Independence Days Week 6 - Spring in Full Bloom!

It seems like I get later each week posting my updates but I had a legitimate (at least in my mind) excuse for not getting to it this past weekend- it was my birthday on Sunday! The weather continued to cooperate so we had balmy temps all weekend and it was so nice to wear pretty spring things! I was also blessed with lovely gifts and my favourite is the magical bracelet pictured above. It's an intricate pattern of painted flowers and bugs, all glimmering with rhinestones- if you look closely there's ladybugs, butterflies, and even dragonflies! The Russian did good on this one- I adore it!

The summer like temperatures ( we're expecting another high of 26 C tomorrow- in March!) are sending things into overdrive and I've been busy with things I normally wouldn't even think of till late April. The gardens are starting without me- all the garlic is well up, the forsythia is in full bloom and I'm thinking of starting some greens this weekend because the soil is already warm and I may miss out on cold weather crops altogether if I don't start now!

Plant something: Almost every tomato seed I started in plastic bags germinated- even the Scotia Cross seeds that are 9 years old! I've been busy potting them up and if this weather holds I may have them outside as soon as they have a good set of true leaves. The volunteer tomato seedlings I potted up a few weeks ago have already had a few minutes of full sun here and there and seem better for it!




Harvest Something: Snow pea sprouts and a lone carrot that missed being harvested and wintered over in the garden. More spring onions and some green garlic as well!





Preserve Something: Led a canning class yesterday at a community centre- we made red onion jam and it was a big hit with the mostly South East Asian group.

Waste Not: I rescued all these slightly blemished potatoes and bruised fruit from being composted. It seems people reject less than perfect produce in their Good Food Box and while most of it gets diverted to our kitchen, some goes straight to compost. I have no such issues and happily take home 'compost food' as the Russian calls it. Thankfully he'll eat pretty much anything and we think free food tastes even sweeter!



Want Not: Still working on the greenhouse shelving unit. As I mentioned in the previous comments the black plastic melted in the sun so I recycled some black fabric from a photography backdrop and stapled it to the old door that acts as a privacy screen from the neighbour's wall. This time of year, that side of the deck gets lots of sun almost all day but once the trees fill in it will be almost full shade. The idea is to use it as a solar heated greenhouse for seedlings in the spring and just extra shelves come summer. We're still looking at options for the cover, either plastic or glass and I have a recycled fluorescent light fixture that I plan to install along the top.



Eat the Food: Every Tuesday evening we get together with friends for an evening we call Home on the Range. One of several chef friends, including our roommate, take turns cooking up some fantastic meals from ingredients provided by the non chefs. The highlight of last night's multi course meal was this amazing grilled local pork shoulder crusted with wild leek pesto, and pearl barley risotto with mushrooms on a bed of pureed cauliflower ad sides of roasted beets and rapini. Stupendous!


Build community: Our FoodShare neighbourhood community project kicked off last week with the delivery of 230 jars to all the residences and store fronts on our street. The jars contained seeds, a survey and a list of upcoming events we'll be hosting!






Skill Up- another tip from the lovely ladies at Harvest Kitchen sisters, this time for a technique for starting sweet potato slips- we have dozens of them emerging from the 3 currently living on top of the fridge in my office! They look a bit like aliens right now but I'm excited to see them leaf out.

All in all, a pretty successful week!

Independence Days Week 5

Crazy weather continues! On Sunday we hit 18C which is about 15 degrees higher than normal for this time of year! Now one warm day in late winter is not that unusual but it's been warm ever since and we're headed for at least a week of it! On top of our already mild winter, that's going to affect outdoor things dramatically. The maple sap is done for the season and things are greening up! I had a look around the garden on the weekend: normally the ground would still be frozen solid but my hyacinths are up, the rosebush has new leaves (not buds, leaves!) and I even picked some spring onions! Up on the deck things are much the same- my herb garden already has signs of life and the thyme, oregano and sage are already making a comeback.

I was all ready to post this update on the weekend but sitting in front of the computer when it feels like spring outside seemed like a waste of good weather so I'm late posting again. When my inner child wants me to go fly a kite, I'm all for it!


Grow Something: I've got pea sprouts, the beginnings of oyster mushrooms and a whole of tomato seeds germinating! The mushrooms are a bit of dud however- unlike last years shiitake kit which produced tons with a minimum of fuss, the oyster mushrooms keep sending out pins that just shrivel up. I'm misting and I have them covered with a clear plastic bag as directed so I don't think it's a humidity problem- I'm at a loss.


Harvest something: I repeat- Spring onions! From the garden! In March!

Preserve something: Nothing

Waste Not: Good shopping week- found a basket of less than perfect zucchini and two heads of cauliflower for a dollar/basket, two soup chickens for $6, and butter on sale for $2.99. Found a case of paper towels ( which we don't buy) when cleaning out a warehouse so I brought them home too. They have their uses.

Want not: We're building a new outdoor mini greenhouse/shelf system on the deck, using materials we have on hand and salvaged wood. It will have a black plastic backdrop to absorb heat, three levels of shelves, with one removable for larger plants and a clear plastic cover for cooler weather. I plan to install a grow light and eventually hope to incorporate a watering system using run-off from the roof, diverted from the rain barrel.

Eat the food: Lots of roasted cauliflowers soup (with whey!) and zucchini fritters.

Build community food systems: I've been busy putting together resources and getting ready to lead a workshop on how to start a community garden.


Skill Up: Tried a new method to pre-germinate seeds (which I read about on someone's blog but can't remember where!) Last year was such a disaster that I am sprouting them in bags on paper towels before potting them up. It's a good way to see if older seeds are viable and saves me planting a lot of dead seeds.

And on the home front- best news ever! The Russian had his final interview with Immigration Canada yesterday and he's here to stay! Now we can start panning for the future, though what those plans will be are still a mystery.

Happy Early Spring!

Independence Days Week 4

Last week was a blur so I'm a bit late posting - here's my Week 4 summation:


Grow Something: I'm so behind on seed starting this year that they've started without me! These accidental tomato seedling appears in a potted plant which I had added some worm compost to so I transplanted them to small pots. No idea of variety.

I also soaked some peas for sprouting as suggested by Harvest Kitchen Sisters

Harvest Something: Nothing- my peas are at least a few days away from being edible and I may leave them longer because what I really want is snow pea leaves sauteéd in garlic, mmmmmm.....


Preserve Something: I taught my co workers hot waterbath canning and we made Cold Soother Jelly with our own honey- we share hives with the Toronto Bee Co-op!

Waste Not: Big fail on this one- I found several items of food including some chicken stock gone bad in the fridge. I had left it for a time when I could fire up the pressure canner but that didn't happen, so I've realized that I either need to become comfortable with doing pressure canning for a small batch or continue to freeze some things.

Want Not: Used two pairs of worn out slippers to make a new pair

Eat the food: FoodShare held it's annual fund raiser Recipe for Change last week and as part of my job I helped set up the venue and then got to stay for the fabulous treats prepared by many of Toronto's finest chefs as well as local wine and beer.

Some highlights:

Duck mille feuille with white aspargus and truffle vinegrette


Mini apple dumplings with two types of honey from the hives at Casa Loma


A whole pork leg prosciutto!


Texan style brisket with home made mustard, apple slaw and a fried quail egg


Still warm fresh mozzarella balls serve with salt and a drizzle of olive oil.


FoodShare used bicycle powered blenders to make fruit smoothies!


Build Community Food Systems: I've been been so busy with community events,I feel like I'm neglecting my own stuff. Yesterday I worked the FoodShare booth at Seedy Sat at Scadding Court and in between speaking to people about what we do, I was able to do some garden related shopping for myself, and catch up with a lot familiar faces including Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl, Laura from Cubits as well as my favourite 'urbans', Urban Tomato and Urban Harvest! I was trying to keep my spending to a minimum but I found something lovely to purchase from each of these fine ladies (I really wanted Gayla's new book Easy Growing but that will have to wait).

Skill up - the only big purchase I made yesterday was an unexpected one- a mushroom kit! last year I purchased a Shiitake mushroom kit and we loved it! It was amazing to be able to grow our own mushrooms and although the kits are not exactly cheap, they do produce a fair amount and fresh mushrooms are so delicious. So when I saw the kits for oyster mushrooms at the Young Urban Farmers booth, I couldn't resist. And as it turns out what I purchased is even more exciting than I originally thought because it's actually King oyster mushrooms which are one of my favourites! I can't wait to see it burst into fruit and to eat wonderful fresh mushrooms!

Independence Days Week 2-3

You'd think having 4 days off a week would mean I have plenty of time for posting but somehow it just doesn't seem to work that way. So since tomorrow should be my week 3 post and I still haven't posted about week 2 it makes more sense to combine them and hopefully get on track.

Grow Something: No progress here other than transplanting a few house plants. But I did get permission today to make use of the greenhouse at work to start some cool weather crops inside and my plan is to sort through my seeds this weekend and hopefully start a few tomatoes and peppers at home.

Harvest Something: Sprouts, which were a nice addition to a grated carrots and beet slaw.

Preserve Something: Nothing. I was supposed to teach a canning class last night but it was cancelled. I have one booked for next week and quite a few in March- lots of Red Onion Jam coming!

Waste Not: While picking up chicken legs (organic, local) at a local butcher shop I spotted some pork fat which they happily threw in for free. I slow rendered it in the oven to make lard.





Want Not: Made some home made deodorant using witch hazel and a few drops of rose geranium and lavender oil in a spray bottle.

Eat the food: Made borscht with some of the home made beef stock, last of the red cabbage and some slightly shrivelled beets. I added some butter beans as well as a splash of my cider vinegar (the red wine vinegar was a bust this year sadly)








Build Community Food Systems: Held a successful seed packing workshop for the upcoming Seedy Saturday/Sunday Events! Next Sat, March 3 is the first Toronto area event at Scadding Court- details on all the events are here.

There's another Seed Exchange event in Toronto this Monday Feb 27

This one is part of the Occupy Gardens movement which I heartily endorse- how can you argue with a group that promotes World Peas?

Skill Up: Made mozzarella and ricotta cheese- the mozzarella was a bit denser than I think it should have been and could use more salt but it's quite good and we've been using it in many things.

Overall a fairly productive two weeks!

Overly Challenged

If you been following along, you probably know I've been participating in the Dark Days Challenge since Dec, although I haven't exactly managed to post consistently every week. So of course when two new challenges, Independence Days and The Urban Farm Handbook Challenge came along I thought what the heck- might as well flail at 3 of them!

Independence Days is not actually a new challenge; Sharon Astyk over at The Chatelaine's Keys created it a few years ago as a method of acknowledging accomplishments, even the minor ones and tracking your progress towards a more sustainable lifestyle. She recently kicked off a new round with eight categories to report on weekly:
Grow something
Harvest something
Preserve something
Waste not
Want not
Eat the food
Build community food systems
and the newest category, Skill up!
More details and where to post your links are here. Post days for this challenge are Fridays and began last week so I'm already late to the party, go figure!

The Urban Farm Handbook Challenge, Twelve steps to Farmlette is the brain child of the folks at Sustainable Eats, Annette Cottrell and Joshua McNichols to coincide with their book of the same name. These are a series of monthly challenges, kicking off with February: Soil Building. Other topics include Home Dairy, Foraging and other things dear to my heart.I'm pretty sure I can handle posting monthly and I love the idea of having a 'farmlette' (Maybe I should change my blog name if I complete all twelve months?)

So in order to streamline all three I give you my combined Dark-Independence-Twelve-Step post.

Grow something: I dug out my sprouting jar last week and now I have a mess of alfalfa, red clover, mustard and green lentil sprouts ready to go. I like to add them to a slaw of grated beets and cabbage. So nice to have something freshly grown in the dead of winter.




Harvest Something: Would you believe I'm still picking fresh herbs from the back deck? Well if you are experiencing the same non-winter we are, I'm sure you do My sage has survived a couple of deep freezes and snowfalls and is still fresh and pungent!





Preserve something: It was actually a couple of weeks ago now but Colette and I made some Cold Soother Jelly using Meyer lemons, limes and local honey. I've already consumed one jar and I know this recipe is a keeper! I also have a new batch of chicken stock in the fridge waiting to be pressure canned.




Waste not: I had a large jar of whey leftover from my first round of cheesemaking and I've been using it in everything from soup to crepes. Yummy! I also reconfigured my worm composter to a larger bin with a removable screen to allow the worms to move upwards into fresh food and bedding. This makes it easier to remove the nutrient rich worm poop that I'm adding to my indoor plants and will be adding to my garden as soon the ground thaws. I'm making use of the giant vermiculture system at work as well and will be bringing home buckets of worm compost to add more nutrients to my soil. No need to truck home city leaf compost this year!

Want Not: Many of the small green grocers in our neighbourhood sell off less that perfect produce in $1 baskets. I picked up a bunch of mixed onions at one location and a basket of button and shitaake mushrooms at another. For the onions I peeled the worst of them, diced them and roasted them in the oven with a bit of butter for use in soups, stews etc. The remainder we'll eat fresh. The mushrooms I'll treat similarly and some will get used in a batch of mushroom soup using some of the chicken stock and whey.

Eat the food: My most recent Dark Days meal made use of frozen homemade pumpkin gnocchi I made last fall (from fresh pumpkin, and Red Fife wheat flour), with sauteed local mushrooms, garlic and onions, whole tomatoes canned last summer and fresh sage. I topped it with my homemade feta and although it wasn't the prettiest looking dish, it was a delicious memory of last summer's garden.


Build Community Food Systems: This is one area that I have an unfair advantage. My current job as a Community Food Animator at FoodShare is all about creating and building community food systems and I'm in the midst of working on a number of different projects, including 5 upcoming Seedy Saturdays in the GTA!

Skill up: I'm feeling pretty accomplished at my new skill sets; my bacon turned out great, and I'm working on my second batch of raw milk cheese as I type this (mozzarella this time)!




So it seems three challenges may be easier than one, at least when it comes to posting about them!