The garden that ate Tokyo

My weekend was wrapped around all things green and growing. Much of my winter garden managed to survive the winter and is growing strong. Not wanting to pull out the wonderful greens, I decided to expand to provide room for my warm weather veggies. I pulled up a good chunk of sod (lawn isn’t good eats), and expanded the garden to accommodate my growing green thumb daydreams.
So far, here's what's in the garden. From the winter garden, the kale, chard, spinach, garlic, gai lan and parsley are going strong. In the beginning of spring, I threw in sugar peas, black edamame (soybeans), orca beans, bok choy and more gai lan seeds. This past weekend, I planted in some eggplant, honeydew, winter squash and herbs seedlings.
I also repotted an army of tomatoes and various herbs (mint, basil, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, thyme and chives) into larger pots. I’m planning to grow them on the porch, off of the kitchen. I opted to grow them in containers partly because some, like mint, are invasive and are better contained. I also like them in pots so I can bring them in once it starts getting too cold. Hardier herbs like rosemary and oregano overwinter just fine outside.

My indoor Eden filled with tomato plants, veggie seedlings herbs and general gardening mayhem.

The tomatoes I prefer to grow in containers and keep them on the porch. Five gallon pots are fine for most varieties. It makes it easier to keep them from getting weird garden cooties and if it does turn out to be a summer of monsoons, I can pull them under the awning so they don’t get too wet. It also leaves me space in the veggie garden for other edible delights.

Having them in pots also allows me the option of bringing them in at the end of summer if it cools down more than usual. I have been able to keep some tomato plants well in to January. With a good warm, sunny location and a bit of care, they kept just kept fruiting!

Bok Choy








Spinach that has survived the winter and has shot back








Ooooo...the promise a many a sweet garden jems

On Saturday, I attended a food/farm forum hosted by local food advocates, Dr. Kathy Gemmel and Jenny MacLeod at Nanoose Place. The place was filled with farmers, members of the NDP, Liberal and Green Party, local press, various organizations, Malaspina University and the public. The event was started off with Nick Versteeg, food documentary filmmaker and co-leader of the Vancouver Island Slow Food Movement and clips from his documentary, “The Edible Schoolyard”, a project that brings farmers, chef and kids together to create a working vegetable garden in local schoolyards. Nick is planning to give a copy of the DVD to every school in BC for free. For more info, check out Nick’s film site, DV Cuisine.

Sunday started off with me shaken wide awake by dawn’s insistent light despite my wanting to sleep in for once. Why, oh why, must my body declare mutiny at such ungodly hours?!? To rub it in, DH was snoring like a hibernating bear, completely oblivious to my wide eyed plight. It took much willpower and compassion to not ‘accidentally’ bump him awake.

Instead I scampered downstairs and shared my morning with my tomato plants and watched as the day cracked open with blustering winds and alternating fistfuls of clouds and blue sky. I puttered a bit in the garden and decided that even MORE sod should be removed. This would allow me to plant even more veggies. However, my sleep deprived body was not able to bring itself to wield a shovel at that moment and I headed back inside for some garden scheming.

In my 100 Mile Diet quest, I’ve opted to not only eat food grown within 100 miles but to also do my best to create a garden from seeds and plants grown within a 100 mile radius. Luckily for us, we live in an area that has a parade of Seedy Saturdays/Sundays in the beginning of spring where local seed grower sell their wonderful and overwhelming array of organic, heirloom and specialty seeds.
We also have a number of local nurseries that grow their own plants from seeds right there on the premises, like the Green Thumb nursery, Christex Nursery (north end of Jinglepot and Monroe Roads). You can reach them at texd@bcsupernet.com . Farmer's markets are another source for locally grown seedlings for flower and food gardens. Another source for locally grown garden plants and veggies is The Community Gardens on 271 Pine Street. They run an organic plant sale every Saturday and Sunday.

It makes more sense to be buying locally grown plants and seeds for many of the same reasons as it does to buy locally grown produce. Locally grown plants are less likely to be stressed unnecessarily. They are not forced to bloom or artificially enhanced to grow faster for mass production. Many plants and seedlings imported in for big box retail stores have been forced to mature at a rate that is unhealthy for the plant. This leaves the plant weak and susceptible to diseases. They’re also not able to deal with the natural stressors. This is the botanical equivalent of forcing an infant straight into puberty in a matter of weeks.

One of the big problems that come from big box stores pushing their garden wares is that they’re pushing plants, flowers and veggie seedlings way too early in the season. This is a big problem especially with the cooler than normal temperatures that we’ve been having for this spring. Plants grown in this climate and allowed the time to grow at a healthy and normal rate are more like to continue growing successfully and bear better fruit. Christex Nursery won’t even release their tomato plants until June 1^st, which is the start date for bringing your tomato plants outside. In fact, with this cooler than average weather, I’ll probably be bringing in the tomatoes at night for the first few weeks until the overnight temperatures get in the double digits.

I popped by the Community Gardens’ organic plant sale Sunday morning. They have a wide array of flowers, veggies, fruit and herb plants. At $2 each, 3 for $5 or 10 for $15, for the 4 inch container plants, they’re one of the best deals in town.

BTW, The Community Gardens is looking for donations of 4 inch seedling containers, plastic bags, cardboard/plastic flats and vertical blinds. You can drop them off at the plant sale.

At the plant sale, I ran into a fellow 100 Miler and we headed off to the Cedar Farmer’s Market (Crow and Gate Pub, 2313 Yellowpoint Rd) for some grocery shopping. The market was bustling with vendors and patrons. This has become one of my favorite farmer’s markets. There was everything from locally grown pepperoni, veggies, plants, cheese, chicken, eggs and veggie seedlings. There’s also locally made pet supplies & treats, artisan bread, jewellery and even a massage booth.

With my newly expanded garden already stuffed to the gills, it took much willpower to not buy more seedlings. But my 100 Miler companions bought up some gorgeous chard seedlings and plants for the flower garden. Between the two of us, we filled up our backpacks with locally grown groceries and headed back home. Here’s a list of the local farmer’s markets that are open now.

After a weekend of working in the garden, I thought it best to celebrate with a good, old roasted chicken Sunday dinner. With a Shady Mile chicken, locally grown spaghetti squash, roasted local turnips and onions, organic wheat berries from the Peach River district and a parsley pesto made with parsley from the garden, we finished the weekend with a long, satisfying locally grown meal.

Dessert was baked rhubarb and cranberries topped with a drizzle of honey, all island grown, of course.

Parsley pesto is a great springtime sauce that goes well with fish and chicken and veggies and, well, pretty much anything that basil pesto goes with. You could also use other greens like arugula or cilantro. Parsley does fine in the garden over winter and I have a healthy crop of parsley to use in this pesto. Just in time since I’m down to my last bit of local basil pesto that I made last summer. To make it more 100 mile diet worthy, I substituted local hazelnuts for pine nuts and local cheese for parma. I keep the harden knobs and wedges of cheese in the freezer for grating or for flavouring into soups.

Here’s my recipe for 100 Mile Diet Pesto:

2 cups of basil, pesto, arugula, cilantro

1 handful of local hazelnuts, shelled and toasted

½ cup grated hardened cheese (I like Natural Pastures Boerenkaas, Amsterdammer and Hilary’s St. Clair)

a couple cloves of garlic

a couple glugs of olive oil.

salt and pepper to taste.

Blend ingredient all together into thick consistency. Great with grilled meats & veggies or tossed with some pasta. I also throw this in with some Marley Farms kiwi vinegar for a great vinegrette for a salad dressing. It's also a instant flavour booster for soups or a sandwich spread. I've even used as a crudite dip.

Have a great week!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Asparagus Orgy

For my asparagus loving readers, Slow Food Vancouver Island is hosting an asparagus feast tomorrow in Duncan. Here’s their invite. It looks like it's going to be a yummy celebration!

There’s also a local farm & food forum being hosted by local farm advocates, Jenny Macleod and Dr. Kathryn Gemmell, at Nanoose Place (2925 Northwest Bay Road) on Saturday (May 26th) from 1pm to 3pm. For more info go here (midpage). I’ll be there putting in my locally grown two cents;)

The farmer’s market season is off to a great start. I popped over to the opening of the Cedar Market a few weekends ago and the place was busy right from the get go. Local vegetables, meats, jams & preserves and bedding plants were amongst the locally grown offerings. I picked up a couple of tomato plant ( I couldn't resist) and a huge broiler chicken that DH is still waxing poetic about.

In a previous entry, someone had commented about hothouse veggies and their not-so sustainable growing process. Though I agree that corporate hothouses are petro-hungry machines, there are a few small, local independent farms that are using more sustainable technology to heat their greenhouse. Some have made it a priority to make their operation as self-sustaining and low impact as possible by creating a closed heating systems and other practices. Some of gone out of their way to reuse old building material and glass as construction material. Though they do leave a bigger footprint than local organic field crops, they leave a much smaller footprint than corporate hothouse farms. These small independent farms are growing for the island community, not for export. I figure since they’re growing to feed the community, the community ought to support them back. The farmers selling these veggies are more than happy to talk to you about their operations. I’ve already garnered a number of invitations to their farms to see just how they are run.

I’d rather see folks buy an island grown hothouse cucumber than one from some factory farm from the mainland. Though I would advocate eating these hothouse products less frequently, I still would encourage folks to support the local farmers that are striving for more sustainable practices.

I’ve often been asked about what I do for products like rice, sugar and coffee since those aren’t grown within the 100 mile radius. If I can’t help the local environment and farmers then I look for an option that leaves the smallest footprint and hopefully helps a local independent farmer somewhere else. Direct fair trade sugar and coffee are my choices. I’ve had a lifetime of eating rice so I don’t eat it much anymore. If I want something rice-like I usually opt for whole grains. True Grains bakery sells whole kernel organic kamut and spelt that is grown in the Peace River district. These only need to be soaked for 8 hours or overnight then boiled up like pasta until they’re cooked through. They are chewy and have a wonderful wholesome flavour. Since they are complete whole grains, you’re getting much more nutrients. I often cook up a triple batch and freeze the leftovers in 2 cup portions for future meals. They’re great wherever you would use rice or pasta.

The 100 mile radius is but a tool to a more mindful approach to eating. I certainly don’t expect folks to completely stop eating foods they enjoy just because it isn’t grown within the prescribed 100 mile radius. Considering eating less of these foods less frequently and finding more locally grown options. Do what you can for now and strive to do more. Take it one bite at a time. Many will complain that it seems like so much work to find locally grown products. Once you’ve discovered a new locally grown resource, it’s found and yours to use. Once you know better, do better.

Yes, there is going to be a shift in your shopping habits and schedule. Yes, grocery shopping might not be as convenient in that the farmer’s market and farm gate sales aren’t a one stop shopping blitz that is open to you whenever you want. Yes, it’s going to take some research. See it as a challenge and an adventure!

BTW, I’ve been dyeing and spinning a storm of locally grown yarns. It’s kind of addictive but I’m thrilled that I’m going to be able to clothe myself with locally grown garments AND be able to finally have yarn that suits my greatest colourway fantasies and not have to break the bank. For more, check out my 100 Mile Fiber Fest blog.

Have a great day!

Jen

Nanaimo’s 100 Mile Diet Challenge

What do you get when you cross…(updated)

...a Bog Jacket with Tubey?

A) Booby Jacket :p

B) Tog Jacket

C) Boog Jacket

Whatever you want to call it, it looks something like this:

After finishing my ‘Broken Brocade’ a couple weeks ago I’ve been letting by brain mellow out with lots and lots of spinning. Between bouts of spinning, I worked on a prototype that would bring together two of my favorite sweater designs, the Bog Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman (in Knitting Around) and Tubey from Knitty.com. I love the simplicity and the innovative construction ideas of both. Most of all, I love the lack of seaming :)

The beauty of this sweater is that needs only one simple line of 3 needle bind off to finish it. This sweater served as a no-brainer project that I could do while catching up on my reading and it goes well with red wine :p

Knit one, read one...

It also serves as a prototype for my first big 100 mile fiber project that I’m going to dye, spin and knit. I’ll jabber more about that project at a later date.

For this jacket I used a cotton yarn that used to reside in this skirt:

That’s my Knitting Olympics skirt which was quite lovely but it just didn’t fall the way that I wanted it to. I only wore it a handful of times and I figured it didn’t really want to be a skirt. I wish it would have told me that before I started knitting it into a skirt. Oh well, it’s now happily a jacket.

I took the all-over construction idea of a bog jacket which basically is a rectangle cut up so it forms all the parts of shirt. It’s the basic design of the tops found worn by the famous bog people. Weavers love this design because it is simply matter of weaving up a rectangle and no part of the woven fabric is wasted.
The jacket before it's seamed up . The thumb trick has been removed and replaced with stitch holders.

I also used EZ’s thumb trick to open up the fabric to separate the front of the jacket from the sleeves. She also uses the same technique to form a neckhole. I substituted that neck shaping technique by borrowing the upper torso design construction from Tubey with a few modifications.

In Tubey, the neckline connects near the armhole. I needed the neckline to connect with the front inside edge and to also form a collar of sorts. To do that, I simply M1 by way of yarnovers every other row. I began these increases halfway through the sleeves portion of the rectangle. Once I finished the square, I also added about a dozen rows of short rows to make a semicircle to help make it fit a bit better.

The wavy inner edge is simply a matter of increased and decreases at 10 row intervals with a set of 10 regular rows in between.
My general inspiration for the look of the jacket was the result my ponderings of what a knitter in the Shire would make. Couldn’t you imagine a Hobbit lass sporting this little number?

For function, I needed a little something to throw onto myself when I’m in the garden. The cotton is machine washable and the sleeves are long enough to give me a bit of coverage but short enough to stay out of the way when I’m mucking about.

I’m calling this jacket ‘Fiddlehead’ after the fiddlehead shaped I-cord closure and it’s lovely fern color.

ETA: Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments! The Bog Jacket pattern can be found in Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Around' and it's simply called the Bog Jacket. The thumb trick is also in that book and probably in all her other books. It's a nifty trick and I've found it to be a very useful technique for opening up the fabric for armholes, pockets and, of course, thumbs.

There is probably a knitting circle or two floating around Nanaimo. There is this Yahoo group link

Beyond the usual spontaneous and impromptu knitting circles that seem to blossom wherever I go, I belong to the Mid-Island Weavers & Spinners Guild. The members are a treasure of wisdom and inspiration and explore a whole range of textile arts beyond spinning and weaving. When I joined I was only driving a drop spindle and within a few months I was geared up with a second-hand wheel, drum carder, mountains of fleece and tribe of expert spinners that were more than happy to teach me the ropes. We meet once a month except for over the summer. If you're interested, drop a note to Eva Ryan at jbtufnail@bc.sympatico.ca or drop off a note in my comment box.

Enjoy!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Farmers' market lunch break

The Nanaimo Farmers' Market has been running for a few weeks now and today I finally managed to pop down for some lunch time grocery shopping. The market runs on Fridays from 10am to 2pm beside the Bastion on Front Street. Amongst all the craft tables you'll find locally raised poultry, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and garden seedlings. It's a great way to get your 100 Mile Diet produce.

I wandered down on foot with my backpack and came back with this 100 Mile Diet bounty:

A huge head of red lettuce, an English cucumber and chocolate and white bell peppers! I didn't even know you could get chocolate brown peppers. They're gorgeous and glossy and actually look like they could have come from a chocolatier's veggie patch ;)
The farmer says that they're sweet like the red bell peppers. I can't wait to play with my food!
For a list of Mid-Island Farmers' Markets and other farm-related events click here

Have a great weekend.

Jen

Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Rhubarb Rhapsody

Rhubarb is popping up all over the island. Check out your local farm market and farmer’s market for this tart and yummy vegetable. Nanaimo’s Foodshare and Community Gardens is also hosting it’s Rhubarb Festival this Saturday. It’s being held at the Foodshare Centre on 271 Pine Street from 10am to 2pm on May 5. There will be fresh local rhubarb and other goodies for sale. Gardening experts will be available to answer your green thumb questions and tours of the community gardens will be given.

I adore rhubarb. I love it in pies, chutneys, jams, cakes, stewed, baked or simply dipped into a bit of sugar. I find that most recipes overwhelm this tangy veggie with way too much sugar in an effort to pummel its tart nature into submission. For shame! It’s charm is its tartness and it’s ability to add some zip into a dessert. Like cranberries, it also goes surprisingly well with some dark chocolate. I definitely have to experiment with a rhubarb chocolate chip sweet roll or muffin soon...

Usually I just chop up a couple pounds of rhubarb, along with a couple green apples and whatever else I have (plums, peaches, cranberries, blueberries), a pinch of cinnamon and couple tablespoons of local wildflower honey. I simply stew it up over low heat with a scant ½ cup of water. The fruit will also release quite a bit of water as well. Cook until the rhubarb is just softened. I usually wait until the end before adding softer fruit like plums and berries.

With my new bounty of rhubarb, I made a Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake. It’s a great fruity cake, perfect for tea time or a nice end to a meal. The recipe is a result of some kitchen experimentation and a craving for rhubarb baked treat.

Looks like the house elf got to the cake before I did ;P

Here’s the recipe:

2 lbs of rhubarb – fresh or frozen – washed and chopped into ½ inch pieces (you could also use other fruits like cranberries, apples, pears, plums, peaches, figs, grapes etc)

½ cup honey (or brown or cane sugar)

Group A - dry ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour ( I used a mix of True Grains bakery’s sifted flour and organic kamut flour)
½ cup polenta or corn meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Group B

½ cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Group C

1 cup whole milk yogurt

1-Mix fruit and honey together and let sit for about 1 hour to macerate. That’s fancy schmancy talk for suck the juices out of the fruit.
2- Preheat over 350F
3-In a medium sized bowl, combine together Group A (dry) ingredients
4-In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar. Once creamed well, add eggs and vanilla = Group B
5-With a spatula or wooden spoon, mix in Group A & C into Group B(butter mixture) alternating between A & C. Combine until it almost just combined. Do NOT overmix
6-Add in macerated fruit and fold in. The batter will look like the dog’s breakfast. Don’t worry, it’ll bake up fine.
7-Pour into a prepared 9-10 inch round pan (I used a 10 inch springform pan) and bake for 40-50 minutes.
8- Check with toothpick for doneness.Let cool on rack and enjoy!

Last night, I had my Spinners’ and Weavers’ Guild meeting and DH had a Guys’ Night In with a friend so we were going to be eating dinner at different times. I whipped up a batch of bison chili in the slow cooker for when the guys surfaced from their video games for a bite and it was piping hot and waiting for me when I got home from my meeting.

At the meeting, I took the opportunity to beg for advice on plying my handspun yarn. I had a roomful of experts that were more than happy to offer their words of wooly wisdom and give me a quick plying tutorial.

With the support and tutelage of my spinning mentors, I managed to finished my first 2-ply 100 mile yarn:

Ain't it sweet? :)

I'm so proud. I have it drying right now. My silly little brain is dizzy with ideas of what I could knit up. For more spinning babble check out my 100 mile fiber blog.

Have a great day!

Jen

100 Mile Diet Nanaimo Challenge

Fox is guarding the henhouse

So the US has finally released an announcement stating that millions of chicken have been fed tainted pet food.

Of course, they'll also saying that there's 'minimal risk' to humans who have consumed these chickens. One of the contaminants, melamine, causes irritation of eyes, skin and throat. It has been linked to cancer and kidney failure in lab rats.

The other known contaminant that melamine is reacting with, cyanruic acid, is used for swimming pools and hot tub. Yes, an obvious ingredient for making pet food.

A spokesmans from the National Chicken Council is quoted comparing feeding chickens contaminated pet food with baking cupcakes. Obviously, he is taking this very seriously.

Funny, most Americans I know don't look anything like a guinea pig...

Buy local and remember, it's a kidney-shaped pool, not treat your kidneys like a pool. (I know that was kinda lame...)

I hate lawns

Monday was spent doing all the stuff that I didn't get to over the weekend. The usual patchwork of housework, offering of sacrifices to the garden gods, sending out rays of my sardonic sunshine to this mad, mad world and dogpaddling my way through my email box. I didn't get to all of this over the weekend because I was in a epic battle against my nemesis, or at least one of them, The Lawn.

I hate lawns. Lawns are stupid. Lawns are evidence that we are stupid.

We're renting our abode at the moment but when we do buy our bit of paradise, there won't be a speck of lawn. There may be grass, but no lawn.

The Lawn is North America's arrogant pronouncement that he has conquered and enslaved nature. It's his way of showing that he has tamed the wild and made it bend at his will. It is his totem of civilization.

Of course, NA, has it's head so far up its arse that it has caused an gastrointestinal traffic jam. In other words, North America is the source of its constipation but is too blind to see because no matter how much sunshine you blow up there, it's still pretty dark.

Yep, we da man. We da man so therefore we feed, medicate, groom and water something simply to chop off it's head once a week! I don't get it. You can't eat it. It doesn't look all that remarkable and thanks to all the herbicides that it needs, it's more enviromentally harmful than it is beneficial. All it seems to do is tell the whole world, 'I'm so wealthy that I can afford to blow all my time, money and energy on this absolutely useless symbol of affluence.'

I don't get it but I had to mow the lawn because it was getting at the length that it would start harboring snakes, wasp nests and pygmy tribes. If it got any longer, I would have to hire a crew of migrant workers with machetes to take it down. So Saturday morning I popped a couple of antihistamines (of course I'm highly allergic to grass pollen) and went out to tackle The Lawn.

The grass had gotten so long that the gas mower blade kept jamming up. It was a inane dance that went something like this:
...5,6,7,8... take 14 pulls to start up the mower, the mower farts out puff of black smoke and growls awake, take two steps forward and have it jam up, shake and rattle the jammed grass out the blades, sashay the mower to already cut area (because it wouldn't start in the tall grass), and back to the top...6,7,8

I soon figured out that it wouldn't jam as much if I pulled the lawnmower backwards over the grass but this also left swirls of uncut grass. So I pulled the dang lawnmower twice over each pass of lawn.

GRRRRRRRR

3 hours later, my right arm aching and sore from constantly trying the start the gas guzzling lawn beast and shoulders and back like pulverized jello from pulling the mower over the lawn twice, I crawled in the shower and washed away the grass pollen, sweat, grime and frustration.

I spent the rest of Saturday recovering from my lawn epic with a pot of tea and an healing afternoon of knitting and an restorative evening of spinning, which is why I was still doing weekend chores yesterday :P

Monday was a total weekend leftovers day. I even finished up some spinning that I had started on Saturday:
It's a Targhee wool that I picked up last summer at the Duncan fibre sale. It's colourway is called 'Active Pass' which is what totally sold me. The kayaker in me couldn't resist such a name. I'm thinking of plying it with a solid cream or chocolate brown.

Dinner was also an affair of leftovers. DH and I went to the gym around 7pm. He went to workout and maintain his jedi powers so he can heal up from his shoulder overhaul. I went to burn off all the extra Energizer Bunny energy I had pent up from a day of puttering.

We got home at half past 8, hungry and tired. From this weekend's leftovers I pulled together a gnocchi with chorizo, spaghetti squash, kale and spinach. The greens were from the garden, the rest was bits and pieces residing in the tupperware condo in the back of my fridge. All of it island grown, of course.

In less than ten minutes we had this:














Dessert was the last pieces of a rhubarb, apple and cranberry pie I made over the weekend.
The fruit is all island grown. Spring rhubarb is finally coming up! Yippee! It was a lovely ruby toned ending to our day.










It's a pie version of my Fast & Dirty Baked Fruit from a family of recipes known as the 'Coppolas' . Here's the pithy recipe for that:

Couple of pounds of rhubarb washed and chopped
Couple of green or other pie apples washed and chopped
Couple of cups of cranberry or other berries
Couple of tablespoons of organic cane sugar or local honey
Couple of teaspoons of cornstarch
Couple of pinches of cinnamon and ground ginger

Toss and mix in large corningware container. Throw into a 350F oven for 40-50 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

I know you're thinking that there's not enough sugar for that much fruit. If it's not sweet enough, I just drizzle a bit of honey or some grated dark chocolate when it's still warm. I personally find most processed foods and store bought desserts way too sweet. I prefer to let the sunshine sweetness of fruit colour the dish.

This baked fruit is awesome for breakfast with a bit of yogurt and and granola. Or as a topping with some fruit sorbet or vanilla icecream or cake. In a pinch, it can be turned into a chutney with a drizzle of cider vinegar and some spices. I've also used it as a surprise filling in muffins.

Happy Eating!
Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Fuzzy balls :p

Stephanie, there's a cup of tea here for ya :)

Stephanie has brought these vetiver filled fiber balls to my attention and wondered if I had any hints for making them with leftover yarn. Well, yes and no.

Vetiver is an Asian grass mostly used for perfume. It's a major ingredient in many fragrances. The ones one that website look like their wrapped in cotton thread. I don't really know how to make those.

But there is a way to make wool felted balls that look like those. All you need is some fleece or roving, wool yarn leftovers, an old cheapo pantyhose, some warm water and soap.

Take the fleece and pull it into bits. Take a few pieces into your palm and start layering, one fleece layer onto another into a ball of fleece. Throw that into the toe of the pantyhose. Tie a knot so it's secure and does have any room to move about.

Repeat with the rest of the fleece. You'll end up with a pantyhose garland ;)

You can add bits of leftover yarn into the outer layers as a bit of decoration or not. It's up to you.

Toss it into a pillowcase. Tie up the top of the pillowcase. Toss the whole kit and kaboodle into the washing machine with hottest water and shortest cycle.
Then toss it into the dryer. Once dry, cut them out of the pantyhose.

The only thing you have to worry about is make sure you're using feltable fleece and roving. There are some sheeps' wool that don't fleece very well. You can buy dyed and undyed fleece from craft stores, LYS or call up your local sheep farmer.

Also, from what I hear and have read, stick with the cheapo saggy pantyhose. The fancy schmancy ones have something in them that somehow impedes the whole felting process.

You can use felted balls for kitty toys, pincushions, for decoration or make little ones by hand and string them together to make a necklace or bracelet. You can make a kitty toy that will drive everybody crazy by sticking a bell inside a lacerated tennis ball and felting the outside of the ball. Felting can be done in a sink of warm soapy water. Just simply rub and squeeze it until the wool starts felting.

Enjoy!

Would you like some poison with your pork chops?

Dear Corporate Bigwigs,

When the latest pet food recall was making the airwaves, your so-called experts and corporate mouthpieces went out of their way to assure the public that it toxic chemicals that were killing our pets was not in any danger of getting into the human food supply.

Right. Sure. Whatever you say, Bucko.

Then how come 6,000 hogs in the US are being quarantined after eating the contaminated pet food. How come pigs are being fed cat food to begin with?

More importantly, according to Associated Press, "U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said that meat from 345 hogs that ate tainted feed has already entered the U.S. food supply".

Now they're saying that the same contaminated pet food has been fed to factory farmed poultry. Yep, they feed dog food to chickens and chickens to humans. That means you're basically eating dog food in the form of factory farmed chicken meat. If you're lucky...

So, Dear Corporate Bigwibs, any more BS you want to feed the public???? What sort of faux food nightmare did you want to serve us for dessert?

Like we need another reason to support local meat producers instead of the corporate factory farms.

BTW, China is still denying that their products had anything to do with all these dead pets even though it just banned melamine, one of the contaminants, from it's food products. Kinda makes you wonder what else is lurking behind that 'Made in China' label.

To all pet owners, there is an expanding list of pet foods that have been recalled that now include dry foods, which up until recently has been deemed free of this contamination. Here's the cat food list and the dog food list.

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Food for thought weekend

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone for their warm and encouraging response to my Broken Brocade sweater. It's very kind and generous of you all. Gina and Diane, I'm especially tickled by your comments. I do think about submitting patterns but you ought to see the pile of paper scraps with ticks and scribbles that make up my so-called patterns. You'd need a team of accountants, engineers and maybe a therapist to figure that mess out :p

*********

Congratulations to John Bishop of Bishop's restaurant fame in Vancouver for winning Vancouver Magazine's first Green Giant award. John has been at the cutting edge of forging relationships between farmers and restaurants in Vancouver. For those that are interested in some luscious local food porn, check out his new book: Fresh: Seasonal Recipes Made with Local Foods.

In my college days I would scrimp and save, brown bagging lunches and stretching out leftovers so I could splurge once in a while on a meal at one of Vancouver's fine restaurants. I'd rather spend money on eating out once every couple of months and have really amazing food than to go out each week for 'meh' food. Bishops was one of those places that I would save up for. Every once in a while, I'd be able to convince a fellow budding foodiphile to join me but more often than not, I would be dining alone. I would simply saunter through the meal, enjoying every morsel of food, every drop of sauce in my own company. It would be at restaurants of Bishop's caliber where a lone female diner like moi would be given the room and time to enjoy a meal without being made to feel like a pariah. The food would inspire me for weeks of experimenting in the kitchen and learning all I could about cooking and local food.

Looking back, those local and seasonal salad days were an amazing foundation for my 100 mile diet journey :)

*******


For those in the Capital Region, there's an important food and water event running from today through the weekend. Here's the announcement that I received from the Slow Food movement folks.

If you have an interest in food policy within the CRD, please try to attend the following conference which will take place on Saturday, April 28. In addition to Sinclair Philip’s brief presentation on some positions taken by Slow Food regionally, nationally or internationally, there will be a number of other members from Slow Food Vancouver Island who will be taking part in the discussion.

This is an all day event. The discussion on food and water issues will take place from 11:15 to 1:00 pm. Please come and make your own recommendations. Slow Food would really like to see all those with an interest in influencing CRD and regional municipal policies attend.

COMMON VISION, COMMON ACTION: Shaping Municipal Policy in the CRD
Saturday, April 28, 2007
10am-3pm
University of Victoria
David Strong Building

Featured Speakers:
Sonya Chandler, City of Victoria Councillor
Zeb King, District of Central Saanich Councillor
Jane Sterk, Township of Esquimalt Councillor
Linda Geggie, Lifecycles and CRFAIR
Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Research Institute
Dr. Sinclair Philip, Sooke Harbour House and Slow Food Canada
Jane Worton, Community-Based Researcher

Workshops & Plenary Discussions

Land Use and Transportation
Food Security and Water
Social Policy and Democratic Governance

Join us for this one-day conference to begin developing a common vision for the Capital Regional District, as a framework for common action. Environmental issues like climate change and social issues like homelessness can be tackled by citizens and elected officials. Let's work together!

Bring a bag lunch. Childcare and transit passes available.

Organised by the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG)

Supported by CUPE Island WaterWatch, IslandTransformations.Org, the Council of Canadians, Kairos, Wise DemocracyVictoria, the University of Victoria School of Social Work, and the Values-Based Business Network.

Agenda
10-10:40	Introduction and opening remarks by municipal politicians
10:40-11:10	Plenary discussion
11:10-11:25	Break
11:25-1:00	Workshops – presentations by speakers, then facilitated discussion on issues
1:00-1:30	Lunch/info tables
1:30-2:15	Closing Plenary – 5 minutes each to report back from workshops (speakers only) then plenary
2:15-3:00	Action meetings

Our Daily Bread

A discussion of our industrialised food system to follow this visually stunning and thought provoking film.

Featured Speakers:

April 26th & 27th
Robin Tunnicliffe, Local Organic Farmer
Richard Bocking, Filmmaker, Author, and Agricultural Economist

April 27th only
Abra Brynne, BC Food Systems Network
Derek Masselink, Agricultural Planner & Agroecologist

April 26th and 27th, 7 pm.
Human and Social Development Bldg Room A240, Uvic

Tickets: $5-10 sliding scale. Available at VIPIRG or at the door.

Presented by CRFAIR, VIPIRG, FoodRoots Distributors Co-operative, and Lifecycles

To register or for more informmation on either event, contact VIPIRG at 250.721.8629 or vipirg@vipirg.ca

Peachy day in on the Rusty Coast

Yesterday was an intensive day of baking and an impromptu knitting lesson and even a wine lesson for me. At the end of the day, I was tired and blissed out on the joys of the day. This was dinner I managed to cobble together:

Island grown free ranged chicken, local onions and BC mushrooms sautéed and deglazed with a glassful of Cherry Point’s Coastal white wine. I finished it the sauce off with a pat or 2 of butter. The veggies are collard greens from Nanoose Edibles and were simple steamed with drizzled with some Marley Farms kiwi vinegar. Talk about 100 Mile Diet heaven!

Usually I would leave the chicken breast in one piece but DH’s left arm is in a sling due to his surgical overhaul. He looks like one part hunky husband and one part gimped T-Rex. LOL! Obviously he can’t use a knife and fork so everything has to be cooked bite-size so he shovel it all into his mouth with one utensil.

I’ve been scheming and dreaming a local wine and cheese tasting evening with my tribe of 100 Milers to celebrate spring and all the wonderful island grown vinos and artisan cheeses. As mentioned before, most island grown wines can be found at independent liquor stores and the gov’t stores do carry 1 or 2 of them. I was poking about a local wine store and struck up a conversation with the clerk, who was an local wine fan. I was informed that many of the vineyards on the mainland are bringing in red wine from as far as Chile to blend into their red wines. YIKES! It’s one of those dark secrets of the wine trade. Not all that Okanogan wine is actually from the Okanogan. Together, the wine clerk and I a bit of research and found that most of the local island wineries are truly locally grown wine. Yippee! Bring on the Bete Noire!

After my mini-wine lesson, I popped by a local yarn store for a mid-afternoon pick me up ;) and ran into my latest knitting apprentice. My apprentice has only been knitting for a month but what a month it has been! From the moment the needles were passed into her hands, it’s been full speed ahead.

Like most knitters, I have the honor of being a doorway to the wide world of knitting for non-knitters. Some just poke their heads in. Others take in a few steps, admire the view and find a nice comfortable spot to chill out or wander along the nicely patterned pathways. Every once in a while, I find someone that wants to explore the backcountry of this whole wide world.

I don’t refer to myself as a knitting teacher but more as a knitting guide. Where would you like to go today? The lovely province of Fair Isle? Perhaps a visit to lacework? How about a little bit of intarsia? It’s a nice day for some cabling.

Everyone learns and travel through this world of knits their own particular way. Some are comfortable and happy following patterns and I’m happy to show them any new techniques that come that way. Some just want to knit scarves and their lucky family and friends will have nice and toasty necks. For some, the quiet, meditative unbroken line of stockinette in the round is a perfect way to relax at the end of the day. I have a couple of knitting apprentices that are happy to experiment on their own terms.

The odd thing I’ve noticed is that despite how good they become, they seem to build a mental block about certain techniques. Some are fine playing around with stitch patterns, experimenting with knit and purl variations but are overwhelmed by the idea of cabling. Others are Aran phenoms but think lace is way beyond their capabilities. Many don’t dare venture beyond the printed page and some can’t fathom the idea of altering a pattern to fit their own bodies. Some (the smart ones) stay far away from doing intarsia.

Take it one stitch at a time, I say. It’s the only way to knit an elephant…or afghan…or…you get the picture.

Once in an indigo moon, I find someone who is eager to learn it all and experiment and be led by imagination and intuition. Such a person is my new apprentice. Who's piping in the ‘Emperor’s Theme’ from Star Wars???

Over a cup of tea taught her how to do short rows, mitering and other shaping techniques. You could almost hear the gears in her head turning as she took this new info and imagined all the spiffy ways to apply it. I can’t wait to see the wonderful knitting that will bloom from this new seed!
Samples of shaping experiments




























For the baking part of the day, I made up a small peach galette. It was pretty easy peasy with a homemade pastry dough I found in the freezer and island grown peaches that I had canned from last summer. A sprinkle of island grown hazelnuts and a 30 minute spin in a 350F oven. A really long 30 minutes. Plus another super long 10 minutes to let the darn thing cool down enough so it would only scorch the roof of our mouths but wouldn’t burn it so bad that strips of skin would peel off.

Yes, it was absolutely divine. It’s during these younger months of the year that have me grateful that I spent the time last summer canning and preserving summer and fall’s bounty. Talk about a lesson in delayed gratification :p

The pastry dough is I used is Fast and Dirty pie dough recipe. I used sifted organic flour from True Grains, island butter and a touch of fair trade cane sugar. A bit of cold water and viola, you have a quick pastry dough. It’s a great pastry dough and it keeps for a few days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer. It’s a brilliant thing to have around for those times that you want a little something special or just because it’s so good to eat!

Have a great day!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Breaking down the Broken Brocade

WARNING!!! Knitting jabbering ahead. Not only is it knitting jabbering but it's geeky knitting jabbering. Proceed with extreme caution!!!!

I finally finished my Broken Brocade sweater!!!Yippee!!. The last leg of seaming and blocking was a much larger task than I had anticipated but then again, seaming and blocking are always hard for me.

The Broken Brocade sweater is my attempt at being clever. First and foremost, I wanted a lighter sweater for the spring. Of course, I'm not just going to knit a sweater simply for the sake of knitting a sweater. Heavens no. That would be just to logical. If I just wanted a sweater, I could just pop over to Value Village and pick up a sweater, But quite frankly, I don't really need a sweater. I needed an outlet for my fashionista id.

So began the journey now known as the Broken Brocade sweater. The Broken Brocade is my Contradiction Chic twist on historical fashion. It's inspired by Elizabethan styles and, of course, my secret love for brocade. I however don't own a stitch of it for clothing or decorating. When I do get a chance to try on something with brocade, I end up looking, well, stuffy and I feel like Mozart in drag. So that's how Broken Brocade began.

With a simple idea to design and knit a brocade sweater. I plotted out a couple different brocade patterns in the next couple of days. All was well until one night, I was smacked with a bad case of insomnia. My brain just wouldn't shut off and next thing you know, my simply brocade sweater became a sardonic commentary on Elizabethan sumpturary laws.

Somewhere between 3 am and dawn, my sleep hungry brain figured I needed to make a statement about the Elizabethan fashion. Queen Elizabeth I in 1576 decreed a series of laws that stated what colours, fabrics and even embellishments people of different titles and classes were allowed to wear. Similar laws were passed in other times and places. These laws were used as a way to control social behaviour and to reinforce class structures. Breaking these laws could mean facing a steep fine, loss of property or title or even execution. Pretty freaking severe, IMHO. Could you imagine losing your head over a slip of silk?

I have a fascination with clothing and identity and how fashion is used to shape a society in present day society as well as historically. The clothing laws are a fascination, ok, occasional obsession of mine. Nowadays, the idea of being punished for wearing a certain colour or fabric is unimaginable which is what makes these laws so interesting. Supposedly women even pushed their husbands to pursue higher social rankings just so they could wear tinselled satin.
So firstly, I had to design a sweater silhouette that would carry a whift of Elizabethan fashion. The silhouettes of that era were very geometrical with emphasis on a tiny little waist. I mimiced the triangular silhouette with a some shaping and ribbing and a wide, open collar.

One word about the collar, I had initially knitted a off the shoulder collar with a linen stitch border but upon trying the finished torso, I found it a bit too sloppy for what I had intended. Unfortunately, I had knitting the torso from the top down and so instead of painstakingly picking away at stitches, I simply threw in a lifeline and cut off the top band of the collar. I threw it back onto my needles and knitted up a new collar. Actually I knitted up 5 incarnations of collars before I was happy with it. I wanted something that would echo the drama of the collars at that time. I wanted a bit of height to the collar but I didn't want ruffles. I think the final collar carries a nice balance of drama and whimsy. It also echoes the poised and drama of Elizabethan gowns. Ack, so much stuffed into a collar! Oy!

My main tool of subverting Elizabethan sumptuary laws was with material choice and colours. I wanted to bring together royalty, upper and and lower classes into one. Firstly, I chose wool since it was one of the few materials lower class women were allowed to wear. I choose Louet Gems superfine merino wool, a superwash fingerling weight yarn and Lorna Laces sportweight yarn.

For the main colour, I chose the closest I could find to a Tyrian purple. Tyrian purple is a purple-red dye that orginiates from the city of Tyre and is madeby squishing up a bunch of sea snails. However, only one drop of dye comes from each snail, making for a very costly and stinky endevour. The resulting dye was a rich, deep colour that didn't fade, making it the darling of the upper class fashionistas. Queen Elizabeth I made it law that only royalty would be allowed to wear purple.

The secondary colour I chose was white, partly because it would provide a nice background for the purple. However it also was subject to Elizabeth's laws. White was a difficult colour to get and one that suggested that you had servants to do you work for you so you wouldn't get your white's dirty. I brought in a blues, greens and browns into the background to break up the white. These colours were of assigned to a range of class standings below nobility and royalty and are a metaphor for the lower classes breaking through the upper standings. (I'm such a geeky proletariat)

With a lower class material, colours of royalty, upper and lower class all mingling together in one garment, what would Queen Lizzy say?

Anyways, here's my fashion spread for the Broken Brocade sweater. I'm going to get a glass of wine. A really big glass of wine ;)

Victoria, 100 mile style (updated)

We’re coming to end of our stay in Victoria and getting ready to rickshaw my DH back up the island. This leg of our stay included a mirthful dinner at our friends, P & S. The table was heavy with delectable foods including a wonderful homemade pork pie with Sloping Hills pork, a great selection of local sausages, a local venison risotto, salmon and great company. It was like I had never left home. It’s such a pleasure to dine other 100 milers, like P & G, who appreciate the importance of supporting the local agriculture. Beyond that, these folks respect great food and are wonderful cooks. P even makes his own proscuitto! I think we’re going to be visiting Victoria more often ;)

Also during this last visit, I got a chance to roam about Victoria while DH was cloistered in his video game cocoon. I got to wander for hours poking about down Victoria’s meandering streets and made a few local food discoveries. Just a 20 minute walk from where we were staying is Aubergine, a small grocery store that stocks produce from Saanich and a wide range of local dairy and meats. Even this early in spring, they already had a good selection of fresh vegetables. They’re located on Cadboro Bay Rd and Estevan. In another wandering spree in the Oak Bay neighbourhood, I discovered the Village Butcher, a full-service butcher shop, specializing in free-range, ethically raised products and local meats. They’re located at 2250 Oak Bay Ave, across the street from Ottavio deli and bakery. Speaking of Ottavio , they offer a great range of local cheeses and other local products.

EAT magazine’s recent issue is all about eating green and there’s plenty of info about eating locally. The magazine & its archives are available online once you register. There’s articles about how to make your kitchen more environmentally friendly, a 100 mile menu, the Green Table project and the usual toothsome articles about local good eats and drinks.

I also found a delightful knitting circle, a quiver of new kayaking and climbing friends, a great secret spot for fiddlehead picking and an awesome used bookstore. What a full week! Who would have thought that playing Florence Nightmaregale to my Frankenhusband would be so enterprising?

ETA- Mike, if I told you my secret fiddlehead picking spot, it wouldn't be a secret, eh? Actually, I have no idea how the streets in Victoria work. It's as if someone took a perfectly gridded city, threw in a gigantic civic planning fork into the center and twirled the streets like spaghetti. So all I can really tell you is that the fiddlehead spot is two corkscrew turns off Cadboro Bay Rd, a sharp left to a 5 way stop (yep, you heard me). Take the 3rd prong down to the end of a dead end street, follow a small overgrown footpath down a slope, around the corner to a small wooded area overrun with ferns. Make sure they're from Ostrich ferns and not in an area that would be sprayed with chemicals. Some ferns are poisonous, so be careful you know your ferns. There was a fiddlehead food scare in the 90s.
Or you could just head down to your local farm mart, farmers market or even grocery store and pick some up there. Look for firm green, tightly coiled fiddleheads. They can be blanched and frozen if you manage to get yourself a huge haul.

Have a great day!

Jen

Recharging the Energizer Bunny

I barely managed make my work deadlines this week but it’s done and I have the rest of the weekend to recoup. No deadlines, no housework, no social obligations for this kid. DH is safely sequestered away in a video game coccoon. Just a weekend for myself to recharge my batteries.

Yippee!!!

It’s a sloppy, chilly Friday the 13^th. Here’s how it looks outside my window:

I’m spending the rest of the afternoon here.

Looking out at this lovely tree.

Working on this.

It’s the sleeve design I’ve decided on for the 'Broken Brocade sweater.' It took a couple of different tries but I think this pattern will look best. It provides a nice, elegant pattern without taking away from the torso or adding too much ‘noise’ to the overall piece.
It’s also an easy peasy pattern that lets my tired brain coast for a few hours.

I’ve even been too tired to actually cook. Last night I decided I’d just cobble together a leftover soup from this past week’s dinners that includes:

A couple links of local sausages cut up into bite sized pieces.

The last spoonfuls of orzo with stinging nettle and locally grown pesto.














The vegetable dregs of a moose pot roast. Local veggies, of course.












A bunch of organic collard greens from Nanoose Edibles farm. $2.50 for a huge bunch! Wheee!













Tah-dah!!! Soup du leftovers ;)

I have a pot of it to feed me for a few days. It’s just the sort of soup for early spring to help recharge my body and spirit.

I've received a really cool invite for a spinning and knitting evening at a nearby town. I might make a weekend out of it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jen

About last night…

With minutes to spare, I arrive back home in Nanaimo. I throw off my shoes, exchange my street clothes for Mashimaro PJs and settle in for an evening of vegging out.

Bottle of Merridale Scrumpy Cider…Check

Buffalo pepperoni from Island Bison…Check

Half-finished sleeve for Broken Brocade sweater…check

New episode of 'House'…check

Great! Let’s get the party started!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Let me explain. I didn't mean to konk on you House. I'm sure were your usual dry,wry genius of a medical jedi self and had dry, wry, emotionally detatched zingers going off every which direction and you were working your little British butt like mad to win more awards and the hearts of dry, wry loving gals.

You see, it’s been an eventful week. Like someone stuffed a dayplanner into a corset sort of thing. So eventful that I haven’t had much sleep. I’m ping-ponging back and forth between Nanaimo and Victoria, where DH is resting up post-op. I’m scrambling to not get too behind in work. In between all that, my sis and her new fancy man came for a visit over the Chocolate Bunny Poo Weekend. And there's this lovely sweater that needs sleeves but can't decide what sleeves it needs so I must knit up a bunch of sample sleeves so I can finally finish this sweater and have something to wear other than my potato sack. Eek!! Deadlines for my next article are looming overhead, blocking out the sun! Run! Save yourselves!

Though a perfectly good episode of House was sacrificed, I’m glad I got the extra rest. I’m ready to get back into the swing of it all.

Thanks to everyone for sent their well wishes and good energy. DH is healing up fine now. He’s had a copious hours of Civilization IV, lots of chocolate bunny ears (they really ought to just make the ears, I mean who bothers eating the rest of the chocolate bunny?), the odd pain pellet and way too much beer.

I’ve still have a bit more ping-ponging up and down the island for the next while. I’ll keep you posted of all the Spring local food happenings. Until then, go pick up a copy of ‘100 Mile Diet’ by the original 100 Milers, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.

Happy Eating!

Jen