Preserves

Its that time of the year when fruits and veggies come inside and cozy up inside little glass jars for their winter hibernation!

Big shout out to Jenna and Sara for their preservation projects!!

Bread and "the Bulge"

We found ourselves with an amazing abundance of salvaged bread yesterday (probably ~40 loaves)!  After much slicing, most of it has gone in the freezer to save for later, but we also called on nearby friends to come and take some away - there was way too much for us alone to eat + freeze!! 
We also had a bit of a french toast party this morning, yum! (with strawberries from our garden, and salvaged berries and pineapple!!)

Amazing bread haul by J-bird!

 

 A little while ago, the city made permanent some traffic calming features in our neighbourhood, including making some "bulges" that close off some car traffic directions at roundabout intersections (great for bikes + quiet neighbourhoods, very confusing for those visiting the neighbourhood by automobile!).
RedSara signed us up with the City of Vancouver's "Green Streets" program to care for the "bulge" on our block.  We now have a lovely little garden, "bulging" with:

• Rosemary
• Lavender
• Fennel
• Day Lillies
• Garlic
• Sunchokes
• a dwarf apple tree
• a salvaged heather plant
• lots of FLAX!!
• Orach: a spinach-like plant that we got seeds from EYA (Environmental Youth Alliance) and RedSara's mom
• a Tea plant
• a Loquat tree
• Coltsfoot
• Sunflower
• Arugula
• Calendula
• Collard
• Kale
• Dill
• Columbine
• Mallow
• and many more.... that we're not sure of the names...!!!

All enclosed in a lovely living low willow fence!

Friendly neighbourhood kitty, Larry, hanging out with me at "the bulge"

Urban Foraging

The beehive is in the news again...

Hmmm... Do I need to buy this thing?

Recent guests at the Beehive left this wallet-sized laminated card to inform our decisions, called:

"Questions to ask yourself before buying something"
(see below for the list of questions)



Personal choice is but one small fraction of the solution to our myriad consumer problems. We can do our individual part, however as my wise sister points out, there are problems located all along the supply chain. Such as:

• inacurate pricing which does not represent the true cost of a product (in terms of labour costs, environmantal costs, transportation and shipping costs, recycling costs, etc.)
• weak governmental regulations which permit crap coming in to our stores, inappropriate labeling of products, permitted toxins in production, etc
• advertising. The goal of most product-based advertising is "the creation of a mood of restless dissatisfaction with what we have got, and who we are, so that we go out and buy more." This is according to a report from Compass in the UK. Among other things like new taxes on advertising, Compass suggests banning advertising for children ("who should be protected until their minds are able to cope with complex selling techniques - they should be free to be children not just consumers").

OK, so here are some questions for you, if you feel like thinking about this stuff: