sunday dinner on their deck consisting of my precious spuds, garlic, leeks, herbs and mixed salad plus their grilled steaks. Now if they can just be persuaded to do another planting by the time I am home again there should be a second potato harvest. I love the way the Irish describe a meal plan…two veg, three spud and a bit o’ meat.

In Carlow I Have Managed to produce an amazing array of leafy vegetables and herbs in the six weeks since arriving here. The greens seemed to leap out of the soil and in the first three weeks the leaves were big enough to make up crisp green salads. All the veggies are reared in a hodge podge of pots and bags placed on the cement walkway against our rental house. Those that have been outstanding are rocket and spinach. Rocket is similar to arugula but is crunchier and the stem is edible as well. It rains here almost everyday so heat loving plants like tomatoes are hopeless. The Irish are not keen food gardeners so my rag tag arrangement of pots creates a good bit of discussion. Yesterday I answered a knock on our door and there was a fellow from a paving company saying that he noticed there was a terrible lot of green grass in the backyard and he was offering to bring in his equipment and pave it over. “Then you could have a grand summer and not have to keep looking at all that grass,” says he. “Just get yourself a nice set of patio furniture and sit out there with herself (my sister) enjoying life and not have to worry about a ting.” I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or give him a good kick.

MARKING THE TERRITORY IRISH STYLE

2009-07-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

Consider This Column a report from your foreign correspondent in Ireland…the land of my parents and the home of two sisters. On holiday here I’ve been scrounging through the Dublin dailies looking for interesting items on gardening for the reader.

The headline in the garden page of the Irish Times brought me to a quick halt.
Chicks are Chic! According to that doughty publication the latest sounds in the back streets of Dublin are the cluck, cluck, cluck of chickens living the urban good life. Hard times require finding ways to be more self sufficient but the city’s rookie gardeners are facing a wildlife challenge. Wiley foxes are prowling the alleys searching for vulnerable chicken coops. An enterprising designer has come up with an ultra trendy coop design called an Eglu which includes four live chicks. It has captured the interest of the urban aesthete and recently won a design award. These haute couture hen houses can be purchased at Dunleary People’s Market on Sundays for the astonishing price of $600.

Mark Out Your Territory was the advice given to a poultry neophyte in Dublin who expressed concern about the presence of the cagey fox. He has been advised, by an agronomist, that if he quite literally marks his territory every evening with a stream of urine the fox will not cross the line. “That’s a brilliant idea” he responded, “but what will the neighbours say?”

Turning Shopping Bags Into Planters is a totally new concept to me but on the Emerald Isle it is considered very edgy and creates a sustainable use for all those woven plastic shopping bags we seem to accumulate. First punch a few holes in the bottom of the bag to allow for drainage, fill with compost and insert a dozen or so starter plants into the soil. Two weeks ago I filled a bright yellow sack with 12 red and yellow stalked Swiss chards. The bag was quite deep so I rolled the edges back. Now you can hang the bag on a wall hook or place it on the sun deck. My chard loves all that warmth and is already producing big leaves for use in a stir fry.

Six Years On The Beautification Committee has left me with an enhanced expectation of downtown cleanliness. So, the astonishing state of Irish streets and side walks has left me as agitated as a wet hen. They are covered in cigarette butts and gum. There is no bottle deposit refund so beer cans and pop bottles roll around in every gutter and under every hedge. A meeting with Mary White the MP for Carlow led to my pointing out that in B.C. bottle collection can be an important source of cash to people on limited incomes. She laughed heartily at the phrase “dumpster diving” and asked me to repeat it three times. I was urged to send her information on how the system was set up to create the bottle deposit act.

Back To The B.C. Scene. Bolting is what happens when plants that have been producing steadily for the past two months decide that enough is enough and push up one last flowering stalk. Save the seeds, if they are organic or heritage stock, when the head has dried out. Meanwhile, you probably have more seeds left in the packets. Replant right away, remembering to add more compost to the soil, and in no time at all the seeds will push up new sprouts and you can look forward to a fresh crop. This procedure is called succession planting. In fact you can succession plant on an ongoing rotating basis for many varieties. The excellent chart in the West Coast Seed Catalogue (found at www.westcoastseeds.com) will guide you as to the best planting months for specific veggies.

CITY COULD COVET CUTE CLUCKERS

2009-06-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

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!