Let’s put this simply. It’s about land and water. And about the life force interwoven with them. And how people interweave with that. Interweaving is not just about commercial potential. Here’s my […]
Beyond Truth and Reconciliation
Orchard Lies and Out of Touch Journalists and Your Lunch
This is a story about truth and reconciliation. The headline says it all. Many Okanagan Apple Farmers Are Facing This Year’s Harvest Short Handed, You know, I remember a time, long before […]
Climate Resilience 3: Self-Fertilizing and Self-Watering Islands
That’s right, islands in the grass. They’re not just sitting there. They are creating nitrogen and releasing minerals from the rock into a form that plants can use. In fact, instead of […]
Spring Begins for the Saskatoons
Sure, there’s snow, and some Saskatoon buds are closed tightly… … but others are not. The one below is on the same bush, but out in the sun, and hormonally a little […]
Choke Cherry Mystery
The choke cherries, those that remain from July’s crop, are softening, ripening and turning sweet with the cold. That is the work of temperature, bacteria and yeast. Look, more closely, though: Is […]
The Art of Fall Medicine
Choke cherries have long been used to heal respiratory ailments, by drying inflamed tissues. One might as well say that in the fall, choke cherry goes black, with black leaves, black fruit […]
A Teacher of Post Settlement Language
The name’s inadequate: Choke Cherry. Wild cherry. And “cherry”? Etymologically it might be from a lost language in Asia Minor. But, really, come on, it is a vocalization of the movement you […]
A Bountiful Filbert Harvest
The filberts are here! This is after I washed them. Can you spot the one with the mouse hole in it? The mice got 10%. The rest, rescued from the lilac, the […]
The Fire Deficit and the Depth of Global Warming
For 10,000 years, the people of the grasslands have been living in a fire landscape. For 100 years, they have been living in a fire debt. This landscape: Selah Creek, Yakama Nation […]
Okanagan Native Orach
Here’s some native orach growing wild on the hill. Later in the year, it will be weed-whacked, as usual. I’m going to collect some seeds. Enjoying those June rains! Here’s some red […]
