How does your garden grow?

Out of control! Well, not quite, but it certainly is becoming a big square of productivity!

I always forget how bloody big squash gets (and heck, it's only July!). This is just a wee glimpse of the community garden where I am growing my veggies this year. I have been given an 8x12 block of land to do with what I will. I've got it packed full of tomatoes, carrots, peas, various winter and summer squash varieties, beets, my very own ant hill collection and aphid infestations (bleck!), beans, basil, cilantro, lettuce, kale, and on it goes.



Community gardens totally rock my world, and I believe in them wholeheartedly. But as any other organization goes, there are politics. I'm still amazed at how things that seem simple are never really that. I digress. I love that I have a place to grow some food, and I really believe it is a privilege. Lucky me to have such a lovely little spot!

Inspiration at its best!

This girl is absolutely incredible - as a summer job she started her own CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in her backyard!

Check out the NY Times piece on her: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18food-t.html

For your summer reading list:

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, has written a really worthwhile, sometimes disturbing, but oh-so-truthful book on our relationship to animals, and our tendency (if you could call it that), to, er, eat them. Not exactly light or carefree, this book really struck a chord with a conscious eater like myself. Enjoy.

http://www.eatinganimals.com/

Meat, meat, and more meat

Ideas on CBC 1 did a fantastic three-part series on our meat-eating habits back in May. It was tremendously interesting and important stuff. Have a little listen:

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/meat/index.html

More fuel for the (raw milk) fire

A wee opinion piece from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/opinion/07feldman.html?ref=opinion

International Peasants Day

April 17. The day commemorates 19 peasant farmers who, in 1996 were killed for their struggle for land reform in Brazil. All over the world there will be events happening to acknowledge their important efforts, and to raise awareness about food sovereignty and to speak against corporate control over the world's food supply.

Please do take the time to read about the truly admirable and difficult work done by La Via Campesina, the international organization dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of peasants, farmers, the landless, women, indigenous peoples, and agricultural workers throughout the world: viacampesina.org.

In Halifax, where I currently live, there will be a public march in solidarity with La Via Campesina, and a big food-celebration-corporation-protest-shindig on the North Commons. Information is here: http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/3242.

Gracious Greens

These are the delicious greens I planted on my windowsill last month. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago - now they're even bigger and more lush, and looking delicious! Will keep you posted.

Eating Animals

Deer. I ate little steakettes, which may or may not be a made-up word. Marinated in beer, barbequed to the definitely done stage, but still delicious. Not too gamey, but just enough. In my freezer I have the gift of ground deer (good for burgers), home-grown spare ribs (tonight's supper), and some pork chops and bacon. A visit to a long-lost friend and her life in the country yielded these gems. And I will eat them. Guilt-free.

I pose as a pseudo vegetarian from time to time, it's true. Rarely do I buy meat (fish is the most common, though still rare, and never beef, pork, or poultry) as my compromise to eating meat when it's served to me. My wish to reduce my meat intake for primarily sustainability reasons has worked out quite well so far. Although sometimes I get concerned looks when I say, "I eat meat - I just don't cook it," it's an easy compromise, and I remain a low maintenance dinner guest. I also simply like meat from time to time, and am glad that I've found this balance.

Now, I love lamb. It's definitely my favorite meat, but I know it gives some people the willies. "How can you eat those cute little creatures?!" I'm told, however, that they are one of those fail-safe sustainably raised animals and that I shouldn't worry. For myself I haven't looked into this, but it comes from a source I trust. So I bought some stew meat a couple of weeks ago, and for the first time in five years, actually cooked meat for myself! Wow - melt in your mouth! I've been itching to take another go at it, but I had forgotten how much cheaper it is not to buy meat. I think I'll slowly work some of it back into my diet. Until then, I've got a few days worth of yummy animal delight waiting for me in the ice-box...

Wintertime Kitchen Woes

Alas, much too long since I last wrote. It's entirely possible that my thoughts of food happen so regularly and without bells and whistles that the normalcy of my food life seems simply dull to me. Unless something exciting is brewing, and stirring, I seem to not think to write. This habit must stop. Food is constant, and new ideas are always hitting me in the face, even small ones, and they factor into my kitchen creations.

For instance, I have started sprouting seeds at home. After much nudging from a friend to get me started, I finally have. So, this led to a conversation with someone about using sprouts in breakfast food! Woah. Cut up some apple or pear, mix in some raisins, nuts, flax seed, honey, and -- you got it -- sprouts (I'm using a spicy lentil crunch, but something like sunflower would probably be ideal), and a dollop of yogurt or splash of milk, and voila! Breakfast sprout masterpiece. It's saving me the heartache of not being able to grow things in the ground by seeing things burst into bits of food in just a few days in just a jar. Amazing.

My roommate brought home one of those clamshells of salad greens, the big ones, a couple of weeks ago. Having acquired the knack for saving things (as if you need to have a "knack" for something like that), I thought it would make a perfect greenhouse planter for my window sill. The cloudy mucky sky that has been February hasn't helped much in my endeavors to grow a yummy salad mix, but it is on the go. Fresh greens in winter? Yes please!

As of late, my food budget has been pretty small, so I've been getting creative. I made a delicious black bean and tomato soup the other week, which probably cost $5.00 at the most for four or five meals of delicious food, and a rice pudding yesterday, also for pennies (another delicious, filling, and inexpensive dish). I'm amazed at how little it can cost to eat delicious, nutritious food. Local dried beans are easy to come by in February (protein and loads of vitamins), potatoes (carbs), root veggies and squash (pure goodness), and eggs (more protein) are all close by, and they form the basis of my diet, adding in other treats and accents as needed. It feels good to not only eat this way -- my body certainly thanks me -- but the more control I have over my finances, especially with regards to food, is really empowering.

February can be a good month, even when you don't have the stockpile of preserves from your garden the summer before. Really. I'm living it.

Raw Milk Victory

I admit, the skeptic deep down got the better of me. Luckily, I was proven wrong, and my faith in justice has rung true once again.

Michael Schmidt, the Ontario farmer who got in trouble for distributing raw milk to cow shareholders was acquitted of the charges last Friday. The National Post did a great bit on it:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2470235

I've waffled a bit on where I stand on this *broad* issue; I mean, Michael Schmidt has my full support, and I wholeheartedly believe that if well-informed individuals want to drink unpasteurized milk from Schmidt's farm, then they should not be prohibited from doing so. However, Schmidt is raising cows in the right way, not in a large-scale conventional way that makes pasteurization necessary - it does kill disease, after all. And when everyday citizens don't choose to seek out a safely produced raw milk (and face it, most people won't), then pasteurization is good.

And for the rest, options are good too. Way to go, Schmidt. This is food sovereignty at its best!

Halifax foodie scene

I've made a new year's resolution to write more. Hopefully it sticks.

I've finally settled my life in Halifax after six months of floating, traveling, staying with friends, and generally benefiting from the good will of other people. That is a tough life, I must admit, especially when it comes to food, and the sort of investment I want to make in my food life. I've been itching for a while to plant garlic, asparagus, and other plants that don't appear right away. And I want to buy in bulk! But when you're living the life of a half-hearted vagabond, those options are not open. So, to finally put down some roots, to say "I have time. I'm not going anywhere soon" is probably the most relief I have felt in a very long time.

And Halifax, I continue to discover, is a great place in which to do that. Lots of great people interested in local food, sharing information, and tricks on where to get the best local sunflower oil for the best price, is really starting to make me feel part of something. And it's gooood. It's hard not to get excited when there is the Local Source food market a short walk away from my apartment, the Grainery Food Co-op just a bit further, and a rockin' Saturday Farmer's Market to boot! I can start changing my habits, my routines, and dig deep into the promises that are here.

(I also had the BEST London Fog of my life yesterday at the Just Us! cafe on Spring Garden. I think I am a new person because of it.)

So, here I go, into the food world of Halifax!