It has been remarkably cold for the mildest part of BC this year. The bees I’ve ordered are much later than expected. The tomatoes are dreadfully behind, and our garden has gone to shambles. In the midst of the chaos, between family weddings and family events, our garden has continued growing alongside the weeds. The lettuce has bolted but now we can collect seeds. The radishes have self-seeded from last year and the peas are climbing the trellis, aspiring to be Jack’s “pea-stalk.” Potatoes have sprouted in every corner, despite the cats’ best attempt to dig them up and turn their growing bed into a potty.

Between reading Gabor Mate’s book “When the Body says No” and attending weddings, I have found time to knit a baby vest for a friend who’s having her first born. This friend’s mother and my mother were friends since they were wee. This friend of mine and I are a year apart and grew up together. And finally, she is expecting her first baby. It was with such love and pleasure, I got to knit her this little vest. The thing I love about knitting for others is that it is a meditation for the person it is going to. I can sit and knit and think about the person, the impact they’ve had on my life, and what good things I wish for them.

Even though today feels like October with the weather wet enough to demand a warm up with the wood stove, I am looking forward to the summer commencing. The blueberries have a great set on them and I’m happy to return to the season of plenty as the Farmer’s Market really expands into veggies, fruits and flowers.

Wishing you, dear reader, all the best as your May folds into June!

I’ve never eaten asparagus that I’ve just freshly picked. But it was one of the priorities of our first year having a vegetable garden. This is because the crowns have to be 3-4 years old before you can harvest any of these juicy stalks for a great Spring treat. So last year, after attempting to grow asparagus from seed, and getting frondy little seedlings that were semi-successful, we heard rumour that you could buy two year old asparagus crowns (which is a root ball) from the nursery. We went to Victoria on a hunt. I phoned absolutely every single nursery in BC’s capital city and we literally got the last 8 crowns of asparagus on Vancouver Island.

Even then, we weren’t sure we’d have success. Asparagus flourish is sandy well-draining soil. All we have in our garden is soggy clay soil with lots of equisetum (that is, horse tail) and we had such misery with radishes- the apparent easiest vegetable to grow- so we weren’t sure how the asparagus would fair with our rudimentary gardening skills.

We tried to prepare the soil the best we could but we were using lasagne gardening which we quickly discovered was a favoured method among the colony of wire worms. Wire worms adore chewing on roots, especially grass roots. Asparagus is a grass. Again, another strike against us.

Though we’ve been told that a seed wants to grow, a plant wants to be exactly what is genetically prepared to be. And often, plants grow and succeed in the most unlikely environments. So we are grateful and excited to introduce you to our Aspiring Asparagus.

Unlikely successes like this makes me wonder about the capacity of our race. If we, as humans, knew what we were genetically purposed for, then how could we flourish?

I remember wanting a garden so that I could benefit from the food, from the herbs, from the freshness. But I didn’t expect that I would benefit mentally and emotionally from the virility of the plants, the tenacity of life. It is the same with the bees. I wanted to keep bees because I have a sweet tooth. J’adore miel, but I found that I learned much more than I bargained for and I’ve gained much more by my relationship with the bees. I learned and am learning to calm myself and check my attitude, my breathing, when I approach the hive. I’m learning to observe in quietness, without expectation. These skills do not only enrich my hive, they enrich my life in all areas.

To go back to the asparagus, growing vegetables has not only lent miracles to my palate. It has also increased my faith. To put a seed into black soil, cover it, water it with no sign of life, with no immediate gratification, this is faith. And then the seed, wanting to grow, does what it knows how to do and I get to watch the tiny leaves unfurl.

And somehow, I grow with the tendrils, reaching for the sun.

Last year I showed you our coffee order from Pot of Gold coffee. Last year they gave us two little chocolate eggs wrapped in foil to find in our coffee beans. This year, they have not let us down.

I have a long weekend this weekend to flounce about the island. I’ve been enjoying the many treats it has to offer. Like the Nu-To-U. I found some excellent fabric there to continue my sewing disasters with as much flamboyance as possible.

A bag? All I see is a bag.

This is a dress of course. I have a picture of exactly the kind of dress I want to sew this into, in my head. But we’ll see how it actually comes out. Hopefully it will have more success than the “vulcan nighty” which is tenderly referred to now.

It is the first weekend of the farmer’s market. We got some leeks, onions and mixed greens from Hope Bay Farm. Then we galavanted over to the in-laws to work on the bee hives. I have 15 hives of bees coming in the next couple months so I have to make sure their homes are ready for them. They do not tend to bring a lot of luggage, and since they’re flying they’ll have a baggage restriction. Good thing they tend to travel light. We have been scraping out the old wax in the frames that have been pretty chewed by wax moths. We’ve been scraping propolis off the corners so that the frames do not stick together quite as much. Then we have been sanding and painting the supers.

This is kind of how it works. There is a bottom board, then the brood chambers, then the honey supers then the inner cover, then the outer cover. Like this:

And then assembled, they look like this:

Since I got a lot of my equipment second-hand, it has to be cleaned up, refurbished and renovated to bring it into modern times. None of that green shag carpet in my beehives.

I’ve stained my hives and then when I ran out of stain, I painted them.

Yes, it’s a lot of work. This, tending to the bees. But when the power has been out, what else is there to do but renovate beehives.

The beginning of our seedlings are coming up. We have a few varieties of tomatoes poking their heads up, as well as artichokes and sunflowers. Have you planted anything yet?

I hope your Easter lent itself to much chocolate, good food and a warm cozy place to curl up.

Green is everywhere on our farm and we have been taking full advantage by being outside a lot. Our asparagus is just starting to come up and the garlic is going gang-busters. In our efforts to eat more locally, to eat more sustainably and to grow our own food, we must also address the opportunity of foraging!

We watched a fantastic mini series by Ray Mears on wild foods, though admittedly in England, Marc has been reading up on what wild foods in our area are edible. Last year through Locavore’s blog, we were pointed to Miner’s Lettuce.

Miner’s lettuce was eating in the Californian gold rush by Miners to boost their vitamin C. We’ve been foraging it and eating it in salads with sunflower seeds, cranberries, boiled egg and an olive oil and dijon mustard dressing. Sometimes I toss in a few capers to spice things up. It is delicious and we both prefer it to lettuce.

Stinging Nettles are our other wild edible at this time of year.

Unlike the Miner’s lettuce, you cannot eat these babies raw. Unless you want a very stinging tongue. Right, Dad? The new leaves on Stinging Nettle are quite tender after you neutralize the poison. We do this by steaming or boiling the leaves. Then we use it in Soup, in with mashed potatoes or just by itself with butter and a touch of salt, like spinach. We have yet to try it in an omlette but I believe it’s on our list. Also, we need to see how it would fair on pizza.

You tried any good edibles lately that may only have to travel as far as you backyard? I’d love to hear about it!

Oh, and, we are slowly trying to cut down on our carbon footprint. We are currently driving a Dodge Caravan, with it’s V6 engine, we are doing the poor air no favours. So we have opted for something a little friendlier.

The sides can fold down, making it a flat bed. It’s going to be a great truck for hauling bees. It also has a motorcycle engine in it (660cc) so it’ll be much friendlier on gas. Though it is not electric, every step in the right direction counts. And, it’s really fun to drive!

(Camo be gone, we plan on painting it.)

I flipped through our photos lately and I’m surprised to see how busy we’ve been. Busy as a bee! Between writing poetry, playing the piano, reading and organizing my unread books, walking and learning a new craft, we’ve been quite busy for never leaving our small island.

Marc has begun fertilizing the blueberries. This involves pulling back the straw mulch, weeding them and then fertilizing with sulphur and an organic fertilizer. The sulphur acidifies the soil because the blueberries prefer more “vinegar” with their dirt-meal than… chalk. (or alkaline… Or maybe this is where my analogy of fish and chips for the blueberries falls apart. *sigh*)

Marc also purchased a scythe last year because we have a lot of areas on the farm with tall tall grass. He has been carving out his technique. I did not know that it was so complicated to swing a blade but he had this tool measured up specifically for him. He watched videos on youtube to learn the swing and the balance of the scythe. And he had to be very careful about how and when to sharpen the blade, as it has to be very sharp to work properly.

As you can see, we have some daffodils blooming in our front garden and our rosemary is really taking off. And we have a little black cat-shadow pretending to be a lion as she descends the high cliff to hunt.

We’ve been keeping up with our near-weekly tradition of pizza from all the left overs in the fridge. This is a great way to use up veggie bits from the fridge, and though we haven’t tried adding parsnips or beet greens to the pizza yet, I’m sure that will come.

Dear reader, do you have a favourite pizza crust recipe that you’d care to share? I keep it really simple. I was doing a crust that involved cornmeal and a few more ingredients. But now I keep it to a cup of warm water, 2 tsp of yeast, 1-2 tsp of salt and enough flour to make it the right texture to roll out. Usually 2-3 cups. It’s pretty straightforward, and we do not allow any time for a rise. I’ve found with this crust, I can roll it out really thin and it’ll get crispy or I can keep it quite thick and it puffs up a bit. But I’m always open for something new if you care to share.

Yesterday we got to go on a beach walk because the low tide was just right. Often if the tide is low early in the morning or later in the evening, this walk disappears under the water. It’s a beautiful walk that leads you along the shoulder of Pender, facing Mayne Island, where you can see snow-capped mountains in the far distance, and you can watch the currents rip through Navy Channel.

Hm, I love beach art.

Anyway, I’ve been saving the best for the last. I had another pottery class and this time I got to use the wheel. Oh yes, The Wheel! I was very excited about this because I’ve wanted to do this for so long. I don’t know if you’ve ever used a wheel to “throw pots” but I was told it was harder than it looked. I was told that rarely anyone really gets it the first time. Yeah, I am not one of the rare ones. But with lots of guidance and help, armed with my enthusiasm, I got to throw a couple bowls.

This is a kick-wheel. Meaning, you have to kick it to get it to spin. My teacher has a small motor he got at the Nu-To-U (our local thrift store) so he’s looking at hooking it up to the wheel but for now, I learn to kick and mold at the same time.

Behold, my first attempts!

Have you tried anything new lately?