It will be a couple months yet for these grapes in Vernon. If they make it. The weather is turning cold. 23 or 24% sugar is a high bar. Perhaps, we should […]
Some Things Ripen, Some Don’t
Global Warming & Cooling Cycles, Okanagan Style
When the apple trees are pumped full of nitrogen and water to make the apples big and keep them from burning when they can’t get cool in the summer sun, then some […]
A Grassland is Not Just Grass
Here’s a cut on the Grey Canal Trail in Vernon, that was planted into blue bunch wheatgrass about 15 years ago. Bluebird boxes were installed on the fence (you can see one […]
For Bees’ Sakes, Let’s Grow Up
When the world of summer flowers is blasted by neglect, bees have it hard. There really is nothing, for mile on mile on mile. Even planting a calendula helps. It’s up to […]
Fighting Fire With Weeds
Well, this is a first. Oregano that has decided to go feral. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t look as burnable, in the short term, as this bunchgrass… … and about the same as […]
The Problem With Stock Photos
There’s this important article about low wages in vineyards in the Okanagan: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/opinion/opinion-mla-ben-stewart-apparently-wants-bc-workers-to-be-paid-as-little-as-possible-4206374?fbclid=IwAR0D42Rq3CmDC5WqDXd3HY7Hog-J_Y8-qxKPEAFopi5OJ4GfN9BDN4VlAiA This image is attached to it: I don’t know where Carlos Bezz took this image, but this isn’t a […]
Should British Columbia Change Its Name?
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is asking this question. They illustrate it like this: There’s been a national reckoning on place names and the people they’re named after — and some say that […]
Cattle are Burning Down British Columbia
Yes, they are. There’s a strange, elite idea that cattle grazing in forests and on grasslands is an efficient use of the land, and then we turn around and spend hundreds of […]
The Only Hope for the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in a Culture of Fire
I hate to say it, but the dream that has kept my family tied to the land for 91 years in this trough in the Columbia Plateau is over. Instead of a […]
Roots Are Not Wood & Trees Are Communities of Water: What the Future Promises in the Fire Forest
This root may be exposed and, to all appearances, dead, yet it still holds up an old Douglas-fir into the sky. But that’s not the true beauty of it. I mean, look […]
Okanagan Okanogan 