Flax is beautiful. The seeds grow heavy and lower the seed to the ground. Mice eat the seed there. And then it lifts up again, through the snow! These aren’t seeds that […]
The Gift Culture of the Grasslands
Rototilling 101
First, plant some flowers. Watch them grow. Nice, eh! Bees will burrow into the soil and lay their eggs. Nicer yet! Voles will come and root around, as voles will do. By […]
True Sociability Knows No Bounds
Apples have a social relationship with humans, bears, horses, deer, porcupines, mice, voles, gophers and birds. In Canada, this is called an environmental relationship. Canada also calls this either a prey relationship […]
With Multiplicity There is More for All
Purity is charming, but … …this is what this syilx land teaches. It is irrelevant if the cattle industry has labeled this a noxious weed. More fertilization of flowers = more children […]
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 […]
Beauty and the Bees
I spent the day yesterday at Tree to Me, an organic orchard in the Similkameen Valley. The apples were in bloom. Before grafting some apple trees and maintaining the grafts I put […]
It is the Most Beautiful Day
My seven year-old Transparent apple tree and her sister branch of Benvoulin apples are blooming gloriously today. We have all been getting ready for this for a year now, and are very […]
Going Willow: Accepting the Challenge of a Neonicotinoid Ban
What great news. The EU has voted to ban the outdoor use of neonicotinoid (nicotine derivatives) pesticides, due to their accumulative environmental harm on bee populations. Here are some, domestic and wild, […]
Colonialism and Bees
So, two honey bees and a host of wild bees, of many species. That sounds manageable. But, what’s this? A host of honeybees and a few wild ones? Can that be right? […]
Getting Down to Some Serious Fun in the Kitchen
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 […]
