Farming in the urban shadow in Waterloo, Ontario

Posted on January 8, 2012 by admin

Urban farm pressure. A combine harvests wheat off Fischer-Hallman Road in Kitchener. As Kitchener’s suburbs have grown outward, the once-quiet countryside has become a busy suburb. Photo by David Bebee.

“Urbanization forces farmers to become land speculators, even the ones that don’t want to be,”

By Greg Mercer,
Record staff
Jan 06 2012

Excerpt:

Flourishing cities are good for a lot of things. But when you’re a farmer, growing food in the urban shadow can also be a real pain in the neck.

Waterloo Region is home to about 1,400 farms, and the roughly $400-million sector still employs about 3,500 people directly. But as our population swells past 550,000 residents, some farmers are feeling increasingly out of place on land their families have farmed for decades.

And no wonder — Waterloo Region has lost about 32,375 hectares (80,000 acres) of working farmland since the 1920s, according to Statistics Canada.

It hasn’t all gone to urban sprawl, but much of it has. In the 1950s, the region’s built-up urban areas totalled 38 square kilometres. Today, they’ve swollen to over 202 square km, according to a study by the University of Waterloo’s map library.

Many farmers who own land near this region’s urban areas have had experiences similar to Henhoeffer’s. People trespass through their fields and tear up their land joyriding.

Read the complete article here.

Forgive the tardy (and now married) blogger

Posted on October 19, 2011 by admin

It’s been a month already? What happened?! Oh yeah. A little thing called life.

Chris and I are now married (yay!) and our wedding was a beautiful, blissful love-in with our family and friends. There are some photos floating around out there but I’m waiting to post about all the details until I get the final photos from my dear friend Angie Griffith.

In the meantime, we’ve just been catching our breath and settling back into a routine. Work has been an incredible challenge for both of us, and some big opportunities sit on the horizon that we’re considering. We’ve also had to say goodbye to Great Aunt Kay recently, who was a dear member of Chris’s family and the former owner of our home. So needless to say, life has been keeping us on our toes.

I’ve been trying to catch up on gardening and finally after two weekends of squeezing in some face time I have finally found the end of my tomato vines. The last batch is slow-roasting overnight in the oven as we speak (my newest favourite way to preserve tomatoes: simply halve, lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with a tiny amount of olive oil and roast at 200 degrees F overnight; then freeze or use to make a thick sauce or salsa and can from there).

The garlic is in, and I’ve just got a few more house (garden) keeping things to do before I’m ready for fall, including draining and storing the rain barrels, tidying up the backyard gardens and turning the compost really well. One more afternoon of nice weather should do the trick.

Further getting ready for the cold season I tried out my pressure canner for the second time this weekend to turn out a couple batches of chicken stock. Not having to use up valuable freezer space with stock and not having to thaw it before using it is a real plus. I cranked out 10 one-litre jars of the stuff after brewing up a giant pot using about four carcasses that I’d been storing in the freezer for the purpose. I had some spindly carrots I harvested from the garden that were hardly worth using for anything else, and some shallots that I’d harvested way too late that are now sprouting. I threw all that together with the usual herbs, garlic and dried mushrooms I prefer to use in stock, and it will be the perfect remedy for all sorts of things, not the least of which is a nice fresh chicken soup on a sick day.

You can watch a video of the pressure canner in action — Chris was tickled to see it doing it’s thing — he wasn’t home the first time I tried it out.

The hardest thing in getting back to real life has been dealing with an ongoing health issue that affects my mobility and dexterity. I’m seeing my doctor and I have an appointment in a month with a specialist but there’s little that remedy’s the problem right now, and some mornings it’s too painful to walk around. It’s been going on for months now, but seems to be slowly getting worse. Sleep is often a challenge as the discomfort is often worse overnight and in the mornings. Hopefully soon though I’ll be on the mend and back to my old self.

In the meantime, stay tuned for a wedding post!

Beets galore

Posted on August 4, 2011 by admin

Last week after getting home from a weekend at the cottage I inspected the beet patch to see how things are going. Low and behold I had gargantuan Chioggias coming out of my ears. I should have known, as they are the earliest of the beets I like to grow. I also have some Detroit Reds and some Detroit Goldens on the go. I’m afraid to see how big they are. Between the very gregarious patch of Rainbow Swiss Chard I have going (I am so sick of chard!!) and the beets, I can barely keep up.

Pickled Chioggia Beets

Chioggias (aka candy cane beets) are a little unconventional for pickling as they tend to bleed out all their lovely candy cane striping, but I love their unusual look all the same. As you can see each jar is a little different depending on which jar got the beets with more red in them.

I’ll probably can some more pickled beets with the Detroit Reds to get some more traditional looking ones. I eat these things like candy. Its the one pickle I make that I can be sure I will always eat tons of. I might try pickling some of the Goldens too — I’m curious how they’ll look in the jar.

Read my pickled beets recipe…

Finally some rain

Posted on July 28, 2011 by admin

Over the last week we’ve finally had a decent dose of rain. It’s not enough — we need a lot more — but I won’t complain. Today was a very misty one, and everything is pleasantly coated with little drops of dew.

Soaked Smoke Bush

It’s incredibly sticky outside now though, because while we’ve gotten some rain, the heat is still hanging around. Not like it was last week though. I’ll take the rain and a little humidity over 38 degrees C and a lot of humidity any day of the week. I’m just pleased that my rain barrels have refilled again. I’m not sure what the official rainless stretch was but it was easily a month if not more.

Positively pickled

Posted on July 14, 2011 by admin

I think my house smelled like dill pickles for a week after this.

Dilly beans

It started with garlic dills and dilly beans.

Garlic dills

And then I bought more cucumbers for making relish. But I had way, way too many. So they became sliced garlic dills, with some added chili to kick them up a notch.

Spicy sliced garlic dills

I made only a half batch of relish last year to see how we liked it. It was so great I made a full batch this year.

Homemade cucumber relish

And for the first time this year I’ve had success with chard. I have no idea why it didn’t cooperate in the past. But this summer there is an abundance of this lovely stuff.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Summer is wonderful.

Ode to my Dad

Posted on June 19, 2011 by admin

It’s Father’s Day and since Canada Post workers are locked out, and my card to my Dad is likely still sitting in the post box by my office, I thought I’d do a little shout out to my papa from here.

My Dad works as a metal fabricator for a local shop, which comes in pretty handy when I need some random ‘thing’ created. This spring Chris and I had some trees removed and some limbs trimmed in our very shaded backyard, and now we feel there’s enough light to grow more veggies back there, albeit probably more cool-weather loving varieties. Learning from the creation of our previous raised beds, we knew we wanted to go with either composite lumber or cedar this time, and to make assembly quick and easy, we asked my Dad if he could whip up some corner brackets out of stainless steel. We had 12 done, with pre-drilled holes, for three new beds.

Stainless steel corner bracket courtesy of my Dad

In the end we went with cedar since the composite was so prohibitively expensive. I had a lot of leaf compost available so I lined the bottoms with it, using thick layers of newspaper in the spots that needed some grass suppression. This week we had a (way too large) load of triple mix dropped on our driveway, and now the beds are full, waiting for some (late) planting.

Three new raised beds, awaiting dirt

Last year I also asked Dad if he thought he could make me a crank-style compost sifter. I had previously been using a pan that I had to shake manually to sift, and the amount of compost I’m working with makes that process just ridiculous. Lee Valley makes one of these types of compost sifters, but it’s around $70. The one Dad made me is magnificent, and works like a charm. I can blast through a composter’s worth of black gold in no time, allowing me to efficiently claim compost from my two bins twice a year or more, for the garden.

Crank-style compost sifter made by my Dad

So here’s thanks to my Dad for enabling my urban agriculture experiment — for helping me stick to my roots and for being always so helpful and inventive. Love you!!! Happy Father’s Day Dad!

We have a new neighbour

Posted on April 30, 2011 by admin

Cooper's Hawk

For a while now I’ve noticed a couple birds of prey around our hood. A couple years ago I snapped a photo of one in the tree across the street, guessing that it was a Cooper’s Hawk, and earlier this spring I often saw a couple of them flying around within our block. About a week and a half ago I noticed one swoop in over the park where we take Luna to play fetch, and saw it land in one of the willows there, at a nest, and so I’ve been trying to figure out what they are ever since. This morning I took Luna to the park again and the pair of birds were hanging out in the tree, one on the nest, the other chilling out on a branch. And of course I left the camera at home.

Cooper's Hawk Nest

So after a good game of fetch I took Luna home and grabbed the camera and went back. Of course by then the birds were getting a bit more active and I only had about five minutes before they were off hunting and out of sight. I didn’t have the camera settings correct so these are pretty grainy but that first one is shows a pretty decent amount of detail.

From everything I’ve read and looked at I really can’t tell what differentiates a Cooper’s Hawk from a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, aside from their eye colours (and even Sharp-Shinned Hawks get redder eyes the older they get). So my best guess is a Cooper’s Hawk unless someone can correct me. Even their calls are quite similar. Their colouring and markings are remarkably similar. In these two, the barring is subtle and almost invisible, and their overall body colouring is quite light — grey on the back and rusty/creamy undersides. Their tails are barred with black and tipped with a bit of white.

Cooper's Hawk

Just in time for spring: mittens!

Posted on March 14, 2011 by admin

Garden Nerd mittens

These babies are looooong overdue. I think I started them around this time last year. The hibernated for a while. And then when I picked up the torch this spring to finally get them done, I finished the left mitt, which fit perfectly, and then realized the right mitt was way, way too small. I tried blocking them to see if they’d stretch but no luck. So after much debate I decided to start the right mitt over, and cut off the cuff of the original so that at least I could skip doing that part over again, as I knew trying to unravel the mitt from the top, after all its ends were woven in, would only end badly — in say, a trip to the psych ward.

Garden Nerd mittens

It’s quite hard to get the right tension when doing colour work, but I think I’ve been doing enough lately, what with the socks, that I’m finally getting the hang of maintaining very light tension, which seems to be the key to success. Unfortunately I’ve been experiencing some carpal tunnel lately, especially this past weekend, so the knitting is on hold for a while. Unfortunately I don’t think my sewing is really doing me any favours in this regard, either. So much for my great idea that sewing would take the pressure off any repetitive strain from my knitting. I’m trying to stay off the keyboard as much as possible too, although that’s pretty hard when you work an office job.

Anyhoo, there are some small mistakes in these mitts, and I really wish they had a thumb gusset. If I were to make them again ever, I’d figure out a mod to include one. I just don’t like how restrictive they feel in the thumb area. But they are so cute, I have to overlook it. These are designed by SpillyJane Knits, based in Windsor, Ontario. She has the most amazing colourwork designs, although if I’ve learned anything, I need to size up her patterns a bit as they seem to be on the small side. The greens and brown are Malabrigo sock yarn in Lettuce and Turner, and Cordovan, and the pink and orange are Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply.

It looks like spring is really on the way, with a high of 8 degrees C expected tomorrow, so I likely won’t need them for long but they’re just the thing to get me in the spirit of gardening season.

The Bottom Line

Posted on February 15, 2011 by admin

Something bright and colourful during dull gray February.

I’ve recently tuned into this podcast by environmental hero David Suzuki, called The Bottom Line, on CBC. According to the website, The Bottom Line “explores the disconnect between our modern values and our relationship with the Earth. It is a celebration of our biological makeup that dictates our most basic human needs – the real bottom line.”

Much of the content is shockingly compelling, and sadly, somewhat apocalyptic, but the depressive news is balanced with extraordinary interviews with planet-warriors like famed marine biologist Sylvia Earle, Polyface farmer Joel Salatin, seed diversity champion Vandana Shiva, and respected ecology professor David Schindler. Their discussions are in-depth and fascinating. I was especially captivated by the discussion with Joel Salatin, whose self-deprecating humor belies a deep connection with the natural processes of the Earth, and a huge commitment to supporting the cycles of giving-back-to-in-order-to-keep-taking-of our natural bounty.

I highly encourage tuning into this series, which is available for free download as a postcast via iTunes. Enjoy!

I really need to play with this lens more often

Posted on November 7, 2010 by admin

The light was just perfect this weekend so I pulled out the 50 mm lens yesterday, for the first time in ages, possibly since we got the camera. I know, sad. I’m pretty stuck on using the 18-200 mm, which is just so versatile. But maybe not anymore…

Purple basil

I just love how you can get exceptional detail and beautiful soft bokeh side-by-side, without any post production fancy filters. I definitely need to get to know it better.

Barberry bush (I think!)

Diggin' the Dirt

A little gardening, quilting, knitting, cookin' and more.

Category Archives: In the Garden