So after my last post, which I admit was a little depressing – sometimes these things need to be stated though – I thought I’d cheer things up a bit with a photo.

Our species has come a long way from the times of hunting and gathering for survival, we have almost all of the luxuries we could ever dream of. But there is still something primal about gathering berries off a bush – no chemicals, no mechanical harvesting, just you and the berries. We’re almost done on the strawberries, (I think I ate about 40 of them last week), and now it is the blueberry.

This humble berry has heralded the long hot days of summer for millennium, and in recent times has topped the nutritionist charts as a “super-food” for antioxidants. People used to eat them just because they tasted so darn good, now they are harvested and frozen so we can enjoy them all year round on our pancakes. Still, as far as fruit goes, the blueberry is one of the best, and eating them in season is a real treat.

These beauties were found ripe in our backyard, they are amazing, David Suzuki even suggests that the Blueberry should be Canada’s national plant – not a bad idea.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as The Humble Blueberry

Technorati Tags: Antioxidant, Berries, Berry, Blueberries, Blueberry, Business, Canada, Cook, David Suzuki, fruit, Garden strawberry

Our experiment to leave some crops in the ground failed pretty miserably so far. Just when we needed to feed the masses, I went out to the garden, dug down through the snow, then through the hay… and struck rock hard frozen soil. I actually pried out a carrot that was about 3 inches diameter, but it looked like I’d run over it with the wheelbarrow a few too many times.

There is a fairly good warm patch happening right now, I might have to head out again in the rain to see if we’ve had any thawing of the ground and try to salvage some of the carrots, rutabaga and beets that are suffering out there.

It is all a learning experience – keep reminding myself that.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Almost a Winter Harvest

Technorati Tags: carrots, Castlegar, farming, Kootenays, urban agriculture, urban farm, Winter, winter harvest

With the first frost comes the need to harvest most vegetables. Our cold room is stacked with fruit and vegetables chilling out till it’s time to be eaten. Some vegetables can be overwintered in the garden , but there are a few steps to managing the crops that are left out in the cold. This year we are overwintering carrots, beets and rutabaga in the garden.

Prepare the Beds

These root vegetables are pretty hardy if you protect them from heavy frost or deep freeze, but the first step is to prepare the beds for overwintering – and honestly, this is the hardest step – weeding. That’s right, no one wants to weed the garden beds in the fall when you are thinking about the winter that is coming, but if you don’t weed it, you are protecting not only the crops, but some of the weeds as well. (We didn’t do such a great job of weeding this year – I’ll let you know in the spring how bad it is!)

Mulch Mulch Mulch

We had a delivery of straw bales a few weeks ago, and these have been put to good use as mulch around the gardens, but one of the main uses is to overwinter our vegetables. In addition to this, we have a number of Birch trees around our property that drop piles of leaves and a number of these are used for garden mulch as well, the rest get mixed into one of our various compost piles.

When you mulch over these vegetables, the tops will typically still die down, but the roots will go dormant and be protected from freezing. I’d suggest doing the mulching in two stages, the first to get a layer down that covers the vegetables before the first heavy frost or snowfall, the second soon after to add additional coverage as the mulch flattens out the vegetable greens. We have rabbits, so we like to harvest some of the greens before mulching to add to their feed. The thicker the mulch, the better the protection, I’ve read that at least a foot of protection above the soil is adequate in most milder winter areas.

Mark Out the Rows

We get about two feet of snow on the ground here in winter, if you don’t mark out the extents of the rows, you’ll never find the vegetables again. We use the 6′ wooden stakes for this purpose, one at the centre of each row that is being overwintered. As the tops will have died down, it is important to remember where you are up to as you pull out vegetables over winter, if the ground is not too hard I’d suggest moving your row markers along  as you go.

This is just one way to enjoy fresh vegetables over the winter months, it requires a small investment of time and some planning, but I think these efforts are worth it for the results.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as OverWintering Vegetables

Technorati Tags: beets, carrots, Castlegar, gardening, harvest, produce, Rutabaga, urban agriculture, urban farming, Winter, winter harvest

As the snow falls outside and most of the leaves have fallen, I’m reminded of all the things that were not accomplished on the to-do list. Despite this, we have a cold room full of apples, pumpkins and squash, preserved fruit and vegetables in canning jars, dried goods in the kitchen and a handful of other goods including seed-saving efforts in different nooks and crannies around the house. In the coming weeks we’ll receive our grain and lentil shares from the second year of harvest in the Kootenay Grain CSA, grown in Creston, about a hundred and fifty kilometers east of us. Our shares should provide wheat and oats for the year, and lentils for a number of months, we still have some wheat remaining from last year’s crops but that was really a function of milling power. Out in the garden, we’ve sown our garlic for next year and have prepared the carrot, beet and rutabaga beds for overwintering in the ground. The straw bales we received from Creston through the Castlegar Gardening Club have been instrumental in getting this to a stage we have confidence in.

This winter, I’m hoping to rig up a bike power-train to the grain mill and will move the milling operation down to the basement. This should be less athletic than the current hand-crank method of grinding our grains for flour. Some tips on how to do this are at the Country Living Grain Mill site. If you haven’t seen this mill in action check it out.

We are far from self sustaining. We are totally on the grid for natural gas heating, hydro generated electricity for cooking, lighting and technology solutions, and City provided water and sewer utilities – but we feel more prepared for winter than we have been before. To round out our urban homestead, we’d like to have chickens (for eggs) and goats (for manure and milk), but we are waiting on the City of Castlegar to consider a proposal to allow these animals to be rasied for food production in the residential zones of the City.

Already we are planning for next spring, seeds, new garden beds, crop rotations; it feels somewhat premature, but it gives us the winter to roll these ideas around for a few months before we really need to get onto it. We’ve had guests for the past two weeks and are getting back into our normal routine as the weekend approaches. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sift through my inbox, feeds, and thoughts and make a concerted effort to output some relevant posts for next week!

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Prepared

Technorati Tags: Business, Castlegar, Cereal, Fall, Field Crops, food, harvest, Oat, Vegetable, Wheat

We love composting. In fact, we’ve got a worm bin in the kitchen as well as two composting bins right down the back. I built these pallet composting bays to formalize the work of the previous owners of the house, but always knew that winter composting is not much fun to start with, but when you’ve got a 60 meter walk down a hill with a pail full of scraps, it makes it tough to enjoy the simple task. Thw rom bin takes some of the winter scraps, but just doesn’t scale up to take it all.

So last week, we were really impressed to find that the City was doing a deal on composting bins. See details here, or view the pdf below. [easy-retweet]

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Composting in Castlegar

Technorati Tags: Compost, garden, Home, Home and Garden, Soil and Additives, Vermicompost

So far, our urban farming harvest has been beautiful. I think these are some of the prettiest things I’ve seen coming out of our garden. Totally organic and hand grown, these are magnificent gifts from the garden.

I finished picking and husking the popcorn on Sunday afternoon, I ended up with about 80 cobs of popcorn that are now drying in preparation for a movie night in the not too distant future!

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This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Pink Popcorn

Technorati Tags: corn, gardening, heirloom, Organic, popcorn, urban agriculture, urban farming

Life is complicated, sometimes we just need to break down all of the information that bombards us, as well as our tasks, chores, and all those nagging thoughts of what we need to improve. This is my list, created in five minutes, of things I want to improve for personal sustainability.

1. Life balance

Any change you make is only as good as the life you live outside of that decision. Previous generations knew how to work, and they knew how to have fun and enjoy family and community time. This is a skill that many of us need to relearn. The simple joy of working with your hands and building something meaningful can transform the outlook of a white collar worker.

2. Transportation choices and options

Walking is good, cycling is great, driving should become our last choice for the short trips we make to the supermarket, pharmacy or other local store. This summer I intended to get a cargo trailer for my bike, it didn’t pan out, but this is still high on my list for sustainability. As the children get older, riding bikes as a family to get groceries or visit friends will be a sustainable option, particularly with a trailer on one of the adult bikes.

3. Urban Farm and Land Management

With just over 2/3 of an acre to look after, and only a portion of it cultivated for fruit, grains  and vegetables, this is one of the biggest challenges we face. Reducing the frequency of mowing and watering only key areas of lawn, planning a system for collecting rainwater and greywater, continuing compost and nutrient management as seasonal opportunities arise, planning a four season harvest schedule, implementing the SPIN Farming methodology, and participating in formal and informal harvest rescue opportunities are all ongoing projects in our household.

4. Home Energy Efficiency

The house we live in is over 40 years old. Some renovations had been undertaken prior to our purchase of the property, but there are still inefiiciencies that can be addressed through time and technology. These projects will improve the summer and winter comfort of our home, and obviously reduce our heating expenses as well.

5. Diet and Consumption

Eating meat is one of the worst things one can possibly do for the planet. We need to get back to a pre-oil/industrialized diet that is based on grains, pulses, starchy vegetables and the fruits of the season. For me, this actually means learning to cook and enjoy some of these foods, and discovering which ones will grow locally, or within a reasonable distance of Castlegar. Overall, to be sustainable, we need to focus our lives on less stuff. Less gadgets, less toys, less power tools, less vehicles, less meat, less packaging. Less.

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What challenges do you face on the path to sustainability?

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as 5 Changes for Sustainabilty

Technorati Tags: Cycling, Energy, Energy conversion efficiency, environment, food, Grocery store, life, Meat, Supermarket, Sustainability, White-collar worker

This week we’ve been inundated with Crabapples and Apples. The sweet cloying smell of these tiny fruits ripening in the kitchen kept the yellow jackets and fruit flies bumping against the windows screens.

With so many crabapples, we decided to try out several recipes. And with the aid of a steam juicer, we had an excellent base for jellies and juices. Many people dismiss these little gems as little more than a nuisance, it takes a bit of work, but adding a little sugar or honey to the juice provides an extremely refreshing drink on a hot summer’s day!

Crabapple Jelly and Syrup

Spiced Crabapples

We also made up some Crabapple Juice, Apple Juice and Apple Butter. I think we’ve still got about 150 pounds of apples to process. Here’s some of the Crabapples getting spiced.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Crabapples and Apples

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple Juice, Castlegar, Cooking, Crabapple, fruit, Fruits and Vegetables, Home, Juice, Kootenays, Ripening

We’re about to restart out affair with worms. Sadly, on leaving Australia we had to say goodbye to our Red Tiger worms and their lovely black box home. Now, after some prompting form the local worm lady, Betty, Eden’s Girl Guide’s group, and the fact that our outdoor compost pile is under about 2 feet of snow, I crafted a fine home for some new pet worms out of a couple of Tupperware boxes. and some additional fittings.

The New York Times recently posted an article on the growing trend of keeping worms in cities like New York, but an interesting part of the article was about the relative environmental impact of our choice…

Composting does not have as big an environmental effect as recycling, Environmental Protection Agency figures show: recycling one ton of mixed paper is four times as effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as producing the same amount of compost.

But keeping food discards out of landfills does more than twice the good of keeping mixed paper out, E.P.A. officials said, because decomposing food that is buried and cut off from air releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at higher rates than paper. (The ventilation in composting prevents methane creation.)

New Yorkers Try Composting With Worms – NYTimes.com.

I’m interested to know whether you are in on the great secret of worms…

The results of my last poll are interesting, I asked the question, how long could you survive on the food in your house, here’s a graph of the results…

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Worms in the Kitchen

Technorati Tags: Compost, composting, worm farm, worms

Now you might be thinking that I’d be writing a post about all the greatest greenest presents that you could buy.

I’m not going to tell you what to buy.

Instead I want you to briefly consider where all of the holiday consumerism has come from and is going to – is it a core part of our identity as a people? Is it a tradition that our great grandparents participated in? Or is it a product of the last fifty years of innovation, production, financial wealth and marketing?

Where is it going? Is this a tradition that can be sustained through recession, depression, the collapse of spending and trading, peak oil, or transformation to alternate energy?

Consider not buying gifts and disposable wrapping paper. Consider instead cooking up a locally grown meal and sharing it with friends and family sitting around a fireplace telling stories about the year past and hopes for the year ahead.We are in the middle of something big. There are a lot of unknowns out there, the risks are high, the governments are throwing around bailouts like confetti at a wedding. Unfortunately the situation we are in is more like a funeral – one that will mourn the lifestyle that these generations have come to know as the normal everyday way of life.

Christmas is about community and family. These ideals of Christmas were here before the consumer driven culture we currently suffer through, and will be here long after it as well. Have a peaceful, restful Christmas with someone you love, give them the gift of time and love.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John  15:12-13 ESV

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Greener Friendlier Holidays

Technorati Tags: Christmas, community, family, friends, holidays