Galiano Club Blog

20 04, 2013

Garlic Co-op – Next Work Party – April 14, at 10:30am.

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:17:23-07:00April 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments

Our next work party is next Sunday, April 14, at 10:30am.

We’ll be spraying compost tea on our beds and making squash mounds. We’ll also be weeding, and if we have time we’ll be laying more cardboard and burlap and covering compost piles with corn tarps.

This month I have a little homework assignment —a very simple compost tea ‘recipe’ to try. It will only take a few minutes. This 4-minute David Suzuki video shows you how to do it (you can start watching at 1:09). The tea takes 5-7 days to brew and only lasts 1 week so you’ll want to start it sometime this week to have it ready in time for the work party. All you need is cheesecloth, a bucket, and some non-manure compost. I suggest you double the recipe – one for your garden and one for the garlic co-op!

Also, some good news about burlap: JJ Bean in Vancouver will give a dozen burlap sacks free to anyone who comes to their corporate office at 1904 Powell St. (enter from Victoria Dr.), 8:00-4:00, Mon-Fri. If you find yourself in Vancouver and able to pick some up, please do! Best to call ahead to make sure they have some on hand – 604.254.0161. Other coffee companies may well have some to spare too.

TO BRING:

a garden sprayer, if you have one, to spray the tea, or a watering can with a shower end
Any organic material you can contribute: seaweed, compost, nettle stalks, leaves, ash, lime, manures, grass clippings, newspaper, etc. and especially cardboard
your compost tea!
Pruners, rakes

[Please remember that cardboard should be large sheets with minimal ink and tape, and no staples. Please also note that ash should be clean – no processed wood products that contain formaldehyde and other toxic glues and preservatives. Thank you!]

20 03, 2013

Community Forest Workshop

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:14:34-07:00March 20th, 2013|Categories: Club Programs|0 Comments

COME JOIN US AT 9:30 MARCH 8TH AT THE END OF GEORGIA VIEW RD. (ENTRANCE TO THE COMMUNITY FOREST) TO HEAR WHAT HERB HAMMOND, KEITH ERICKSON AND OTHER LOCALS HAVE RECOMMENDED FOR IMPROVING THE FOREST AND REMOVING WOOD. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE.

The Galiano Club is pleased to announce that from March 4th to 8th Herb Hammond, forester, ecologist, educator and Executive Director of the Silva Forest Foundation will be working with Keith Erickson of the Galiano Conservancy Association on a Galiano Club Community Forest project funded in part by Vancity. The goal of the project is to develop a plan for thinning and timber removal in a portion the Community Forest. The field work will culminate in a workshop Friday (March 8th) at the Community Forest. This will be of interest to local foresters, Galiano residents who walk the forest and Galiano residents in general. Come join us to see what Herb and Keith will be recommending for the next phase of work in the Forest. There will be refreshments on site.

The Silva Forest Foundation (SFF) has pioneered an ecosystem-based conservation planning approach that protects biological diversity and ecological processes, while assisting communities and individuals to implement ecologically responsible human uses and develop conservation-based economies. Herb Hammond has received many awards including the Canadian Environmental Award for his work.

“Managing Canadian forests to satisfy our need for wood while protecting ecosystems is the starting point in what Hammond hopes will be a long-term and sustainable solution. ‘You can plant a tree, but you can’t plant a forest.’” Herb Hammond

20 03, 2013

Introduction to Breadmaking with Dana Weber

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:04:52-07:00March 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments

Class on Sunday, April 7th from 11am till 5pm

We will be making a variety of loaves in both whole grain and lighter styles, using natural sourdough starters as well as commercial yeast. We’ll learn and practice techniques for fermenting, shaping and baking that will produce artisan quality breads. This is mostly a hands-on workshop, but while our breads are rising we’ll also have a chance to talk about the properties of basic bread ingredients—flour, water, salt and yeast—and how the baker makes them work together to produce a desired result. You can bring a 500g. yogurt-type container to take home some starter.

Cost of the course is $50 – $70 sliding scale. Please bring bread-friendly snacks.

You must RSVP to Alison if you want to attend. Email: galianofoodprograms@gmail.com

20 03, 2013

Nettlefest 2013

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:02:46-07:00March 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Nettlefest|0 Comments

This years Nettlefest Potluck will be happening on March 30th at 5:30pm at the South Community Hall. This year we have a special request – please wear green to the dinner!!

Nettle Picking starts at 10:30am. Meet at the Community Hall with baskets, clippers and GLOVES to Carpool to the picking spot.

Kitchen starts at noon at the hall. Volunteers will be making Nettle Bread and soup together.

Potluck Dinner starts at 5:30pm.

Come sing your nettle song or read your spring poem ! Come get involved in this annual Galiano celebration of Spring!!!

Nettle Vendors are welcome to set up a table in the hall for the evening. Contact us if you’re interested.

20 03, 2013

Community Kitchen – Moroccan Cooking with Hugette

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:48:28-07:00March 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments

Come join Hugette, from La Berengerie, and learn how to make Couscous Royale, atraditional and richly-spiced North-African dish that is bursting with flavours.

We’ll be making the traditional version with various meats, plus a falafel version.

Cost is $15-$20 per person. Please bring containers to take food home.

RSVP if you want to come.

20 02, 2013

Community Greenhouse Spring Start Group – March 6th – 10am

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:58:12-07:00February 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments

Everyone is welcome to jump-start the Gardening year in the community greenhouse.

Soil making, seed planting, transplanting, knowledge sharing and general puttering in the warm greenhouse at the school are on the agenda. Ideas currently being explored involve: cuttings, propagation, and medicinals.

Activities for the next Saturday session will be planting early starts and soil testing for PH. Bring some of your own soil samples! Please bring seeds to swap, and any extra seed trays you have.

We are meeting on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 am at the Greenhouse behind the School.

20 02, 2013

Garlic Co-op – Next Work Party

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:56:25-07:00February 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments

We’ll be sowing the fallow bed in rye and phacelia as cover crops. We’ll also be amending the soil, so please bring any organic material you can contribute: seaweed, compost, nettle stalks, leaves, compost tea, ash, lime, manures, grass clippings, cardboard, newspaper, etc. are all welcome!

[Please remember that cardboard should be large sheets with minimal ink and tape, and no staples. Please also note that ash should be clean – no processed wood products that contain formaldehyde and other toxic glues and preservatives.]

The Trading Post wasn’t able to give us any replacement tarps as they’ve changed the way they order and won’t have any to spare until at least the fall. Since the tarps break down in the summer sun anyway, and we’re getting near to the end of our wet season, I suggest we use cardboard to cover our piles until the fall and tarp then. As our tarps are NOT recyclable (I checked with GIRR) we’ll need to bag up any we remove.

If you have any questions at all, just give me a shout.

20 02, 2013

Nettles by Emma Luna Davis

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:53:18-07:00February 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Nettlefest|0 Comments

The 6th Annual Galiano Nettlefest Community Potluck will take place on March 30th.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a herbaceous flowering perennial, native to North America, Asia Europe, and northern Africa. The plant has long been used as a medicine and a vitamin-rich food source. It has a pleasant, grassy flavour, with a slightly metallic tang, similar to spinach. In spring, stinging nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable.

After soaking or heating to remove the sting, the leaves can be dried, puréed, or substituted for spinach in any recipe. Nettle soup is a common use of the plant in northern and eastern Europe.

The plant has hollow hairs on its leaves and stems which act like needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that sting on contact. If you do get stung, a weed that often grows near stinging nettles, yellow dock (Rumex crispus), can be used as a home remedy. An ancient British charm goes: “Nettle out, dock in, dock remove the nettle sting.”

Nettles grow 3-7 feet tall in the summer and die back in winter. They spread by seeds and runners. Nettles are considered invasive plants, but that also means they’re easy to find and easy to propagate. The plant grows quickly and attracts beneficial insects such as butterflies. It likes partial to full sun and is drought tolerant.

Nettles contain a lot of nitrogen, so they are used as a compost activator and to make liquid fertilizer. They are one of the few plants that can flourish in soils rich in poultry droppings.

Kathy Benger’s Nettle Beer Recipe

Into a pan holding one and half gallons, pack as many young fresh nettle tops as you can, with three young dandelion plants, leaves and roots alike, but with no flower-buds. Now wash nettles and dandelions thoroughly in salted water and scrub the dandelion roots free of fibres. Then rinse them all free of salt and put them back into the pan with the rind and juice of two lemons, half a pound of rhubarb sliced and bruised and three or four pieces of root-ginger about the size of hazel nuts. Then put in as much cold water as the pan will hold, set it on the stove and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for half an hour.

Then put into a basin one pound of demerara sugar with an ounce of cream of tartar, and strain on to it the infusion in the pan, pressing the residue lightly to express all the moisture. When, in a few hours, the yeast has multiplied and there is a good ferment working, strain off the beer into strong screw-topped bottles and screw down firmly. The beer will be ready in five days.

20 01, 2013

The Joy of Seed Catalogues by Alison Colwell

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:42:57-07:00January 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program|0 Comments

This year’s crop of seed catalogues has just arrived in our mailboxes packed with inspiration and ideas, and getting gardeners (and even non-gardeners like myself) excited about the upcoming growing season. It’s February, but it’s time to start thinking about, and planning the garden for the year. And when you are planning, don’t forget to order your seeds for next winter’s crops. We are lucky to live in a place where winter gardens are entirely possible, and some suppliers will run out of seed by mid summer.

The next question is where to buy your seed. According to Steve Solomon, founder of Territorial Seeds, the majority of seed companies that sell through seed racks in supermarkets and big box stores, buy bulk seeds and repackage them without germination tests or any consideration of what is adapted for growing in a particular region. However there are a few seed companies to be found on the racks that provide reliable, acclimatized seed, such as West Coast Seed and Saltspring Seeds.

Probably the best place to get seeds is from mail order seed catalogues or seed saver organizations. Saltspring is having their Seedy Saturday on Feb 9th from 10am till 3pm, and that’s a great place to pick up or trade for local seed. If you have reliable seed you saved you can bring it to trade with other growers. You can attend lectures and workshops on composting, permaculture and the importance of seeds as well.

Which brings us to saving seed. If you think you might want to try saving your own seed, then you need to plan ahead and buy open pollinated seed. These are plants that produce seed that will come true to type – as opposed to seeds from hybrid plants, which cannot be saved and must be bought new each year. The more people that save seed, the more diversity we protect for the future, and the more food security we create for ourselves.

Learning to save seeds often takes a year or two, for each new variety. Some seed saving is far more complex than others and saving seed properly can make the difference between reliable garden vegetables year after year and changeable plants that may not look or taste right. The easiest seeds to start with are, peas, beans, lettuce and tomatoes (just not potato-leaf tomatoes.) There are a lot of good books out there on how to save seed and they are well worth the investment if you want to try your hand at producing and keeping your own seed year to year.

When you have your seeds, store them in a cool, dark and dry place. If you are planning on saving them to the next season, you can vacuum pack them to add an extra years life. Freezing (well wrapped) will also extend the life of your seeds.

Happy Garden Dreams!

Seed Savers Exchange RT. 3 Box 239, Deorah, IA 52101

Publishes 300+ page Seed Savers Yearbook with names and adresses of 900 members and thousands of listings of rare fruit and vegetable varieties on offer from members. Annual membership used to be $25

Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) 2509 N. Campbell, #325, Tucson, Arizona 85719

Quarterly newsletter, preserves native crops of the US Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Annual membership starts at $10 can purchase seeds without membership

The Flower and Herb Exchange RT3, Box 239, Deorah, IA 52101

Heirloom and unusual varieties of flowers and herbs, offshoot of seed savers exchange. Annual membership $5

The Heritage Seed Program (HSP)

Project of the Canadian Organic Growers. Seed listing published every December. Membership roughly $10

20 01, 2013

Garlic Co-op Introduction

By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T18:38:17-07:00January 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments

Happy new year, everyone! My name is Emma Davis, and as one of the Food Program’s new coordinators, I’ll be organizing the Garlic Co-op from now on. I’ll do my best to follow in Janice’s very big shoes.

What is it?

The Garlic Co-op is a group of garlic enthusiasts who collectively grow a few varieties of organic premium garlic, with scapes, in a large, shared, sunny plot at the end of Morgan Road, at the south end of the island. We meet about once a month for work parties. Together we learn about this easy-to-grow, hardy crop, share the load of bed-preparation, seeding, weeding, mulching and harvesting, and enjoy some delicious garlic. We also explore various soil-building and composting techniques.

Membership

Annual membership is $30, which covers the cost of our seed and soil amendments. Each member gets garlic to take home; your participation level determines the size of your share of the harvest. A portion of the crop goes towards Food Program community meals as well as the food bank.

How do I join?

To get involved, send an email to galianofoodprograms@gmail.com, call 539.3389, or just show up at the next work party. No previous experience required.

Next work party

February 7, 10:30am.

We’ll be adding organic matter to the beds, so please bring any material you can contribute—seaweed, compost, nettle stalks, leaves, compost tea, ash, lime, manures, grass clippings, cardboard, newspaper, etc. are all welcome!

Please bring gloves and forks if possible.