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Eat Local In Every Season: Brussels Sprouts
Why Local? As we move into fall in southwestern BC, farmer’s markets with their beautiful abundance of local fruit and vegetables are beginning to wind down. This year my family participated in a CSA (community-supported agriculture) food box from a local farm for the first time. What is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box? The idea behind these boxes is that the community buys food directly from local producers and supports these producers in their work to grow food in a sustainable manner. We paid a cost in advance and then went to the farm on scheduled days to pick up a box of fresh, local produce. We loved the…
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Reflections on Backyard Garden: Good, Bad, and What Happened?
Success this year Our usual peas were out of stock so we tried planting snap peas and they were so good that we’re going to plant them again next year! We’ve actually harvested a good number of apples that didn’t have worms which is a huge improvement over last year; We had a good harvest of garlic and have been putting it in almost everything!; The winter garden bed is planted and growing. Failures this year I was so excited to try growing luffa however both seed starting attempts this year failed. I’m guessing the soil wasn’t warm enough so we’re going to try them again next year with a…
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What We’re Planting
Our start to vegetable gardening was not a success: we had tried to grow a few things on a borrowed plot with friends some years before trying our own and spent about $100 on seeds and supplies… and ended up with enough vegetables for one pot of soup! Undaunted, we attempted our first garden at our own home in 2015 with the help of my husband’s parents and grandparents. We’re excited to share what we’ve learned with you since then! Key considerations when starting a garden Environment Soil: Potting soil is a great option for containers. If a plant has a specific requirement, such as sandy soil, then the seed…
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Backyard Garden Journey
Garden Inspiration We’ve been on this journey for five years now and have learned so much! My husband and I both had family members who grew their own food and so had seen it done, though hadn’t ever tried growing vegetables ourselves. The idea of being able to grow our own food was appealing for a few reasons: the ability to save money on our food budget while having access to very fresh produce, knowing what each vegetable was (and was not) treated with, as well as sustainability and self-reliance. Fast forward five years and we’ve moved on from having to call grandparents for step-by-step help to knowing what works well…
