Pulling Together Canoe Journey 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

fried sockeye at gibson's beach

 

rose petal and pistachio toffee

 

After I had made the year's batch of rose syrup with the amazing pink rose that grows by the house, I was left with all these perfumed candy petals. What to do?  Sprinkle pistachios on them and pour over lightly caramelised sugar of course.  Voila! - the perfect sweet treat to go with strong Turkish coffee (which I also made, using my cute red ibrik).

Canada Day strawberry sponge cake

So we were a Brit, a Scot, an Aussie and a Canuck around the dinner table last night.  We tossed down the new local beer (yay, Townsite Brewery! yay, Zunga Ale!) and Okanagan sparkling rose.  We lamented the sorry state of the nation (but still better than the US of course :) and mimicked each others' accents.  We then christened the new BBQ with a sockeye salmon and served it with baby beets, young potatoes and lots of leafy salad.  And then we ate the flag.

Farm visit from James Thomson School

As part of the Farm to School program run at James Thomson Elementary by my friend Francine, Doug and I hosted a "farm visit" from twenty Year 6 and 7 students. As the school is only around the corner, they walked over with their teacher and spent around an hour getting demonstrations of the beehives from Doug and picking strawberries with me.  As a treat, I put out tubs of our honey and some from Cuba that Ron brought back, so that everyone a chance to taste the amazing difference and realise that what bees eat profoundly affects the honey.  When Jono, the teacher, asked who had never tried honey before, 7 kids out of 20 put up their hands!  I was astounded.  I knew that these kids, most of whom live on the reserve at Sliammon, ate a lot of processed food and not much variety at that, but this really drove it home.  To them it was mainly just a chance to not be in the classroom, but I am so happy that we got to share our produce with them.  Next term I'm going to work with this same class to create some drawings for the food map of Wildwood we are making; maybe a bee or a strawberry will show up!

nothing tastes quite like the first real salad of the year

I was able to harvest my first super-salad of the year last week: red onion, spring onion, baby carrots, spinach, shunjiku, three types of lettuce, rocket, parsley, basil, chives and cilantro.  I chopped and shredded, threw in some toasted nuts and tossed it all in a dressing of honey, garlic, balsamic, olive oil and sea salt.  Ahhh.  As I munched I tasted all the promise of the crops to come (bring on the beets!) and felt very lucky and deeply satisfied.

the littlest one

I have to say, Amy has a talent for producing quality rug-rats.  Baby Rowan is just the latest of a very cute trio.  He smells so good I want to eat him :)

feast of clams, dug at Palm Beach, before and after

How to identify a meth lab

Ha ha!  Ridiculous I know, but it makes me laugh every time.

dog-sitting at Palm Beach

chicken portraits

Much as I like sheep, I love my girls even more.  I still miss Little Red Chicken and I'm not sure Black Chicken (who features elsewhere on this blog) is long for this world, but every time I go down to say hello or check the water or let them out, the simple pleasure of their existence is a balm on my day.

sheep portraits (and one goat)

 

 

 

We went to tend the hives at Austin and Lisa's farm at around the same time as their ewes were lambing.  These are Romney sheep and very lovely girls they are.  The dark brown one in the second shot is Frazzle and she and I had a definite rapport (possibly based on mutual recognition of difficult hair).  I do like sheep.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm so far behind with this thing that I'm not sure where to start so I think I'll go with right now.  Yesterday we paddled to the Copelands again on a perfect afternoon that just kept getting more perfect.  Oysters, champagne, chocolate mousse cake and a fire on the beach.  Awwwww....  And then otters, eagles, a sea like the proverbial mill pond and the sun setting over the mountains.  Nauseating really :) 

otter tracks, Freda Creek

winter hike to horseshoe lake