Most gardeners have planted their flower and vegetable gardens, so the annual chores of maintenance, watering and fertilizing are the talk of the day.

To keep your hanging baskets and containers looking beautiful throughout the summer, water regularly and thoroughly.  Plants in containers generally need to be watered more often than if they were growing in the ground.  This is especially true for hanging baskets because they are subject to drying winds.  In most areas you should expect to water hanging baskets every day, or even twice a day during a hot spell.  Water should stream from the drainage holes when you water.

Deadhead blooming plants.  As the flowers fade and die, remove them by pinching them off where they meet the stem. This promotes the formation of new flowers, and doesn’t allow the energy of the plant to go into creating seeds.

Fertilize regularly.  Frequent watering washes out the nutrients from the potting mix.  Follow the directions for the correct amount and frequency.  Feed when the soil is moist, and never when the plants are wilting.

If water streams from the drainage holes but the soil still seems dry, try either submerging the pot in a bucket of water for up to an hour, or adding a couple drops of a mild dishwashing liquid to the water, allowing it to penetrate the surface.

When the plants start to look leggy and straggly, don’t be afraid to cut them back.  Most common hanging plants, such as verbena, petunias and impatiens will produce a more dense and new growth.

If you love to grow tomatoes, now is the time to ensure they are staked and ready to be tied to a solid support so when they start to produce their crop, the heavy weight doesn’t allow them to bend over and break.  Be sure to remove the suckers that grow from between the branches and the main stem.  This allows the tomatoes to grow to a larger size and the plant will be more prolific.  Don’t allow the tomato plants to dry out between watering – consistent watering, pinching out suckers and fertilizing is the key to a successful crop.

Once the rhododendrons and azaleas have finished flowering it’s time to clip off the spent flower heads.  It’s a tedious job since you have to be very careful not to damage the new growth that is setting up for next year.  This is also the time to water well and apply specific fertilizer for rhododendrons and azaleas.  You’ll be rewarded for your efforts next summer with a beautiful display of color.

Many gardeners are adding blueberry bushes and blackberries to their gardens.  The nutritional advantage of these berries has been all over the news lately and there’s nothing nicer than walking out into your garden and picking a basket of fresh berries.  Blueberries are acid-lovers and it’s important to get the PH down low enough to get a good crop.  There are specific fertilizers for blueberries to aid in this task.  Ask at your local garden centre which ones are specific for blueberries.

Squash plants—particularly winter squash—are really rewarding vegetables to grow.  Their lush leaves spread and hide the growing fruit.  However, they have a way of taking over the whole garden.  If you want to grow varieties like ‘Buttercup’ or ‘Hubbard’ squash, allow them to roam until later in the growing season when the vines have set all the fruit you want.  Then start pinching off the last four to 12 inches of the main vine and its branchings.  Or, if you’re a bit more limited for space but still love to grow squash, try the hybrid ‘Sweet Mama’—a buttercup-type squash.  Its vines can be nipped off when they reach four feet and the plant will continue to produce fruit prolifically.

Remember, some of the best resources we have when we’re gardening are the people that work in the local garden centres.  If you have a specific question about certain plants, or if you spot some damaged branches or leaves that look damaged, bring them into the garden centre and the staff will help you find out what the problem is.

Even though our summer started out a bit more wet and cold than we usually like to see at this time of year, we could still be in for a hot dry summer, and the extra care you give your plants now will ensure you enjoy the rewards of a beautiful and prolific garden.

“We think home delivery is a really nice service to offer and our customers appreciate freshly baked food,” says Bev O’Hara, mixing up some home-baked treats in her Union Bay bakery, Just Like Mom’s.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Who could ask for anything more?  I get to do what I love, and have a great view at the same time!”  This from Bev O’Hara, a woman who took a leap of faith in November of 2009 when she transformed a small room in her Union Bay home—overlooking picturesque Baynes Sound—into Just Like Mom’s Bakery.

“I’ve always baked,” says O’Hara with a laugh.  She holds her arm out to waist height from her short frame:  “Since I was this high!  I baked with my mom, so it’s something that’s been a constant in my life, but it’s only recently that I ‘came out’ as a baker, so to speak.”

Now 56, O’Hara grew up in Kyle, Saskatchewan.  Her first trade also had her working magic with her hands—as a florist.  While in her early 20s she started a small greenhouse and sold the plants she’d grown, plus ran a flower shop.  Under her green hands that small shop bloomed into a large commercial business in the 20 years she ran it.  When she decided to sell the business, O’Hara hired on as the production manager of a similar operation in Saskatoon.  She worked there annually from January to July, overseeing the growing of their plants, and although she enjoyed the work, missed her own home in Kyle.

When she heard of a dude ranch close to Kyle that was looking for a cook for their summer season, O’Hara took on the task.  “It was an easy job for me,” she says.  “I had to provide three meals a day of good farmhouse cooking, and the guests ate what was offered—there wasn’t a menu. It suited me well, and of course, baking was an intrinsic part of the daily fare.  I did that for five years, but it was the winters I grew tired of.  I began to look online for work in BC, on the coast and lo and behold, there was a job for the curling club in Campbell River.  I was the concession manager and catered to banquets and parties and anniversaries, that sort of thing. That was a winter job, of course, but after one winter on the coast, I decided I wasn’t going back to freezing cold Saskatchewan winters.  I worked summers in a fishing lodge for a while, then the Campbell River Golf Club.”

After four years in Campbell River O’Hara met her partner, Franc Charpentier, another small business entrepreneur who runs a cash register company.  O’Hara moved to Union Bay and she and Charpentier decided to buy a mobile coffee van.  Home-made goodies were a natural addition to complement their drinks. As the coffee business was usually for special events and festivals, which tended to fall on weekends, O’Hara was also cooking for The Pier Pub in Comox.

Laughing, O’Hara says it was an accident that led to her launching Just Like Mom’s into a business on her own as a baker.  A colleague she met and worked with at The Pier, Kevin Munroe, decided to open his own bistro-style restaurant, The Mad Chef.   O’Hara was going to be his partner in providing baked goods, breads, buns, ciabattas (a special pizza-style dough that’s crispy on the outside and bubbly and soft on the inside) and so on.

“When I went into the new building with Kevin, we took one look at each other and said, ‘This isn’t going to work.’  The kitchen is far too small for a baker and a chef.  I looked into the possibility of baking somewhere else and supplying Kevin that way.”

After checking out available rental space and weighing the costs of converting a space into a bakery, which seemed too expensive, “Kevin had the brainwave that I should cook from home,” says O’Hara.  “I thought about it for a while, talked in over with Franc, and found out what the health requirements would be, and decided I would give it a go.  We converted a room in our home that had been full of junk into this bakery.”

Since that decision, O’Hara’s compact bakery has been providing an ever increasing number of local businesses with buns, breads, scones, cookies and brownies.  Showing canny business acumen, O’Hara also began to offer home deliveries.

Her face lights up as she describes a part of her business that is obviously close to her heart.  “There are lots of older people who don’t want to be baking for themselves, yet they’re used to home baked food.  We now have a number of seniors who order from us.”

She smiles as she explains more about this unique part of her business.  “Quite a few of our customers don’t get out a lot, so when we arrive with their order, we’re perhaps the only people they’ve talked to that day.  We’re more than happy to chat with them for half an hour or so.  A woman who now lives in California came up for the Olympics, and came over to visit her mother in Union Bay.  She saw one of our fliers and asked us to start making deliveries to her mom, who was thrilled!  We think our home deliveries are really important.

“We take half a dozen buns or cookies to lots of people,” says O’Hara.  “We ask the order be at least $25, but that’s easy to get to, and people put some products in their freezers.  We think it’s a really nice service to offer and our customers appreciate freshly baked food.  We take orders into Courtenay every morning to The Mad Chef, The Coffee Love Bug, Brambles Market and The Pier Pub, so we add the home deliveries in. We’ve recently started supplying The Royston Shell and the Union Bay Market with scones and cookies too.”

O’Hara’s baking sounds extremely creative.  “I make scones for The Coffee Love Bug and began to try out different ingredients.  I make a Greek Goddess scone with lots of feta cheese, avocado and basil pesto, a Mediterranean Goddess with feta cheese again, spinach, and olives and a Southwestern with peppers and havarti cheese.  It’s great fun—I think of a cool name and mix tasty ingredients together.  I make berry scones too, of course, cranberries, apricot and oranges, blueberry and lemon, and cinnamon and raisin scones.  I have a basic buttermilk recipe that I adapt to whatever I think will be tasty.  I use yogurt in my sweet dessert scones, too.

“I get lots of good ideas from Kevin,” O’Hara adds.  “I’m going to try a smoked buffalo scone and my husband came up with a good idea—The Couch Potato.  It’s going to have beer, cheese and potato chips.

As O’Hara’s grandson is diabetic, she’s been experimenting with baked goods that are suitable for people on restricted diets, although she doesn’t plan to make gluten-free doughs.  “That requires more space,” she explains, “as there has to be a special place only for gluten-free flours to be used.  The flour can’t be contaminated with anything else, and other people provide that service.”

Although scones and cookies are the most popular items O’Hara bakes, she’s pulling out a tray of plump bread buns from the oven as she speaks. “I make breads and loaf muffins too,” she says.

“This business suits me down to the ground” she adds.  “I’m not an early-riser baker.  I don’t like getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning and this way I can choose my own hours.  If I want to start a batch of bread at 9 o’clock at night, I can do that.  While things are cooking I can putter about my own house or do something on the computer.”

O’Hara point to a gleaming stainless steel bowl and mixing arm. “I just recently invested in a small commercial dough-mixer,” she says.  “My other ones were smaller and, besides, they’ve done me great service for 25 years—I didn’t want to over-tax them!”

Such is the success of her home baking that O’Hara is contemplating moving her business to a larger shed on her property.  “If I had someone else to help me with preparation, I could make more items, I could make cakes and so on, but this space is too small,” she says, gesturing at the space around her, which is approximately 3×4 metres.  “I made a special birthday strawberry cheese cake for a Union Bay man and he said ‘Oh, you’ll be getting lots more orders for these!’  But I’m not set up for it.”

“Although.” she continues with a gleam in her eye. “we experimented with doing lots of canning and preserving last year, and that might become another branch of our business.  There’s any amount of people who grow too much food to eat in the season and either don’t want—or don’t know how—to can and preserve their produce.  And again, lots of older people who grew up preserving their own food and making their own pickles don’t feel able to undertake that task anymore.  We could offer that service, perhaps.  If somebody wants to buy cucumbers when they’re in season and cheaper but doesn’t want the bother of pickling them, we could help.”

For O’Hara, working at home is the icing on the cake.  “I love working at home” she says.  “I’ve always had my own businesses, and although I might make more money working for someone else, this is great.  I mean, who could ask for anything more?”

To order Dough to Door deliveries from Just Like Mom’s contact Bev O’Hara at 250-335-0239 or visit JustLikeMoms.ca, where O’Hara’s current menu is on display.

InFocus Magazine

Last summer, one of our regular feature writers, Terri Perrin, was asked to write about Helena Hartwood, Hartwood Garden Designs. (InFocus, Backyard Bounty, August/September 2009.)  In learning about the work that Hartwood does with what she calls “edible landscaping”, Perrin also was told of and wrote about a local non-profit group called LUSH Valley Food Action Society.  LUSH—an acronym for Let Us Share the Harvest—works with Island property owners to plant and harvest vegetables and fruit crops, then share the bounty with local food banks.

Perrin was so inspired by LUSH Valley’s role in our community that she spent much of the past winter thinking about how she could do something special for this organization.  In addition to being a freelance writer, Perrin is a certified Feng Shui Practitioner.  As she began thinking about planning a Feng Shui gardening workshop, LUSH Valley came to mind.

“I booked Ocean Resort for May 15 for a day-long Zen in Your Garden workshop,” explains Perrin.  “I planned to address Feng Shui for the garden but, since I have only been living on Vancouver Island for about a year, needed an expert to talk about plants.  I asked Helena Hartwood to give a lecture on edible landscaping. After all, if your garden is going to look and feel good, it may as well taste good, too!”

Perrin, whose company is called Fine Art of Intention, decided she needed another speaker to talk about ponds and water features but she was going to have to do some research to find someone.  Talk about the power of intention!  Within an hour, InFocus sent her an email and asked her to write about David Bossom of Island Waterscape & Design.  He was thrilled to be featured in this issue of InFocus and to be asked to speak at this event.

“My next call was to LUSH Valley,” adds Perrin.  “I told them that I would like their blessing in running the Zen in Your Garden workshop as a fundraiser.  No strings attached!  Just let me organize and run the event and I will donate back as much as possible to LUSH.  Needless to say, they were thrilled with the prospect!”

With two other speakers donating their time, Perrin called Ocean Resort to ask if they would donate the meeting space. (They did.)  She asked their chef, Carol Kopp, if she would be willing to prepare a lunch for a crowd of 70 and do a 30-minute talk of the benefits of raw food.  (She will.)

Now, she’s asking you to support LUSH Valley by purchasing a ticket to the Zen in Your Garden workshop.  Tickets are $74.99 each (GST included).  This includes the full workshop, a delicious lunch and an optional labyrinth and/or ocean walk at the end of the day.  Pre-registration is required and seating is limited to 70 people.

If you operate a business and would like to be an event sponsor, your support is also welcome. You could, for example, help with the cost of the lunch or printed materials. Or you can donate $50 to LUSH and supply product samples or advertising flyers to be put in the participants’ “loot bags”. (Tax receipts will be issued.)

“The motto of Fine Art of Intention Feng Shui is: ‘If you do not open your hands and heart to help yourself… you cannot give, nor can you receive’,” says Perrin.  “Organizing this event for LUSH is my way of giving back.”

For more information or to register call 250.218.4952 or visit:

fengshuikits.ca

For information about the Lush Valley Food Action Society, go to:

lushvalley.org

“Part of the attraction of green burial for Denman Islanders is having the option to reclaim that part of things,” says Dr. Doreen Tetz. “We tend to be a very self-reliant group of people here.” The Denman Conservancy Association has donated one hectare of the protected Central Park for the cemetery site (above).

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

These days, it seems, we are all trying to live a greener life—but few of us have considered what it could mean to die a greener death.

A group of Denman Islanders have been doing just that.  With the appropriate acronym DIMS (Denman Island Memorial Society), they are spearheading a community initiative to create what will probably be Canada’s first entirely green cemetery.

DIMS is, in fact, joining a modest but growing green burial movement.  The first natural burial ground was created in 1993 in the United Kingdom, where there are now more than 200 such sites.

In Canada, two cemeteries (one in Victoria and one in Ontario) have created natural burial areas within the larger, conventional cemetery.  Closer to home, DIMS members have been in touch with groups from Salt Spring and Pender Islands wanting to include a green area as part of their cemeteries.

BC painter and writer Emily Carr eloquently summed up the emotional attraction of green burial in a poetic, heartfelt plea:

“Dear Mother Earth, I have always specifically belonged to you.  I have loved from babyhood to roll upon you, to lie with my face pressed right down onto you in my sorrows.  I love the look of you and the smell of you and the feel of you.  When I die, I should like to be in you, uncoffined, unshrouded, the petals of flowers against my flesh and you covering me up.”

For many people, the attraction of green burial is less to do with poetry and more to do with science—environmental science, to be specific.

Conventional burial violates the environment in quite a number of ways.  The building of big concrete vaults for families hugely disturbs the earth.  Heavy caskets take decades to biodegrade and usually include toxic materials.  Embalming fluid renders the human remains toxic, as well.

Also, the standard design of a cemetery is distinctly unfriendly to the environment.  Typically, the site is extensively cleared.  New species, often non-native, are planted, and large swaths of lawn are maintained with chemicals and copious watering, both poisoning and depleting the groundwater.  Huge gravemarkers, often placed on concrete foundations, further disturb the natural order.

The goal of green burial, sometimes called ecological burial, is to return human remains to the earth in their natural state, with little or no impact on the environment.  No embalming fluid is used and the body is placed in the ground in a biodegradable shroud or coffin.  Concrete vaults are not used.  Burials may include cremains (ashes) as long as the container is biodegradable.  However, many green burial advocates discourage cremation because of the greenhouse gas emissions and toxins caused by the burning process.  (The Denman cemetery will welcome cremains.)

Green cemeteries are considered to be nature preserves; flower gardens and lawns, and the related use of fertilizers and pesticides, are not part of the picture.  The sites are marked with simple indigenous flat stones, other small structures, or plants, rather than big heavy markers.

While natural burial is currently a new trend, driven by environmental concerns, it is also a very old practice.  Historically, North America’s settlers very likely practiced green burial, and today, some remote Northern communities, isolated from government-certified undertakers, morticians, hearse drivers, and all the other paraphernalia surrounding the business of death, simply put their bodies in the ground.  On the other hand, practices to preserve the body in an undeathlike perfection are as old as ancient Egyptian mummies.

Although natural burial sites meet all the required health and bureaucratic standards, the whole idea can be simply too “out there” for many North Americans.  After all, death is hard enough to deal with, and people may feel more comfortable when things remain sanitized and conventional and a little less… earthy.

“Society in general is adverse to the whole microbiological world,” says Dr. Doreen Tetz, a general practitioner on Denman who, along with Local Islands Trust representative Louise Bell, met with me to talk about the green cemetery project.  Both are members of the DIMS Cemetery Project Committee.

“Modern burial practices evolved as part of a general movement in the early part of the last century for everything to become more sanitized, after antibiotics were discovered,” explains Tetz.

“And yet,” continues Bell, “what actually happens to a body as it is being prepared for conventional burial is actually really gross!  People just don’t know it.”  Bodies are stripped, shaved, washed with disinfecting chemicals, massaged and manipulated; formaldehyde is injected into the circulatory system and into the body cavities.  The mouth may be sewn shut and devices are used to set the face in a proper expression.  So much indignity and mess for a process meant to preserve our dignity!

Thus far, Bell, Tetz, and their colleagues on the DIMS Cemetery Project Committee have found Denman Islanders very supportive toward the project, speaking in favor of it at public meetings, and participating enthusiastically in a recent table-tennis tournament fundraiser.  In fact, say Bell and Tetz, there has been no opposition—perhaps, says Tetz, because this community of avid gardeners, composters and farmers tends to be somewhat more comfortable with the “whole microbiological world” than others.

But mainly, says Bell, Denman Island has needed a new cemetery for years.  With the old cemetery full, locals have had to send their loved ones to other communities to be buried.

“This project resonates with what I’ve seen in my 20 years of medical practice on Denman,” says Tetz.  “In that time there have been two very tragic situations where young children died, and the cemetery was full.  It makes a very strong impression when a family needs a place to lay their child’s body to rest.  Plots were eventually found, but it was very difficult; we had to ask permission from other families and it was quite a process.”

Bell says the reason she got involved with DIMS was simple:  “I made an election promise.  In the lead up to the last Islands Trust election, two people asked me if, were I elected, I’d be willing to give some time to creating new cemetery.  I said yes.”

Bell’s extensive experience dealing with the intricacies of government agencies has proven to be very helpful.  As is typical when someone wants to do something new with land use, there is a daunting amount of bureaucracy involved.  In fact, more than two thirds of the budget for the cemetery goes toward bureaucratic costs such as rezoning and subdivision fees, land appraisal fees, applications to the Agricultural Land Reserve and the BC Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority, which oversees all things burial-related, as well as the legal work, surveys and consulting needed to accompany all this.

DIMS’ very first challenge was perhaps the largest—they needed to find someone to donate an appropriate piece of land.  Luckily, they soon found a willing donor: the Denman Conservancy Association (DCA), a well-established non-profit conservation society that owns a number of properties on Denman, stepped on board.

One of DCA’s flagship properties, the 60-acre Central Park, has one corner that is adjacent to the old cemetery.  After some deliberation—including discussion about how to legally ensure that the new cemetery honoured the conservation values that are intrinsic to DCA’s mission—the DCA board agreed to donate a hectare of Central Park to DIMS.

This meant DIMS could celebrate, but not rest.  Founding a cemetery is not a simple project.  Fundraising is particularly challenging, since “cemeteries” are completely off the radar of funding agencies, says Tetz.

Also complicating things is the fact that burial is a highly regulated field, with legislation covering not just cemeteries, but also who can deal with human remains.

“For instance, you aren’t allowed to touch or to transport a body without special certification,” says Bell.  The DIMS group is looking at ways to work within the regulations while keeping the burial process at home on Denman.

This is part of a larger movement in the way families handle death and dying, says Tetz.

“Over the course of my career I’ve seen a really large shift.  It used to be death happened mostly in hospital, often alone.  As a doctor, I’d be called in to pronounce someone dead.  I wouldn’t know them; I wouldn’t know their family.  So I’d end up making a call to someone I didn’t know, on the other side of the country, to tell them that a family member had died.

“Now, more and more people die at home, with their families around them—while still receiving the best medical care,” Tetz adds.  “Families have been reclaiming that event in their lives.  But all that stops when someone dies.  The body goes off the island into the hands of strangers.

“Part of the attraction of green burial for Denman Islanders is having the option to reclaim that part of things.  We tend to be a very self-reliant group of people here.”

Bell is keeping meticulous notes of all the steps DIMS is going through to achieve its goal, with the intention of being able to offer help to other communities who are interested in creating a green cemetery.

“We are breaking new ground—no pun intended,” says Tetz with a twinkle in her eye.  “Down the road we’ll certainly be willing to educate others.  And I anticipate that there will be interest.”

Death, after all, is a part of life, and it makes sense for people to want their death to mirror the values they live by.  The new Denman cemetery will offer this possibility to all those who value environmental sustainability and connection to the local in their lives, by providing a place where they can comfortably return to the earth, in their own communities, after their death.

Keep Christmas simple! As the invitations start rolling in for various holiday events, decide which ones are the most important to you, RSVP and then immediately put them into your calendar. Leave days or times open closer to Christmas so that you can spend time with friends and family in combination with getting ready for the festivities.

Take time to honor any grief you have at this time of year. Share this with the people around you and this too will become a meaningful tradition for the season.

Décor… This year, consider living by the less-is-more rule. Go through your decorations at the end of November and decide if there are any that you would like to take to a local charity. The stores are full of beautiful new bobbles and it is easy to get carried away in this season of shopping. Think about the space you use storing these items year to year and consider that the more items you have, the harder it is to focus on the really special decorations you have up. It is good to find balance between a festive home and a ‘Christmas catalogue’.

Over-consumption applies to bobbles as much as food this time of year. Choose a theme you want to work with—ideally one that incorporates items you already have and keep that in mind when you are out shopping.

Plan ahead… Purchase your Christmas decorations, cards and gift bags in the New Year so that you are already ahead when Christmas 2010 approaches. By keeping your décor simple and timeless, you needn’t worry about starting over with new trends.

Instead of purchasing wrapping paper each year, start buying gift bags and keeping them from year to year. Store them in with your Christmas decorations and reuse them—they will last for years. You can reuse the tissue paper as well just by folding it up and packing it into a larger Christmas bag. Recycling is great but re-using is even better!

Budget for the holidays not just for the gifts… If Christmas puts a stress on your finances and you have never put together a budget, now is the time to start. Write a list of all the people you are buying gifts for and everyone you are sending cards to. Note the cost of cards and postage for your mailing list. Next, decide on the amount you would like to dedicate to each person on your list.

In the New Year, you may find it useful to think about buying gifts throughout the whole year as you will be able to spread the cost out and find that perfect gift long before the Christmas rush. Some people thrive on the last minute shopping but if the crowds stress you out, think about purchasing gifts in advance.

Create a budget for all the things you may purchase over the holidays. Your list may include: food, decorations, tree, gift bags/wrapping, clothing, meals out, extra power for lights. You can keep your lists in a binder, a notebook or a Christmas organizer. Christmas organizers allow you to annually keep track of your budget, your holiday activities and the gifts and cards you sent.

Presents… Start thinking of presents long before the stores start playing Jingle Bells. By spending time with friends and family you will know what to get for them long before the Christmas rush. Make a list of everyone you will be getting gifts for and leave a space next to their name so that you can jot down ideas and/or the gift you have for them. Start your gift list as soon as you start purchasing gifts so that no gifts are tucked away and forgotten. You may also want to note your budget for each person’s gift and get an idea of the total you can spend. If you are making gifts be sure to jot down your idea and how long it will take to complete each gift.

This also makes shopping for each person a more personal and enjoyable experience. Be sure that your lists are in a place that can not be spotted by curious eyes.

Cards… By making lists and keeping on top of mailing dates you can ensure that all your cards get to their destination on time. Go through your address book choosing who you will mail cards to and write down everyone’s name in separate columns based on where they live (ie. Europe, Asia, Canada or local). Each year Canada Post puts out a list of suggested mailing dates. Visit canadapost.ca for this year’s dates.

Food… This is the time to create a feast for the freezer. Start baking at the end of November so that your freezer will be full of treats for the holidays. Look for recipes that freeze well. Appetizers, cookies, squares and many others are great ‘fresh from the freezer’. These are also perfect for last minute offerings at parties you are attending or as gifts in a decorative tin. The more preparing you do in advance the more time you will have for the things that will need prepared on the day.

Menu planning and lists will save you a lot of time and hair pulling. In early December decide what your meals will be in the lead up to and at Christmas. Double your meals in November and December and freeze a batch for those busy nights before Christmas. Then, all you need on the night is a fresh salad and refreshments.

Delegate. Draw up a chart outlining who in the family will prepare each meal and who will clean up. This will minimize kitchen chaos and give you a break from food preparations. Set your table as you clean up from a meal. That way you can dry the dishes and put them right on the table. It also eliminates congestion in the kitchen when meals are being prepared.

Share the feast. Ask your guests to bring containers for leftovers or purchase Ziplock bags so that your friends and family can go home with their own mini feast.

If you are hosting over the holidays be sure that you can relax and enjoy your guests. Tackle any untidy areas of your home in advance so that you aren’t fretting over them while guests are visiting. Put summer jackets and shoes into your bedroom closet so that your company has a place to put their winter wear when they get to your house.

Purchase some essential oils that will give your home a wonderful Christmas ambiance —pine, cinnamon, sandalwood etc. These scents combined with the wonderful smells of baking (fresh from the freezer) will be a wonderful welcome for your guests.

Traditions… Many families are unaware of how many wonderful traditions they have. The traditions people incorporate into their holidays are as unique as the people who started them. Traditions should have meaning for the people who participate, so telling the story of how the tradition originated is part of its importance.

Traditions can be as simple as eggnog in coffee instead of cream or as complex as the rituals completed over eight days for Hanukkah. Games, food, decorating the tree, and present opening are all areas where traditions are honored year after year.

Traditions are organic, ever changing wonders. Involve your children and friends in creating new traditions or modifying existing ones. If there are traditions that are stressful and/or are no longer meaningful to you, talk to your family about devoting that time to something else.

Close to Home… A more personal and enjoyable Christmas experience starts at your home and in your local community. In the weeks leading up to Christmas consider getting together with a group of friends to work on Christmas crafts/gifts. Share stories, great food and the excitement of making wonderful things for the people you love. Getting together with a small group of friends is a wonderful way to inspire and motivate your homemade gift projects.

Keep your eyes open for craft fairs and events put on by local artisans. Local papers advertise the various fairs.

By planning ahead, staying within your budget and supporting local businesses you will find the Christmas season a more enjoyable and personal experience. Your pocketbook won’t be hurting in January and your gifts will be infused with thought and love. Most importantly, you will be free to really enjoy the holidays, your home and the people that fill it with life and laughter.

For more organizing tips please visit breathing-room.ca.

“Our mandate is it has to taste good, it has to support the economy, and it has to help the producers make a living,” says Angeline Street, with husband James and their kids inside Brambles Market in Downtown Courtenay.

Photo by Photo by Boomer Jerritt

These days it’s quite possible to go out grocery shopping and for very few dollars you can score yourself a fresh-from-Hawaii pineapple that tastes like it just recently left a Maui plantation.

Angeline Street has no problem with our ability to do that, and she confesses that there are times she has a hankering for out-of-season strawberries and will make that purchase, knowing the strawberries didn’t originate here.  At the same time the philosophy and marketing belief she shares with her husband and business partner James is to encourage a local and healthful connection for your grocery marketing wants and needs.  The bonus is, the Streets provide access to localized shopping.

That’s partially what Brambles Market is all about, though it’s also more than that.  The ‘more’ part is for us, the consuming public, to be able to explore the wonders of our foodstuffs, their purchase and how much better the eating and family feeding experiences can be with a shift in long-held attitudes about convenience and access.

“Our mandate is it has to taste good, it has to support the economy, and it has to help the producers make a living,” says Angeline.

Brambles Market has just celebrated a year in business at its site in Downtown Courtenay, on 4th Street across from the Courtenay Museum.  Situated in a highly popular spot that boasts a rather European town square ambience—what with a popular coffee bar and café with its extensive patio, as well as a gelato purveyor—Brambles effectively completes the picture.

“We saw a need,” Angeline says quite simply of their inspiration for bringing Brambles into being.  With her long background in retail, and James’ training as a chef, food purveying seemed like a natural.  That, combined with their beliefs, was the guiding force behind their move into the former Island Inkjet site.

“What we had come to realize was that a lot of small producers couldn’t sell their meat and produce to the big supermarkets,” Angeline says.  “They had no outlet other than the Farmers’ Market, and not everybody goes to the market.  While the larger stores take some local produce, for example, that access has been diminishing.”

The other belief revolves around buying locally whenever possible, followed by items from elsewhere on Vancouver Island, and ultimately from the rest of the province.  She notes they had arrived at this local purchasing conclusion well before the now widely-embraced 100-mile-diet came into vogue.  At the same time, the renewed boost by the 100-mile philosophy was welcomed because it both raised public awareness and gave a nice boost to business.  It was a good bit of synchronicity, Angeline says.

“People have no idea about the array of local items that can be bought,” she says.  “Of course there are exceptions to this, and we’re certainly not fanatical about it.”

She notes that various fruits like bananas and oranges obviously don’t grow here. Likewise, if you are fond of rice and rice dishes, it has to be imported.  But, at the same time, people will automatically buy a certain brand of, say, flour, and be understandably oblivious to the fact that there is flour available—carried by Brambles—that is grown and milled on Vancouver Island.

“Part of our role is to provide access not just to the obvious items like fresh produce, but also to brands packaged on Vancouver Island,” she says.

While the current store is fine for their needs at the moment, Angeline says they would ultimately like to be bigger.

“We started the process five to six years ago,” she says.  “Once the book (The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon www.100milediet.org/book) came out, along with the TV show, we really started thinking seriously about it.  From there we had to find a place and financing for it.”

One of the motivations they wanted to satisfy with Brambles, she says, was to recognize that, as affectionately regarded as the Farmers’ Market is amongst Valley residents, it has its limitations.  There were gaps.  Brambles was designed to fill in those gaps.

“There are many other options beyond meat, bread and vegetables,” Angeline says.  “We can provide those in terms of products that originate locally or on the Island.  You want to buy frozen French fries?  We have those but they don’t come from McCain’s—they come from Victoria.  For a while we were offering, though sadly it’s no longer available, Worcestershire sauce from Saltspring Island.”

As far as competition goes, the opening of Brambles begs the question as to whether Edible Island doesn’t have that market sewn up locally.  Angeline says their direct competition isn’t actually Edible Island, but the Courtenay Thrifty Foods store.  In that context, she says, any chain supermarket gets a huge customer base because of not only the vast array of products available, but also due to shopper habits. It is those habits that Brambles wants to change.  And thus far they are succeeding nicely.

Human beings are creatures of habit, Angeline asserts, and contemporary householders are busy.  When they shop they think of it not as an experience for the most part, but a task to get over and done with.

“We shop by routine and rote,” she says.  “We buy the same things all the time.  It’s not necessarily brand-loyalty, but habit.  Something is familiar and we buy it yet again.  Not necessarily because we like it, but because it’s familiar.  What we want to do with Brambles is let the buying public know there is a wide world of options.  We want people to know they can buy items with healthful ingredients.  In terms of BC produced and packaged items we have stringent standards in the province and we don’t permit genetically modified items.  For products from elsewhere, such standards aren’t as stringent.”

Brambles’ produce all comes from organic growers, and local growers as much as possible in season.  Meanwhile, none of their meat has been adulterated with steroids or antibiotics.

Another area of motivation, adds James, is respect for local farmers and producers.  He is quick to assert that the agricultural community of the Comox Valley—one that is much more extensive than many residents realize—is a significant part of his heritage.

“My grandmother was a Piercy and they were among the pioneering farmers of the Comox Valley,” he says.  “I want the Comox Valley to respect and preserve what we have here, and one way we can do this is to buy their products.

“The Valley holds huge potential agricultural capacity,” James adds.  “The mainstream population of the Valley doesn’t know what we have here.  For example, we’ll go to a supermarket to buy peppers.  The peppers could have originated anywhere.  But, do people know we have a major pepper producer in the Comox Valley?  And those peppers are often cheaper than the ones from elsewhere, and much better.”

As they have to compete with the big chain stores, and that can be a daunting objective, it is essential that Brambles offers alternatives in order to retain and also expand its customer base.  James believes that their meat offerings cannot help but entice those who are seeking unadulterated quality.  Their sausages, for example, contain no binders or fillers.  That puts them well ahead of most commercial sausage brands which can actually contain such fillers as silicone dioxide—or sand, in other words.  Likewise many commercial chickens are injected with water, and the law permits up to 30 per cent water. Brambles’ chickens are 100 per cent actual chicken.

“Quite frankly our meat and poultry products are excellent,” James says.  “All the beef or pork comes from one animal that has been slaughtered locally, and we have a huge advantage of having an abattoir in the Comox Valley with Gunter’s.  What we have is delicious and unadulterated.”

In one respect what Angeline and James are offering at Brambles is nothing new.  This was the way marketing was carried out by everybody a few decades ago before chain stores established themselves and offered the conveniences they do.  At the same time, what Brambles is offering isn’t retro either.  That’s because all that is available must meet the scrupulous standards of the proprietors, as well as meeting stringent provincial codes. That wasn’t always the case in grandma’s day, not to mention the fact that marketing regulations were virtually nonexistent in days of yore.

So, what is this customer base that is seeking ground beef with which you can actually barbecue a hamburger and know the meat was just ground that day, on site, and finds its source in a single side of beef from a steer raised in the Comox Valley rather than perhaps multiple heads of cattle, slaughtered elsewhere with how long ago being anyone’s guess?

“Our beliefs go back long before the current ‘foodie’ trendiness,” Angeline says.  “What we are doing with the store is exactly the model we’ve had in mind for years.  Agreed there is a certain battle to sell a concept like this because most of society doesn’t buy in for reasons stated earlier.  At the same time, we have a definite customer base.”

While you might think that the bulk of Brambles’ trade would originate locally—and they assuredly have an ever-growing Comox Valley customer base—Angeline has also found it interesting how much the store appeals to newcomers, and especially those from larger centres like Vancouver and Calgary.

“They really buy into what we’re doing here,” she says.  “They want a certain standard of quality and service and that’s what we give them.  We actually had a call from some people from out of town wanting to buy a house here but also wanting to know what we had to offer in terms of what they had gotten used to in the city.”

That the Streets convey a combination of gratitude and support for their community goes without saying.  In the same context they are strong advocates for other localized businesses and believe that the public should give them all the support they can for fear of otherwise losing them.

In that sentiment they cite the case of the speculation around a large international chain restaurant considering setting up shop in the Comox Valley.

“The possibility made the front page of local newspapers and that’s really disheartening,” Angeline says.  “There’s a trickle-down effect with such places and people don’t seem to realize what happens to locally owned and operated restaurants when yet another big chain outlet comes to the community.”

Another service offered by Brambles lies in the realm of research of products, since, as Angeline explains, “We don’t always carry the full line of any particular product, but if you want to know anything about a particular product or whether other products are available from the company, we can call up the distributors and get you the information.”

She notes that to qualify as a BC product, the item must be at very least packaged in this province.  As there is no olive crop grown here, when you buy olive oil you are obviously getting something that originated elsewhere.  But, the olive oil can be bottled here—and some labels are—and hence becomes a BC product.

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is education, the Streets say.  It’s a matter of learning to appreciate what we’re eating both nutritionally and taste-wise.  “Eating for good taste and good nutrition has a lot of potential once you get into the swing of it,” Angeline says.  “Get into the habit of buying good food and preparing good and nutritious meals, and they can be done simply and quickly, you’ll never look back.

“And, with children, start them young,” she adds.   “If kids have a role in buying food they love being a part of it.”

Farming runs in the family for Kathy Beaton, above with her granddaughter surrounded by turkeys on their Comox Valley farm.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

I arrive at Stonecroft Farm, in Merville, on a frosty weekday morning and, as I step out of the car I am greeted by turkey gobbles.  A big Rottweiler, fast asleep in the driveway, hasn’t even noticed my arrival.  But the turkeys—hundreds of them—follow my every move with wave after wave of gobble, gobble, gobble!

I scan the collection of red and white barns and quickly spot one of the farm’s owners, Kathy Beaton.  She walks toward me with a pumpkin under each arm and a smile on her face.  We meet in front of an outdoor pen full of white and grey turkeys, who watch us suspiciously.

“Just a minute,” Beaton says as she hurls the pumpkins, one by one, over the high fence.  The big birds scatter like a tidal wave and then, a split second later, scurry back to where the pumpkins have landed with a splat.  The birds chatter excitedly as they gobble up the feast of pumpkin flesh and seeds.  In their little bird brains, I imagine, the danger of the flying orange orbs has long been forgotten.

Although I have come to Stonecroft Farm to talk turkey with Kathy Beaton, I soon learn that this beautiful 47-acre parcel of land is more than just a turkey farm.  In addition to 1,500 turkeys, there are also 2,000 Chukar partridges, 2,000 ring-necked pheasants and a peacock.  The peacock, Beaton says with a chuckle, was a stray that simply appeared a few years ago on Mother’s Day. No one in her family will admit to having brought it home!

There is also a retired Peruvian Paso horse meandering about the farmyard, a handful of beef cattle and a couple of dairy cows in a distant pasture.  And then there is the resident Rottweiler, who has finally noticed me, along with a couple of wire-haired terriers to round out the menagerie.

Stonecroft Farm, Beaton explains, has been a labour of love for her and her husband, Glen, and their four children—Brad, Kari, Don and Vasil—for almost 30 years.  When they bought the land in 1980 it was nothing but logging slash and scraggly alder.  Today, it is a fully operational mixed farm with facilities to raise turkeys from incubation to market weight, a poultry processing facility, expansive pheasant runs, a huge vegetable garden, a commercial blueberry patch and two homes.  Son Brad, his wife Casey, and their two young children live in one house; Glen and Kathy live in the other.

“Both Glen and I grew up on farms,” explains Beaton.  “I was born and raised in the Comox Valley and Glen moved here from Cayley, Alberta.  Both of us had always had an interest in poultry and it was easy to get started with that.  Raising poultry required a lower capital investment than other types of livestock.  Initially, we started with fancy chickens and pheasants but soon found out there wasn’t a real market for the chickens.  So, when my father asked if we could raise 400 tom turkeys for him we agreed to give it a try.”

In many ways, that was a pivotal turning point for the farm’s future.  The turkeys, Beaton explains, are direct descendants of her grandfather Harry Gunter’s birds—prize-winning Broad-Breasted Bronzes.  A framed certificate from 1949 honoring Harry Gunter with a “Master Turkey Breeder” Award is hung with pride in the Beaton’s turkey processing building.

Harry Gunter immigrated to Canada from England in the 1930s, eventually settling in the Comox Valley.  He started a beef cattle operation just off the Old Island Highway north of Courtenay and, a few years later, opened a butcher shop/abattoir, Gunter’s Meats.  When he won a trio of turkeys as a prize in a turkey shoot in 1932, Grandfather Gunter began raising turkeys, too.

Years later, his son Bob and his wife Bev bought the adjacent farm and raised their family—and tons of turkeys—there.  Sixty years later, both farms and Gunter’s Meats are still owned and operated by members of her large extended family, Beaton says proudly.  She and Glen, however, are the only ones still raising turkeys.

Although the flock of turkeys before me looks like any other destined for roasting pans in the Valley, they are unique in that they represent four generations of Comox Valley farmers and more than 75 generations of Comox Valley turkeys!  The Beaton’s grandchildren make up the fifth up and coming generation of farmers.

The lineage of the Beltsville Small White turkeys dates back to the early 1930s and is the result of efforts to produce a white turkey, without black pinfeathers.  The Broad-Breasted Bronzes trace their roots to the 1900s, when European birds were crossed with wild American stock.  This resulted in a turkey that was larger and more robust than the European turkeys, but tamer than the wild ones from North America.

The bloodline, Beaton says, is something she is very proud of and is, in her words, “irreplaceable.”  Both breeds are now recognized as “extremely rare” and listed as Heritage Breeds by the American Livestock Breeders Conservatory.

To be designated as Heritage Turkeys, you must be able to prove that the turkeys have resulted from natural mating of both its parents and grandparents.  It is interesting to note that, due to their large size, commercial hybrid turkeys have lost the ability to mate naturally. They are bred by artificial insemination.  The Heritage Breeds are also renowned for having a long, productive outdoor lifespan, and a slow to moderate growth rate.  They reach an average market size—15-20 pounds for hens and 30 pounds for toms—in about 28 weeks.  A 20-pound bird is considered by turkey growers to be the perfect size.

This impressive history is one of the reasons Stonecroft turkeys are sold as free-range, but are not certified organic.  “While I don’t use pesticides, growth hormones or medications as a routine practice,” Beaton says, “I need to know that if my birds do become sick, I can medicate them if necessary.  I can’t risk losing the bloodline.”

Of the hundreds of turkeys being fattened for Christmas dinner at Stonecroft, there is one pen of about 60 birds that have been carefully selected as breeding stock for the next generation.  They have been handpicked for their solid structure and healthy vigor and will produce about 1,000 eggs that will be incubated at Stonecroft next spring.

The turkey hens start laying eggs in early March and the eggs are collected and stored until there are enough to incubate.  Although not all will hatch, batches of about 300 eggs a time are placed in the incubators every two weeks.  Much to the delight of the grandchildren, they hatch in 28 days.

But not all of the turkeys on the Beaton’s farm have such impressive pedigrees.  They also buy about 800 commercial hybrid turkey poults (the proper name for ‘chicks’) from agricultural suppliers each year.  Like the farm-bred birds, these poults are first nurtured in barns and then, once fully feathered and big enough to be allowed outdoors, they are turned out to range freely in securely fenced pens during the day.  For safety’s sake, all are kept in barns at night and during episodes of inclement weather.

Some of the turkeys are ready for processing in early October, just in time for Thanksgiving.  The rest—except for the 60 or so breeders that are cared for over the winter—are destined for Christmas dinners.  Stonecroft has all of the facilities to slaughter, pluck, clean and package the turkeys according to strict food safety standards.  In addition to family members pitching in to help, they bring in a seasonal staff of about six people to help with the process.  Turkeys are sold directly to the consumer at the farm gate, as well as supplied wholesale to local specialty food stores.

The Beatons manage their turkey operation under a licensing and quota system relegated by the Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency (CTMA), which works in cooperation with the BC Turkey Marketing Board and other provincial associations.  Stonecroft is allocated 15,000 live kilograms a year, which translates into about 1,500 turkeys.  It is a number they are satisfied with, since they have no desire to grow their operation any bigger.  “Eventually, the kids might want to expand operations,” says Glen Beaton, “but Kathy and I are -content with the number of birds we are permitted to raise.”

The pheasants and partridges raised at Stonecroft fall under a different category.  They are able to raise these “exotic” fowl because they have a permit from BC Ministry of Environment & Wildlife.  They are brought to the farm on contract from a local sportsman’s club.  The chicks arrive at the farm in the early spring, are raised to full adult size with minimal human contact, and then transported to other areas and released into the wild.

When the Beatons look back over a lifetime on the farm, and look forward to the future, they say they find it very gratifying to stand back and see what they have created at Stonecroft Farm.

“Certainly, the industry has changed and we have had to change along with it,” says Kathy Beaton.  “Thirty years ago, people just wanted a turkey.  Today, they want to know how it has been raised and where it is coming from… and I think that is a good thing.”

Thanks to the Bird Flu and other communicable diseases that have attracted global attention, it is also now necessary to stop the potential spread of disease from one farm to the next.  Bio-security is something that all farmers now have to be hyper-vigilant about.  Accurate records must be kept on the sale and purchase of live animals and feeds, visitors must sign in, and certain areas of the barns have restricted access.  This is something that certainly wasn’t a concern when the Gunter family began raising turkeys more than 60 years ago.

“It has been a tremendous amount of work and it hasn’t always been easy,” says Beaton.  “But it is a great feeling of accomplishment.  And it is great to now watch our grandchildren’s delight when they accompany me to the barns to collect eggs, watch poults hatch or pick up baby birds.

“We all wish the absolute best for our kids and work hard hoping they will have it a little better than we did,” she adds.  “Multigenerational farming certainly gives the next generation a head start in putting a product to market and making a business work, but there has to be far more to it because there are much easier ways to make a living!”

Brad Beaton, who has made the decision to be a key part of Stonecroft’s succession plan, agrees.  In addition to helping with all farm operations, he also holds down a full-time job.  Despite the effort, he has no regrets.

“We moved to the farm when I was three years old,” recalls Brad.  “I fondly remember ‘helping’ my dad clear land with an old Cat dozer.  As time advanced, so did my ability to actually be of some use!  I recall those early days as a time of great construction, with many large barns being built while our family of five lived in a 750-square-foot garage.  I have very fond memories of that little place, with a woodstove that could heat it up to well past cozy!  We lived a simple country life and, even though I do recall complaining about my chores from time to time, I always enjoyed the farm life and seeing the fruits of our labor.

“I want to give my kids the same lifestyle and opportunities I had growing up on the farm,” he adds.  “My parents were still wanting to farm and I definitely could not afford to buy a whole farm on my own.  Together, we came up with a plan that seemed to work for everyone.”

In April 2009, Brad and Casey sold their home and moved into the main farmhouse at Stonecroft.  Glen and Kathy moved into a new home they had just built on the farm.  The new house, says Brad with a laugh, “is a convenient distance away from the main farm house.  I believe no neighbor should be within shotgun range, even family!”

So far, it appears the move to the farm was an excellent decision.  Their daughter, Caley, who will be five years old next year, is eager to help with farm chores and her eyes light up when she gets to help operate the Bobcat.

“As Caley and my son Matthew get older,” says Brad, “they will be introduced to age-appropriate work experience.  They will be taught everything from operating and maintaining equipment to construction, in addition to your typical farm animal husbandry and horticulture, just like I was.”

“Our farm life is not easy,” concludes Brad, “but we definitely have it easier than my parents did!  Hopefully, when our kids look back on their upbringing they will be proud of what their efforts have helped accomplish, and they will have a sense of belonging to something bigger than just themselves.  I’m proud of my farm family heritage and am honored to carry on and keep Stonecroft Farm in the family.”

Talking Turkey

Here’s everything you need to know about turkeys in the barnyard:

Domesticated turkeys can’t fly.  Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour.  They can also run up to 25 miles per hour on the ground.Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears.

Turkeys see in color and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field   of vision, which  makes sneaking up on them really difficult.

Turkeys have a poor sense of smell, but an excellent sense of taste.

A female turkey is called a hen.  A male turkey is called a tom.

Only tom turkeys gobble.  Hens make a clicking noise.  Gobbling is a mating call, but turkeys also gobble when they are alarmed.

The fleshy growth from the base of the beak, which is very long on male turkeys, is called a ‘snood.’ It changes colors like a mood ring!

What you need to know about the turkey on your plate:

Turkey is a “lean meat” and is an excellent source of protein, niacin and phosphorous.

When compared to other meats, turkey has fewer calories, less fat and less cholesterol. The fat in a turkey is mainly unsaturated.

Turkey trivia—impress friends and family during your holiday feast!

The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named after the short, jerky steps of a turkey.

At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered national symbols of America.
Benjamin Franklin argued passionately on behalf of the turkey. Franklin felt the turkey, although ‘vain and silly’, was a better choice than the bald eagle, whom he felt was ‘a coward.’

Humankind has been calling the fleshy tail of the turkey “The Pope’s Nose” since the early 1800s! It is also sometimes called the Parson’s Nose and, in northern Africa, the Sultan’s Nose. Protestants used it as a derogatory term, perhaps because it looks a bit like the nose of a fat, old man. Interestingly, though, Italians, who are mostly Catholic, value the fatty appendage in soup making.

The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed 86 pounds.

Mature turkeys have about 3,500 feathers.

For Carswell and Kelly, however, this trip would be a turning point in their lives and in the lives of thousands of others—both here on Vancouver Island and in India.

Peggy Carswell has her hand in making things grow both locally in her garden, and as far away as Assam, India.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

“I did not initially set out to become an expert on tea,” explains Carswell, “I just wanted to travel through India. Shortly after we got back, Kel and I were visiting with our neighbors, Wayne Bradley and Janet Fairbanks. They told us about World Community Development Education Society—a non-profit society they volunteer for. This organization works with coffee growers in Nicaragua and imports organic fair trade coffee to North America. They said it was difficult to find fair trade organic tea. Since we had just been to Assam, they wondered if we had any information about how to connect with small scale tea growers there.”

Carswell had been captivated by India. The idea of sourcing organic tea and helping small farmers in remote villages appealed to both her sense of adventure and her heart of compassion. She began extensive research on Indian culture, tea production, organic farming, small grower cooperatives and much more. Before long, she was armed with information and on a plane back to India. Her goal was to meet with small scale tea growers in Assam and to help World Community expand their fair trade business to include tea. Little did she know that, along with her husband, she would spend the next 10 years teaching interested growers how to grow tea organically, set up a cooperative, establish an export and distribution network to enable the Assamese to increase their profits and better support their families, and establish a resource centre in Assam to promote organic farming practices.

She explains that, prior to her 1998 visit, Assam had been under political siege for decades and few Westerners had ever traveled there. On her first visit, whenever she and Kel came upon a new village, they had to be interviewed at the local police station and were assigned armed security guards to protect them from insurgents. Today, the situation has improved, but travel through many parts of northeast India can still be risky.

Assam is both the name of a state in northeastern India and the name of the distinctive black tea that grows there. Assam has a humid, sub-tropical climate and produces about 15 per cent of the world’s tea. It ranks number two in the world of tea production, second only to Southern China. Assam is also one of only two places in the world where tea is a native plant. The tea grown here is often sold as English, Irish or Scottish “Breakfast Teas.” It is said that in the 19th century, tea exported from Assam revolutionized tea-drinking habits globally, since the tea plant yielded a distinct flavor.

Carswell explains that large non-Assamese business interests control the bulk of tea produced in India. Relying on a workforce originally brought in from other parts of India, it has historically offered little benefit to the people of Assam.

In the early 1990s, a number of Assamese families began planting and cultivating tea in an effort to improve their lives. Most of the tea they harvested was sold to “bought leaf factories”—often at prices that barely covered production costs. Without access to small scale processing equipment, technical and educational support, or a market for their teas (without the middle man), many of these families were (and still are) struggling to survive.

Early in her quest, Carswell had aligned herself with the All-Assam Small Tea Growers Association and had been assured that, when she met with its members, they would be able to understand English. Minutes into her first presentation, she realized that communication was a problem. She could tell by the puzzled—yet enthusiastic—looks on their faces that they had absolutely no idea what she was saying.

“Thankfully,” she adds with a smile. “I was partnered with a wonderful Indian woman, Monalisha Gogoi. We spent several weeks sitting cross-legged on her bed, with my laptop computer, translating all of the resource materials I had brought to Assam. Over time, we also became good friends.”

On that second trip back, and subsequent annual visits over the next 10 years, Carswell learned that the Assamese people had been led to believe that chemicals were “the future of farming.” Many had lost faith in the efficacy of farming practices traditionally passed down for generations. Bags of chemical fertilizers had replaced cow manure, harsh chemicals controlled insect pests and crop rotation had become a thing of the past. New hybrid seed varieties, which required constant irrigation and where ultimately much more susceptible to insect damage and disease, were introduced, and many important varieties of rice and vegetables were being lost.

“In my opinion, this was disastrous,” exclaims Carswell. “Not only do these chemical fertilizers have a significant environmental impact, the application of pesticides can result in serious health problems for workers and people living adjacent to the gardens. The instructions on the containers are written in English. Workers cannot read the directions and, as a result, they mix and over-apply products, thinking that if a small amount of chemicals works well, then a little more should work even better! Many people are suffering from respiratory, skin and other chronic health problems relating to chemical use and misuse.”

With the encouragement of a number of organic growers here on Vancouver Island, and using information on organic farming in the sub-tropics published by organizations based in India and Britain, Carswell was able to develop training materials suited to Assam’s climate. The skills and knowledge of many farmers from the Comox Valley have played a vital part in improving the Assamese farmers awareness of composting, insect pest management and crop rotation.

After four more years and a number of two- and three-month long trips to India, Carswell was growing weary of traveling throughout the state. A central teaching and resource centre needed to be established. Not only would this be less taxing, it would also create much-needed employment opportunities in Assam. She and Kelly had still not been able to import any organic tea produced by their small group of growers and they were pretty much still funding this effort on their own.

In the fall of 2003, Carswell and a team of enthusiastic Comox Valley volunteers registered Fertile Ground: East/West Sustainability Network. The association received charitable status in 2004. With the support of a hard-working board of directors and volunteers, came an opportunity to do some serious fundraising.

Start-up funding was secured from Vancouver-based Canada-India Village Aid Society (CIVA) to assess the needs of farmers and organizations working in rural Assam, develop additional resources materials and then provide training to farmers and other groups. Support from CIVA also made it possible to start the “Growing Healthy Families Program”—providing women of Assam with information, training and opportunities that encourage healthy, local food production; and helping them find ways to diversify and increase family incomes.

Two years later, Carswell and Kelly met with members of a Rotary Club in Assam and discovered they were interested in working together to establish a project to promote organic farming practices. The following year, the two groups were entrusted with an abandoned plot of land in Digboi that was owned by Indian Oil Company, on which a demonstration garden and a classroom would be built.

In the spring of 2007, Fertile Ground and the Rotary Club of Digboi opened the Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa Organic Demonstration Garden and Training Centre. It is located 540-kilometres east of the state capital, near the India/Burma border. The Centre now boasts a resource building, demonstration gardens, and a small retail outlet that sells organic produce and compost, as well as two small scale production units where vermi-compost and various botanical formulas are made.

In Assam, Pompy Ghosh manages Fertile Ground’s demonstration garden and training centre. “For me, to have this job is unimaginable,” says Ghosh.

The Centre has become a place where Assamese men and women come to learn, children come to play and all help tend the garden and share its harvest. It is a place of learning and a place of joy. It is regularly visited by farmers, small tea growers, educators, agricultural extension staff and students, and has attracted guests from Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Germany and the United States.

“Donations from Fertile Ground’s supporters and a number of local organizations have helped make all of this possible,” adds Carswell. “Strathcona Sunrise and Cumberland Centennial Rotary Clubs purchased building materials and equipment for the offices. Proceeds from the sale of World Community’s organic tea have helped pay the Centre’s staff and develop resource materials. Chislett Manson purchased a computer and a tent for farmers from distant locations who want to visit the project to take part in training sessions. And many volunteers, including students from Camosun College, UBC and UVic, have travelled to Assam to gain work experience in the garden and accompany staff when they visit nearby villages.”

In addition to training people from the Digboi region, staff from the Centre also take their lessons on the road. A portable electricity generator—a rarity is Assam—audio-visual equipment and resource materials translated into the Assamese language allow them to visit and teach in remote villages, too.

Today, the Centre has four full-time and several part-time employees. It is managed by a capable young Indian woman named Pompy Ghosh, who spent her first year as a volunteer at the project.

Abruptly, Carswell stops talking and her eyes fill with tears. She describes the brutal family violence, abandonment and poverty that have been a constant backdrop to this young woman’s life. “This job means so much to Pompy,” explains Carswell. “When we first appointed her to this position there was a great deal of animosity in the community because it is very uncommon in Indian culture to give a job like this to a woman. She now oversees all operations, gives lectures, does the books, develops PowerPoint presentations and is our translator. I am so proud of her.”

At this point in my visit with Carswell it dawns on me that we have long-ago stopped talking about organic tea. Later, I consider it a privilege to have an opportunity to phone Ghosh in India, to ask her how her work with Fertile Ground has affected her. “Madame Peggy has changed my life,” Ghosh says. “There are so many restrictions on what you can and cannot do in India. For me to have this job is unimaginable! With Madame Peggy, I feel that I can do anything. She is my manager, my friend… sometimes I feel like she is my mother. We have the best relationship. I cannot tell you all the good things I feel about her and the work she has done. There is not enough time to do that!”

Ghosh was so excited that I had called her that she asked other people at the Centre for their thoughts. Everyone enthusiastically voiced an opinion and she had responses back to me within 24 hours. Some of these comments, reprinted here verbatim in their broken English, were:

“I have learned compost making, green manuring, collection of biodegradable and non biodegradable things separately.  Also about the importants (sic) of various local weeds or herbs, saving local seed variety, and mainly importants and control of harmful insects.”

“The Centre is important because till today, in the northeast part of India, this is the only one centre where people can learn or know or get trained about organic agriculture.”

“The staff are learning a little bit of English. Moreover, now a days they have developed the courage or confidence to talk to a group of people… explaining about compost or insect controlling methods.”

“They feel very happy, and it is also not hundred per cent false to say that they feel little bit proud.”

Most humbling, however, is their answer to my final question: Is there anything else they would like the people in Canada to know?

“Yes! [We are grateful for] POLITENESS , NO CLASS DIVISION, TRUTHFULNESS, (by truthfulness we mean not making false promise, no cheating, etc.) Most specially we like one feature in the Canadians and that is ONENESS.  Ie. no difference between rich and poor, between high caste and low caste, between ugly and beautiful. This is just like a God gift for us. Because in India it doesn’t matter what one’s qualification or qualities are, only one thing matters and that is one’s  ECONOMIC SITUATION.”

These responses make it easy to see why Carswell and Kelly are so passionate about this project.

This winter, for the first time in 10 years, Carswell will try not to go to India. “My ultimate goal was that this project would eventually be taken over by the Assamese people,” Carswell says. “The Centre is being well-managed and I keep in touch with Pompy and others via email.

“Several of the growers we have been working with over the years are growing, processing and exporting their tea. Kel and I now have six varieties of organic fair trade tea available for sale here through our newly formed business, The Small Tea Co-operative. Proceeds from the sale directly support the tea growers. While our work is by no means complete, I think we can say that our efforts have been pretty successful. I will spend my volunteer time this winter working from Vancouver Island. I am hoping to find two or three new people who are interested in Fertile Ground and who would be willing to become board members. Together, we will do our best to support Pompy and her team from a distance.

“I love the people of Assam, but there are family and friends that I love here on Vancouver Island, too. Balancing my life in both worlds will always be a challenge.”

For more information call 250-337-8348 or visit fertile-ground.org

Help Support Fertile Ground at The Mad Hatters Tea Party

Fertile Ground has planned a fun-filled fund-raising event for 2:00 pm, Sunday, November 1st at the Florence Filberg Centre. The Mad Hatters Tea Party will feature a selection of decadent desserts, fruit and several different teas, including flavorful Indian “Chai” prepared with fresh ginger and spices. Local herbalist and owner of Innisfree Farms, Chanchal Cabera, has promised to make up a special Mad Hatters blend for all to sample and enjoy. There will be prizes for the most unusual hats, a silent auction and much more.

A highlight of the evening will be a slide presentation, showcasing Assamese culture and, of course, the Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa Resource Centre. Money raised will enable Fertile Ground to continue to maintain the Centre and provide information and training to interested farmers, self-help groups and tea growers in other parts of the Assam.

Tickets are $16 each and are available in advance at: Home and Garden Gate (Courtenay and Cumberland), Bop City Records (Courtenay), Blue Heron Books (Comox) and Abraxas Books (Denman Island).

Chef Ronald St. Pierre of Locals Restaurant browses the weekly Farmers’ Market for fresh produce.

OurBigEarth.com is a family-oriented Internet resource designed to provide Comox Valley residents with information on everything from nutrition to recycling, including events, workshops, suppliers and more.

In 2008, a major initiative and accomplishment for Our Big Earth was the creation of Valley Roots: A Guide to Food in the Comox Valley, aimed at helping families learn more about local food and reconnect them with local food producers.

In May 2009, Robin Rivers, owner of Our Big Earth Media Company, was invited to attend a national food bloggers’ conference in Toronto, where the food security was the main focus of the event.

Rivers had the opportunity to present the Valley Roots Guide there. She came away from the conference brimming with ideas on how to could introduce the concept of food security to Comox Valley residents and, in doing so, challenge them to “Eat Real. Eat Local.”

“We wanted to create a program that could engage people at the dinner table level to talk about food security,” explains Rivers. “Most people don’t have a lot of room for politics in their daily lives. We felt it was important to change people’s paradigms to connect with food in a new way, making food a political choice.”

Conceived, organized and fully implemented in less than a month, the result was the 2009 Eat Real. Eat Local 30-day Food Challenge. With the support of two main sponsors, Hellmann’s Canada Inc. and Brambles Market, as well as eight other featured partners, Our Big Earth created a colorful “food passport” and special coupons to be used at featured restaurants and food producers throughout the month of July. Rivers says that response from area business was so great that available space for participating sponsors was filled in less than 72 hours. Many local businesses are already lined up to participate in next year’s event.

When asked how a national brand like Hellmann’s fit into the “eat local” concept, Rivers points out that Hellmann’s Canada is making an impressive effort to promote local food consciousness amongst Canadian consumers through various initiatives, including EatRealEatLocal.ca. Their main product, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, is also manufactured with 98% Canadian ingredients.

A key part of the 2009 Food Challenge was a number of special events, open houses and promotions at featured restaurants and food producers. They encouraged passport holders to sample some of what the Comox Valley has to offer and enter to win a number of exciting prizes.

Rivers said she was impressed with the response from the public. A total of 700 Food Challenge Passports were distributed in June and, within a week, 350 people had signed up to participate.

“For me, the most important message I wanted people to come away with was a sense of community,” says Rivers. “The whole purpose of the 2009 Food Challenge was to make people think about where their food comes from and recognize how amazing the Comox Valley is.”

FMI check out ourbigearth.com

Landscape designer Helena Hartwood is on is on a mission to introduce edible landscaping to everyone. With food security now a global issue, she says, people need to realign their attitudes and think about food—not just lawns and flowers—for their own yards.

Photo by Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Helena Hartwood is no ordinary landscape designer. When it comes to gardening, this Comox Valley master gardener and owner of Hartwood Garden Designs looks at vegetation in a different way.  She strives to achieve varying heights, textures and colors by incorporating vegetables and fruit-producing shrubs, vines, hedgerows and trees.  She calls it “edible landscaping.”

For Hartwood, landscaping in the new millennium needs to both look and taste good.  With food security now a global issue, people need to realign their attitudes and think food, not just lawns and flowers for their own yards, believes Hartwood. The time is ripe for the “slow food” generation to take root.

Hartwood’s love of gardening was fostered during many years working summers at her grandparents’ Niagara-on-the-Lake orchards.  Although she considered becoming a landscape architect as a young woman, she was more interested in the softer side of landscaping, like planting vegetables and pruning fruit trees. So instead, she obtained an Arts degree from a Welsh university, specializing in stained glass designs.  Her arts background now serves her well as a landscape designer.

In 2007, Hartwood attended a landscape design course at Vancouver Island University.  Her eyes ignite with enthusiasm when she recalls that first day.

“Within the first hour I knew this is what I was meant to do,” Hartwood says.  “It was like an epiphany for me.  I suddenly realized that I could make designing edible landscaping a career.”

Now, as a master gardener, Hartwood is on a mission to introduce edible landscaping to everyone.  She spends one day a week offering advice at Anderton Nursery in Comox.  The rest of her time is spent doing garden consultations, workshops and garden tours in the Comox Valley, as well as Campbell River.

“My days are spent going through gardens with homeowners.  I help them identify existing vegetation and then advise them on pruning, feeding and weeding, so they can do the work themselves.  And I do regular garden maintenance on a contractual basis,” says Hartwood.  “I work mostly on my own but hire excavators and arborists, for example, for really big jobs.”

When designing edible landscapes, Hartwood combines various types of vegetables with edible flowers to create garden beds and containers that are esthetically pleasing, easy to care for and productive. Corn, sunflowers and pole beans, for example, provide height.  Swiss chard and fancy lettuce add color.  Parsley, basil and other herbs can add beautiful texture and fullness.  Amongst it all, nasturtiums and other edible flowers can provide variety and an added splash of color.  Various types of vegetables and flowers can even be planted to help pollinate and control garden pests, eliminating the need for harsh chemicals.

For arbors and fences, Hartwood incorporates kiwi, grape and hops vines.  Strawberries cascade down from hanging baskets—well out of reach of pesky rabbits.  Hedges can be comprised of blueberry, gooseberry and hazelnut shrubs.

Hartwood loves nothing better than spending time under the canopy of an apple tree, showing someone how to properly prune their trees and, in doing so, foster a sense of pride and accomplishment when they are blessed with a bountiful harvest.  But with families smaller than they were 50 years ago, and with fewer people knowing how to preserve fruit and produce for the winter, helping people cope with, quite literally, the fruits of their labor, led Hartwood to an organization called the LUSH Valley Food Action Society. (LUSH stands for “Let Us Share the Harvest.”)  She now serves on their board of directors.

“LUSH Valley is an amazing non-profit organization that has been working to ensure ‘food security’ for people in the Comox Valley since 1999,” explains Hartwood.  “I am involved with the harvest-sharing Fruit Tree Project.  LUSH Valley works with people from Fanny Bay to Black Creek who have fruit trees but are not utilizing the harvest.  This includes [but is not limited to] cherries, plums, apples, pears, kiwis, figs, hazelnuts, walnuts, quince and grapes. We bring in teams of volunteers to pick the fruit and then divvy up the crop into thirds, which are then distributed to the tree owner, the volunteers and LUSH Valley.  Our portion is then given, free of charge, to various soup kitchens and other social food programs in the Valley.  In the near future, LUSH plans to start selling some value added produce to the public, from their office and warehouse on Piercy Avenue, to help raise money to fund operations.”

During the 2008 harvest season, LUSH Valley volunteers picked more than 16,000 pounds of fruit.

This year, they have has set a goal to double that amount.  Close to 75 people have already registered to help pick the fruit, and more are welcome to come forward.  Many have volunteered as a humanitarian gesture, because they just want to help.  Some, however, are doing so because they need this food.

While the Fruit Tree Project is an integral part of LUSH Valley’s work in the community, adds volunteer president and acting executive director, Betty-Anne Juba, the association is active on many fronts.

LUSH Valley also has three large vegetable garden plots under cultivation in the Comox Valley—on property donated for use by area landowners. The gardens are cared for by participants of a provincial and federal government-sponsored job creation program.  They are learning marketable job skills, as well as helping grow food to distribute to local agencies working with the impoverished.

Juba dreams of the day they can add protein to their grocery supply list.  “Just imagine how much more nutritional value we could offer with donations of eggs, milk, meat and other protein-based perishables,” Juba says.  For that to materialize, however, cash donations to help purchase walk-in refrigeration/freezer units are desperately needed. Use of more garden space and a greenhouse or two, to be able to grow food year round, are also high on LUSH Valley’s “Dream Donations” list.