Great Food Swap!

We held our 2nd annual Great Food Swap today - what a glorious array of homemade and homegrown foods filled the tables.  It was hard to decide what to bid on as everything was so beautiful.  There were salsas and "fireside tomato sauce", jams and chutneys, preserved peaches and pears, lemon and lime butters, hot chili pickle, artisan breads, lacto-fermented beans and root vegetable kraut, pickled beets, "nightshade curry", organic sourdough starter, "first honey" from a new beekeeper, kale chips, raw fruit and nut biscotti, homemade crackers and double chocolate raw truffle balls, dandelion syrup, spelt banana bread, and herbal tinctures, plus garden goodies like the hottest peppers, baskets of tomatillos, fresh stevia, dried herbs, wild grape leaves, heirloom tomatoes, bunches of chard, elderberries, and rhubarb...

The way the food swap works: participants display their items, then place "bids" on items they wish to take home, and finally work out a barter among themselves for what seems a fair value to swap (e.g. my jar of kimchi for your jar of salsa).  A nice way to share foods you love (and may have too much of), and stock your pantry with preserves you did not have time to make.

Thanks to everyone who took part!  We are honoured to share the bounty of this year's harvest with all of you.  Happy harvest season.

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy. 

Kids and gardens

Oh, what fun opportunities for play the garden offers.  Our daughter has had hours of enjoyment planting and tending her own little plot this year, growing just what she pleased (and what will a 4 year old choose to grow?  Rainbow carrots, dinosaur kale, dragon beans, sunflowers, and many kinds of cherry tomatoes), watering with all manner of containers to hold water...she roams the big garden enjoying the range of flavours available as she strolls by making her own leafy lettuce "sushi" rolls filled with spicy chives, tastes tangy warm tomatoes, picks crunchy beans, juicy cucumbers, sweet fennel seeds.  She chases our hens out of the kale patch and then feeds them comfrey leaves from the herb bed.  Finds a quiet resting place in a special spot under the huge sage plant, or uses the cold frame structure as a climbing bar for gymnastics.  And of course there is the dirt!  Digging, weeding, lifting rocks and logs to find what insect wait underneath.  We know a day is well spent for all of us if there is dirt between the toes and under the fingernails.

Seed saving in the home garden

Last Saturday we hosted our annual workshop on Seed Saving.  We had Bob Wildfong, executive director of Seeds of Diversity (Canada's seed saving non-profit) here again to lead his excellent information-packed workshop.  He discussed the best seeds for home gardeners to save (beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, greens) as these don't cross pollinate and will grow true to the parent plant.  Plants like squashes and zucchinis will cross pollinate and thus produce fruit that is unpredictable.  Participants learned about pollination, how to properly save seeds (e.g. letting seeds dry on the vine for plants such as beans; putting tomato seeds into a jar and letting the pulp rot off, then washing and drying the seeds to be saved), and how to carefully store seeds for maximum longevity.  The key is a cool, dry location - so in a glass jar in the fridge, or in paper envelopes also sealed in a glass jar in the fridge or cool cupboard.  Seeds of Diversity offers members access to a huge array of unique and heirloom seeds through a mail-order seed exchange directory, as well as opportunities to participate in specific seed saving projects such as the heirloom garlic project we took part in last year. 

What's being saved from our garden this year - various heirloom tomatoes (Mennonite Orange, Cherokee Purple being the favourites), lemon cukes, 3 kinds of kale, chard, various lettuces, arugula, several kinds of beans, basil, some annual flowers, and many herbs.  Photos below: scarlet runner beans, red orach (wild mountain spinach), tulsi/sacred basil, lettuce, calendula, lemon cucumbers, tomatillos, dill, echinacea, oregano, fennel, sunflowers, hops.

Soap Making Classes added for Oct & Nov

Now comes the season of crafting, making and doing...

In that spirit, we've added three new soap making classes to our fall schedule of events.  They are each an "intro to natural soap making", where participants will make their own batch of earth-friendly soap from scratch using lye, oils, organic botanicals, and pure essential oils using the traditional cold process method.   Workshop dates (Oct 13, Nov 10, Nov 17) and registrations are listed on our website.   Learn to make beautiful natural soap just in time for holiday gift giving...

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Autumn is here

These days...

~ firing up the woodstove for the first cold nights...
~ covering our still-growing basil, eggplant and tomatoes in case of frost...
~ preserving last jams, jellies, salsa, pickles, hot peppers...
~ preparing foods to share at our annual Great Food Swap this Saturday...
~ harvesting beans, basil, tomatoes, lemon cukes, nasturtiums, kale, chard...
~ drying herbs for winter teas...
~ eating warming soups on cool evenings (our favourites: lentil dahl, kale-potato-bean, or miso...)
~ collecting - count them!- 5 fresh eggs each day from our lovely laying hens...
~ making soap to get ready for our neighbourhood Art Walk & Studio Tour in October 20-21...
~ enjoying walks through crunchy leaves wearing warm woolens...
~ anticipating our part in the exciting new local Forest School project taking place in Oct-Nov...
~ baking fresh breads for the last remaining weeks of our neighbourhood CSA...
~ watching the bees humming among the goldenrod, cup plant, oregano...
~ savouring wood-fired pizza with our friends near the cozy cob oven...
~ feeling the turning of the season...

Seed & Harvest Events at Little City Farm

It's feeling like autumn now - time for preserving the last of the summer harvest, collecting seeds for next year's garden, and being thankful for what we have enjoyed from our gardens and farms.  To help with celebrating the harvest season, we have two annual events at Little City Farm that are coming up this month. 

Seed Saving Workshop - led by the executive director of Seeds of Diversity Canada
Sat, Sept 15 from 1-3 pm
No registration necessary as this is pay-by-donation.

Great Food Swap - our 2nd annual food swap! 
Sat, Sept 22 from 1-3 pm
No fee, but bring your best homegrown/homemade/home preserved food items to swap (see poster below for details).  Please RSVP for this one so we know how many people to expect.