Red Cedar

It’s the middle of summer growing and I have to say, after a day of tidying up yesterday, things are looking pretty nice in the veggie patch right now. I came home from Fanny Bay on Sunday to harvest another meal of beans, a large zuchinni, some patty-pan squash, my safflowers for drying, a handful of strawberries and blueberries, a bunch of yellow cherry tomatoes, the last of the large fennel bulbs and some stunted carrots that needed to come out. My garlic, pulled ten days ago, is drying nicely in the studio, and I’ve finally got yellow-brandywine tomatoes fruiting along with all my other tomato varieties.  And there’s still lots more to come as I continue to seed my fall and winter veggies.

One problem I have this year is blossom end rot on my zuchinnis. I think it might be caused by the fact I’ve got my zucchs in a washbasin and they aren’t getting enough trace calcium from the soil – so I’ve thrown a handful of bonemeal in, hoping it will help out. Despite this issue, I have gotten some  undamaged squash off the plant so far. I would just like to get some more before the season ends!

At 11:30 I was notified that today at 1:30 was the last, last chance to submit a grant application to the community small grants, urban agriculture program. So what did I do? Wrote three grant applications for possible fall workshops/projects in under an hour. To be fair, Brian provided the text for most of one of them, but still – I’m feeling pretty impressed with myself at the moment.

Now I’m casting around for free canning jars, in hopes that if I get the grant to do the “Canning for Community” workshop, I can do it on the eco-cheap and get most of my supplies secondhand – purchasing the fruits from the valley in bulk (and inexpensively). Fortuitously, I did just buy a second canner with a bunch of jars last weekend at a garage sale, so I am in good shape in terms of equipment.

I’ve never done a canning workshop before, though I’ve been putting my own food by for more than a decade now. Sometime around when I moved to Vancouver it was something I decided to teach myself to do, and since then my larder has always been stocked (sometimes over-stocked) with preserves of all kinds. Mostly just canned tomatoes, fruit and a bit of jam/fruit syrup – always the apple chutney – and last year we did salsa and pie filling and dessert sauce as well (Brian was a keen learner!) The one thing I haven’t done much of is pickling, owing to one crappy batch of pickles about nine years ago. This year I’ve decided it’s time to master the dill pickle and I’ve got those on my shopping list for our trip to Keremeos in mid-August.

Besides pickles, I’m also thinking this year – cherry chutney and/or cherry jam, applesauce and canned tomatoes for sure. Some type of funky salsa (so handy to have on hand for parties), and I don’t know what else but it will come to me when I’m looking at fruit and veggies (or Brian will be inspired to make something totally different). I don’t like to do too much jam because we just don’t use it that much and I’ve still got *jars* of it left from two years ago – I find chutney is a much more versatile condiment and goes lovely on rice dishes, with bbq, as a relish with cheese, with curry, etc. I would also love to do some green tomato salsa this year if the opportunity presents itself (ie: cheap tomatillos).

In any case, it would be awesome to get a grant to do some community-learning, but I also know that there’s folks out there who would like to learn even if I don’t. Perhaps some of us could get together, rent the kitchen at Kiwassa House for an afternoon and purchase some stuff in bulk? You can let me know via FB or email if you’re at all interested. It’ll be a busy fall, but if I organize it around a day I am already planning to can, it might just work!

Oh, and one other thing if you’re a canner. Please do contribute to the Vancouver Museum canning exhibit this summer before August 26th. I just think this is so unbelievably cool, I want that to be one full wall of preserves!

Admittedly, my edamame plants haven’t been doing so well as of late. Spindly plants, mottled with brown spots. Clearly there is something about soya bean growing I just don’t understand. But my other bush beans? Wowza, they are green and luscious and making loads of beans which are just at their ready-to-eat point.

I planted four kinds of bush beans this year: black beans, mixed wax beans, edamame, and dragon tongue (which can be eaten fresh or dried). I think there’s a total of 10 square feet planted in beans right now, with the earliest plantings producing handfuls of yellow and purple beans. Haven’t seen any green beans come up yet (which should have come in the mixed package), and my dragon tongues and blacks are still aways off from fruiting.

Just needed to share their loveliness before we start picking them!