For those days you just can’t make it to your farmers market, chances are Home Grow-In has what you need. And you might just decide to join their buyer’s co-op, similar to a community supported agriculture program (CSA) but with a wider selection of products.

196 West 18th Avenue, Vancouver
Open 7 days a week to 8:00 pm

I don’t like many trail mix blends on the market because they are often too sweet for my taste. Over the years I’ve gradually cut down on white sugar and processed foods — most of which contain sugar of one kind or another — and find that many non-dessert foods are simply too sweet for my taste. (A decadent dessert, on the other hand, can be as sweet as it likes. That is after all its raison d’etre.)

I grabbed the Skeet & Ike’s Organic Fruit and Nut Mix to leave in the car. I sometimes forget to eat and find myself suddenly ravenous and unable to concentrate from lack of food. I’ve been caught often enough with nothing remotely healthy available that I now keep a package of mixed nuts in the trunk for just such moments.

I had occasion to crack open the package the other day and must say I was very pleasantly surprised. Delighted even. Not only was it not overly sweet, it was a delicious sweet and savoury mix, something I’ve not experienced in a trail mix before. I love it!

It’s also guilt-free. The ingredients are all organic and sugar is listed only as a sub-ingredient (in the cranberries and crystallized ginger). The bonus: no filler peanuts in the blend. Plus, best of all, it’s locally made.

Maybe it’s because you have to plant it almost a full year ahead and it sits in the ground over winter.

Maybe it’s because I had so much garlic rust fungus that getting a crop was in question.

Maybe it’s because we never grew garlic growing up on the Prairies, so it’s the novelty of it.

Whatever the reason, here is the fruit of my labour! I’m very excited.

Of the 9 bulbs that sprouted, 3 are 3″ in diameter with big, plump cloves. I’m saving those, I’ll eat the smaller ones first.

One clove was too small and dried out to use, 3 were average size, and the rest were a bit smaller than average.

The size of the stalks had my fellow gardeners wondering if I’d planted elephant garlic, which I hadn’t. I seeded from large, organic cloves I bought at the local Kitsilano Farmers Market. I don’t know what variety it is, but many of the clove skins have a purple striped colouring to them.

I’m using the garlic in the many stir fries I create using an every changing blend of kale, beet greens, Swiss chard, green beans, yellow beans and snow peas. I LOVE eating meals that are completely from my garden, it feels so rewarding and I know I’m eating very healthfully.

Now THAT is local and delicious!

Garlic rust fungus, close up

In further pest and pestilence news from the community garden, my garlic has developed a nasty rust fungus problem.  And mine is by  no means the only affected plot, thanks to a miserably cold and wet April and May. And June.

Thank heavens for our garden Education Committee of One who knew what it was and tenaciously spent time researching how to deal with it.

Notes-to-self if you are encountering this issue:

• The fungus can spread to leeks and onions also, but not other types of plants
• Caused by excess rain and lack of light and/or soil inadequacies
• Possible solutions: Create sprays with either baking soda, milk, neem oil (huh?) or chamomile tea (see recipes below)
• Cut off the leaves then dispose of them (NOT in your compost bin, people!) to ensure the fungus does not spread. Word on the street is, the stalk continues to photosynthesis even if you remove the leaves
• Disinfect your clippers, etc. also to ensure the fungus does not spread from plant to plant (this is serious, folks!)
• The good news is garlic rust does not appear to affect the garlic bulb — I pulled one to test and it looks just fine

Infected garlic, sans leaves

Organic, Rust Fungus Spray Recipes

1. 1 gallon water, 1Tbsp baking soda, 2.5 Tbsp vegetable oil
2. 1Tbsp milk per gallon water
3. 1 tsp neem oil, 1Litre water or chamomile tea

These teas may be more preventative than cures; spray on infected leaves in morning for several days in a row (especially if rain is washing off leaves – the oil helps spray stick to leaf).

I have cut off all the leaves and am trying the baking soda recipe. I have no great hope of eradicating the rust, but I do hope to minimize any further infestation on both mine and my neighbours’ plants.

More on Garlic

If you want additional general info about garlic such as how and when to harvest and cure it, check out the Garlic Farm website, which I found in my garlic research travels.

They are located in British Columbia (middle of the province at the US border in a town appropriately named Midway), and sell organic garlic seed in Canada and the US. They start taking orders July 2nd on a first come, first serve basis for delivery in September. Get your order in now!

Zeller's Bolete - photo by Ron Wolf

So last fall off I went with my mushroom guru Sequoia Lesosky to see what can be found in a local forest floor this time of year, and I came home with a variety of exotic mushrooms. I also bought some wild mushrooms of the same or similar kind on Granville Island Market to use in the same recipes for my “control group”. I patiently waited until tomorrow when I prepared a feast of three different dishes from the wild and bought mushrooms and shared them with my family. The verdict?

To my family there was no discernible difference. To me the wild stuff tasted stronger and quite different than any of the store bought stuff, which is what I sort of expected as for me it wasn’t a blind tasting – I knew which was which. And then I decided that it must be that the difference is owed to the residual “spirit of the hunt”. It took a lot of effort to get the whole thing together, and it was all in my plate. In theirs? It was just soup or risotto or whatever. I decided they missed out. I am taking my family with me the next time I take to the forest.

Excerpt from Ecoholic

“This stamp reflects the fact that the US (namely the Department of Agriculture) finally implemented a national organic system in 2002. Trouble is, it created a ceiling, not a floor, and certifiers that might have been more stringent were forced to ‘harmonize’ or drop their standards to get in line with the national program. Some say the USDA system is weaker than the European system and, in some cases, the Canadian system in that it allows substances such as Chilean nitrites on organic crops (making California lettuce much prettier than ours), and farms can have pesticide-sprayed crops on one side and organics on the other. But Canada also allows a couple of substances that the US doesn’t. Several attempts to significantly water down USDA regs have been bucked.”

From the USDA website

“The National Organic Program (NOP) develops, implements, and administers national production, handling, and labeling standards for organic agricultural products. The NOP also accredits the certifying agents (foreign and domestic) who inspect organic production and handling operations to certify that they meet USDA standards.”

Also see:
Biologique Canada Organic
Organic
100% Certified Organic

What Ecoholic has to say:

“You might pay a little more for it, but this is the purest stuff you can find under any certification system. No synthetic inputs can be snuck in, no matter who the certifier.”

FruitandVeggieGuru.com agrees:

“All ingredients – the produce itself and anything used in processing – were grown and harvested according to USDA organic standards. The name of the certifying agency must appear on the package.”

Also see:
USDA Organic
Biologique Canada Organic
Organic

After June 30, 2009, consumers should see this logo (above) on various organic products. Obviously, this new system will take a while to be on all packaging, so we’ve included an excerpt from Ecoholic on what the Canadian system looks like now.

Excerpt from Ecoholic

“There are dozens of certifiers in Canada, so until the fed’s new Canada Organic regulation and label are fully phased in you might find a confusing number of logos on grocery shelves certifying to slightly different standards. (Quebec and BC are the only provinces that already had their own mandatory systems in place.)”

“In general, to qualify for organic certification, farms have to be pesticide-free for three years and must avoid synthetic inputs such as pesticides and antibiotics, as well as the deliberate use of GMO’s [Genetically Modified Organisms], while stressing soil-building. Certifiers also tend to have basic stipulations about animal welfare (no caged chickens or rabbits, for instance), although European programs are better than those in Canada and the US on this front.”

See also:
USDA Organic
100% Certified Organic
Organic

Excerpt from Ecoholic

“It may be organic, and then again it may not — if it’s not certified, it’s impossible to know, since use of the term hasn’t historically been regulated. Some small farmers rebel against all the pricey red table of certification and say their standards are higher anyway. This is a n easier sell to trusted customers at, say, local farmers’ markets. But again, it’s strictly a trust system. Some studies in teh US have shown that nearly half the eggs labelled organic without being certified are not organic at all. Unless a product is certified, it’s hard to know.”

According to the FruitandVeggieGuru.com

“[Organic is] a way of growing and processing food, including produce, that doesn’t involve the use of artificial ingredients, preservatives or irradiation. Products labeled “organic” must contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients, according to USDA regulations. The name of the certifying agency must appear on the package. Loose or bunched produce items may be identified as organic in the grocery store by a PLU code that begins with a 9.”

See also:
USDA Organic
Biologique Organic Canada
100% Certified Organic

When my fellow community gardener Daryl told me about NOW BC, a member-owned food co-operative that operates within Metro Vancouver, BC, I asked him how he got involved.

“My initial reason for joining NOW BC was that I know the guy who started it. But besides that, there are several other strong reasons:

1. It’s a co-op where members have a say in how it’s run and share in its success. This means that profit isn’t a primary motive like other businesses.
2. Delivery ‘clubs’ allow fellow members within neighbourhoods to meet and form ‘community’ around the important topic of local and organic food. Individual delivery can’t do this. One club has started a ‘two-block diet’ network where they all grow food in their yards to share with each other.
3. And, prices are cheaper than other organic delivery services.

Plus, I think it’s important to support local organic farmers so they can continue to make a good living.”

If you want to be a part of the NOW BC network, find a delivery depot in your neighbourhood or start your own.