Happy Year of the Rooster, Let's Eat Fish!

Back at the beginning of January I enthusiastically signed up for a number of food, canning and reading challenges. You know, that new year, new outlook feeling, full of the promise of all the things you'll accomplish this year. Four weeks later I'm scrambling to get this post in under the wire. This is my first entry for the CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge 2017.  The topic for January is fish and seafood.

I also signed up for Food In Jars Mastery Challenge, however, the deadline for this month came and went and I never did get around to making marmalade. I bought the ingredients to do a couple different recipes but since I'm not really a marmalade fan I ended up eating the grapefruit, drinking the whiskey, and freezing the strawberries. Maybe next month!

CHC's challenge is intriguing because it's in honour of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation and the recipes are supposed to reflect aspects of Canadian history and culture.  The suggested topics are:

• An experiment with a historic recipe
• An essay on a topic relating to culinary history
• A contemporary take on a traditional dish
• A report on an event or visit to a historic site
• A family story with a recipe that relates to the topic
• A discussion about historic techniques for gathering, preserving or preparing food
• …or any other similar topic

I decided to do a take on the cultural diversity that makes up Canada today. One of the things I love best about living in Toronto is the abundance of cultures from around the world, and the opportunity to partake in food and celebrations that were not part of my experience growing up in small town Canada. As a child, the only holiday celebration I knew of other than traditional Christian-based was Hanukkah. Chinese food when I was young meant chop suey and sweet and sour chicken balls. My best friend in kindergarten was from Jamaica but the most exotic thing her mother served us was peanut butter and banana sandwiches (my mom only put strawberry jam on ours). I moved to Toronto in 1990 and my exposure to new food and cultural activities was blown right open! Since then I've enjoyed eating new foods, participating in celebrations and learning about as many cultures as I can. Canada is a country of immigrants, and the ability to embrace the ideas and cultures and foods that come from many other places is what made Canada what it is today!  Lunar New Year which is celebrated by many Asian cultures is one of my favourite adopted holidays and for many years I've been hosting a New Year dinner on the first new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February. This year it occurred Sat Jan 28 and ushered in the Year of the Rooster!

Many of the foods associated with the Chinese New Year are symbolic for good fortune. Things like dumplings and tangerines are served because they resemble coins, to bring financial luck. Another traditional dish is Longevity Noodles - long noodles are supposed to encourage a long life. The main showpiece dishes are usually chicken and fish, served whole. The character for prosperity, yu, is a homophone for the word for fish, and a whole steamed fish, eyeballs and all, symbolizes abundance and unity.

Steamed Whole Bass in Black Bean Sauce is delicious, and a simple yet impressive dish to make (as long as you don't mind eyeballs staring at you from the plate!) I found sea bass at my local fish market and picked out one that looked very fresh and a perfect size. The young man working the counter took it to be cleaned and gutted and asked it I wanted the head and tail removed. Without thinking I responded, "No thank you, it's for new year". He looked up, his clearly Asian face seeing my clearly not; he grinned and said "Okay, just the fins then."

Ingredients:
1 to 1.5 lb whole bass, scaled, cleaned and fins removed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 scallions, cut in one inch pieces
4 slices ginger, slivered
1 tbsp black bean sauce
1 tsp cooking wine
2 tsp peanut or other mild vegetable oil

Wash fish in cold water and pat dry. Make 2-3 diagonal incisions from stomach to backbone on both sides of the fish. Rub with salt & pepper and set aside.
In a small bowl add scallions and ginger, black bean sauce, cooking wine and oil. Mix til blended. Coat fish on one side only, and insert about 1 tbsp in the cavity. Place fish on a heat resistant plate, sauce side up.
Add 1-2 inches of water to a wok or roasting pan. Place a rack in the bottom of the pan and bring water to a boil. Place the plate with fish on the rack making sure it's above the level of the water. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and cook at full steam for 10 minutes. I have also done it by bringing the water to a boil on the stove, adding the fish as above and placing the entire pan in the oven at 325 F for 15 minutes. Check to see if fish is done by inserting a fork to see if it flakes easily.

I don't own a wok so I used a large roasting pan that easily fit a canning rack. This photo borrowed from Serious Eats shows steamed fish done in a wok, either method works fine.

I also was so busy getting ready for the dinner, which included multiple dishes in addition to the fish, I neglected to take any photos of the food and only one of the decor as I was preparing.  So enjoy this lovely graphic, also borrowed from the internet, and Happy Year of the Rooster!

A New Year and a Fresh Start

So things have been a little dormant around here for a while, sorry if it's a bit dusty!

Lots of changes too. When I last posted we were in a bit of limbo waiting to see what would happen when our building sold. It took a while to get it ready for sale so I managed to keep my gardens that summer but once it was on the market it sold in a matter of days and the new landlord took possession Nov 2014. Right away he wanted to put his mark on everything and it became a long negotiation to try to keep our apt. One of the first things I had to sacrifice was the backyard -within days of him taking possession I had to rip out the raised beds and clear the space so it could be used for the trucks and dumpsters. So the backyard farm ended in in hurry, but at least it was at the end of the season and I still had the roof!

For the next 2 years the construction and renovation of the lower units was an ongoing annoyance - the landlord initially wanted us to leave as well but we managed to convince him to extend our lease while he was busy with the other projects. During that time the Russian and I also decided to part ways- we'd been together 8 years and things had not been great for a while. The split was amicable and we are still very good friends. He moved out and I kept the apartment for the remainder of  the lease extension.That  extension lasted til this past summer and in Sept I finally accepted the inevitable and moved to a new apartment.

So the farm cats and I have a new apartment in a house, with both front and backyard space desperately in need of some love. Moving in Sept gave me little opportunity to do much outside other than survey and clean up a little but there's lots to do! The previous tenants were obviously not gardeners and it's pretty much a clean slate. There's a former garden in the front, sloping down to sidewalk; it's completely overgrown with weeds. There's also
a front "yard" that is currently packed dirt and some chunks of cement, and a small backyard with similar issues and a big patch of Japanese knotwood. The front faces north so not much light and the back is surround by trees and buildings, so even less. I suspect it will take me a full year to figure out if there enough sun at any time of year to grow much but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

The Downside of Renting

We've had it pretty lucky at our current rental apt. It had the beginnings of a garden when we moved in in 2008 and I've had the landlords permission to do pretty much anything to improve it. I've also managed to take over space on the flat roof without incident. So it was particularly heart wrenching to find out recently that our landlord is selling and with that comes a lot of changes and adjustments. Not all of them are terrible, in fact at first I was delighted because the main floor tenants moved out and the apartment was to remain empty. Also the basement tenant lives on his boat all summer, which meant the entire backyard and garden are mine to do as I please! But then the reason why this was all happening became apparent- the building is to be sold and both of the empty apartments need a lot of work before that happens. To my dismay, that involved a dumpster being set down in the yard and the only way that could happen was to drive it through my raised beds.

I've had about a month to come to terms with all of the above. At first I tried to convince the landlord to place the bin elsewhere but that didn't work out. I protested that I would lose a lot of my time and money invested and he was sympathetic but it had to be done. So I've been in a state of denial/sadness/frustration for the past few weeks before finally resigning myself to make the best of it.

In once sense I'm glad it happened this year. Whether because of the prolonged winter or just a genereal apathy, I never started any seedlings indoors at all this year so there's nothing languishing in pots waiting to be planted. I found out about the dumpster just before I was planning on direct seeding my peas and beans so none of those are in. And not a single aparagus crown survived this winter! So the only potential casualties are the garlic planted last fall and now up about a foot, and the rhubarb which I moved to sunnier location just last year. And of course the raised beds themselves.

Fortunately when I built the beds I did it with screws not nails, so last Monday I admitted defeat and took the larger of the two beds apart. I dug out as much of the soil around the edges as I could and shoveled it into bins. I took the composter apart and shoveled all the unprocessed compost into bins as well. I left three sides of the smaller raised bed intact surrounding the garlic in hopes that the truck could manouever around it. I dug up the poor rhubarb and some wild garlic and left them in pots to be returned once the dumpster is gone.
 

The dumpster arrived the next day and it was massive! Thankfully the driver was sympathetic and did his best to work around the obstacles I left. I think he might have been a little afraid of the crazy woman standing over her garlic like they were children! In the end the remaining wood bed had to be removed as well but bless the truck driver, the garlic survived being driven over twice!

So all is not lost as I first feared. The bin was only here for just three days and after it left all of the garlic was still standing. The frames need to be rebuilt and the soil is badly compacted in places but I will reclaim the entire space. I'm looking at it as an opportunity to correct a few things like moving the composter and digging the beds in better. My veggies will go in slightly later than planned but I will be adding some new soil thanks to the landlord who has offered to compensate me for the trouble.

This still leaves the sale of the building hanging over our heads but that's an issue that we'll have to deal with when it happens. And if this is to be our last summer here I want to have a garden to remember!

40 bags in 40 days- Decluttering for Lent!

Have you heard of this challenge? 40 bags in 40 days is a project where you tackle a different area of your home every day during Lent (Sundays are a day off) and get rid of stuff you don't use. The idea is to fill a bag of unnecessary stuff everyday but as pointed out in the details, the size or type of container isn't the focus, it's more of an incentive to deal with the unneeded stuff we acquire one bit at a time. That's good because there are no garbage bags in my house since we stopped buying them a few years ago but I'm sure I have enough reusable bags to take care of 40 days worth. Maybe sorting out those bags is the first place I should start!

Not being particularly religious, I don't normally participate in any type of Lenten ritual but this is one I can get behind. Since Lent started over a week ago I'll be a bit late but I had actually been working on this on my own recently so the timing is perfect. The website has tips on areas to focus on (like email accounts and pinterest boards if you run out of stuff in the house) and suggestions to keep you motivated. There are even some forms you can print out to list the areas you'd like to attack, keep track of what you've finished and how many bags you've managed to get rid of. I don't think I'll need that but I'll try to post updates here to keep myself honest.

I have a few areas that really need work- our landlord recently decided to paint the hall for us and it was a bit of a shock to realize how much had accumulated in that space when we had to move it all out. It's become a pile of chaos in the livingroom and I've been procrastinating in dealing with it because there's a lot to sort out and I want to get rid of a lot instead of putting it all back. So that is definitely on the list.

Today however I am focused on  the top of the refrigerator and the spice rack. I keep a lot of dried herbs and spices and have used many different containers over the years, most of which I hang onto. There's a particular rack of decorative jars on top of the fridge that have out lived their usefulness and I need to part with it. A few of the jars are missing and none of them sealed that well to begin with. Not to mention that the top of the fridge is less than ideal conditions for herb preservation. So all of the tired herbs are headed for the green bin, and the remaining spices are being re-jarred in more practical containers that will fit in the proper spice shelf which also got reorganized. The old jars and rack will be cleaned up and donated to a thrift shop.

Early spring is a good time to deal with all of this clutter, before the nice weather arrives and I won't want to be indoors! I think the biggest challenge for me won't be filling 40 bags, it will be finding places and time to find new homes for the bags once they are full!

My properly organized spice rack!

Not So Guilty Pleasures

I fell off the local food wagon today. I went to the nearby grocery chain to stock up on pantry staples and there were fresh green things from far away warm places, calling my name and luring me with their crisp leaves and stems full of chlorophyll. Normally I can walk by the displays of  non seasonal fruit and and veg without too much yearning but this winter has killed me. So cold for so long, endless days of snow and ice; even the extra hours of daylight aren't doing much except making me more restless. Suddenly it felt like the only thing that would make me feel better was the taste of dandelion greens from Texas, oriental eggplants grown in California and asparagus from Mexico. I should feel guilty but really, all I feel is hungry!

Last week I was fortunate enough to escape winter briefly as I attended a music conference in Kansas City MO. While not summer weather by any stretch, it was miles better than here, with temps reaching 15 C on one of the days I was there and the rest of the week it was well above freezing. It was lovely to be outside wearing a light jacket or sweater, no gloves or boots or hats to be seen. I even managed a brief but chilly swim in the heated outdoor pool! But I think it also tricked my body into thinking it was spring because I cannot be content to be warm and cozy any longer. I cannot face any more hearty soups or stews. I swear I will burst into tears if I have to look at another carrot or roasted root vegetable! When I found myself scowling at the sprout jar this morning, I knew it was over.

The body knows what it needs and mine was screaming for bitter greens which the frozen tundra outside my door will not be able to provide for a long while yet. It's still 20 long days until spring officially begins and I'm not holding my breath that the weather's going to cooperate by then either. Sometime in the next week or so I will start some seedlings for this year's garden and maybe some greens for quick eating but until then I will be feeding my cravings with imports. I needed dandelion greens stat and my favourite recipe is for dandelion greens and goat cheese pasta .

1 bunch dandelion greens washed well and chopped
2 strips of bacon cut in small pieces
1 onion, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp goat cheese
1 lemon- for zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups cooked pasta- I like linguine or fettuccine but any kind works
Parmesan cheese- optional

Cook and drain pasta as directed, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Sauté bacon and onions until onions are soft, add garlic and dandelion greens and stir until greens are wilted. Use a zester or small grater to add about a tsp of lemon zest or to taste- I like mine lemony! Add a tsp of fresh lemon juice and goat cheese and stir until greens are well coated; add pasta water a little at a time until it makes a  creamy sauce. Toss with pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

On the theme of eating local, FarmGal is running her March Pantry Challenge again this year but as much as I'd love to join her, I'm afraid we'd starve this year. Until my doomed trip to the grocery store, our pantry was empty except for a few jars of pickles, and  I could see all the way to the back of the freezer but for a few containers of currants and one sandwich bag each of frozen beans and peppers. I don't know if we consumed more or I preserved less but it's an awfully good thing we don't have to live off of stored food this winter. I might have to have closer look at how much I put down this year.


Update:
I wrote this post last week and never got it posted- the cold I brought back from KC turned nasty and I ended up with pneumonia. Some good healthy food (and some expensive antibiotics, boo) have helped me bounce back quickly and I'm so glad I listened to my cravings!

Here's a nice meme I found floating round the internet that sums up my feelings exactly- she even looks like me!

The Great Backyard Bird Count!

Looking for something to help break out of out of the long winter slump this weekend? Trying to avoid the usual Valentine's Day commercialism? Why not participate in a worldwide event which actually helps the planet?

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count! The Great Backyard Bird Count is a revolutionary research project that encourages volunteers to participate by counting the number and species of birds in their own backyards. The event takes place from Feb 14- 17 worldwide and only requires a minimum of 15 minutes. You can read how to get started and register to log in your findings here

Anyone in the world who can donate as little as 15 minutes can join the bird count and fill out a tally sheet to help form a real-time, global snapshot of the health and size of bird populations in their area.
The one rule is that you have to do it over one of those four days over the weekend, and you have to spend at least 15 minutes counting birds. It could be on your balcony, it could be in your backyard or you could go down to the local duck pond or you could go to Algonquin park!*

In 2013, Great Backyard Bird Count participants in 111 countries counted 33,464,616 birds on 137,998 checklists, documenting 4,258 species—more than one-third of the world’s bird species! The information collected from this project among others is used to obtain a big picture glimpse of bird populations and over the long term the information can be used to help scientists discover what effect things like climate change, industrial growth and pesticides are having on birds worldwide.

Here in Toronto it's been so cold for most of the winter that I haven't seen many birds at all, although two weeks ago a red tailed hawk landed in the tree not 10 feet from the deck!  I've been putting out food periodically, which usually attracts more squirrels than birds but I try. Tomorrow looks like it will be the warmest day in a while so the most likely for bird activity. To encourage more feathered visitors I'm making some feeding stations and one my favourite methods is by making homemade suet blocks. I make these with ingredients I have on hand and packaged bird seed.

Suet is a bit of a misnomer in this case because I have already rendered the suet to make tallow which I keep in jars in the fridge. You could use any edible fat that solidifies at refrigerator temperatures.

For a small batch I melt about a 1/2 cup in a small sauce pan and add 1/2 cup peanut butter.

When it reaches a liquid consistency (careful not to overheat!), I add about 1/2 cup of rolled oats, as well a small amounts (1- 2 tbsp) of seeds (flax, sesame, sprouting seeds),chopped nuts and dried fruit. You could use any small grain or cornmeal in place of the oats.

Stir well and remove from heat- you don't want to cook the additions, just make sure they are well covered in the melted fats. When the mixture has cooled a little I add birdseed until the consistency of the mixture is almost solid but still well covered in fats.

Spoon the mixture into a mold- I like to use muffin tins to make several small pucks but you could do one big block if you have a method to hang it. Place in a cold place to solidify.

Once the pucks are solid you will want to suspend them in something that holds the pucks together but still allows birds (and squirrels) to nibble at them. I use empty mesh onion bags to hang them in the nearby tree. The squirrels will try to run away with the entire bag given the chance so I have been experimenting with methods that keep the mesh firmly attached to the branch but I'd admit I've had limited success. For a creature with a brain the size of a nut, squirrels are incredibly persistent and creative at getting what they want!

I'm also going to pop some popcorn and string a few strands to drape in the trees, as well as fill my feeders. Hopefully the warm weather will bring many feather visitors for tomorrow's count.

 Happy Bird Counting!


*Notes from an interview with Dick Canning, senior projects manager for Bird Studies Canada, by Evelyn Boychuk, CBC News

February Blahs

Some years when we've had a mild winter or not much snow, I secretly wish for a big snow storm, one that pretty much forces the city to shut down. There's nothing like a a good blizzard to give you the excuse to stay home, catch up on reading and movie watching, drink hot chocolate and cook large pots of comfort food.

This year is not one of those years.

Never the less, a big old blizzard is what we have today and all my plans to venture out have been somewhat thwarted. I could of course bundle myself up and trod through the snow that looks to be knee deep and still coming down. But the idea of yet again layering on heavy winter things and slogging through drifts makes me feel tired before I even leave the house. And really there's nothing that I need to do and nowhere I need to be that urgently. I just wish I wasn't so restless!

I was lucky to have a very busy January which meant I was out of the house every day during one of the crazy polar vortex deep freeze spells we've been dealt this year.  I was producing a number of events at different locations all over the city so I was very grateful to have access to a car and driver for that week! It was one of those times I was even more thankful to live in the city, where it's possible to get around without venturing outside for more than a brief moment!

All of that activity means I'm having a hard time adjusting to the slower pace now. I have piles of books set aside to read, a bunch of dvd's to watch and there's never any shortage of things that need to be done in the house but none of it appeals right now. Seems like my winter funk has hit and even seed catalogs aren't helping right now. Looks like I need to dream up a project or two to occupy my time.

Anyone else got cabin fever yet? 

Reflections

I was going to title this post Looking Back, because that what we tend to do as the end draws to a close. We remind ourselves of all of the good things that happened through the year. It's also a good time to acknowledge our mistakes and hopefully learn something from them. It's always good to look back on all of our successes and failures and promise to do better next year.  And it's comforting to have this invisible restart, another opportunity to make better choices, or maybe just have better luck!

Typically I do use the last post of the year to catalog the moments, good and bad, that made this year notable but since there was a serious lack of posting this year, I feel like I'll end up explaining way too much, or worse, I won't find anything to write about at all. That certainly seemed to be the case for a lot of this year. I still did all of the things I normally write about; gardening and canning, foraging and beekeeping. But I did come to a bit of a realization in the past year - if I'm being honest, it's a bit of a stretch to call myself a farmer. When I started this blog a few years ago, I was totally caught up in urban agriculture and I had visions of raising food for us to live on year round. I dreamt of chickens in the backyard and hives on the roof, and of mini hoop houses and makeshift greenhouses to extend the growing season. I bought a pressure canner to preserve things that couldn't be pickled or fermented. I ordered cheesemaking kits and sourced raw milk. I've certainly enjoyed learning all of these new skills!

In reality however, it's much harder to maintain a lot of these practices all the time in an urban environment and some of them are still just a dream. I love my new raised beds but there's only so much that will grow in the shade that encrouches more each year. The rooftop gets plenty of sun but I'm limited by the size of the containers -too heavy puts a strain on an aging roof- and lack of water- we don't have an outside tap to hook a hose to so all the water has to be carried up by hand. As for livestock, Toronto is a long way from approving backyard chickens but even if they did, there's not really a safe place to keep them at this apartment. Current bylaws won't allow me to keep beehives either.

Truthfully what I excel at most these days is what I like to call urban foraging.  Just like the traditional version of foraging, I make a point of gleaning fruit and other plants from the urban forests. Working with Not Far From the Tree has made me much braver about asking strangers if I can pick from their trees or  gardens if they appear to have an overabundance, and there are enough wooded areas within the city limits to do some judicious wild picks on occasion. But to me urban foraging also includes things like taking home the leftovers from events I'm involved with (garbage bags full of leftover freshly shucked corn!) or volunteering for organizations that share the results or 'pay' in kind. Heck, it even includes picking through the discard bins at local greengrocers on occasion- if it's food that would otherwise got to waste, it's still a type of foraging!

So while I may not always be posting regularly, I'm still here and still searching for ways to to live as close to the farm lifestyle as I can get in the big city. And I hope to find more things to write about in the coming year. After all, it's a fresh start tomorrow!

Happy New Year! May 2014 bring you luck, joy and prosperity in all that you do!

Drawing to a Close

It still feels like full summer here. The temperatures for the past two weeks have felt more like July than July did this year. Thankfully there's also been a decent amount of rain along with the heat, and for humidity lover's like myself it's been a last minute gift when I'd all but given up on having a real summer. The days are hot and sticky, evenings are balmy and the sun still seems to linger in the sky. If I ignore the ever increasing number of fallen leaves on the deck I can almost convince myself it's June rather than the waning days of summer.

It's the early mornings which bring reality crashing home that summer's days are numbered. I've been having some odd sleep patterns lately which often finds me awake in the early hours and I can vouch that the sun is nowhere to be seen at 5 am these days. In fact the lazy thing is barely up by 7 am, and each day we have about 3 minutes less daylight. That doesn't seem like much but when you add it up, that's 20 minutes less daylight a week and almost an hour and a half in a month!

Growing things sense the disappearing sunlight better than we do. This time of year the plants are scrambling to complete their mission of recreating their genes; from the maple keys that are turning brown and preparing to launch, to the tomatoes churning out fruit like there's no tomorrow because there really isn't, everything is taking it's cue from the waning daylight.

In my gardens some things are still in full swing and some have given up the ghost entirely. The tomatoes had a miserable year- I seeded late, I planted late and at one point the raccoons dumped almost all of the seedlings when they were still in small pots. For the containers on the roof I started them with less soil in the buckets with the idea of adding more as the season progressed so they would have fresh nutrients- that didn't work out as planned so they still have a lot less soil than they should have and it shows. Coupled with the not so hot weather and inconsistent watering and I have a bunch of sickly looking plants with a smattering of late ripening fruit, most with cracks. Also thanks to the raccoon dumping I have quite a few mislabeled and it's kind of a surprise until the fruit actually ripens!

The peppers on the roof didn't fare much better and the raccoons ate most of the jalapenos before I could pick them. The shepherd peppers in the ground are much happier but have a ways to go to ripen.

On the other hand, the beans were fabulous this year. I've been picking steady stream of green, yellow and purple beans for the whole summer and they are still producing. The edemame did well too. Up on the roof, I had a bumper crop of zucchini but not a single patty pan and only one lone butternut squash before the powdery mildew got them all. Thankfully it hasn't hit the cukes and melons because the biggest delight of the summer is these little jewels of canteloup which, fingers crossed, the raccoons haven't discovered yet. I used the metal frame from an old couch as a trellis and I'm hoping it's confusing them.

Like every year I had great plans to extend the harvest and plant some late season crops so back at the beginning of August I planted some turnip, beet and rutabaga seeds- some in the ground and some in the now empty zucchini bin on the roof. I had high hopes and pretty good germination, but for some reason I lost almost all the seedlings and the few remaining are sad and spindly. A week later I seeded some on the roof and they came up and promptly died as well. I think next year I will make sure to start them in seedling trays and transplant when they are a decent size.

I haven't even done much canning yet this year - a few batches of whole fruit earlier this summer and last week Colette and I did our years worth of dill pickles but that's about it! The rows of empty jars stare longingly at me but I refuse to listen right now. While the good weather holds, I'll be following the call of the beach- there's just 3 weeks of summer left and I plan to enjoy every second of it!

Looking Ahead

You'd think winter would be the furthest thing from my mind in the middle of July. Here in Toronto we just survived our first heat wave of the summer and it was a doozy- temperatures in the mid 30's with humidex values making it feel more like 45 C.  Thankfully I managed to escape the worst of it by running away to Sarnia and living at the beach for most of the week. I have the Russian to thank for keeping the bins on the roof watered while I was away. All looks well up here!

Amazingly the garden in ground needed NO watering- the new raised beds worked even better than I envisioned! The combo of  the  rotting wood I added to the bottom layer, and the buried seeper hose hooked to the rain barrel provided enough moisture that everything stayed lush and green even through 6 days of record temperatures. Turns out those huglekultures really do work!

So why on earth am I thinking ahead to cold and snow? Well for the first time ever my gardens are producing more than we can eat fresh. Yesterday I picked a mess of beans and there are more to come. The zucchini, which are loving life on the roof, are providing a fruit a day. We've been eating onions for weeks, the garlic are almost ready to be dug and the edamame should be ready anytime.Which means  I'm running out of room in the fridge and I need to be preserving some of this goodness so we can enjoy it when the gardens are long buried under snow and ice.

The garlic is easy- as the greens die down, I've been digging up the bulbs and leaving them to cure in the sun porch. I've even braided a few!

Normally I would just freeze any excess beans and edamame  Freezing is my preferred method of storing many vegetables - if you freeze them as soon as they're picked and do it correctly, it keeps the texture and flavour better than canning. However an inadvertant thaw/refreeze would turn them to mush and we've been experiencing rolling blackouts ever since the big storm that hit Toronto at the beginning of the month.. So I'm thinking I will pressure can the string beans and I need to look into how that can work with edamame- likely I will have to shell them first.

In the past I have a had difficultly growing zucchini, which was frustrating, given its reputation for overabundance. This year I am pleased to have a glut and for now at least we've been eating them as quickly as they appear but I suspect that may pale soon. Since it's never been an issue previously, I'm not exactly sure how to preserve them other than relish which I'm not a fan of, or use them in baked goods. Suggestions welcome!

Where Does the Time Go?

I realized on the last day of May, that the month had gotten by me without having done a single post! No welcome to May Day, (which was lovely and warm this year) no updates from the garden (slow to start because of the late spring), not even a mention of my trip to Ottawa and lunch with FarmGal (more on that in a bit)!

When my contract at FoodShare finished at the end of April I was expecting to have so much time on my hands to do things that I'd been lagging at, particularly gardening, canning and writing.The freedom of a wide open schedule! My first order of business was a field trip for another passion of mine - genealogy. A recent investigation had led me to discover that one of my ancestors was actually born in the Red River Settlement in 1814 so I decided to make a trip to the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. I spent 5 days pouring over records from the Selkirk Papers and that's a whole blog post and then some, but that belongs to another day and blog.

FarmGal and tulips!

I had messaged FarmGal of my visit and she braved the downtown traffic to meet me for picnic lunch which included some of her lovely preserves and a  fabulous home cured ham. The weather was unseasonably warm but worked in our favour as most of the fabled tulips were in full bloom. We had a lovely visit and even managed to squeeze in some photo ops!

On my return home things took an unexpected turn however. The building that houses our apartment is an old turn of the century row building, with our unit being the 2nd floor flat above a former retail space. Over the years most of the infrastructure like wiring and plumbing was redone but a lot of the original structure remains. Our bedroom ceiling had seen a number of leaks from the ancient skylight; though the roof had been repaired, the lath and plaster ceiling had been patched but not replaced. A large crack directly above the head of our bed had been growing ominously for a few months previously but was gauged safe by the landlord. While I was away there were several heavy storms and the Russian pointed out to me that the crack had widened considerably and that section of the ceiling was now hanging a good 6 inches lower than the rest. Of course late on a Saturday night there was little we could do, so I fired off an email to the landlord and the Russian and I set about moving the bed so we wouldn't be sleeping directly under it. We even discussed moving into the livingroom to sleep but I was trip weary and really just wanted to sleep in my own  room and bed. NO such luck however; whether our timing was perfect or the moving of the bedframe hastened it's demise, the ceiling came crashing down just as we finished getting everything thing out from under that area. We were lucky to not be directly under it but we were both startled, covered in plaster dust and soberly aware that the amount of debris that fell could have easily killed us had we been sleeping- 100 year old plaster is thick and heavy as bricks! The remainder of the month was a mess in every sense- all of our furniture and clothing had to be removed while the ceiling was replaced, the entire room had to be cleaned and repainted and the ceiling fan/light was replaced. Even now we are still sleeping the livingroom as there a few last touches that need to dealt with. I tend to function well with chaos in my working world but not so much in my home- frustration and weeping were common place for a few weeks as I struggled to find anything in that much disorder. Gardening was my main solace, as at least out side I could control my surrounds to a point, although I still couldn't control the cold snaps that kept many of my seedlings still in pots.

So here it is June, which is always my busiest month of the year and not surprisingly, I'm way behind in everything!  There's a mess of cooked rhubarb in the fridge waiting to be canned, ditto a bowl of tiny onions that have been brining for over a week.

The tomato and pepper seedlings need to be planted in their containers and join the squash on the roof. The raised beds are at least planted for the most part although I still have  leek seedlings and rutabaga seeds to go in. I hope I can at least manage to take care of all of that before the madness of working with Pride takes over my life.

Happy June!

Raising the Beds

Like most people, every year I feel the need to improve my gardens; to grow more and have better results that I did the previous year.  Last year I extended the backyard garden right to the edge of the yard and  finally ran out of room to expand any further in any direction. But as the space expanded so did all the surrounding trees so I still had issues with not enough sun, and being so close to the alley and not fenced in, I've had a lot of problems with dogs and the occasional human wreaking havoc in my veggies. Building a ladder  up to the flat roof gave me better options for my sun loving favourites so a good portion of the veggie production now happens up high. There's still critters to contend with up there, raccoons and squirrels for the most part but there's less plant damage and lots more sun.

April 17 2:20pm

I wasn't prepared to totally abandon the earthbound garden tho, so when an opportunity for a lot of free lumber came along, I jumped at the chance to build some raised beds. The wood is from a old building that is being renovated near by and it was destined for landfill, so I feel doubly happy at being able to create something useful and repurpose some lovely old boards that have survived close to 100 years!

The Russian helped me build two overlapping boxes and we have enough left for a cold frame. To fill them I'm using a combination of hugelkulture and lasagne bed techniques. The bottom layer is composed of sticks and chunks of rotting wood, followed by a layer of partially composted materials. Then a layer of mixed soil and coir, and a top layer of mulch, likely straw.


For now I'm only filling the larger bed in this manner- the smaller box currently contains the garlic I planted last fall so I don't want to bury them completely. That bed will get filled in slowly over the summer with compost.

 The soaking hose is laid out on top of the bottom layer and will be hooked to the rain barrel as usual. If it works as planned, the water will seep out right at the plant roots where they need it and the rotting wood will retain the excess, making it available as it decomposes. None of the water will be lost to evaporation and this should help the plants stay evenly watered, no matter what the weather.

 The larger bed will be for beans of all kinds- it gets better sun than the small bed so I may even include a tomato or two. I've also earmarked a corner for an asparagus crown. The smaller bed has garlic already up as mentioned and last week I planted 4 rows of onion sets in between the garlic rows. Before the trees begin to fill in with leaves , this bed gets a decent amount of sun but it will be mostly shade during the summer months so I'm not sure how the onions will fare. I plan to tuck some root veggies (turnips, beets, carrots) in between the rows of both beds and see what works. Gardening is always one big experiment!

Having raised beds won't change the lack of available sunlight but I'm hoping they'll allow me to take advantage of the early spring and fall growing when I do have more light. By using plastic sheeting to warm the soil earlier in spring and potentially, hoop houses to extend growing in the fall, I may be able to make this garden a bit more productive than I have previously. To aid in this plan I have taking photos and noting where the sun is at different times of day which I can use to plan better for next year!

April 22 8:45 am Full Sun

Garlic Sprouts in the Snow

See those little spiky things sticking out of the snow? Those are my poor little garlics shivering in the ground. Lured out by warmer weather and tons of rain we've been having, I sure hope they can withstand cold and ice. It's absolutely miserable out today, temperatures hovering around zero, freezing rain and snow. It's enough to make me want to crawl back into bed and never get out.

Thankfully there are a few bright spots keeping me from succumbing to permanent hibernation. One is this lovely package of heirloom beans that arrived in the mail earlier this week. A gift from KB over at My New Old House, there are a dozen different varieties, including some rare ones! Nothing I like better on a lousy day than a little seed research...

Speaking of seeds, gazing on these other little beauties also makes things a little less dismal. I held myself to eleven varieties of tomatoes this year and gambled on a single pot of 2 seeds for each. Considering the poor germination I've had in the last few years it was a pretty big gamble but so far it seems to be paying off.  At the moment I've got at least one healthy seedling per pot; only the Jaune Flammes have yet to emerge and may have to be reseeded. Nothing from the peppers yet but I sowed extra of those and they always take a little longer. I started everything much later than usual but considering the spring we're having I think I'm right on target to have things ready to go when the gardens and weather are ready.

The garden themselves are in the middle of an overhaul. As you can see from the top photo I've finally decided to build raised beds out back. An opportunity came up for us to obtain some free wood from a reno project a few houses away. It's old and weathered but still solid lengths of true 2 x 10's,  which would cost a fortune to buy so I am happy to save it from landfill and save my wallet. When it stops raining we'll hopefully be able to finish 3 boxes so I can fill the beds for planting. I have plans to do a modified hugelkulture, creating a bottom layer of chunks of wood, sticks, twigs and other plant matter before filling it with compost and top dressing with a coir and organic soil mix. More on that as it happens!

I promised Farmgal I would post the directions for making homemade mayo in a mason jar. It's been all over the internet recently but if you haven't seen it, it is quite possibly the easiest thing you can make in a jar! The Russian puts mayo on everything so it's been a real time and money saver at our place. This version requires a hand blender but I might try to see if it's possible to replicate using my eggbeaters, if they'll fit in a jar. Here's the link to Northwest Edible's post where this video is from, with recipe and full directions.

Looks like we have a few more days of nasty weather to look forward to so I'm grateful to be warm and dry with things to do inside, even if I'm eager to be outside. There's a pot of turkey stock simmering on the stove, a stack of library books to be read and garden designs to be finalized. April, do your worst!