Let’s go downtown as if we lived here. Let’s look at Canada through the lens of the story it tells in the Syilx illahie (illahie is Pacific Slope trade jargon for “story” […]
How to Make a City Indigenous, Even if You’re Lazy, Eh
Towards an Indigenous Agriculture: Land Reform for British Columbia (and beyond)
Yesterday, I showed how an aspen copse … … could be used as both a living and an agricultural space by farming both its edges and its shade. Here’s that post. Today, I’d […]
Indigenous Culture, Settler Culture and Canada: Agriculture’s Highways and Byways
Harold Innis argued long ago … Societies that depend solely on time-biased media are oral and tribal. Although leadership tends to be hierarchical, time-bound societies may also operate by consensus. Since, in […]
Smoke on the Orchards Reveals Some Structural Weaknesses in Canadian Apple Growing
Smoke is filtering out the sun. The hot August days are as cool as a warm day in March. Orchards, already struggling with a world glut of fruit, as the empty land […]
I Went to the Garden to Taste What I Could See
Black Krim, Brandywine and friends. Brandywine is very, very happy this year (the big pink girl at bottom right, upper centre and peeking in from the top left.) Back in 1962 when […]
Build An Earth for Wasps? Now’s the Time!
Right in this season, right now, sales of wasp-killing products are peaking, as the yellow jackets drive everyone away from eating outdoors. It can be freaky, especially when the nests are right […]
The Day the Sky Came Down to Earth
The shallots I planted last July are blooming now, and replacing the lost nodding onions up on the hill. The sky has noticed. Welcome, Sky! These blue beauties were in the mariposa […]
Just a Mouthful, Thank You Very Much
Big sunflowers are for the birds and big apes, eh. But small ones, the gloriously misnamed arrow-leafed balsam root, are for tiny birds, who peck the tiny seeds, and deer, who munch […]
Sweet Apricot Kernels
Move over California, with your water-hungry almonds. 4.5 litres of water to grow one almond? Ridiculous! We have apricots with sweet kernels here in the north, that can grow in the shrub […]
Getting Down to Some Serious Fun in the Kitchen
There are close to 20,000 acres of wine grapes planted in the ruins of the Okanagan Valley, immensely attractive to tourists and restauranteurs alike. The wine? Well, some is fine and most […]
Okanagan Okanogan 