mystery of the bridgeland veggie patch

Mystery solved! My family (evan + hera) and I have walked by this site many times and wondered what the story was. A beautiful block of veggies instead of houses in our Bridgeland neighborhood. Well, apparently the city has declared it a municipal historic resource.

85 Year Old Has Worked his Garden Plot for More Than 70 Years: Historic community garden in line for city protection in Calgary, Alberta

mooo

I went on a very interesting tour of a Hutterite colony this summer. They were a very open and welcoming group. Many a doe-eyed little girl in a head kerchief peeping from behind mother's skirt. It was great to see farming up close, and to expand my experience of farm life beyond the torment I endured as a 'city slicker' on my cousins' farm as a kid. Precious memories include: Sleeping in a room full of mounted animal heads with glow in the dark eyes (always fun when you're seven!) , getting tricked into touching the electric pig fence (shocking! heh), and watching my cousins catch garter snakes by the tail and snapping their heads off. Good times! Anyhoo, where was I.

The Hutterites in Alberta are not Luddites by any stretch. In fact another uncle told me about what a powerful influence they have on local economies in certain parts of the province due to thier consumption of fertilizer and other agricultural technology. The colony I visited was a modern large scale farm, with chicken battery cages and warehouses full of thousands of turkeys and sheep that would never see the light of day. Needless to say, being right in the middle of an industrial farming operation pretty much confirmed my bleeding-heart-tree-hugging-rabbit-food-eating views on the subject.

All this being said -- I think there's hope out there.. like on Vital Greens Farm! If you'd like to see some video of Albertan organic farmers in action, see below. Just tune out the narrator who has possibly had ten cups of coffee.

tomatoes from the garden

tomatoes from the garden
Originally uploaded by claireliz77

Q: Is there anything better in the known universe than a toasted tomato sandwich?
A: No, no there isn't.

Picklefest 2008

Just got wind of a great blog, which I've seen before..
www.homegrownevolution.com

They are participating in Picklefest 2008 -- a giant pickling party. The couple who write this blog, Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, are teaching everyone how to lacto-ferment food, which involves brine instead of a hot water bath (how saurkraut is made). This apeals to me because it would involve a whole lot less energy being spent (my utility bill went up when I did a ton of canning). Can't resist the challenge of making my own kimchi.

Hard Core

Whoah I'm jealous.

Bill Anderson grew nearly 11,000 tomatoes last year. He isn't alone in his obsession.