Gardening – Make me eat my words.

Opportunities missed – suburban agriculture

September 10, 2017September 6, 2017 Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

As long as I’ve had lawns I’ve resented them. I love having a little plot of land, but the modern suburban yard – water hungry, weed prone grass with no privacy and often rendered unusable because of misguided bylaws – is wasted a opportunity that offends my pragmatic tendencies.

Apparently I’ve been ahead of my time. Urban agriculture is now in vogue; front lawn vegetables, urban chickens and beekeeping all are being practiced in my hometown now.

That’s where my blog starts.

Five years ago I moved into a beautiful mature neighbourhood. As I have in past homes, I instantly began planning to make my yard productive.

My hubby started us off by building raised beds for vegetables. This year we have a bumper crop of tomatoes and jalapenos. Lettuce does well, arugula thrives. Peas and beans still fall victim to rabbits and deer that wander out of the ravine.

Our four year old grape vine produced well this year after I gave it a good pruning last fall.

Two years ago we planted an evans cherry, and last year we planted a pear tree. Both flowered but neither fruited well this year. I’m building two bee hotels for the yard so hopefully next year blossoms lead to fruit.

My french tarragon, sage, thyme and oregano all came back this spring, making me very happy.

That’s the part of the plan I can check off. I have plenty more to work on.

This summer I began the next urban agriculture stage – hedge replacement. I love the privacy the hedge gives our yard, but a cotoneaster hedge is a wasted opportunity. I am slowly removing and replacing it with berry bushes.

This little lady is the ‘currant’ resident of my new berry patch.

So far I’ve removed about six metres of hedge, and planted three saskatoons and two gooseberries. I expect in two to three years they’ll give us the same level of privacy as the hedge, with bonus yummy berries.

I’ve earmarked two shrubs to replace with beaked hazelnuts in the spring. Getting hazelnuts will be a long shot given the squirrels activity in our yard, but I’ll try.

We took out two diseased maydays this year. When we get the stumps pulled out I’ll plant an apple tree there. We’re one of the few houses in the neighborhood without an apple tree and I suffer from apple envy.

I know I’ll come up with more ideas for my ever expanding suburban agriculture experiment next year. A proper garden is forever a work in progress.

Where the wild foods are

August 13, 2017August 3, 2017 Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

I’m lucky to live within easy walking distance of an extensive tract of parkland along the winding North Saskatchewan river. This has on occasion caused me to complain about the deer wandering up and helping themselves to my garden veggies. It’s fair play though because I take advantage of the bounty in the deers’ backyard.

For instance, the ravine trail we walk our dog along is lined with saskatoons and choke cherries.

There are also wild carrots, patches of wild asparagus, and stands of beaked hazelnuts. All of these are on a well used track, yet most people pass by without ever noticing this bounty of wild food.

Alberta has many wild plants with edible parts. You just have to know what to look for. The saskatoon enjoys favoured foodie status right now so even those who didn’t grow up here likely recognize it. I did grow up here and know many summer berries well enough to feel absolutely safe eating them, but my knowledge sadly stopped at berries.

Hubby and I picked up an excellent guide to help us identify berries, which are bountiful right now. We’ve been going on weekend foraging expeditions to some land where he where he hunts in the fall.

It’s a densely wooded area so we only saw a few saskatoons in the meadows where it was warm and sunny.

The trail is lined with thick stands of beaked hazel nuts – considerately trimmed to my height by the local moose population. The bracts are still green, but they’ll dry and split open soon.

Raspberries are plentiful. I usually tell people I don’t like raspberry, but truthfully it’s just the domestic sort I don’t like. Wild raspberries are delicious. Less raspberry-like, if that makes any sense (of course it doesn’t). More sweet, less odd tangyness.

We also found tiny wild strawberries hidden in the trail edges. These are only about 1 cm across, but are packed with sweetness.

Thanks to our new guidebook I learned I’ve been mistaken about a wild berry I’ve always eaten. It’s ok though, the berry I mistook it for is also highly edible. I always thought we were munching on gooseberries, but it appears that they’re actually currants. The leaves and the fruit look so much alike and taste similar enough that the distinction doesn’t matter to the forager. It would matter only to the botanist.

There were rose hips everywhere; oblong, round, green, rosy pink. There are at least three varieties of wild rose growing in my province. One, rosa acicularis, is Alberta’s provincial flower.

I also found plants in the meadow that I didn’t dare try.

I saw what I suspected were blueberries but didn’t want to risk the nearby ant hill to get a closer look. Zooming in on the photo I am now pretty certain they are huckleberries because they lack the powdery whitish skin of blueberries. Both are highly edible. The other berry with this look is the whortleberry, which is also highly edible but the leaves on this shrub didn’t match.

I identified bunchberry and bush cranberry using my photos when I got home. They’re both edible but I’ve never tried them.

We also identified some berries to avoid.

Wild lily of the valley, sarsaparilla, and false solomon’s seal, which are either not palatable or some guides caution against.

Snowberries, honeysuckle, twisted stalk, twin berry, and red bane berry are all toxic.

We want to expand our wild food knowledge beyond berries. This fall we’re planning a fishing trip and I am hoping we can forage some wild greens to add to a camping dinner. I’ll keep you posted.

Winter window gardens

February 5, 2017January 30, 2017 Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

I watch Jamie Oliver cooking shows with such envy. I covet his wonderful kitchen garden.

For about half of the year I have a garden, but then the Canadian winter comes and my access to fresh veggies, herbs and cheerful flowers gets blanketed in ice and snow.

This year we had a kitchen renovation done, which included running a counter under a west facing window. I’ve tried to grow herbs indoors before with spotty success – I am infamous for my annual early winter rosemary death watch. Part of the new kitchen plan was that to create this sunny spot that would, hopefully, be able to support a few potted herbs and cheery flowers.

The kitchen renovation dragged out a bit longer than I had hoped, and potted kitchen herbs aren’t in stores right now, but shortly before Christmas I managed to pick up a ‘turkey’ herb mix and some bulbs at Home Depot. The herbs and some tulips are sitting in my kitchen window now, and I have some some crocuses are in my office.

I’ve already used snips of rosemary for some roasted grapes and some fresh parsley in chicken soup. Hopefully I will find further uses for some of the four herbs I have.

I’m gaining daily consolation from my tulips and crocuses. They remind me spring will come back sooner, rather than later.

Hopefully I will be able to find and nurture a broader range of herbs and repeat my spring bulb success over all my future winters in my new sunny kitchen window.

What CAN you do with a garden bounty?

September 25, 2016September 19, 2016 Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

Two years ago I planted four jalapeño pepper plants on a whim. The plants thrived and I got a small bounty of peppers. Obviously when the frost came I had to do something with them, so I pickled my first three jars of jalapeños.

Last year I did two small batches, one in early August and one at frost. Bear in mind that I have never pickled more than four, 500ml jars at a time so I have never heat processed them. They get eaten in under a month so it hasn’t been necessary. This year we had some thieving deer wander up from the ravine and eat the leaves off the plants stunting their growth and killing some. If we get a bigger crop next year I will heat process them, but this year it looks like I’ll get about three jars.

I googled a simple recipe. They turned out nicely so I wrote the recipe in my recipe scribbler. Every year I go back to that recipe and wonder because it has no sugar or salt, but it works.

Quick pickled jalapeño peppers:

I started by blanching the peppers, then slicing them.

The slices go into a pot with equal parts water and white wine vinegar and clove of two of garlic, which I bring to a boil.

I ladle the peppers into jars, and cover them with the remaining liquid.

Then I stick the jars in the fridge. They taste best after a couple days, then they go fast.

These were a particular favourite of my middle son. He likes that they are crispier that store bought. I like them because they are more garlicky. The boys all put them on pizzas/calzones, sandwiches, paninis, and my husband puts them on his meat, cheese and pickle snack plates.

It’s pretty small scale pickling, but it’s very satisfying to see how enthusiastically they get eaten.