Did you know that the city of Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada) was named for a berry? ‘Tis true! But the amelanchier alnifolia has a huge range from Alaska to California from north to south, and as far inland as Manitoba, and I assume the American plains to the south. I remember saskatoon pies and jellies and…
Our 9 hives of bees have been very busy making honey–so much honey that we’d run out of supers (honey boxes) to add to each hive. Every super we had was full of honey! So we had to remove many of them to extract the honey so we could put them back on (empty) so…
There’s nothing like a loaf of steaming fresh bread while a person is out camping! July 30-August 1 my husband and I joined many members of his family camping along the east shore of a large lake, with no trees nearby. We’d been here before, so I knew it would be an ideal spot for…
If you’re serious about eating and preserving food in season, you’ll want to become familiar with what’s growing wild in your area. One of my favorite annual ‘forages’ is for huckleberries. In south-eastern BC, we have numerous species of these berries, reminiscent of wild blueberries. Where we camped last weekend, I came across at least…
On January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed…to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October. This doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving wasn’t celebrated in Canada before 1957. In fact, its origin goes back to 1578 when explorer…
Some may argue that fall days aren’t ‘green’ precisely, what with all the gold, orange, and red leaves. But they are amongst some of the greenest to those of us with a large garden. Not so much in color, I’ll grant you, but in lifestyle. At least if green = tired! Every moment I’m not…