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!)

They need to do this at every school

Posted on November 6, 2010 by admin

The Toronto Star published a story this week about Scarborough’s Bendale Business and Technical Institute’s market garden, believed to be the first of it’s kind in Canada. This high school garden is a partnership with FoodShare, and was started with an 11-month, $65,000 Ontario Community Go Green Fund grant. The garden has a whopping 26 raised beds, each 4 feet wide by 20 to 40 feet long! And they intend to grow that by adding another 35 gardens at another area on school grounds. That is just incredible!

The food they’re growing is being used by culinary arts students and served up in the school cafeterias. Brilliant!

Makes my blood boil!

Posted on October 22, 2010 by admin

An article appeared in the Toronto Star today about the City of Toronto Transportation department squashing a family’s front-yard veggie garden. A garden where they were growing food to teach their four young children about urban agriculture. Because of “encroachment on city property.” Instead, Allan Smithies, Manager, Traffic Planning/Right-of-Way Management at City of Toronto thinks that sod (and maybe a few flowers) is the only thing that’s appropriate.

Mr. Smithies, you need to get with the times. Ever heard of the urban agriculture movement? If there was an issue with sight lines at an intersection (blocked by say, tall stalks of corn, for example), I could see having a discussion with the family letting them know that this causes a safety concern and that they should keep lower-growing vegetables in the problem area. But this guy just send them a letter saying the vegetable patch must go, or else. What an ill-informed, head-in-the-sand, Draconian bureaucrat.

I have a mind to write Mr. Smithies a letter of complaint. Thankfully, my raised beds are on my property. I should also note that the other day I noticed another small raised bed on the front lawn of a house one street north of me! In this neighbourhood, I can’t tell you how heart-warming that is. Hope they don’t get a letter from the evil Transportation pencil pushers.

Moving up in the world

Posted on October 20, 2010 by admin

Our Porch - Before

So… after trying half a dozen contractors over the spring and summer to give us quotes, and only a couple of them actually showing up to give a quote, and both of those coming in at figures hovering around $8,000 to $9,000, we finally found a reliable contractor who came in at a very reasonable price, nearly half of the others.

Finally, after 3 years of dealing with a horribly ghetto set of stairs and porch we can finally be proud of our walk up! The stairs have been widened to the full width of the porch, and instead of being a hodgepodge assemblage of differently sized stairs, these are all evenly sized and spaced. And now I can decorate with potted plants, or maybe more seasonal this time of year, pumpkins!

The new Porch & Stairs

We also had new interlock laid down. You can see from the first photo that the interlock was terribly heaved and overgrown with weeds we just could not get rid of. They needed to fill in an area where there previously was no interlock, and they don’t make the old stone we had anymore, so we got new stone, in a very nice warm beige colour that goes well with the brick of the house.

I lost a small amount of my herb garden but I don’t mind that. The whole front garden needs an overhaul as it is. I want to dig up the day lilies in the lower left corner; they are a pain to maintain, they get in the way of the walk itself when they get tall, and I could really use that space for other herbs. I need to replace the chives and thyme that were lost in the reno.

We also replaced the old-school aluminum posts and replaced them with 4×4″ wooden ones. I need to paint them still; at this rate it will likely get done in the spring.

Between this work and painting the very badly chipped and peeling garage door, our house is finally looking loved again. We’ve done a lot of work this year, including new eaves with better downspouts. Next spring we need to improve the drainage around the front foundation, as we’re experiencing some water penetration there. We’re doubtful there is proper drainage at the base of the foundation on the outside, or if there is, it would be clay tiles that are likely cracked or completely disintegrated. For now, we’ve decided not to dig up the foundation in full; instead we want to simply improve the grade at the front.

The new Porch & Stairs

All in all it’s really gratifying to have this done. It’s been a long time coming and the crumbling porch we had was becoming something of a safety concern, above and beyond the aesthetic issues I had with it.

Garden nearly wrapped up

Posted on September 25, 2010 by admin

Yesterday’s freakishly warm temperatures aside, September has been a fairly quiet month for the garden because of the very cool temperatures. The tomatoes are nearly done, and the chilies and peppers are taking their sweet time ripening in the cold.

There are still some leeks on the go; I’ll leave them be until we get some frost.

Dragon's Tongue Beans

Earlier in the summer I picked these Dragon’s Tongue Beans. Unfortunately I think I kind of screwed up on these. I had been wanting to eat them as snap beans but the ideal time for that was while we were away on our Wabakimi trip. Having never grown beans for drying before, I think I picked them a little too early. The beans that I got from these are wrinkled and immature looking — not shiny and plump like you would expect dried beans to be. Better luck next time I guess. They sure are pretty things though!

Chioggia and Golden Beets

I relished this summer in my fetish for fresh beets. I grew a couple varieties of golden beets — Touchstone and Detroit Gold. I didn’t mark them so well so I didn’t really track which did better, but one of the varieties noted that they have a low germination rate. I would say that was true because I didn’t get quite as many of them as Chioggias or the Detroit Reds or Bull’s Blood varieties that I grew. Most of those I pickled. The Bull’s Bloods had a rather rough, almost stringy texture to them, not the solid root vegetable texture you usually see from a beet. Not sure I’ll grow them again.

Tonda di Parigi Carrots

I grew the Chantenay carrots again and they offered up great yields. But I also tried these super adorable Tonda di Parigi carrots. They didn’t yield a huge crop, but that’s okay.

I’m very pleased to report that our rickety, falling down porch is being repaired finally. It wasn’t looking very likely that it was going to be done in the near future, but then we found a contractor working on one of our neighbours places and talked to him, and he offered us a dramatically better rate than anything else we’d seen. The old broken concrete stairs are gone, and they’ve pulled up the horridly weed-infested interlock walkway. The new stairs will be as wide as the porch so I will loose a bit of flower beds and herb garden space, but the flower beds around the house are badly overgrown (again) and need some TLC, this is as good of a reason as any to reinvent them. We also have to adjust the grade of the beds in relationship to the house anyway. I’m very excited to be able to decorate the porch/stairs with potted plants next year.

If I can get to it before the cool weather really takes hold, I need to try to re-stain/seal the edges of my raised beds. I discovered that Costco sells raised bed kits made with composite recycled plastic and ‘wood flour.’ Wish I’d known about these last year — they would have been cheaper and for certain they would have lasted longer. Composite timbers like that are pricey to begin with, but in this kit they are pretty affordable.

Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes

Posted on September 6, 2010 by admin

Tomato gluteny

I have tomatoes coming out of my ears. Goldies, Black Zebras, Purple Calabashes, Aunt Ruby’s Yellow Cherries, Yellow Pears, San Marzanos, Wonder Lights, Sweet 100s, Des Andes, etc., etc.

Purple Calabash

Black Zebra

Wonder Light

Goldie

San Marzano

I’ve been giving the cherries away like mad because I just cannot keep up with them, until this week when I found a really fabulous recipe for a roasted tomato passata in the new book Preserves: River Cottage Handbook #2. This is an easy to do and fabulous tasting sauce that you can do in stages, which is great for me because I can pick in batches and roast one night, press and preserve the next, if needed. My weekends over the next few weeks are going to be quite busy so doing these in small batches is perfect. This is way better than my simple tomato sauce, so I just might have to make this version from now on. The passata involves roasting tomatoes, garlic, shallots, herbs tossed in oil, sugar and salt for an hour, then pressing. I don’t even need to bother peeling the garlic! The only change I make to the recipe is adding citric acid to the jars as I preserve, to ensure the acid levels are high enough.

Bushel of tomatoes

Earlier in August my local Fortinos grocery store had bushels of roma tomatoes on sale for $16 — that’s right: $16!! Last year I turned a half bushel of tomatoes into sauce that was so fabulous I just had to do it again. But I was a little nuts and I decided to take up this monumental task on a weeknight. Very bad idea. But I got it done.

11 litres of sauce

As you can see I didn’t do a very good job removing air bubbles before I processed the jars, and some of them have quite a bit of space in them.

Prepping for roasting

The passata however is generally in small batches — 2 kilos of tomatoes yielding 3 to 4 500 ml jars. This delish sauce can be a base for things like a curry, or is just fabulous all by itself. I’ve made two batches so far, and I’m canning it in a variety of sized jars so that if I just want a little for pizza sauce, then I just need to open a small jar. I have to say that I am so glad I bought that tomato press last year.

I made so much tomato salsa last year that I still have some left, and I have to admit that my peach salsa has stolen my heart. I did make more of that this year, since it has been an excellent summer for peaches. But I think this year most of my tomatoes are going to become passata.

Ready to roast

Roast for about an hour

Great way to use a gluteny of herbs, too

Great way to use a gluttony of herbs, too

Even cherry tomatoes work well for this

Ready for the press

Diggin' the Dirt

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

Category Archives: In the Garden