A beautiful sunrise this morning. It's foggy up here among the tree tops and you can see tendrils of mist weaving silently through the branches, shot through with oranges, pinks, violets and framed against a soft blue sky. The greenhouse is covered in frost and little puddles are frozen. It's a beautiful winter morning.
One of our silkie hens has decided to hatch eggs. Did I tell you already? Our incubator is full and once they hatch we'll likely raise them indoors until the weather warms up considerably.
Yesterday marked a day that will go down in US history. President Barack Obama was inaugurated the 44 th president, and the first black man to hold this office. His speech was very moving and i was awed that over a million people there watching could be so quiet and enraptured as if they didn't want to miss one word. You truly get a sense that he was born at this time in these circumstances to do this job. He made people hopeful, and personally responsible for their own happiness and told them that if their forefathers could endure war and cold and famile, that they could too. That America became a great nation because of hard work and sacrifice and that this generation need to stop polluting and over consuming and work to build a better country and planet. Amen!
In the Garden:
The apple trees we've ordered are:
Gascoyne Scarlet
Merton Beauty
Bramley
Mallings Kent
Laxtons Fortune
Winter Red Flesh
Belle De Boskoop
They're pretty much all English Heritage apples and represent variety of colours, there are eating apples, storage apples, cooking apples, early apples, later apples. I can't wait to report on their progress over the next several years. These are one year old trees so we don't expect any fruit for several years yet. But that's ok with me. They're a promise for the future. And we have one tree for every child and grandchild under 13. Next I'm going to look at getting a cherry, pear and plum. I might even indulge in a fruit salad tree. I know that Art Knapp, a local garden centre sometimes carries them. If I get a cherry it will be a multi variety graft and I hope it has rainier cherries, because those are my favourite. I don't suspect that the nurseries will get trees in for another 2 months yet. I'd like to get mine all planted while they're still dormant. Maybe I can take some suckers from my existing trees and root them. I'll do more research and see if that will work. Also, while trapsing through the bush yesterday, Steve found a fruit tree burried in the pine trees. Maybe we'll relocate it, if it's possible. Some of our grape vine cuttings took last year and I will take more dormant cuttings in the next few weeks too. It's going to be a busy spring.
Gotta run. There's triple points day and a case lot sale on at the grocery store so I'm off to stock up on canned food and basics. Have a great day!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Why grow your own food?
On the Home Front:
Yes, we're busy! The wedding finally happened on November 29th. It went very nicely and everyone had a good time. Christmas this year was much more fun and less commercial than usual mostly due to our lack of money, the global financial crisis which is now getting into full swing, and the fact that we had several huge dumps of snow. This was probably the greatest amount and most long lasting snow event in this regions history. We had no mail, roads weren't cleared, the city ran out of salt for it's trucks to use on the roads. All in all it was very treacherous driving and so we stayed home a lot more. It was nice to have power though, and although we were prepared for a power outage, the only ones we had didn't last more than 6 or 7 hours. We just lit candles, oil lamps and the woodstove and made do. But the kids thought they were going to die with no computers or tv! They've since re-discovered the joy of card games and board games. Stephen and I have taken up scrabble and since I keep beating him, he's going to teach me chess next. Last night we all played uno with a cheap set of cards from the dollar store, and we had fun.
Today's weather is clear with some fog down in the valley and it's currently -4c at 8:30 am.
In the Garden:
The greenhouse has survived all the snow thanks to Steve's midnight forays out there to push all the snow off the roof. It actually got bent almost in half but seems fine now. Pretty much every greenhouse on the island suffered damage from the wind and snow or was destroyed, and yet out little poly-tunnel greenhouse lives on. I've got to move out the boxes and give it all a good sweep before I think about getting it ready for spring. Since it's unheated though, I'll start my seedlings inside and move them out there once the weather warms up in a few months.
The chicks we raised in the greenhouse did really well. The added heat benefitted the plants but the chicks did make quite a bit of dust that covered everything, and they increased the humidity so much it was a problem. Sometimes you'd swear it was raining indoors! We moved them outside in the fall with the other chickens and they had a marvelous time picking bugs in the garden until October.
Steve's square foot garden has been declared a success. Though the veggies got a late start and some were cut down by an unexpected freeze, we'll do some regular season plantings in it and see how it goes. His beds are in the greenhouse, so we'll likely start some early peas and lettuce in there once the average temp is say 7c. The whole concept of gardenign vertically and in less soil is really useful for urban gardeners who have only a balcony or small garden and who can't be lugging big bags of soil. We built our beds out of screws and OSB so each bed cost about $5. They'll maybe last 3-5 years but that's still cheaper than anything else and works well.
There's a lot of talk this year about growing your own food, in large part because people are worried about another great depression and how they are going to feed their families. I think that every family should grow something edible. Why? It not only teaches you to appreciate the wonders of nature, it gives you the experience of eating something fresh. There are millions of families around the world who have never eaten anything fresher than is found in their local grocery store. And that's such a shame! Fresh produce can taste totally different than it's stored and shipped counterparts. ie. fresh parsnips roasted are so sweet it's amazing. Tomatoes...well there's just no comparrison in my mind, and that goes for most fruits and veggies.
So how do we increase our food security (having enough to eat long term) and why would we want to? Producing even a portion of your own food is empowering. You are not reliant of the just in time delivery systems where you live. Go research it. I know it seems like the store has loads of food, but it's an illusion. They wouldn't have enough to last for a week if the trucks stopped arriving. In fact they'd run out of things like water and milk in a few days if there was a dusruption for any reason like a truckers strike, earthquake, snow storm. Think about how many people shop at that store...more than you realized? Yep, your whole neighbourhood.
Growing your own food can be hard work, but it's also fun too, at least part of the time, I for one like eating it!! You know exactly how fresh it is, you know what fertilizers or chemicals went on it or not as the case may be. And it's there for you to eat regardless of what's happening in the world. If you're rich, your garden keeps on growing. If you're poor, lose your job, lose your car, whatever happens, your garden keeps on growing. It's like a living food storage right out there in your yard! Many people have long term food storage in their home and know that it takes up a huge amount of space but never realize that having a garden can mean added fresh food rich in vitamins and minerals outside where it uses no house space until you can or freeze it, and it looks nice too.
We have gotten away from the back yard garden on the past few generations. During WWII there were victory gardens everwhere and for good reason, people needed the food. Now it's so easy to pop down to the store that the work of having a garden has been replaced with a nice tidy green lawn that you mow once a week, and most people don't even compost the clippings. (Best not get me started on that until tomorrow!) Some houses like ours are built in a place that makes gardening all but impossible. We're on top of a shale hillside. No soil here but the stuff the trees have found. So we've got a garden made of imported dirt, we built raised beds, and we compost everything from the clippings, to peelings and chicken manure. It's made a difference in as little as one year.
Here's where I'm at with gardening/self sufficiency.
I'm going to buy my seeds from West Coast seeds this week. Some of them at least. I have some saved from last year and there are a few things I only need a few of so I'll trade with friends or buy a couple of plants at the nursery. I need a new male kiwi vine as the one here is toast. Last year we got lots of kiwi flowers, and not one fruit. I've ordered some heritage apple trees from Applelucious orchard on Salt Spring Island. Harry Burton knows loads about his trees and has been doing it for ages so go look at site (just google it). His trees are wonderful and since we cannot actually plant them in their final locations here, we're going to build enormous raised boxes 4ft square for each one and plant them there until we can buy a place next spring hopefully. We'll then have trees one year closer to bearing fruit. That's the plan.
We will raise another 50 or so chickens this spring and summer. The ones we sell will pay for the ones we eat plus we'll have the manure so that's great. We want to hatch some more layers this year and to that end we have eggs in the incubator right now. one of our silkies is sitting on a clutch of eggs but I doubt they'll hatch due to the cold they suffered, we'll see. One of the silkie roosters is crowing like mad at the moment in his nice tenor voice. I wonder what the neighbours think?
I'm looking around for some garden space to use for the year too for those crops that need less attention like turnips, carrots, potatoes corn etc. I'll let you know what I find. There are no local community gardens but maybe someone has a garden plot they don't use.
Also, thanks to Nicole at Deliberate Life (you've GOT to read her blog) we learned about Spud.ca They specialize in local, organic produce, food and household cleaners and operate a weekly delivery service. They've got all sorts of different stuff and it changes seasonally and weekly. The quality is really good and you can learn a little about who produced your food. If you're interested in signing up, you can enter this code and get $25 off your first 4 grocery deliveries, that's $5 off the first 3 and $10 off the fourth. Here's the info:
I thought you might be interested in trying spud!, the online grocery delivery service I use. Beautiful produce, local dairy and bakery products, as well as a wide range of delicious groceries. All of this and flexible delivery at no extra charge and no commitment. If you'd like to try them out you can save $25 over your first 4 deliveries. Simply go to www.spud.ca and sign-up using promo code CR5-100011293.
They tell you how far your food has come which is interesting. Last year our family had one meal a week that was home grown. Not hard for us as we raise chickens and had lots of salad fixings, beans, potatoes, peas etc. Apparently the Path to Freedom guys (go see their stuff too, amazing what they've accomplished on their urban homestead) had encouraged the 100 mile diet where you get at least some of your food within 100 miles of home, then the 100 ft diet where one meal a week comes from your garden. So, we've been on the band wagon all this time and never knew. We're hip! :) This year we are aiming for 3 meals a week entirely home grown and 3 meals from within 100 miles. It's more of a challenge than I realized but it does make you think about food more that's for sure.
Well, gotta get to work. Happy seed browsing and food buying. Elizabeth
Yes, we're busy! The wedding finally happened on November 29th. It went very nicely and everyone had a good time. Christmas this year was much more fun and less commercial than usual mostly due to our lack of money, the global financial crisis which is now getting into full swing, and the fact that we had several huge dumps of snow. This was probably the greatest amount and most long lasting snow event in this regions history. We had no mail, roads weren't cleared, the city ran out of salt for it's trucks to use on the roads. All in all it was very treacherous driving and so we stayed home a lot more. It was nice to have power though, and although we were prepared for a power outage, the only ones we had didn't last more than 6 or 7 hours. We just lit candles, oil lamps and the woodstove and made do. But the kids thought they were going to die with no computers or tv! They've since re-discovered the joy of card games and board games. Stephen and I have taken up scrabble and since I keep beating him, he's going to teach me chess next. Last night we all played uno with a cheap set of cards from the dollar store, and we had fun.
Today's weather is clear with some fog down in the valley and it's currently -4c at 8:30 am.
In the Garden:
The greenhouse has survived all the snow thanks to Steve's midnight forays out there to push all the snow off the roof. It actually got bent almost in half but seems fine now. Pretty much every greenhouse on the island suffered damage from the wind and snow or was destroyed, and yet out little poly-tunnel greenhouse lives on. I've got to move out the boxes and give it all a good sweep before I think about getting it ready for spring. Since it's unheated though, I'll start my seedlings inside and move them out there once the weather warms up in a few months.
The chicks we raised in the greenhouse did really well. The added heat benefitted the plants but the chicks did make quite a bit of dust that covered everything, and they increased the humidity so much it was a problem. Sometimes you'd swear it was raining indoors! We moved them outside in the fall with the other chickens and they had a marvelous time picking bugs in the garden until October.
Steve's square foot garden has been declared a success. Though the veggies got a late start and some were cut down by an unexpected freeze, we'll do some regular season plantings in it and see how it goes. His beds are in the greenhouse, so we'll likely start some early peas and lettuce in there once the average temp is say 7c. The whole concept of gardenign vertically and in less soil is really useful for urban gardeners who have only a balcony or small garden and who can't be lugging big bags of soil. We built our beds out of screws and OSB so each bed cost about $5. They'll maybe last 3-5 years but that's still cheaper than anything else and works well.
There's a lot of talk this year about growing your own food, in large part because people are worried about another great depression and how they are going to feed their families. I think that every family should grow something edible. Why? It not only teaches you to appreciate the wonders of nature, it gives you the experience of eating something fresh. There are millions of families around the world who have never eaten anything fresher than is found in their local grocery store. And that's such a shame! Fresh produce can taste totally different than it's stored and shipped counterparts. ie. fresh parsnips roasted are so sweet it's amazing. Tomatoes...well there's just no comparrison in my mind, and that goes for most fruits and veggies.
So how do we increase our food security (having enough to eat long term) and why would we want to? Producing even a portion of your own food is empowering. You are not reliant of the just in time delivery systems where you live. Go research it. I know it seems like the store has loads of food, but it's an illusion. They wouldn't have enough to last for a week if the trucks stopped arriving. In fact they'd run out of things like water and milk in a few days if there was a dusruption for any reason like a truckers strike, earthquake, snow storm. Think about how many people shop at that store...more than you realized? Yep, your whole neighbourhood.
Growing your own food can be hard work, but it's also fun too, at least part of the time, I for one like eating it!! You know exactly how fresh it is, you know what fertilizers or chemicals went on it or not as the case may be. And it's there for you to eat regardless of what's happening in the world. If you're rich, your garden keeps on growing. If you're poor, lose your job, lose your car, whatever happens, your garden keeps on growing. It's like a living food storage right out there in your yard! Many people have long term food storage in their home and know that it takes up a huge amount of space but never realize that having a garden can mean added fresh food rich in vitamins and minerals outside where it uses no house space until you can or freeze it, and it looks nice too.
We have gotten away from the back yard garden on the past few generations. During WWII there were victory gardens everwhere and for good reason, people needed the food. Now it's so easy to pop down to the store that the work of having a garden has been replaced with a nice tidy green lawn that you mow once a week, and most people don't even compost the clippings. (Best not get me started on that until tomorrow!) Some houses like ours are built in a place that makes gardening all but impossible. We're on top of a shale hillside. No soil here but the stuff the trees have found. So we've got a garden made of imported dirt, we built raised beds, and we compost everything from the clippings, to peelings and chicken manure. It's made a difference in as little as one year.
Here's where I'm at with gardening/self sufficiency.
I'm going to buy my seeds from West Coast seeds this week. Some of them at least. I have some saved from last year and there are a few things I only need a few of so I'll trade with friends or buy a couple of plants at the nursery. I need a new male kiwi vine as the one here is toast. Last year we got lots of kiwi flowers, and not one fruit. I've ordered some heritage apple trees from Applelucious orchard on Salt Spring Island. Harry Burton knows loads about his trees and has been doing it for ages so go look at site (just google it). His trees are wonderful and since we cannot actually plant them in their final locations here, we're going to build enormous raised boxes 4ft square for each one and plant them there until we can buy a place next spring hopefully. We'll then have trees one year closer to bearing fruit. That's the plan.
We will raise another 50 or so chickens this spring and summer. The ones we sell will pay for the ones we eat plus we'll have the manure so that's great. We want to hatch some more layers this year and to that end we have eggs in the incubator right now. one of our silkies is sitting on a clutch of eggs but I doubt they'll hatch due to the cold they suffered, we'll see. One of the silkie roosters is crowing like mad at the moment in his nice tenor voice. I wonder what the neighbours think?
I'm looking around for some garden space to use for the year too for those crops that need less attention like turnips, carrots, potatoes corn etc. I'll let you know what I find. There are no local community gardens but maybe someone has a garden plot they don't use.
Also, thanks to Nicole at Deliberate Life (you've GOT to read her blog) we learned about Spud.ca They specialize in local, organic produce, food and household cleaners and operate a weekly delivery service. They've got all sorts of different stuff and it changes seasonally and weekly. The quality is really good and you can learn a little about who produced your food. If you're interested in signing up, you can enter this code and get $25 off your first 4 grocery deliveries, that's $5 off the first 3 and $10 off the fourth. Here's the info:
I thought you might be interested in trying spud!, the online grocery delivery service I use. Beautiful produce, local dairy and bakery products, as well as a wide range of delicious groceries. All of this and flexible delivery at no extra charge and no commitment. If you'd like to try them out you can save $25 over your first 4 deliveries. Simply go to www.spud.ca and sign-up using promo code CR5-100011293.
They tell you how far your food has come which is interesting. Last year our family had one meal a week that was home grown. Not hard for us as we raise chickens and had lots of salad fixings, beans, potatoes, peas etc. Apparently the Path to Freedom guys (go see their stuff too, amazing what they've accomplished on their urban homestead) had encouraged the 100 mile diet where you get at least some of your food within 100 miles of home, then the 100 ft diet where one meal a week comes from your garden. So, we've been on the band wagon all this time and never knew. We're hip! :) This year we are aiming for 3 meals a week entirely home grown and 3 meals from within 100 miles. It's more of a challenge than I realized but it does make you think about food more that's for sure.
Well, gotta get to work. Happy seed browsing and food buying. Elizabeth
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