The Future of Food and Seedy Saturday

We watched this film a few weeks ago and I keep thinking about it. We already grow most of our veg from heirloom seeds and we also save a lot of our own seeds but after watching this I feel compelled to do more...grow more, save more, share more, do more and talk more.

I want to be sure that more people know what is going on with our food and I want people to see how easy (and enjoyable) it is to grow more of our own. I want to share more seeds and encourage more excitement about growing, preserving and, most of all, eating fresh homegrown vegetables.

This film is full of lots of information on genetically-modified seeds, corporate control and seed patents. It also contains some information about some simple things that we can do - support local agriculture, save seeds, grow your own, etc. The second disc has some special features including an interview with Michael Pollan and a short film called How to Save Seeds from Vegetables by Underwood Gardens.

Just in case you want to get yourself some interesting seed varieties to get started for this year.


Seedy Saturday

Certified organic seeds, plants, many rare and heirloom varieties, especially tomatoes. There will also be music, food, planting kits, artwork, honey, lavender, speakers and more. Kelowna's Seedy Saturday will be at the Rutland Centennial Hall 180 Rutland Road North) again this year from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Remember to bring your saved seed to the seed swap table ~ a chance to perpetuate those family treasures, and acquire some new ones! Admission is by donation at the door to the Central Okanagan Community Gardens.

Many communities have Seedy Saturdays coming up in the next few weeks. They are a great place to meet people, find out more about gardening and get some great seeds or plants.

Fall flowers

Every year without fail I almost miss these flowers. It seems that one minute they aren't there and then, by the time I notice them, they are in full (or past full) bloom. I have them in two spots in the front gardens and they just seem so delightfully out of place to me. I always think of crocus as a spring bloom. I actually almost wrecked these this year because a few weeks ago I transplanted my echinacea right almost on top of these bulbs. My echinacea hasn't done well where I put it (obviously it doesn't know the song Bloom Where You're Planted), it was too crowded, I think. I finally gave up on expecting it to conform to my wishes and dug it up, divided it and transplanted it to my front flower beds.

Yesterday on my wander around the gardens I decided to stop and take a picture of these as they don't last long...and I wanted them to feel admired since they are usually overlooked. ;-)

And you see, the bees are admiring them too.

I never promised you a rose garden

I love this song.

I'm sure my taste in music must come from many happy family trips when I was little, we would listen to eight tracks playing this kind of music as we drove. Anyway, whenever I am out in my rose garden this song comes to mind so I thought I would share it with you along with some pictures of the roses that are in bloom right now.

This rose I love for the slight blush of pink on the edges of the petals.

More funny tomatoes

E calls these schnoz tomatoes. He thinks they are hilarious and so do I.

They managed to escape being thrown into scalding water to be made into stewed tomatoes due to their cuteness. Wily little things. I especially love that guy on the left, he looks like he has a bad cold.

Tomato Zucchini tart...sort of

Life in the garden is good at this time of year. We have been eating from the garden at every meal - peaches or blueberries with our breakfasts, tomatoes and salads at lunch and, of course, zucchini, tomatoes and beans at dinner.We also continue to enjoy the different flowers as they come into bloom. E made this flower arrangement for a neighbour to cheer her up. We have so much Rudbeckia right now and are really loving how long it blooms for and its different colours.And the Phlox...I am loving the Phlox.

I picked up Simply in Season from the library again because I remembered (from this post) that last year I had made a very yummy tomato/zucchini tart from it. So W made the crust and I started to put together this dinner.See how delicious it looks? Now, ask me how it looked once I remembered that I had to transfer it onto a baking sheet...and that the dough was getting very damp from the tomato juice and that was making it stick to the board...and that those tomatoes and zucchini that I had loaded it down with were heavy and making the dough stretch...and that I am not a patient person...especially when it is already 6pm and I am hungry.

**Note to self - next time roll out the dough, put it on the baking sheet and THEN add the toppings.

I think W ended up calling it a tomato, zucchini scramble instead of tart but it still tasted good and we ended our meal with E's chocolate peaches so it was all good.

Wherefore art thou zucchini??

I'll admit this latest garden setback has me wondering just how green my thumb really is.  As we enter August, I have yet to see a zucchini from my plants.

I heard talk of what big producers zucchini can be, so I searched and stocked up on a variety of delicious sounding zucchini using recipes.  And still I wait.  I see them in the stores, overflowing off the shelves.  So I check my plants and see the flowers but no zucchinis yet.  I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a most wonderful book by the way) and she writes about people in her small town locking their doors so others don't fill their kitchens with zucchini, or about coming back to her car after shopping and finding a bag of zucchini hanging from the mirror.  And I think how lucky she is.

I did find this today.  
A tiny, little cucumber.  I have big plans for this cucumber (which would be my first of the year).

You may notice in the first picture that a strawberry plant in growing into the alloted zucchini space.  They seem to think the garden belongs to them, and I wonder if this is part of the problem for the zucchini.  I had thought they were a tougher breed of plant then this, and would never let themselves be pushed out of the garden by measly strawberry plants.  So next year, I will have to decide - remove some strawberry plants or find another spot for my zucchini.  Next year I will need more zucchini recipes for the abundant crop I shall have.  Next year...

Oopsie Daisy

Well, there I was deadheading my daisies and so pleased that I was actually keeping up with them for a change. (my lawn and many garden beds - including my veg. beds - are littered with daisy plants because I don't usually get around to deadheading before they go to seed)I was chattering with the boys and heard a sort of loud *snip*, the kind that seemed louder than a thin daisy stem would make, when I noticed that I had inadvertently cut right through that single lovely day lily I had just posted about. Oopsie daisy is right. Oh well, there must be some sort of garden lesson in even that...something along the lines of enjoy the beauty each day offers...because some silly woman might come along and snip it off just when it is at the peak of its bloom??? Or something like that.Be afraid my pretties...be very afraid. ;-)

Day lily and tiger lily

Most of my day lilies are this colour. I keep dividing them each year and spreading out the clumps so that I have them in several different spots. This year they seem to have come and mostly gone so quickly.I have just one of this colour, it's a little different and a bit larger bloom than the other kind.

Yesterday I noticed that the tiger lily was blooming. I just love the way it looks, what a cool plant.
And this one was in bloom a few weeks ago right beside our back patio - so pretty.

I love being surrounded by such loveliness and colour all through the Spring, Summer and Fall in the garden. My garden has many lessons to teach me about living in the moment and enjoying what is. Those are some important life lessons.

Lots of flowers and a mystery flower

Just a few years ago I added Rudbeckia to my gardens with some seeds from my mom. I now have loads (and I mean loads, do these ever spread) of them in a few different colours. They are so cheery that I can't bear to cut the ones down that are growing right across the entrance to our home.

Cosmos and calendula growing by the bush beans.There are lots of Hollyhocks coming up in a few different colours. But what I really want to know is - what is this? It is quite pretty but no one I ask seems to know what it is. This picture is the flower...and the leaf looks like this. I'd love to know what it is.

Sunflowers

I love sunflowers. Loads of them sprout each year all around the yard and I have such a hard time pulling any out. This year I gave lots away so that we wouldn't be overrun with them as they tend to shade other things in the garden. Somehow though I still ended up with lots.

I can forgive them for shading other things(although not my tomatoes) when I see things like this though.

The Importance of Being E

E has certain things in his life that are very important to him. Dogs, big brother, biking and fresh food from the backyard are some of his main pleasures. Everytime I spot him in the yard these days he is picking something to pop in his mouth.
I love watching him enjoying all these goodies and am so proud of the gardener that he is. These carrots are from some heirloom seeds he ordered to plant in his garden bed. He picked these two yesterday to taste test the different colours. He says he also has some red ones growing. He has one going to seed and has decided to collect the seeds in hopes that some friends might want to trade seeds with him.I have to remember to show him this Jamie Oliver clip about carrots and gardening.

yard progress and summer pictures

Ever since we put in our garden, I have had a constant battle against the weeds and grass trying to work their way up to, around and into my garden beds. My walking on them just wasn't enough to keep them at bay, and since I like things to be neat and tidy, this project was an important one for me to get done this year. Here is a photo of the work at the beginning:

I'd started the edging of my path, and clearing out the weeds and the grass that seem to flourish right where I don't want them.

And here is where I am at now:

So lovely that I could sit and stare at it all day (hence my chair set up for sitting and admiring the hard work). It's not done yet - we still have down the side of the house and we are thinking of adding a top layer of some sort of small rocks but for now, this will keep the weeds away and less weeding means more playing in the garden.

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And the garden is blooming and buzzing.

The amount of bees feeding in our yard is beautiful. The flowers are literally alive with them and their buzzing songs make great background music as I'm weeding.

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An incredible about of blackberries on our 3 year old bushes.

If you click on the photo, it will become bigger and you can see the insane amount of blackberries coming our way. I'm visualizing blackberry jam...

Foxglove

Foxglove are blooming right now in my yard. I love these flowers. (which kind doesn't she love?) For a few years I had to rip them all out to make sure my youngest wouldn't end up eating them but now they are slowing making their way through the gardens again and I couldn't be more pleased.

I was telling a friend that I had a few colours back again but I couldn't remember the colours. Yesterday I went out to take some pictures and found purple, light pink-ish purple, light yellow - almost a butter colour, and white.

I quite like this white one because it has dark burgundy spots inside.