The Farmhouse, finding space for foodcapes

City Gardens have City Neighbours, as I've mentioned before.
Check out the story of The Farmhouse, they are a group of roommates motivated to turn their rented garden into a foodscape paradise. Unfortunately one of their neighbours did not appreciate the aesthetic of their permaculture garden and called in the city to  make use of an archaic by-law Untidy Premises By-law no. 4548 which helps to restrict the type of landscaping residents of Vancouver can have in their lawns. I wonder if anyone has ever called in this by-law in regards to the plastic grass going in lawns around North Van?
Two Ends of the Spectrum.
 Vive el Jardin Libre!

Storing Seed until the Sping

The Harvest is now, mostly over. The seeds that I've intended to save have been taken in and dried for a week or two, and are now hard enough to chance surviving through to spring. How I store them will increase the chance of the seeds remaining alive through the winter.

They must be kept dry, because water activates them to come alive, and grow, not something that you want them to do this time of year. I collect packs of silica to keep them dry. Silica comes in boxes of almost anything manufactured in the tropics, so feel free to politely harass retail stores to keep some for you, I get mine from my partners Bike Shop, but electronic stores are also a good bet, or I've noticed they come with packs of Nori. Silica is also reusable, empty it out of the paper packages unto a baking sheet and dry it in the oven at a super low heat.

Most Seed you buy comes in paper envelopes, and you could make your own envelopes really inexpensively, but I prefer using clean small glass jars, like the type that used to house jam, or artichoke hearts. These keep my seed really protected and look so pretty.

Besides protecting your seeds from water you also want to consider protecting them from extreme heat, extreme cold and light. Some of the experts recommend keeping your seed in the fridge, but with three grocery shoppers in my house this is not possible. Instead, they will be stored in a box on a self in a cool indoor storage closet.

City Gardens, City Neighbours

I believe Urban Gardening offers a future to agriculture and civilization. But it doesn't come without its problems, most of which derive from the BIG problem we are all facing, WASTE (aka pollution, litter, garbage.)
Most people have heard of The Broken Window Theory, I feel that it very much applies to Urban Gardening.
Flower gardens and Food gardens are different in their function, but also in their appearance, and in the wintertime, a food garden can look a little disheveled. I have found it important to keep my food gardens looking clean and neat, just to keep the neighbours respecting them. Somehow, sometimes, it happens that I get a little behind on cleaning up a bed and making it look neat and maintained, it never seems to take long until the garbage begins to accumulate. This fall one of my neighbours seems to have mistook my dead stand of quinoa as an inviting dumping ground for their excess bamboo clippings, I guess their Yard Trimmings Bin was full.
Its a piss off when stuff like this happens, but a nice reminder to keep everything looking spruced up. Because it can get much worse, digging up and around broken beer bottles is common in city gardens, finding doggy bags (not from restaurants) and cigarette butts is expected. But this spring, we cleaned up a "hobo" nest that was across the alley from my garden, and we found needles in it. Not what you want to see near to where so many children play. We will clean up any extra garbage around because we want to show people we respect this space, and hope that they will too.

...Its like in Supermario World!

Amanita Muscaria! also called Fly Agaric

It looks unreal, like its made out of plastic, but its real, and it crops up all over lawns in Vancouver starting in mid September. However, it isn't really edible, well some types are (although probably not tasty) but others types are DEADLY. So look, love, but don't taste.

Fava Beans and Cover Cropping

Cover cropping is an old idea, that is gaining popularity as humanity begins to yearn for agricultural practices that do not poison the earth. Cover crops protect soil from erosion through the winter months by locking the soil down with their roots, they help add much organic material into the soil once you turn them in, and you can choose a cover crop that fixes nitrogen and helps fertilize your plants. 

The soil in my garden is high in clay, so I felt that the added organic matter a cover crop will provide could be useful. I chose to use Fava Beans because they fix nitrogen in the soil and they are relatively small plants that are easy to turn under with just a shovel, something a small time gardener, without a mechanical tiller, needs to consider. 

I bought the package at the West Coast Seeds head office in Delta, I bought enough to plant a small field. I also bought a legume seed inoculant, which is a manufactured form of the bacteria that fixes the nitrogen from the atmosphere for the fava beans. These bacteria will happen anyways where legumes are planted, but inoculating them ensures that there is an adequate supply so you can get the most nitrogen possible. It is a great learning experience any how.

Here are the Fava Beans

This is the inoculant in a jar with the beans and water

To coat the seed, just shake

They got planted in last season Quinoa bed, which will be the Mayan Garden next year, the corn should love the extra nitrogen

Walnuts

Walnuts, they are rich in omega-3s, full of protein and super tasty, not to mention extremely familiar to most palates, as they are grown in Europe, Asia and the Americas for both food, and wood.

On a recent visit to Galiano Island, I had a chance encounter with this lovely Walnut Tree, which just happened to be ready for the harvest.

This is the trunk, you can see holes drilled into it from the local Woodpeckers, trying to get at some bug inside the tree. Infestations are usually a sign that the plant is under stress, but this tree is old and fruiting, so I think it is only a minor concern.

These are the leaves.

Here is the fruit, bursting with a nut inside. I was amazed at how different Walnuts and Hazelnuts look like on the tree.

The grass was so long under the tree that it was tricky to see the nuts on the ground, so I had to "feel" them by gently treading over the area.

I got enough, and washed them up. I was warned to wash them with gloves on, because the preservative present in the fruit is strong and will dye your hands black for weeks.

I had to dry them next. This picture looks pretty, but remember, heat rises, so to be more effective, put the nuts you want to dry above the heat source.

After an hour and a half of shelling the walnuts (talk about slow food!) I had enough for my recipe, and I got so good a small miracle happened...

I extracted a walnut intact from its shell, not an easy thing to do.

As the nuts were still raw, and soft, I choose to put them in a raw recipe. My sistah Jill of illumination introduced me to Ani Phyo and the raw diet. I prefer raw foods in the warmer months, but this recipe of Ani's feels warm and fits fall very well.

Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice"

1lb squash (I used a japanese Blue Kabocha that I grew in my garden)

1/2 small yellow onion

1tbs cumin seeds

1tbs coriander powder

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup walnuts, crushed

2tsp sea salt

Put small batches of squash into the food processor at a time, processing into small pieces.

Put processed squash into large bowl, add rest of ingredients and mix well. 

Enjoy!

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are not only easy to find growing in northern areas, they are also one of the more distinctive tasting nut. They have a robust flavour that pairs well with both savoury dishes like mushroom pea stir fry, or, of course, in sweet concoctions, especially with chocolate, like nutella...

For Thanksgiving, my family and I drove to Aggasiz to the Hazelnut U-pick

You can visit them too at Hazelnut U-Picks

I was particularly interested in seeing the trees, because I know they are around Vancouver, and so being able to identify them would help my foraging abilities. But also because I had read that Hazel trees make the best garden stakes, and I understood why as soon as I saw how straight these offshoots are.

The Hazelnuts grow out of a flower, they are the center of the flower, and they harden on the tree,

then the nuts fall to the ground. I was surprised to learn that the nuts are harvested off of the ground.

Just like this.

We got 10lbs, which cost us 20$

Then, in honor of my sister, who got us both hooked on the stuff in France, I made nutella.

I followed a recipe from this sweet blog Su Good Sweets I will reprise it here for you.

Su Goods, Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Yield: about 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 cups whole raw hazelnuts
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. Preparation: Line a baking sheet with foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Make the caramel: Combine the sugar and water in a 3- to 4-cup saucepan. To prevent crystallization, don’t stir it again during the cooking. Cover and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Remove the lid and wipe down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush or a scrunched up paper towel dipped in water. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, or until the sugar’s completely dissolved. Uncover and cook until the syrup looks like pale amber maple syrup. If your pan’s dark and you can’t gauge the color of the syrup, spoon a drop or two onto a white saucer. Swirl the pan gently, continuing to cook and test the color until the syrup turns medium amber.
3. Immediately pour the caramel onto the lined baking sheet. Tilt the sheet to spread the caramel as thinly as possible. Let harden completely, about 15 minutes.
4. Toast the nuts: Meanwhile, place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven until the skins are almost black and the meat is dark brown, about 15 minutes. Stir the nuts halfway through baking to ensure an even color.
5. To get rid of the bitter skins, wrap the cooled hazelnuts in a clean kitchen towel or paper towel. Rub until most of the skins come off, but don’t worry if some remain.
6. Make the nut butter: When the caramel is completely cool, break it into small pieces and pulverize in a food processor. Try to get the caramel as fine as possible at this stage (it won’t get finer once you add the nuts).
7. Add the nuts and process until they have liquefied, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Be patient; the nuts will go from a fine meal, to forming a ball around the blade, to nut butter. Add the cocoa, vanilla and salt and process until smooth.
8. Transfer the spread to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator for1-2 months. For best results, stir the chocolate-hazelnut spread before using.