Garden Wisdom Blog — recipe

Carrots can be grown quite densely compared to a lot of other crops. They’re not only good for fresh eating, but they store particularly well for use in the fall and winter — and beyond in some cases. With a little guidance the home gardener can easily learn how to store carrots in the ground, in cold storage, in the refrigerator, and in the freezer. Carrots can even be canned, pickled, and dried for really long term storage. Of primary importance is preserving moisture in the root, and preventing its loss. For cold storage (in the ground, root cellar, fridge,...

The first average frost date for Lower Mainland BC is November 2. This date is reflected pretty closely from the Sunshine Coast and Gulf Islands, coastal Vancouver Island, Puget Sound, and down to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. That means we have approximately eleven weeks of growing time before we can reasonably expect the cold to impact unprotected crops. With even minimal crop protection, we can extend the season even further, but this time of year is critical for planting fall and winter harvest vegetables, and for getting some cover crops started to improve the soil over winter. Here’s my...

West Coast Seeds is a proud supporter of the amazing organization, Growing Chefs. These “Chefs for Children’s Urban Agriculture” bring food into the urban classroom in the form of raw ingredients that are completely unfamiliar to the students. Their mission is to educate children, families, and community members about healthy eating and healthy food systems. Over the course of three and a half months, the chefs visit the classroom every two weeks, helping the students plant and tend to indoor vegetable gardens. The chefs engage the students in games, lessons, and activities focusing on plant growth, local and urban agriculture,...

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) This annual herb is known officially as coriander just about everywhere outside of the Americas. We often think of the fresh leaves as cilantro, and the seeds (which are very easy to harvest) as coriander. Cilantro is the Spanish name for coriander. The plant is native to North Africa and Mediterranean Europe, and is a member of the carrot family, Apiaceae. Its close relatives include parsley, fennel, and dill, which is easy to see when the plant flowers, producing tall umbels of white flowers. Each cilantro “seed” is actually a schizocarp that can be divided into two...

Celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) & Celeriac (A. graveolens var. rapaceum) The Latin names for the different types of celery are revealing. In both cases, graveolens means “strong smelling” or “heavily scented.” Dulce implies sweetness, while rapaceum means “turnip-like.” Few vegetables boast such accurately descriptive names. Celery leaves and flowers were among the plants discovered in garlands around the neck of Tutankhamun’s mummy, and he was entombed in 1324 BC. Homer mentions celery in his Iliad and Odyssey, so cultivation began early and it is still popular around the world. Celery, along with carrots and onions, are finely diced to...