Walking the Walk...kind of

Earlier this year, I wrote a long rant about birthday parties. I swore that my own kids would have simple parties and we wouldn't even try to keep up with the Joneses. I took a "no loot bags" vow, and a "no presents" vow. That was easy, because neither of my kids had birthdays for at least 6 months into the future. But summer is birthday season in our house, and now I have to walk the walk. The results weren't as hardcore as I'd originally imagined, but we've just had two parties that kept (for the most part) to the spirit of my vows.
My son's was easy. He's just turning 3 and not so indoctrinated with neighbourhood birthday tradition. His birthday isn't until August, but we had a party for him in June to celebrate the beginning of summer with all of his daycare friends. He got it in his head that it was a birthday party, so we made a cake and he was totally satisfied with that. He was the only one who thought it was his birthday, so there were no presents or loot bags. Done.
5 year olds have been on the birthday circuit longer and thus have higher expectations. But we did okay with my daughter's party this weekend. We kept the guest list small, which granted, is easier to do with a summer birthday when school's out and you don't have to worry about too many people feeling left out. We had 6 friends and 1 little sister. Reasonable I think. We had the party at home (unusual in these parts since we all live in tiny houses), we made crafts (tissue paper flowers, beaded bracelets, and ahem, Froot Loop necklaces), we planted flower seeds in pots that the kids could take home, and we busted up some homemade pinatas (yeah, filled with candy- and each kid got a brown paper bag in which to collect their pinata winnings...so I guess that's a loot bag. Ooops). The birthday girl requested a Canada Flag cake, and we had pita pizza with organic dough, and a giant watermelon. All in all, pretty low key, easy, inexpensive and low waste. High sugar though...I'll work on that one for next year.
My favorite idea I found on someone else's blog (sorry, I can't reference it 'cause i forget where I read it), but we requested that instead of gifts each child brought two $2 coins. One for the birthday girl and one for a charity of the birthday girl's choice. At the end of the party, our daughter had $14 to take shopping, and $14 for charity. She chose a summer dress to buy, and after careful consideration, decided to give her charity money to a Conservation agency that works to save habitat for frogs and lizards. A little surprising for me, but hey, it's her choice! We were happy that our recycling bin wasn't full with toy packages and wrapping paper. All in all, the concept was a big hit and got great reviews from the parents involved.
I even got some feedback from parents saying that they are planning to try the 2 toonies birthdays too! Good luck everyone!

Colourful Harvest

This is what I picked from the garden today.

I'm pleased to say that we have been eating salad with our homegrown lettuce, making zucchini bread with our own yellow zukes, and getting totally sick of green beans. Awesome. I'm in awe of my beets, chard, and kale for their productivity and hardiness. The green and purple beans have produced more beans than 3 families could possibly eat, and I'm not sure what I'll do with 40 giant beets...but these are nice problems to have.

The downside is that my expected glut of tomatoes may be smaller than I had hoped. Many of the tomatoes are rotting on the bottom as they ripen (known, I discovered, as blossom-end rot)...but after a bit of research I learned that I only need to add "hydrated lime" to the soil and the problem should disappear. I also had a drainage issue in one of my self watering containers that has a couple of plants teetering on the edge of survival. The soil blight (virus...?) at my "away" garden is spreading and is affecting some of the cucumbers and squash plants. I have no idea what to do about this, but I'm sure the solution is very labour intensive! I kind of hoped that once I planted my little seedlings I could just put my feet up until it was time to pick stuff, but alas, it doesn't quite work like that!

My big step for this week will be buying and beginning to use a composter. Since I live in a city that composts for us, I'm in the habit of just throwing all my food waste into the green bin. But I guess this gardening thing gets under your skin because I now looks at all my peelings and think "what a waste to not have this in the soil".

Anyway, hope everyone is able to eat some fresh, local food this month whether from the garden or the farmer's market.

Corn Goo is Sometimes Fun

We had a party yesterday for my son and his friends. We made a Thomas the Tank Engine cake out of a packaged cake mix. We slathered it in Betty Crocker icing that we coloured with questionable food dye. We stuck on Oreos for the wheels.
It was awesome!
Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes

My thumb must be rated at least khaki now. Six months ago I was having trouble keeping my cactus alive and now I have grown tomato plants that as of today are taller than my almost 5 year old (seriously, she's not even crouching!). The veggie patch is a jungle of tomatoes, many already with green fruit. My pseudo-earth boxes on my porch are also doing spectacularly, in fact, I can barely see out my front windows. It's not even the end of the school year and we've already harvested spinach, bok choy, lettuce, chard, and a handful of peas and beans. My cucumbers are now visible, the zucchini and squash plants are set to take over the world.
And to think I doubted that my seedlings could ever actually produce food! Now I'm starting to doubt my ability to eat and preserve the glut I see coming down the pipe!

Grainstorm

Every time I bake cookies, I make the same variety. I don't even have a recipe anymore, I can make them from memory- my Grandma's famous "Cowboy Cookies". This week however, I mixed it up a bit and tried a yummy new concoction, with some help from Grainstorm.

My new food adventure has introduced me to alot of people doing amazing things, and the people at Grainstorm are no exception. As usual, I came across my new source for baking mixes by coincidence. I met Lark from Grainstorm while I was buying a train table for my son from her through Craigslist. She happened to live less than five minutes from me, and happened to have a van labeled "Grainstorm - fresh milled organic grains" (or something to that effect). I couldn't not ask about it, and of course we got to talking about "real" food. Turns out her business is organic baking mixes (muffins, cookies, pancakes) made from Ontario grown heritage grains like red fife and kamut. In the small world of local, organic grains, it turns out that Grainstorm buys their grains from Grassroots Organics, the same farmers who supply our weekly eggs and organic flour through Mama Earth.

This week I made the oatmeal cookies according to the basic recipe (add butter, oil, 2 eggs) and they were a big hit with me and my son (daughter and husband don't really eat cookies...yeah, weirdos). I took some cookies into work and they were given the universal thumbs up. I guess I should also admit that I ate the last 3 for breakfast before my son woke up yesterday. I didn't want to share...

If you're a reluctant baker, but want to eat some guilt-free but tasty cookies or muffins (or pancakes!), check out Grainstorm online or in store at various locations in Toronto.

Paying more for food...a good thing?

This is my spinach crop. We had our first homegrown spinach salad last night with sprouts and garden herbs. It was alot of work to coax this spinach out of the ground. I could have bought similar stuff for about $3. Almost too cheap to bother.
It leads me to a concept that I believe in deeply, but feel is heresy to speak aloud: We need to start paying more for food. What kind of moron wants to see prices for something as basic as food to rise, you may ask? Well, me. And the author of the article Why Is Organic Food So...Cheap?.
The fact of the matter is, in my mind at least, our current system of pricing is totally out of whack with reality. It ignores the "external costs"of things like obesity and diabetes, the potential costs we may face by exposing ourselves to pesticides, herbicides and GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and the environmental costs of reliance on fossil fuels to grow, package, process and transport food massive distances. Our current food economy asks farmers to work hard and take incredible financial risk for tiny slivers of our supermarket prices. We also maintain cheap prices by outsourcing our food production to the developing world, which once again keeps us feeling full by keeping people food insecure in the majority of the world. In the developing world, the best land is used for specialty export crops, leaving little land for people to grow foods they actually get to eat. Then they need to buy our cheap corn. And so it goes...

I like a bargain just as much as the next person...but cheap food is no bargain. Just a deal with the devil. I'm willing to pay more to make sure I get food that is not degrading the land for my kids, that is not putting farmers out of business, and that is not going to make me fat and sick. Last night we ate a whole chicken that cost about $6/kg. Not too cheap...but we bought it directly from the farmer and it was raised without a tiny cage or hormones and antibiotics. Good news all around.

Disclaimer: Yes, I have the luxury of not having to choose between rent or food. I have the good fortune of not being tied to a diet of white bread and $1.29 hot dogs. I did not forgot about the food insecure people of the rich world. Nooo, not at all. These are the people who are chained to the worst that the food industry has to offer. It is a complex issue that will require a variety of solutions, but at some point a first step must be taken. I say let it be a tax on highly processed foods of little nutritional value. Next, let's use the proceeds to subsidize fresh food for people who can't afford it. I am loathe to recommend much from Sun Media, but I have to agree with this article by Andrew Hanon.

Ups and downs of the urban garden

Here is my first tomato of the season. I guess my research paid off. This is a Stupice tomato, an heirloom variety from the Czech Republic that is supposed to be the earliest maturing tomato. Go figure, it really is. Hopefully this bodes well for the ones that are supposed to be the most sweet and delicious. I'll let you know if they also live up to their reputations! If you ever wondered where you find the details of seed varieties, you can peruse the seed catalogue from local, organic Terra Edibles.

In the "news-of-the-weird" category, I must also report the bizarre basil theft that occurred on my porch. It was a plump and aromatic plant purchased for the bank breaking price of $1.99 (at the convenience store at the bottom of the street to supplement my somewhat wimpy home seeded plants). It was neatly dug up, and the less robust plants were left behind. Racoons? Squirrels? I think not. Apparently there is a neighbourhood plant thief on the loose. Last year my next door neighbour had two shrubs go missing, down the street I saw a sign from someone lamenting the overnight disappearance of a favorite perennial. Weeeeeird. Where does one plant their stolen treasures? If you love basil so much, why don't you just spend the $1.99? Ahh, what's an urban garden without a little mystery?