Consumable Earth – Kamloops

With the change of each season there is a new set of tasks and jobs and projects that arises. Shortly before the frost hit my girlfriend and I filled out pockets with paper bags and with a pencil behind my ear we wandered through her yard gathering seeds that will be planted next spring. I’ve come home on more than one occasion now carefully clutching a handful of seeds that I knocked off a flower head while walking the streets of my neighborhood.

Having recently moved into a home that I plan on spending the next decade in I would like to get a head start on whatever I can in regard to the gardens for the coming spring. I’ve been talking to people who garden and filling my head with all the sorts of tasks that I can do now before the ground freezes so that I will be better prepared to get my garden growing next year.

Next up: Raised beds.

It turns out that building and preparing a raised bed is a perfect fall activity. Building them now and filling them with earth, leaves, compost, manure and/or straw will give the soil lots of time to settle before I try to plant things in them in the spring. Fortunately I have a stockpile of wood neatly stacked along one of my fences that I have recently taken an interest in. In particular the 12′ x 36′ cedar boards that I have now decided will be what I use to build my raised garden beds.

There is 15 yards of gravel coming to my house later this week. The gravel will become what my beds sit on. The entire area will be gravelled so that I don’t have to deal with weeds and to provide good drainage for my boxes.

I’ve screwed together 6 3ftx6ft  frames that will become my beds. Each of them is held together at the corners with a wedge of 2×4 (also from the scrap pile) that has it’s pointy part sticking down. The idea is that they will serve as little stakes that keep the beds in place and provide the boards with some support. I guess. I don’t know I just read this all on the internet and copied what people told me to do. I’ll keep you posted about how they hold up.

Next project… indoor winter greens…

Back in the 20s, North Americans could buy fresh raw whole milk, real clabber and buttermilk, luscious naturally yellow butter, fresh farm cheeses and cream in various colors and thicknesses. Today’s milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to heart disease to cancer, but when North Americans could buy Real Milk, these diseases were rare. In fact, a supply of high-quality dairy products was considered vital to North American security and the economic well being of the nation.

What’s needed today is a return to humane, non-toxic, pasture-based dairying and small-scale traditional processing, in short . . . a campaign for real milk.

In an effort to provide this for my family and my community I would like to put out there to anyone interested in joining a cow share in Kamloops. A cow share is basically an arrangement in which a group of people all own shares of a cow collectively. Because we all own the cow it is then legal for us to distribute it’s raw unprocessed milk amongst ourselves. Not sell it. We can get together and make cheeses for our families. Enjoy fresh real cream and home whipped butter.

If this is something that you would be willing to support please contact me or leave a comment. I have pasture in Westsyde and husbandry skills. I need milkers; minimum two for morning shifts and two for evening shifts. There would be benefits to being a milker. For more information on cow shares please visit the hard working folks at http://www.wildthingorganics.ca

I am jealous. I will admit it. This fellow blogger grew her own popcorn. She has a small garden at home and grows as much of her own produce as she can. I have posted in the past about the Dervaes Family who have steadily worked at transforming this ordinary city lot into an organic and sustainable micro-farm. After reading about this inspirational family I dare you to not look at land use in cities differently.

Around here I noticed that corn was planted in a few of the city’s plots I assume for display purposes but imagine if it wasn’t. What if all of the grass we grew and cut down was actually food like wheat or barley? What if we had ‘lawns’ for a couple weeks after a harvest and we played on the lawn for those few weeks as a celebration of the harvest playing games of baseball and soccer. Our yards instead change with nature and it’s course of growth instead of being forced into conformity.

Just a thought… I’m planting popcorn in a block next year.

I’ve long had this thought that cutting down grass and having a lawn in general is a really odd thing to do. Grass is food and if you let it grow it produces something that we all eat a whole lot of – wheat. I want to grow useful grass in my yard. I want to cut it two or three times a season and we can play on the ‘grass’ for a couple weeks after we cut it. There is a field near my childhood home where a community baseball game occurs three times a year after the hay is cut down. So cool.

Anyway aside from swapping all my conventional grass for barley, spelt and millet I thought some others might like a local source of flours and whole grains.

Fieldstone Granary is located in Armstrong and is the only organic grain grower that I am aware of. I did at one time have information on a spelt and wheat grower in Kaslo, I will have to dig that up for you.

A while ago I came across this trailer about a family living in the middle of suburbia who is literally self sufficient. Infact they grew 45 tons of vegetables on their typical suburban lot! It truly is amazing and inspiring. I have planted a garden this year that won’t come close to this but hey, you have to start somewhere right?

They have made a movie about it and it is called the Homegrown Revolution you can check out the trailer. I assure you it will cause you to look differently at our use of land in city centers.

Check out their story at Path to Freedom.com and be inspired to create your own freedom from the conventions of society that we have been led to believe is the only way.

Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm

Village Cheese – home of squeaky cheese!

Carmeli’s Goat Cheese

OK Cheese – making soya cheese products

Happy Days Goat Dairy

Okanagan’s Choice Cheese

Vernon, BC V1T 7G8
(250) 545-8879

- great article about Okanagan Cheese production

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I found this recipe on a wordpress blog the other day. I have been on the lookout for a good granola recipe and this one seems like it might be just that.

If the method seems slightly odd and unfamiliar it is because this is a raw food recipe and you can read more about the raw food revolution here and for ingredients that are quite close to home you can source them at Real Raw Food in Naramata.
gRAWnola
recipe by Ellen Allard

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked in water overnight
1/2 cup sunflower seed, soaked in water overnight
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked in water overnight
1/4 cup walnuts, soaked in water overnight
1/4 cup almonds, soaked in water overnight
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 apple, cored
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup pitted dates, soaked for 30 minutes in boiling water
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp shredded coconut, unsweetened

Drain the buckwheat and rinse repeatedly in a strainer. I found it best to run my fingers through the buckwheat as I did this. It took a LONG time to drain it until it wasn’t slimey anymore. Offputting indeed, but it’s kind of like flax seeds which get slimey when wet. Set aside.

Drain the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and almonds.

Put the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, flax seeds, apple, and sea salt in a food processor and pulse, being very careful not to grind it into a paste. You still want it to have some texture.

Add the drained dates, cinnamon and agave and process until just blended. Remove from food processor and put in large mixing bowl. Add drained buckwheat groats and coconut. Mix until blended.

Spread onto teflex sheets and dehydrate for about 10 hours at 115 degrees.

When the dehydrating is complete, remove the gRAWnola from the teflex sheets and break into small pieces. Store in a container of your choice, though doesn’t it look lovely in the glass jar!!!???

This is a great snack right out of the jar. Or have it for breakfast – I poured pieces of gRAWnola into a small bowl, topped it with strawberries and homemade almond milk and had a yummy breakfast!

I just found a great site and fabulous resource for people looking for local close to earth food sources. www.eatkamloops.org is a group committed to helping our community:

• discover local, healthy food sources
• learn about traditional foods and food preparation
• encourage the cultivation of heirloom seeds and
  heritage breeds
• become aware of regional and national food security issues
• lobby for freedom in food preparation and commerce

The site is maintained by Carolyn Cooper. You should check it out.

I was reading the events at Access Kamloops and came across this one. I also picked up some information about it at the Kamloops Farmers Market on opening weekend.

The Kamloops Urban Hen Movement is having a week long event! It’s got movies, lectures and workshops. Go to Omelettes for Everyone for the schedule.

Continue reading AgriCULTURE Week – April 27 to May 3, 2009…

The first markets of the year, offering bedding plants, early veggies, baked goods and art work, will be held:

Saturday, April 18th
8am-12noon
3rd & St Paul Street
(in front of Stuart Wood School)

Wednesday, April 29th
8am-2pm

5th & Victoria Street
(in front of the library)

For more information visit Kamloops Farmers Market.
See you there!

This post was originally found at http://soundkamloops.org an amazing site dedicated to changing thoughts to action.