The Compost Diaries

A few years ago, I was writing an article on why some farmers were farming organically but weren’t certified. I interviewed a blueberry farmer from the Fraser Valley. When he decided to move from conventional to organic, he signed on with a certification body, paid the fees, around $1,700 dollars plus a cut of all crop sales then, and suffered some crop losses as he made the transition over the next couple years. Although some of the other farmers I interviewed said that paperwork and fees kept them from certifying, that wasn’t why this farmer discontinued his certification. He said it was because there was no educational support, no practical help to deal with the problems that came up.

Deb Foote was the president of the Certified Organic Association of British Columbia (COABC) at the time. She told me that educational support is critical to the success of organic farmers and that they’d approached the provincial government to fund an educational outreach position; that person’s primary job would be to help farmers make the transition from conventional to organic.

Not long afterwards, I heard that the funding was granted and Rochelle Eisen was hired. I am not a farmer, but I can tell you that what I’ve seen Rochelle send out over the COABC listserv in the last couple of years seems to be very beneficial for organic farmers. Workshops, practical information on growing organically, managing pests and diseases, changes in allowable products, national certification developments and the list goes on and on. She has a depth of knowledge on the organics industry and if she doesn’t know the answer to something, she comes back soon with a well researched response. I have enjoyed her informative column in BC Organic Grower Magazine too.

As a writer myself, I have been very grateful to Rochelle for answering my questions, her quick and measured replies have helped me promote BC agriculture. I have also admired her deft management of the listserv – which occasionally needs a referee. I’m sure these are just very small parts of the big job Rochelle does and I suspect she earns a modest wage. In my mind, she’s worth her weight in gold.

On Monday, I was shocked to hear that Rochelle’s outreach position had been cut. After two years, the province says there is no more money. It is said that you can tell what a government is about by how it allocates its budget. The present government talks a good line about supporting local, but puts very little money where its mouth is. Our province comes in last in the country when it comes to budget dollars allotted to food production and farming. Organic farming receives the least attention of all.

As the black sheep in the agricultural family, I am beginning to wonder if the sector would be better served under the Ministry of Environment or Health. After all, organic farmers don’t use harmful pesticides, which are killing birds and fish. Mounting scientific evidence also links pesticides with serious human diseases, like Parkinson’s and cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society is pushing hard for a province wide ban on the sale of pesticides used for cosmetic purposes – meaning the ones home owners liberally douse their yards with to get a perfect lawn or rose bush. Other provinces, like Quebec and Ontario have already banned them.

In its last throne speech, the BC government said it would consider a ban; that sounds darn near like an acknowledgement that pesticides are not good for the environment or our health. If they go ahead with the ban, perhaps they will need an extension officer to help the gardeners make the transition to organic. Hey maybe that person could also help farmers make the switch. If the government is serious about helping the environment and reducing exorbitant health care costs, then supporting organic farming, even a little bit, would be a step in the right direction.

I am not an organic farmer, if I were, I would be hopping mad that my support person and educational lifeline had been cut. No, I am not a farmer, but I am a writer who supports farmers, local and organic agriculture as a means of strengthening our BC food system. And because I am a writer, I will be writing Steve Thomson, the Minister of Agriculture (steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca) and will copy my Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), who just happens to be Premier Gordon Campbell (Premier@gov.bc.ca). If you live in BC, I invite you to do the same. You can find your MLA’s email here. Let’s educate them on the value of Rochelle.

Photo by Lawrence Boxall, CODA Print Communications

Of all the leafy greens, Kale deserves a capital K. According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin K can reduce your risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by up to forty-five percent. The naturally occurring phytochemicals, sulforaphane and indoles may also protect against cancer.

Kale belongs to the Brassica family, a group of vegetables including cabbage, collards and Brussels sprouts. Besides K, kale is also rich in vitamins A, C and antioxidant fighting E. It is plum full of calcium and iron, has seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times more lutein. It also contains the much-needed fiber so lacking in the daily diet of processed food eating North Americans.

Never prepared it before? Here’s how you do it. Wash the kale well, then pull the leaves off the thick stems into pieces. Kale Potato soup is a classic way to use the green superfood. I use the recipe from Laurel’s Kitchen. Or you can steam the leaves for a few minutes and toss with (olive) oil and balsamic vinegar. But kale chips are the new craze.

Kale Chips

Preheat oven to about 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Use about one salad spinner’s worth of kale. Spread washed, bite size pieces of kale out on cookie sheets. Drizzle with about two teaspoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt or seasonings of choice. I hear paprika is nice. For a cheesy version, try Parmesan or Asiago on top. Bake for about fifteen minutes, until edges are brown and crispy. Enjoy and raise a glass to kale!

I have a PNE hangover. I started off my annual evening of pacific national exhibition-ism with a big plate of perogies from the incredible Hunk himself. Yes Bill was there. There is no mistaking that profile. Hunky Bill has been at the fair slinging Ukranian hash every year for forty years, taking time out from his restaurant and perogie maker biz.

All that cheesy-ness made me thirsty, so I chugged back a big lemonade. The real stuff. With lemons in it. Followed by a bag of those little donuts for dessert. I don’t even like donuts. Except for those. And then, inexplicably, after probably four decades without a craving, I suddenly needed to have some candy floss. “Just a taste,” I said to the nice girl whipping up a batch. She passed me a handful and OMG, a bubbly-gummy mouthful of pink clouds. “Mmmmmm,” I said. “It’s pure sugar,” my friend Mark admonished me. Like I didn’t know. But it didn’t spoil my moment. What happens at the PNE stays at the PNE.

Mark and I are diehard PNE-ers. We love it all, the greasy smells, the hawkers, the rip offs. Before we even enter the gate we’re usually down fifty bucks! Parking (negotiating for a spot with local residents is part of the fun), admission (we lucked out and hit Vancity night – five dollars a pop for credit union members and their friends) and the obligatory tickets, “Win a house. Win a car!” This year the dream home will be set down in the Okanagan – our homeland! Mark yelled confidently out to the long line of people waiting to walk through the home, “Don’t dirty my carpets!”

Each year as we step through the gates, we both look around breathlessly and shout: “Sell me something!” Last year we came home with 400 thread count Egyptian sheet sets for 30 bucks. Never mind that they pilled after a few washings. And while searching for the miracle mop I’d seen the year before and had kicked myself for not buying, we got mesmerized by the demo for the window squeegees. We both walked away with one. We used them once. Well, tried to use them. Those guys make it look so easy. My windows have been dirty ever since. But being taken is part of the fun.

One summer Mark sold the slicer dicers at one of the booths. We were more than friends at that time and whenever I would feel a little blue, he would do his spiel: “It slices, it dices….” and throw thin slices of cucumbers against the wall. You cannot stay sad or mad when your boyfriend can perform like that let me tell you.

This year the PNE celebrates its 100th year. A number of nostalgic headliner bands will be gracing their stage. Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the News, Cyndi Lauper. Last night we were there to see Loverboy. The 1980s rock band  is making a come back at country fairs all over North America. Mike Reno, the lead, grew up in Penticton too. He and Mark were best buds. In fact, Mark was in one of Mike’s very early bands, on keyboard. And vocals. Sort of. He only found out later that they used to turn his mike off. Mark eventually kicked everyone out of the band and decided to make a go of it on his own. And that was the end of Mark’s band career. One of my cousins was in some of the early groups too – Morning Glory and Synergy I think they were called.

Mark says when Mike moved to Penticton from the Island, he showed up at the first day of school wearing a black pea jacket with a Beatles cap and boots. He was always cool. All us girls had a crush on him. And back when the Kid was really hot, he really could pull off those red leather pants. What I mean by that is he looked good enough that many women probably wanted to pull them off. Now he would certainly have trouble getting into them, but he still wore his signature red bandana last night. He only had to wring it out once. Or twice or so.

So, there we were, amid a jam packed sea of groupies. Sure there were a lot of us middle aged women who had eaten a few too many little donuts in our time – but there were young people too. Entire families. All sizes, shapes and colours, rockin’ to the Kid. Reno’s vocals were still top notch. I had all their albums in their heyday, but especially loved his ballads. Like Almost Paradise, the love theme song from Footloose that he sang with Ann Wilson from Heart. We sang along to every song last night. Mark sang with gusto, reveling in his chance to sing with the band again.

They closed with one of their big hits, the one that’s currently working overtime in the peanut butter cups ad. Judging by the crowd’s reaction, I would say the Kid was still pretty hot. I was definitely feeling the heat. Could have been the food.

You want a piece of my heart. You better start from start. You wanna be in the show. Come on baby lets go…

–Working for the Weekend, Loverboy

Here in BC we are already feeling the effects of climate change. One example, mountain pine beetles are devastating BC’s pine forests; the beetle larvae used to be killed off when the winters were colder.

Currently global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s) are about 39 billion metric tons per year. Just over 25 percent of that or nearly eight billion tons is contributed by the transportation and fuel sector, including petroleum production and refining. Climate scientists warn we need an 80 percent reduction in GHG’s by 2050 or we’re toast. The BC government has committed to reducing their GHG’s by 33 per cent by 2020 and by at least 80 percent by 2050.

Al Gore has done a brilliant job of raising awareness around the issue with his Inconvenient Truth blockbuster, but he has not yet linked up the industrial food system and global warming. And there are many connections. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change reports that the global industrial food system from farm to fork and how we manage the waste accounts for 33 percent of the GHG’s we humans create. The livestock sector contributes about one fifth of the world’s emissions – more than the entire transportation sector! Industrial farming as a whole emits about two thirds of the world’s methane. And the overuse of nitrogen-rich fertilizers, half of which leaches into streams, rivers and oceans, dumps about two billion tons of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. Chemical fertilizers are responsible for about three quarters of the U.S.’s nitrous oxide emissions!

Then there’s the methane produced from the animals crammed into factory farms, both from their digestion and their poop. Farm animals generate 130 times more poop than humans according to the World Watch Institute! Methane is 20 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2. It’s these excess greenhouse gases that cause global warming and if we don’t reduce our emissions drastically, scientists and experts say the droughts, floods, hurricanes, pest infestations, rising sea levels and other plagues and pestilence will only get worse.

And speaking of gas: petroleum fuels industrial farming. It runs machinery, powers buildings, is a key ingredient in chemical fertilizers. And then there’s the transporting of all that food, including processing it in another country and then shipping it back. Our food travels about 2,500 km to reach our dinner table. But with peak oil prices, eating papaya salads in winter may no longer be feasible because airfreight may soon be a thing of the past. Restaurants that have gotten on board with local food may be in a much better position to survive. Westerners may have to learn to eat not only locally, but also seasonally.

Temperature changes are already affecting the crops we grow. According to a 2007 report by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA), berries including cranberries will be hardest hit and Concord grapes could be completely wiped out. Already untimely frosts, droughts, floods and fluctuating temperatures are affecting these crops in the northeast. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that “stop and start” winters reduced the fruit size of cranberries by one-third in 2007 and the blossoms on grapes and blueberries were decimated. Scientists also worry about salt-water incursion from hurricanes and warmer temperatures mean the growers are battling more disease and pests. Erratic climate change may mean growers have to switch to warmer temperature varieties or ideal growing zones will be relocating further north. The province of Quebec has already surpassed Maine as the largest producer of wild blueberries.

BC is the second largest producer of highbush blueberries in the world with 12,000 acres of farmland in production yielding approximately 63 million pounds annually. BC cranberry farmers pump out 84 million pounds of fruit annually, approximately twelve percent of North American production. BC is the largest producer of cranberries in Canada. Most of the BC grapes are grown in the Okanagan Valley for the now celebrated local boutique wine industry. But berry crops are also being adversely affected by erratic weather here. According to Mark Sweeney, a berry specialist at the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the variability and extremes in temperature are causing significant problems.

“Raspberries like moderation, they can’t take the extremes of heat and moisture that we’ve had in the last four years,” he says. The other berry crops are vulnerable to extreme weather events too.

Farmers are coming up with solutions though. The organic farming movement is on the rise. Organic farmers reduce the use of machinery and therefore their dependence on fossil fuels too by working with nature to create a more balanced growing environment. They use “cover crops” during winter or fallow seasons to inject more nitrogen into the soil; trees and shrubs create wind buffers and wildlife habitat; interplanting of crops helps confuse and deter pests; mulching and more efficient irrigation methods make for healthier plants that can withstand periods of drought.

Organic farming does away with toxic chemicals too. Farmers use alternative pest control methods and amend their soils using natural sources. They make their own rich fertilizers by turning plant materials and animal waste into compost. Composting also lowers emissions because it keeps the food and other organic waste from going to the landfill.

In Lynden, Washington, one farmer invested 1.2 million to install an anaerobic digester, a composting system that converts methane from cow manure into 300 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 180 homes. What comes out the other end, so to speak, is a potent, natural liquid fertilizer and a dry fibre that can be used as a peat substitute or bedding for cows.

Climate change could well mean stricter water management for farms too. Overhead sprinkling has been the irrigation of choice by large conventional farm operations, but some are now switching over to drip irrigation. These systems are installed just below the ground surface allowing water to slowly seep out of leaky hoses and direct moisture to the plant roots. They not only conserve water, but keep leaves and fruit dry. That cuts down on fungi and pathogens, inhibits rot and other moisture induced maladies, thereby reducing pesticide use.

Governments are now looking at farms as potential “carbon sinks” that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and fix it in the soil. There are already some programs in place in both Canada and the U.S. to compensate farmers for good ecological land use. Our provincial government is also encouraging farmers to invest in alternative energy systems such as geothermal, wind, solar and biomass (growing crops for fuel, hopefully not food crops when weeds or hemp can do the same) which can reduce their costs and help produce energy for the province. But so far they haven’t backed up their encouragement with bucks.

Many farmers are also selling closer to home these days, at the farm gate or farmers’ markets. And they are diversifying, offering farm tours, cooking classes, or producing gourmet products to sell in their on-farm stores. By making their living at home, they are no longer contributing to the GHG’s produced by transporting food around the world.

The local rats have picked my balcony as their bathroom. I have no idea why. It started a couple years ago after I created a beautiful little zen garden for myself out there. It is a lovely sanctuary and I guess for the rats, a stunning bathroom. You would never know my place looks out onto a back alley with overflowing dumpsters, the first floor suites below me have lush, treed, fenced in patios.

Sitting in my living room, gazing at my pretty new view out my sliding doors, I would occasionally see a rat streak across my railing – on its way to a meal of dog food left outside at the next apartment perhaps. Or a birdseed snack or nice crusty barbeque tidbit. I would find rat poo all over my lovely tatami mats in the morning. And once a place has the scent of a bathroom, well always a bathroom I guess.

When I worked at the compost garden, I had people to deal with this problem. That is my boss dealt with all rodents. I had the don’t tell me, don’t know policy about it. In my book, I give plenty of tips on keeping rats out of your compost bin, but not a word of advice to help me with this little problem.

I finally had to call the Rat Man. I’ve had a bait box on my balcony ever since. He put them in the alley too and on other balconies and patios. He checks the boxes once a month and restocks it when required. Sometimes it’s fully intact, but other times its completely gobbled. Yesterday he told me mice had visited too (he found their much smaller droppings).

But even when there’s no evidence, the rats are never really gone, my rat man tells me. There’s always more where they came from. Sooner or later a station wagon full of them pulls up, he says, and well, after a long drive, they need to use the bathroom.

This morning I ate the Ultimate Whole Breakfast. It’s a whole grain mix of organic oats, buckwheat, golden flax, barley, spelt and lentils. Fieldstone Granary sells it by the bag at their Armstrong location. I was holidaying in the Okanagan Valley recently and was lucky enough to get a tour of the granary from Margaret, the manager.

I didn’t know much about granaries. First of all, I found out, it’s not a mill. They thresh, store and sell whole grains there. Threshing means they thoroughly thrash the cereal plant with a machine to separate the grain or seed from the husk or straw. There is no flour there. Well, that’s not entirely true, there was some flour, made specially for Newman’s Own organic dog biscuits.

Usually, a granary completes the first step in the processing of grain. The grain would then be ground or pulverized at a mill. But Fieldstone sells these darling little counter top mills so their customers can grind their own cereals and flours daily. It is also a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. They source their organic grains from the Okanagan first, then BC, then the prairies.

In the granary store, the grains are lined up on shelves in windowed packages. It was fascinating to see what the whole grains actually look like. I was intrigued by the breakfast mix and decided to give it a try.

The instructions on the package said a single serving was approximately three to five tablespoons and to soak it over night. Because I didn’t see myself soaking the grains every day, I soaked a cup, covering it in water. In the morning I found a gloppy glutinous coating on the cereal. Undeterred, I rinsed off the gloop and dumped it into three cups of boiling water just like I would oatmeal, covered and simmered it for about fifteen minutes or so. When I took off the lid, there was still lots of water and more gloop. I scooped out a portion of the cereal with a slotted spoon and had it with vanilla soy milk. It was nutty, delicious, but very chewy. The package warned me to chew well, and that way all the fibre, vitamins and minerals are released. So I did. Then I emailed Margaret to find out if I’d done something wrong.

Margaret explained that the glutinous matter is from the golden flax. And the reason why there were no cooking instructions on the package is because it is usually eaten raw! The soaking softens the grain and then it can be eaten as is. One of their market research staff had cooked it, using a similar process to mine though, so I had not violated any whole grain eating rules.

After my first morning of eating the grain warm, I tried it cold, as a sort of compromise, but mostly because it’s so hot out. It was just as good cold. Tomorrow I think I’ll add fruit and coconut yogurt. Now that sounds like the ultimate breakfast.

As part of our effort to strengthen our neighbourhood food system and create a thriving food hub, we have launched another initiative. Thanks to a Greenest City Grant from the City of Vancouver, Kitsilano Neighbourhood House in partnership with the Westside Food Security Collaborative is launching an urban “growers” market. We are inviting local urban farmers, backyard and community gardeners to come on out and sell their fruit, veggies and even flowers. The unique aspect of this market is that we’re also adding a trade and donation feature. Growers can trade with other growers, or opt to donate their produce. We will see that it is given to one of our local social service agencies who are providing meals to those in need.

The focus of the grant is food recovery and we will also be collecting food from other sources like grocery stores and restaurants – trying to keep at least some of the food within our community – and redirecting it to our agencies.

The first market is tonight (Aug 12) and they’ll run every Thursday through September. See you there!

For more information about the market or to register for a space to sell please contact:

Gord McGee at gord@kitshouse.org

(778) 686-5701.

Kits House 2305-2325 West 7th Ave @ Vine in Vancouver.

I am an instructor for this SFU certificate program. My colleague Nina Winham and I developed and deliver the Applications Course – essentially a three day mobile workshop looking at real life cases and talking to experts along the way. The program is a joint offering from the Centre for Sustainable Community Development and City Program. In past classes, we have had “insider” tours of the 2010 Olympic Village as it was being built and an amazingly close up look at the Choi Building. Although some may call it an “outdated” green building, it continues to impress. There is nothing like taking a peek into the compost toilet “depository” in the dungeon with the person who oversaw its design and construction. The building, not the toilet. It was Freda Pagani, by the way, former director of the UBC Office of Sustainability. If you’ve been contemplating a sustainability course, I would encourage you to consider this one. It’s getting rave reviews!

Sustainable Community Development Certificate

For Mid-career professionals.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 30

“Policy makers, politicians and staff should be attending the Sustainable Community Development Program at SFU. It is a collection of teachings that are informative and timely for our changing landscapes, presenting best practices that are being utilized by large cities, small rural communities and business to address their role in a sustainable future.”

Al Hogarth, Councillor, District of Maple Ridge

Read more testimonials.

A flexible program comprised of eight 2- and 3-day intensive courses over 10-18 months. Apply by August 30. Cohorts complete six core courses:

1. Foundation in Sustainable Community Development
2. Applications in Sustainable Community Development
3. Sustainable Economics for the Real World
4. Making Change Happen: Building Commitment to Create Sustainability
5. Integrating Social Dimensions into Sustainability
6. Sustainable Community Development Studio

And two electives from this list:

1. Strategic Decision-Making for Sustainable Results
2. Communicating Sustainability for Awareness, Accountability, and Action
3. Urban Transportation: Planning and Designing for Sustainability
4. Leading Edge Solutions to House Everyone
5. Tackling Climate Change – Going Carbon Neutral and Beyond
6. Green Economy Frontiers and Opportunities

Program Details.

My Green Roofs and Living Walls tour this past Wed night turned out to be a real treat on a summer evening. Wanted to share some of the pictures. Dr. Tara Moreau gave us a wonderful, brisk overview (I gave her 20 min!) of the SPEC roof top garden program.

We were able to peer over the edge to see the green roof atop the City Farmer cob garden shed as well.

Geneviève Noël of Mubi was up on a ladder when we arrived at Greens Organic & Natural Market, trimming up the living wall. She showed us that it is very possible to grow food vertically; she has coastal strawberries growing amid other native plants.

Randy Sharp had set up a step ladder too so we could get very close to the sedums and other coastal natives he has growing on his darling garage green roof. Oh and the backyard bunnies were quite a hit too.

Then we all piled into Assefa Kebede’s front yard for the best finish to a tour yet! Assefa had freshly made homous and pita bread waiting for us. He owns the Nyala remember. And here’s the roof tie in, he has beehives on his! So yes, we had spoonfuls of honey fresh from the comb. We mopped up any remnants with the pita. And finally there was the honey wine. Fortunately it was a walking tour.

I belong to the Kits Neighbourhood House community garden. It is not a typical community garden, if there is such a thing. Atypical because it’s in a parking lot and because we don’t have individual plots. We garden communally. It made more sense to garden as a group because the space was so limited.

We have work parties once a week. These days it’s mostly harvesting and socializing – the best part of gardening. I hadn’t been for a couple weeks because the pocket markets happened at the same time. But yesterday afternoon I managed to get there. It was a gorgeous, sunny and harmonious day in the garden. We harvested beets and lettuce, some peas, carrots, kale and leeks and a few herbs. We discovered the garlic chives! The potatoes have come up! There was one very large zuke and there will no doubt be 100 more next week. The tomatoes and beans will soon be ready as well. There were eight of us there and we each took a share of the harvest. Kits House also gets a share for their weekly seniors drop in lunch.

We tidied things up, pulling the plants that had gone to seed like the arugula, some of the mustard greens, trimmed the parsley. We finally got rid of the tough old celery plant that had over-wintered. Yeah, another pot freed up! With limited space this always gets a cheer.

Lawrence, one of our members who is the head waterer (because he has his own moisture sensor!) came by and told us the only bed that needed watering was the center one and the surrounding pots. One of the beds is on a slope, so we also dug holes and buried some small pots and pop bottles with drainage holes into the ground so that when we water, the water will pool and go down deep to get to the plant roots.

I gave the compost bins a good mix, added some soil. I have been managing these bins for a year now and I must say they are not my best work. I used straw instead of leaves and it’s not breaking down well. Usually worms migrate in on their own when a bin is in the right balance, but haven’t found one yet. I’ve asked Mary, another member to bring some worms from her obviously superior compost bins to see if they can speed things up a little.

Kits House will be renovating next year, putting in some seniors housing and we will lose our parking lot garden. But we are promised a roof top garden. May want to install an exterior dumb waiter to lift all the soil and equipment up there. But at least we won’t have to negotiate with cars.