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 […]
Getting Down to Some Serious Fun in the Kitchen
How to Grow Tasteless Apples
For around forty years, the provincial government has been financially supporting this method of apple growing. Looks pretty modern and efficient, doesn’t it! It’s very seductive. Bankers and government officials love it. […]
Come Join the Discussion on Visual Culture on Tuesday, December 5
Where: Alternator Centre for the Arts Time: 6-8 p.m. Date: Tuesday. This Tuesday. December 5. I hope you can come and take part in a discussion about the visual culture of the […]
25% of Fruitgrowing Agricultural Productive Capacity in the Okanagan is Wasted
Here’s an industrial apple plantation after harvest. The trees are in long rain rows to facilitate mechanized farming, using multi-ton tractors and spraying equipment (combined weight of about 5 tonnes). After harvest, […]
The Power of Names and Stories
Take this (no name, please)… See that rock in back there? That’s this (below, centre of image, again no name, please.): Now, look at the name it is unofficially known by (Sorry. […]
Indian Reserves and White Reserves
This thing came in the mail. For those of you who are not Canadian, this is what colonial life looks like. Note that everything here is an image of something to purchase, […]
Indian Reserves and Language
Let’s be humble for a moment. There is a global culture today, and it is not humble. It looks out through human actors, apprehends the image below through their complex biological organs […]
Practical Ways to Re-Indigenize the Grasslands. Really.
Two days ago, I suggested that the former grassland hillsides of the Okanagan Valley (now large, private expanses of unproductive and water-wasting weeds), an area at least equal to the 100s of […]
Replacing Wild Harvest With Mountain Culture
100 Sustainable Paths for the Okanagan: 19 Currently, agriculture in the Okanagan Valley is industrial, in keeping with colonial models from 1858, when water was diverted through Nlaka’pamux villages in the Fraser […]
Cultural Blindness and Agricultural Practice
Culture is a powerful thing. Here is some earth, laid bare by a plow, in preparation for seeding in the spring. In the past, it has been used to grow tomatoes. This […]
Okanagan Okanogan 