We generate a huge amount of trash during the holidays, all in the name of giving.

Metro Vancouver is encouraging us to cut down on our holiday trash.

Here are some suggestions:

• Give great gifts, but don’t buy garbage. When trying to decide between two gifts, choose the one with the least amount of packaging.
• Give the gift of time. Offer your services or expertise as a present. Make dinner, knit a sweater or plan a special day out.
• Give an experience. Dinner, tickets to the movies or a hockey game, or passes to the local skating rink.
• Give a gift that lasts. Pass on a family heirloom or start your own tradition.
• Give a group gift. Pool resources with a few people to give a high quality gift.
• Give a gift wrapped in newspaper. Reuse a ribbon to fancy it up.
• Give your garbage can a break! Visit www.metrovancouverrecycles.org for a comprehensive list of things that can be donated, reused or recycle.

If you’ve got some holiday waste tips, you can share them with others on the Metro Vancouver website.  Here are some waste tips already submitted.

Here’s the video they did to get the point across:

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Eating fresh vegetables and fruit from your garden – one of the delights of summer in Canada.

James Glaves’ recent post When Times are Hard, Eat Your Yard , and a podcast I’m working on with David Tracey, about urban agriculture, have certainly fueled my on-going quest to convert more of my yard into edible space.

But I do understand that for some people, starting a garden, even a small one, can be intimidating.

I  remember how tentative I was when I planted my first garden, so here are some thoughts to help you enjoy your new gardening adventure.

Lighten Up

I come from a long line of peasants, none of whom set the world of fire with their intellect.  But man could they grow stuff.

For them, it was about survival, plain and simple.  A garden was for growing food.  What I learned from my peasant heritage is this: gardening isn’t hard, and it isn’t serious.

Forget all those codgers who spend hours talking about the finer points of gardening, and who’s plots look like something out of a magazine.

If that’s your bent, great, but that’s not what a garden has to look like.  Experiment, and plant stuff that’s fun, and don’t worry if your rows aren’t straight.

There really isn’t any wrong way of growing food, so have a good time.   I can assure you, whatever you bring in for dinner is going to look like a million bucks on your plate.

Organic. Organic. Organic.

There’s nothing hard about growing food organically.  There’s no mystery about it, and there’s no magic about it.  Sure you’ll have some challenges with bugs and weeds, but the internet is full of great ideas on how to solve those problems.

Whatever you grow will taste amazing.

Plus, organic gardening is super sexy.  It’ll get you laid.  Really.

Use Your Feet and Your Hands

My grandmothers always gardened barefoot.  For one, washing your feet is way easier than cleaning those fancy sneakers.  And if you’re about to crush a small plant underfoot, you’ll feel it before you do any damage.

Walking barefoot in dirt is just plain fun, and even though is sound totally flaky, it connects you to the earth.  You’ll be able to feel how dry or damp it is, how squishy the soil feels, and you might even pull up the odd weed by crimping your toes around those rascals.

(Now, when I mentioned this to EB, she immediately put her Elmer the Safety Elephant hat on a said this could be dangerous.  “Why?” I asked.  “Well, there might be sharp things in there”.   Ok, fair enough.  We once had a lot of broken glass in one of our garden plots, so use your best judgment on this one)

Hand Job

Get a watering can and hand water your garden.

Hand watering accomplishes so many things that once you start, you’ll sell your sprinkler on Craiglist.

For one, there’s very little wasted water when you do it by hand.  You’re in complete control of where it goes and how much goes  there.

You’ll feel like a proper gardener, literally providing nourishment to your plants.

But mostly, hand watering ensures that you spend some quality time with the food you’re growing.

By walking up and down your rows with watering can in hand, what you’re really doing is observing.  Observing what ?  Well, everything that’s going on in your garden. What’s getting eaten by bugs, what’s taking off and what’s ready to be picked. And you’ll learn from all that observation, trust me.  Plus, you’ll see those weeds before they become a problem.

And to be honest, hand watering doesn’t even take that long.

I’m a bit of a type A personality, so I speed water: I have 2 cans, and while I’m sprinkling with one, the other one is filling up.

(It was a real extravagance that I couldn’t afford today but my Haws long reach watering can is like an old friend. I’ve had it for over 20 years and it still looks like new.)

A Few Words about Weeds

A garden should be a place of relaxation as well as a supply of food.  “But what about all that weeding?” says you.

Once your garden takes off, weeding is a thing of the past.  You’ll have so much lovely stuff growing, the weeds won’t have anywhere to grow.

Until you get there, sure, you’ll need to do some weeding, but it’s not as big a deal as those old codgers make it out to be.  Pull them by hand a few at a time (see Hand Job above), particularly after a rain when they’ll come up easily.

It’s incredibly therapeutic, the results are tangible and obvious, unlike almost everything else in our lives.  I once survived a particularly difficult co-worker by calling out their name every time I pulled a weed.

What to do with those weeds ?  After hand-picking weeds from their gardens, my grandmothers would toss the uprooted weeds on the path.  I drop mine in clumps on the driveway or sidewalk, and let them dry up. Then I shake off the dirt, push it back into the garden, and throw the weeds into the compost.

Who You Calling a Hoe ?

My grandmothers had 2 garden implements.  A small hoe and garden fork.

They used that hoe to plant, weed, hill potatoes, scare away crows, kill bugs & rodents and do just about whatever else is needed in the garden.  The plainest, simplest un-sexiest hoe you can imagine really is the gardeners’ miracle tool.  A small blade is better.

The fork  was used to dig up potatoes, and in their large gardens, even wholesale uprooting of carrots and beets, but you’ll be pulling those by hand.   The fork was also used to deep till the garden in the spring.

Read the Directions, Make a Mark, and Rotate

Pretty much all you need to know about tending your garden you can find on the seed packet.  If it says 45 days to maturity, that’s what’s going to happen.  If it says to sow 50 cm apart, that’s the thing to do.  If it says full sun, you can bet whatever you’re planting won’t do well in the shade.

When you first plant your garden, make sure you put some markers to show where the rows are.  One of EB’s friends recently Facebooked her to say she’d gone a little crazy weeding her new garden and had pulled up much of what she planted.  It helps if there’s a little stick that marks your row, at least until the plant start to show themselves better.

I make a map on a piece of paper, writing down what I planted, the variety and when.  I usually grow a few varieties of things like carrots and parsley, and I totally forget what they are immediately after planting.  So now, when people come over and ask me important garden questions, like “What type of carrot is this ?”, instead of answering “good”, I can look it up on my map and answer them, proper like.

The map also helps your ‘next year’ garden. You want to rotate your plantings from year to year, so the map will ensure you don’t put that row of carrots where they were last year.

Famous From Door To Door

The best thing about having a garden is that you get to eat vegetables minutes after harvesting.  One of my sons actually eats spinach right off the plant, it’s like butter and delicious, and tastes nothing like spinach we buy in the store.

But, unless you’ve got some incredible project management skills, chances are you’ll have too much of X or too much of Y at some point.  If you’re so inclined freeze what you can, but what you’ll probably end up doing is learning to spread the wealth.

I pick when it’s ready, wash it, and what we aren’t going to be able to eat in the next few days, I walk around to our neighbours.  Not only will they have a nice unexpected treat for dinner, they’ll think you’re a star “Do you know, his spinach is so good his kid eats it right out of the garden”.

Here are some pics from my garden taken today. Truth be told, my garden looks like crap, but it tastes good.  And that’s the point.  Click any picture to see bigger versions.

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This session will teach you to be prepared for any type of emergency or disaster you may be faced with. You will learn personal and family preparedness, how to develop a family emergency plan and how to perform a “home hazard hunt”.

Date: Thursday Jun 11, 2009
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: Champlain Heights Community Centre – 3350 Maquinna
Workshop Description
Contact: (604) 718-6575

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Our little organic plot should provide lots of food for us this summer, weather willing. I’m encouraged to see more people getting into vegetable gardens (again). Last year I dug up a big corner of backyard lawn, and it spent a fallow summer. I moved six yards of garden mix and manure by wheel-barrow from the front yard where the delivery truck left it, onto that backyard patch this spring. Now we’re planting, and the whole experience brings back wonderful memories.

Growing up in rural Manitoba, gardens played a key part in spring and summer activity. My relatives on the farm had huge gardens, as did my grandmother who’s garden I would eventually inherit the use of.

As kids, we’d be sent out to pick corn or peas or beans, working our way through rows that were 40 or 50 feet long, hauling in huge baskets of fresh veg. I can vividly remember sitting in my aunt’s living room, watching daytime soaps and game shows on TV, while shelling peas for hours.

What we didn’t eat fresh for dinner went into the freezer. And that was the ritual all summer long.

No one talked about ‘organic’ gardening – organic was the only thing they knew. A visit to the manure pile netted as many wheel barrows of organic fertilizer required.

Getting rid of weeds was simple – you pulled them out. It was a daily ritual – usually done first thing in the morning before it got to hot and the soil was still moist from the overnight dew.

But through the sixties, more and more ‘helpful’ chemicals made their way to the gardens. Like everyone else, my relatives eagerly adopted these as labour saving solutions; they were cheap, easy to use and boy where they effective. The same thing was going on with the crop fields – the wonders of modern science killing weeds, bugs and blight. I have a vivid picture of one of my favourite aunts in her garden in the early 60’s – a can of deadly pesticide in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

Twenty years later, when I inherited the use of my grandmother’s garden plot, I wanted to grow my vegetables organically. It was the early 80’s, and because I didn’t know any better, the idea of growing everything organically seemed perfectly simple. My grandmother’s garden was huge – and I had no idea how much work I had taken on.

Gardening in rural Manitoba is a full contact sport.

The weeds and the bugs are epic, not to mention the weather which usually includes, at any given time, and in any given combination: hail, drought, flood, wind and frost.

I got lucky that first year. The weather cooperated and it was just a battle against weeds and bugs. I’ve never pulled so many weeds in my life – but was thrilled when the vegetables took over and kept the weeds out.

The bugs weren’t quite so easy, and they seemed to devour plants young and old. My fancy organic gardening books had recommended sympathetic planting to control bugs, and my veg garden was full of flowers planted with the food crop. This proved to be of great amusement to my relatives – and seemed to do nothing to deter the ravenous bugs. When I asked my grandmother for advice, she smiled and said it was simple. “Start early in the morning, go barefoot, pick the bugs off the plants, squeeze them between your fingers, and rub the guts back onto the leaves “.

Great.

I got pretty good at that by the end of the summer, and learned a few key lessons about organic gardening:

• There’s no easy way to grow vegetables organically – it’s work pulling weeds and controlling insects.
• A little bit of time spent weeding on a regular basis is key – leave things too long and the weeds take over.
• Manure is your friend. My relatives spent their lives hauling the stuff away and I’m paying good many to have it dropped into my yard, but it does wonders – way better than any box of fertilizer.
• Nothing tastes like organic vegetables you’ve grown yourself. Nothing.

The crop that first year was mammoth. I left boxes of fresh vegetables on the doorsteps of many of my friends on many weekends. I learned to appreciate the food on the table in a way I never had before, and I learned to appreciate what goes into growing it.

An organic garden is really a labour of love. It can be frustrating and disappointing when the weather and bugs conspire against you, but the rewards are always worth it. And it can be on a small scale – even a downtown balcony.

One year we just had 3 small boxes next to the fence (the ones in the photo) planted with various kinds of lettuce. We had fresh cut salad every night all summer long.

That patch of lawn in the backyard I dug up ? We won’t miss it for a minute.

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Victoria’s a nutritionist and health educator who brings a healthy (and sensible) perspective to food.

Victoria works with Springwell Nutrition, based on Vancouver Island, but her practice takes her all over BC and elsewhere.

We’re really looking forward to having her helpful tips and ideas here.

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You are more likely to find fries and burgers than smoothies and salads – which is why so many parents of young children drag their kids past the café area after swimming – out to the car for a more healthy juice box and granola bar. It is also why teens like to hang around, filling up on fries and sweetened flavoured coffees.

That picture is changing.

The Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre in Victoria, British Columbia received a grant to help them transform their concession into one that serves healthy high quality foods.

This involved changing everything from the name, the menu, the food distributors, the kitchen equipment, servery and seating, to getting ride of the vending machines in the immediate area. Also key to the transformation was changing people’s ideas about healthy quality foods.

Springwell Nutrition Group, a team of registered dietitians with a holistic edge, were contracted to develop nutritional guidelines, a new menu and recipes, and to provide onsite nutrition education materials to support the transition.

What is Quality Food ?

First on the list was defining “What is quality, healthy food?” Something that goes beyond categorizing foods as green, yellow or red foods; something more holistic.

Juan de Fuca and Springwell decided to support a broader view of nutritional health, supporting quality foods – those that contain no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives and sweeteners.

They also believed that where food is grown, how it is grown, how it is transported, sold and ultimately prepared and enjoyed are all part of an integrated definition of what is nutritious.

Nutritional guidelines for the café that reflected these values were developed. The guidelines are similar to those used in leading natural foods stores and cafes such as Capers Whole Foods Markets. And yes, they work on a small level!

People are ready – vendors, distributors, cooks and customers – are all ready to take nutrition and health to the next level.

We just need more models of how it’s done and how to do it. Imagine, making money and having happy healthy people enjoying real food!

(click the photo for larger version. photos courtesy Victoria Pawlowski)

Café Fresh at JdF Nutritional Guidelines

All products sold are made with natural and/or organic real food ingredients,
without artificial flavours, colours, preservatives or sweeteners

Locally grown, locally sourced and locally manufactured ingredients and products are used whenever possible. Local is defined (in order of preference) as made within:

• Greater Victoria
• Vancouver Island
• Southern BC
• Pacific Northwest
• Canada

Fairly traded imported products are served (coffee, sugar, bananas, chocolate)

Cooking oils are mechanically pressed and/or organic including olive oil; grapeseed oil and organic canola oil

Breads and bread products are made with natural and/or organic sprouted whole grains

Yogurts are organic with live culture probiotics and less than 3.5% milk fat

Nuts, seeds, trail mix are raw or dry roasted, without added salt or oil

Baked products (whether made on site or outsourced) contain:

• at least 50% whole grain unbleached organic sprouted grain flours and
• at least one nutritional booster: fresh or naturally dried fruit; nuts or nut butter; seeds or seed butter; chia seeds; oatmeal; oat and/or wheat bran.
• natural whole food sweeteners such as honey, blackstrap molasses, maple syrup; raw sugar/organic fair trade sugar

Beverages served are natural and/or organic without artificial ingredients

• Coffee – organic/fair trade, locally roasted
• Tea – organic black, green, white and herbal (mint, chamomile, rooibos)
• Fruit juices – only real fruit juice with no added sugars or colors, etc.
• Sodas – natural source i.e. Organic Jones Sodas, Flavoured San Pellegrino
• Vegetable juices – V-8 and tomato juices (not Splash)
• Water – natural bottled waters (without added salt)

Real dishes are used for onsite eating
Take out containers and utensils are recycleable
Bins are available to recycle bottles, cans, and containers
Customers are offered a 10 cent discount for bringing their own cups/containers

REAL FOOD TASTES GREAT!

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North Shore – Eagles Hall, Banquet Hall
170 West 3rd Street, North Vancouver
7:00 to 9:00 am
April 22, 2009

Contact Information
604-432-6200
Email
Website

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Expecting moms should be seasoned hikers and have permission from their caregivers.

$10/person per series

This program runs every Thursday from April 9 – June 11, 2009

Contact:

Metro Vancouver Regional Parks
604-432-6359
Email
Website

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One of the criticism of causes like sustainability and environmentalism is that it’s too preachy and serious.

No Fun.

The gang at YERT prove otherwise.

YERT stands for Your Environmental Road Trip, and while it may seem counter-intuitive, they’ve been driving (yes, a car) all over the USA to try to raise awareness about sustainability. The car, by the way, was a hybrid.

They’ve hit all 50 states and have been making videos along the way.

Their web site is fun and refreshingly un-serious. Mark Dixon from YERT emailed to ask if we’d mention their YouTube video Earth Hour: Feel DePower, regarding EarthDay coming this Saturday 28 March at 8:30.

The video is also a good invite for you to get involved with Earth Hour.

It’s easy.

And it’s fun.

More information about Earth Hour :
(EarthHourCanada.org seems to be having trouble with its web site, so check these alternate links)

• EarthHour.org
• on Facebook
• on Twitter

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Enjoy games, arts and crafts, bouncy castle and an Easter egg hunt.

Please pre-register to ensure your child’s spot in the egg hunt.

Location: West End Community Centre
Date: Thursday Apr 09, 2009
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Contact: 604-257-8333

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