The bees that will pollinate the Nootka rose in the background here can only do so because of the willow in the foreground. Every year is a journey that starts with willow […]
Thanks, Willow
What is Grass For?
The way we look at grass says a lot about our world. For instance, from a cattleman’s perspective, the bunchgrass below is something to graze. From a longer perspective, it is something […]
Gardens for the Grand Kids: an Organic Model for Slow Release Fertilizer in a Post-Petroleum World
Compost requires labour and tillage. In other words, it is a renewable input. It is one that mimics natural processes, or interjects materials into them. I guess it is a bit like […]
Canada, in Context
First, a Canadian apple tree: Then a Welsh one. Then a Canadian one. Or a bunch, really. Then a Welsh one: Four years old, and the Canadian ones are dying.
The Sly Thing About Fossil Fuels and Farming
The Okanagan Valley is a great place for fences. The concept of taking common land and turning it into private land, and the dispossession of the land’s people that came with it, […]
The Okanagan’s Premier Architect
The competition wasn’t even close. Congratulations, Magpie!
Winter is Life not Death
Really. Really. These are effects created by winter heating, freezing and melting. In other words, the nutrients released by lichens in late winter are created by stones heating in the winter cold, […]
Colonial and Non-colonial Water
As we work to free ourselves from the constrictions placed on the Earth by colonial understandings and allow it to come to life again, it’s good to remember that the very concept […]
Down With High Fruit Prices
When an apple costs $2 a pound in the store and the farmer gets $.02 for it, might get $.15 and needs $.30, well, perhaps you can see that the price of […]
Apples and Dollars and Sense Through a Lens of Fear and Respect
Apple growers are in trouble. The government has a plan. “B.C.’s tree fruit growers play a key role in our province’s food system and our government is committed to the industry’s lasting […]
Okanagan Okanogan 