There is a beautiful, simple understanding of plants: they have roots, stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, in various combinations, but grape vines, like all the rest, are understood to grow from […]
Reversing the Water Flow in Vineyards
Alternate Hydroelectric Power Sources
Note the crack in the ice covering this melt water pool. Right now hydroelectric power comes from turbines running on liquid water. Here is a different energy source, which we would do […]
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 […]
Accidental Invention
It was created at considerable expense to protect a somewhat unhappy hydrangea from deer. This is what landscaping can be when you’ve spent your million bucks on the house and then what. […]
High Tech Pines
Surely, there’s an engineer out there working on making water capture technology on this model. It has compact water collection surfaces, set in action by heat-cold transfers, and powered by the sun-earth […]
Zero Carbon Farming in the Okanagan
This week, I will be discussing options for reducing climate risk in Okanagan farming. The Canadian government is interested in protecting the atmosphere from carbon emissions. I am interested in that and […]
Gravity Engines
Rocks aren’t all born alike. Here’s one from an old glacial river running along the ice that once filled this valley. Note what a light snowfall has done here. The stone has […]
Whole Worlds Hidden from the Settler Gaze
Under the snow, it’s spring. Under stone, it’s the same. Where the sun intensifies and molten water collects, it’s spring. This is when the rock is mined for nutrients that feed the […]
Ten Years Into the Future: social and ecological sustainability in the Okanagan and British Columbia
This post is a sketch of a detailed, viable alternative to this document: There are solutions in this blog for every problem listed in this document, that avoid its high […]
The Roots of Affordable Organic Apple Growing
Today, two years preparation came to fruition. Here are some experimental apple rootstocks that I selected last fall from 16 multi-species apple trees, in the hope of finding a free-standing dwarfing apple […]
Okanagan Okanogan 