In the sandy Kaiserstuhl in Germany, where grapes are native and wine has been made since before the romans marched into town, wine growers have learned to use buckwheat to build up […]
Indigenous and Non Indigenous Grape Growing
The First Net Maker is the Sea
Floats and everything. Human creativity is often only an act of environmental-belonging, like a grouse hiding its chicks in grass. It is the act of using the eyes as fingers for the […]
It is Time to Make a Saskatoon Pie
This is the best harvest in 25 years. And you get the bonus of the robins scolding you, but there’s enough to share. If not a pie, then just saskatoons with your […]
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 […]
A Lousy Apple Year for Vernon
In the local royal gala orchard, long past the renewal date of 10 years for slender spindle high density, high-capital orchards, a snowball bloom has settled out into a lousy crop. The […]
Solar Tides
Morning Glory in the morning. Morning Glory in the evening. A Plant Doesn’t Have to Be Edible to Be Useful! If you plant morning glory (or let the weeds grow, as these […]
Footprints in the Interface: A Permaculture Model
Look at these choke cherries, living in the zone between the grass and the aspens. In the perfect water zone where birds that pass between trees (for shelter) and grass (for […]
A Bee in the, um, Lettuce
Alfalfa flowers make exquisite salad, with a bright green flavour drenched in honey. Let us just give a little leeway to our fellow diners! There’s enough to share.
The Leaf People and the Stem People
Stem People on the left: Ants: the great climbers and farmers. Aphids: their herds. Leaf People on the right: Leaf Miners: the great wanderers, mapmakers and historians of what is passed but […]
Please, Please, Please Don’t Plant That Lavender!
If you plant that lavender, the crab spiders will have nowhere to go, and they are the wolves of this ecosystem. Removing the top predator from a chain, in this case a […]
Okanagan Okanogan 