Garden Wisdom Blog

After years of promoting Community Supported Agriculture, I finally broke down and joined a CSA program at one of the local organic farms. What a great decision it was, too! Back in February we signed up for a “small” farm share at Cropthorne Farm on Westham Island here in Ladner. For an upfront investment of about $350, we get a box of freshly harvested, certified organic vegetables every week. This particular farm’s CSA program is now full, and we got a small discount for registering early in the season. Every Tuesday, we drive out to the farm and pick up...

This is one of the fastest, easiest salads we know of, but it looks sensational and tastes great. It is easily adapted by switching out one or more ingredient, but the radicchio is essential. We are always amazed by how unfamiliar this delicious and easy to grow vegetable is in North America. Describing its flavour as “bitter” does radicchio such a disservice. It is better described as having a sophisticated flavour. Here, radicchio is featured prominently and proudly with its deep red leaves that contrast against the sour citrus, sweet fruit, and nutty sunflower seeds. This recipe produces two salad...

Soy is a fairly easy plant to grow. A single packet of seeds can produce enough soy beans at the end of the season to process into several liters of pure home made soy milk. For a short cut, you could use certified organic soy beans for sprouting, and follow the recipe below, but we encourage you to take this homesteading challenge, and produce the beans yourself. Turn one packet of seeds into a huge bowl full of beans. Using certified organic seeds, or growing your own organic soya beans is a good way to ensure that no GMO ingredients...

Does removing the scape from hard-necked garlic really improve the size of the bulb and cloves? That’s the commonly understood wisdom among garlic growers. Whether it is scientifically true or not, garlic scapes are edible and packed with garlic flavour. The scape is the flower stalk that emerges in late spring or early summer, including the unopened flower itself. On hard necked garlic varieties, the scape tends to form a loop before the flower opens — you will know this when you see it! While the scapes can be sautéed and eaten on their own, we like to make this...

Basil is a heat-loving annual plant grown for use as a culinary herb. Many varieties exist, with subtle differences in flavour, growth habit, leaf colour, and so on. All have a rich, pungent taste and scent reminiscent of anise and cloves. This plant has been cultivated for over 5,000 years, originally from India to Persia, but has spread globally. The ancient Greeks knew about basil and its culinary and medicinal properties. Curiously, many ancient Romans believed that basil seeds would not germinate unless without first being cursed. Though we tend to think of it as an Italian herb, basil is...