(Normal) Food.

Normal food is from a big building, which is ridiculously over heated or cooled depending on the season. With florescent cool white lights showing off the sorted "ripe", "cleaned" and glistening with their smooth coating of wax with everything else you don't need. Right? no? hmmm.

Food is grown in dirt (most of the time), in a field or small garden, in the sun, wind, rain. Bugs pollinate the flowers of fruit bearing plants, bugs also eat the plants and fruit. When it rains little dirt particles and bits of sand bounce off the ground and onto the plants/ When the wind blows it picks up the same dirt and sand particles and they get caught by the plants. Fruit and Vegetables get harvested (picked) when ripe. You buy these items take them home and wash them before you eat them, even though they are Organic or chemical free what ever your choice. Why? Because dirt and bugs hide in the leaves or little crevices of the fruit and veg., small local farmers don't have the time or means to pick, clean, sort and deliver all these items. If they did offer these services your food would cost 200% more, for the time and equipment needed. Good kitchen hygiene involves cleaning your food before you prepare it for your meal. So don't be disgusted with the little bits of sand and possible bugs. They are just part of the process or growing local, Organic/chemical free, reasonably priced food. Get acquainted with the bugs because they are in your neighbourhood. Enjoy your food and the time it takes to grow and prepare your meal, food is fun and delicious. Whats missing in our diets of over sanitized, perfectly clean food from those big buildings? DIRT. If you take a bite of something and there is a little bit of grit in it, don't be a wussy and grossed out, just swallow it, You probably ate dirt when you were a kid anyways.

GO out and support your local Farmers Market and Farmers, It's Canadas long weekend and its the Canadian thing to do.
Another Candian thing to do Canadiana Punk Rock playlist
D.O.A. - I am Canadian
Teenage Head - Aint Got No Sense 
The Riptides - Red Dawn
NoMeansNo - Canada is Pissed
The Creeps - Midnight another Phone Call
SNFU - Reality is a Ride on the Bus
Chixdiggit! - Quit your Job & Chupacabra
Propagandhi - Less talk, more Rock
Dayglo Abortions - Proud to be a Canadian

peace I'm out

The Garden

Yesterday was productive, Well it was productive in the back garden. Meaning we planted a lot of stuff or re-potted a lot of stuff. We had planted 7 Tomatoes of varying species earlier, I listed them HERE! but we still had quite a few more maybe 15 more plants. Anybody want a Cherry Tomato plant, here in the Kawarthas? I went and bought 3 more storage totes, from that place that sells a bunch of stuff and has tire in their name. A 115 liter tote holds two tomatoes very well we had two from last year so 5 all together now, plus our 3.5gal pails from the grocery store bakery which used to hold frosting (the gross kind). We also planted 4 Cucumbers which will be trellised, 3 or 4 Courgettes, 4 Basil we have 6 more to plant, 3 Nasturtiums. Also sowed 14 Bush green Beans, and 4 Scarlet runner Beans which will also be trellised, Cilantro lots of em, Chamomile hundreds of em.
Our Kale, Spinach and Chard, are all coming along nice. A couple more Chard and Kale seeds have sprouted and been coming along now for about a week. Leaf miners, Leaf Miners, Leaf Miners have already made an entrance into the raised bed. Picking off eggs sucks, they do what their name means, they hatch burrow themselves in the leaves, and eat eat eat, leaving a miners tunnel behind. They look like little bugger maggots. To Remove poke a hole at one end of the tunnel carefully push from the opposite end of the tunnel to the open end, as if you were trying to get air bubbles out of your phones screen protector. Depending on how early you do it, little tiny maggots pop out or how late bigger ones will come out with a little black dot for a head. CRUSH! those little bastards they are very unwanted. So row covers have been implemented over our chard and Spinach they seem to leave the kale alone.


We have been hardening off our Peppers, Aubergines, Watermelons and Delicata Squash.

Pictures will come later it was uncomfortably humid to be fiddling with a camera today or yesterday. Not used to our season yet.

Peace I'll be back.

Oh, Ahead

So, as I sit here in a coffee shop, listeing to spongebob on the TV hanging over my head, waiting for the work on my work truck to be complete. I have some time to write a post.

 We have sowed, watched and waited for the first batch of our veggies to develop, all but 6 pots have sprouted. We saved some pepper seeds "Little Bells" from last season, last spring we couldn't find any from the suppliers that we use. All of our own have sprouted which is awesome, can't wait they were good producers, we froze quite a few of them little buggers.

We ordered from The Cottage Gardener, we also ordered from Edible-Antiques.

We are trying a different variety of Tomatoes this year. Last year was kind of a let down with our Brandy-wines, though it was a shitty season altogether but we want something that isn't as prone to cat facing, and blossom end rot. We got another variety of Eggplant which produces more, but smaller fruit, which is alright (I am not that big a fan of those Aubergines).

Chard and Kale in the back.

Kale

Zoey

Peace I am out......... doing stuff I am supposed to be doing.

Music, Turkey, Music, Turkey

Went out to The Academy Theatre on Thursday night to see Joel Plaskett Emergency with Mo Kenney, wicked performances just to bad there was seating and no one got up to dance till the last few songs. Hopefully the small turn out of people didn't scare them away, maybe they will come back sometime.

Also made a soup with the left over turkey and half the stock that I made the other half in the freezer with the rest of the left over meat. I added with some carrots, potatoes, beans, and celery, from our garden and farmers market. The soup is good more kind of a stew then a soup always happens we put too many veggies in and gets to be quite chunky. Had that for supper with some pumpernickel bread and goat cheese. What a damn good dinner that was.

We cleaned up our garden this weekend emptied out the pots of soil into a pile added some compost and black earth and manure into it before covering it with a tarp for the winter, put away the pots into the garage attic, our yard looks really bare now everything is dead or dying. Our Kale, and chard are still doing well a couple leaves of the chard got hit with the frost the other night so we are going to have to eat some of the bigger leaves so that the little green houses can fit over them. Brought what ever tomatoes didn't get damaged by the frost in to ripen in doors.

Got to remember to email the community garden to get a plot for our onion and to plant the garlic within the next week.

Peace out.

Earth?

What is Earth? Is it a planet in this huge vast area, and no one really knows how big it really is?  They can lie and tell you they do know, but, its all guess work.
We call lots of things Earth, Black Earth, Diatomaceous Earth, Soil is sometimes referred to as Earth, Earthworms, Earth Shelter, Earth Quake.

What is Earth? Dirt? Yes, at least to me it is. I like it and all the things it can do. Support life, Micro organisms, It supports me and my feet, my home, my plants, the animals in which walk on it, the farmers market I go to down the road, my bicycle and car tires, the grass in which my dogs pee and poop on, where my cats can chase mice and bugs and think they are hiding in, The enormous and beautiful trees, the water that sits on it, or goes through it and gets filtered. We can all thank dirt but most of us don't. This is my thanks.

We dig into it, we plant our veggies and flowers into it, sow seeds into it, walk, run, trot on it. Sleep and sit on it, put different types of dirt into our bars of soap, press it into pottery, make buildings out of it. Get it in our hair up our cracks, under our nails, stuck to our feet, packed into our boots and shoe treads, tread it into our houses, sweep it up throw it back outside.

How many times have you looked up at a tree? To see its Large trunks, colour and shape of its leaves, its twists in its branches, texture of its bark.

Now?

How many times have you looked down at the Earth? And seen its jewels and gems, colours and textures.  Whether its arid or saturated, if its hiding treasures just underneath its surface, whether its been compacted to support buildings and roads. Has it been disturbed?  Is some creature running through it like a miniature subway system, or did another creature bury its meal for safe keeping? How many different layers of different types of dirt are beneath you?

Peace, I'm out.

Diggin the Dirt

So yesterday, the little lady and I spent sometime digging in the dirt. Sifting through the compost, after about 4 years of dumping kitchen scraps in there. It was surprisingly really good, fluffy, dark, earthy smells, lots of critters, sow bugs, tons and tons of worms, and other little guys. We pulled out 4 wheel barrow loads spread the first three around our raised garden, tomato pots and flower gardens.

We also dug out one of our potato baskets all the plants have died so we decided it was time. The other basket is still alive but probably ready to be dug out shortly. We use the potato basket method of piling the dirt around the plants in a type of container so we can grow more plants in a smaller area and contain all the bedding (straw, dirt). The potatoes only develop in the first 6 to 12 inches of material same as last year so our baskets don't need to be as tall next year maybe that just means more baskets next year.

our last load being saved to mix into our dirt from the containers on our deck

what was left after our hard work of sifting, This thing was completely full.

our first basket harvest, three large pots are missing due to
baked potatoes last night