1. Growing my own food indoors. Okay, back in Edmonton, I did have a garden, but I'm not a total green thumb. Here in Vancouver, we have a nice-sized patio with some (inherited) herbs growing, which I am barely managing to keep alive. There is some yard space, but there are six other suites in this house, and all of the little areas seems to be taken already! Also, while the growing season is way longer here, it doesn't last all year. Thus, I'd like to grow a few things inside.
So anyways, two things we eat regularly are tomatoes and lettuce. I have done a bit of googling, and it seems you need grow lights. We don't pay for power here, but are grow lights wasteful? We have a lot of windows in our suite, so I have thought about window farms, too.
2. Foraging. Now is probably a great time to be foraging in Vancouver. For instance, I found what I think to be blackberries growing on the beach.
But, can I take them? When are they ripe? These are things I could probably find out, and likely it would be fine to take them, I just don't want to take something that belongs to someone else. I was in Home Hardware and I heard some of the employees talking about how some guys came and picked all the figs from their tree at the back of the store, and that the owner of the property doesn't like figs or something, so they didn't even care - sweet! Anyways, I hope to do something like that at some point.
3. With foraging goes making preserves - like homemade jam and sauces. This is definitely something that will be good with small groups of people, to share the resources and recipes and work. Once I'm a bit more settled I hope to do this one for sure!
Ok Cora I feel like I'm in the twilight zone... especially reading all your blog posts (like a stalker) a lot of the goals you have are goals that pascal and I have as well.
ReplyDeleteFor example, we seriously looked into getting a window farm (however our building is a bit damp and keeping live plants indoors encourages mold growth, which is a problem in our building) but I am buying planters to have a mini herb garden on our little patio.
we also are planning on eating only local or organic produce, we like to shop at Whole Foods on Broadway and Cambie. Sometimes it's a bit pricier, but I think it's worth it to support local farms etc. And since we are pescetarians, we are totally into eating lots of fish. Basa is the cheapest, best fish I have found, but I'm not sure if it's like... "threatened" or whatever. Eventually we only want to eat vegetables that are in season as well.
I can't even believe you mentioned foraging, because just a couple days ago in my blog I talked about urban foraging, and how we found a huge blackberry patch just outside of Canadian Tire down the street, (i even put pictures like you, that is definitely blackberries, and they're ripe when they look like they do in the store, and they are like ten times as delicious) and we want to pick them but are not sure if we can... and we talked about making preserves..
K now you see how weird this all is haha. So anyway, we should totally share resources and talk and stuff, I was considering taking an "urban foraging class"....
so. weird. let me know if you want to collaborate on being a hippie.
Becky, that is all too funny! I just went and read some of your blog now - Beth had mentioned you had a blog but I didn't as her what it was called, and I thought I had read it a long time ago, so I was actually looking for it, but I couldn't find a link for it from facebook...sooo, yes that is weird!!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do want to collaborate on being a hippie! I almost put "hippe tendencies" on my profile, but chickened out. Maybe we can start with making some sort of preserves this fall or something? Or stealing fruit in the dark?
By the way, congrats on getting the job!!!
Girls! Check out vancouverfruittree.com. I just came across a similar thing in Edmonton. Apparently it's popular, these days. In most cities, the pickers get fruit to take home.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, looks great, thanks Rachael! Are you taking part in Edmonton, or is your own community garden keeping you busy?
ReplyDeleteIt's taken me a bit to get in touch with Edmonton Fruit Rescue but I'd like to be involved. Surprisingly, the garden is not much work. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, the garden you are involved in sounds pretty well-organized and efficient!
ReplyDeleteThe Fruit Tree site for Vancouver says they do preserves and stuff, that would be a neat way to learn! I like the community involvement aspect of it, and the whole idea of not wasting good food!!!