The Aunt Farm

Great overview of BC’s food systems, challenges and opportunities in the Sun!

Hey, this is very cool – the Liberal Party of Canada is moving forward to create a Canadian Food Policy. In a statement read to launch the roundtable discussion, Wayne Roberts said

It’s my belief that a comprehensive food policy will contribute to an epochal improvement in government services for human and environmental well-being, and that it will come to be regarded as this generation’s gift to the future, much as Canadian medicare came to be the legacy of the last generation of politics.

For those Canadians who suffer from Obama-envy this week, it’s worth noting that a comprehensive food policy is an idea that Canada can provide world leadership for, and a key to such notable international goals as eliminating hunger, reducing obesity and protecting the climate and the environment generally. The idea is so good and will extend so many benefits to so many people that I look forward to it becoming a project that all political parties join cause in, whatever their differences.

Because food touches so many aspects of our lives in so many ways, a government that does not have a comprehensive food policy cannot, by definition, have a comprehensive health policy, energy policy, job creation policy, environment policy, global warming policy, anti-poverty policy, immigration and settlement policy, trade policy, industrial policy or – last but not least – agricultural policy. When food is torn apart, with bits stored in silos of health, energy, environment, immigration, trade and agriculture departments, it becomes like the patient who is treated by doctors as a liver, pancreas, heart, spine, ear, nose and throat, not a whole person. No patient responds well to this medical treatment, and no dynamic element of life responds well to this political treatment.

I just picked up a couple of new books that I’m pretty excited about:
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
and
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation

The root cellaring book goes beyond the traditional basement food storage to cellaring options from building a standalone structure in a north-facing hillside, to burying a refrigerator, to places around the average home or apartment that provide unconventional but effective food storage alternatives.  So far I’m really enjoying it.

The 2nd book was originally published in French, and, according to the preface,

“grew out of an invitation to readers of a popular organic gardening magazine that they submit favorite (in some cases “secret”) recipes for preserving fruits and vegetables. The recipes collected in this way vary widely in voice and emphasis. Since in most cases the contributors were farmers and gardeners, not professional culinarians, some of the submitted recipes are more complete than others with respect to quantities, materials, and estimates of time.”

Cute.

It was published by Terre Vivante, a nifty environmental organization in France. I was interested to read about the organization’s holistic approach, which includes work to educate and empower community members about issues such as organic gardening and water conservation; work to improve the lot of farmers; and work to revitalize the local rural  economy. They publish a magazine, run a restaurant, and operate a horticultural and demonstration centre and a nursery and playground. 

I’ve been participating in a few conversations lately about our own rural economy and its need for revival, and how important it is that any solutions tackle our local issues holistically.  Here on Galiano, we face an affordable housing shortage, which causes both a labour and patron shortage.  This in turn cripples both our tourism industry (the lifeblood of the community) as well as essentials such as our medical services, transportation, and educational system.  

I don’t have any magic solutions, but I know that we can’t solve any one of these problems in isolation.  Terre Vivante seems to be an interesting contrast to the typical North American approach of segmenting issues and dealing with them independently of one another.

A suitable length of time has passed for me to allow the opening of my preserve jars.  So far, I’m most pleased:

1. By far the greatest accomplishment is apple reduction, from In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture & Recipes, a gift from my sister. Like maple syrup only endlessly better, and so easy to make.  My father-in-law exclaimed it was the best thing he’d ever tasted (and he’s hard to please)!  It also handily reduces buckets of apples to tiny jars.  I just need to figure out something to do with the solids from the apple that get discarded…they work as deer food and compost but I’d like to find something else to do with them.  I used the gravensteins this year – next year I’ll have to try different varieties.

2. Drunken pears, based on the ‘pears in red wine’ recipe here, but with my secret ingredient added. Fantastic over ice cream.

3. Pear Apple Butter Sauce. This was supposed to be just pear apple butter, but I got impatient, so it’s somewhere between sauce and butter. But yummy on toast all the same.  I can’t remember where I found the recipe but there are lots around.

4. I’m still enjoying my plum sauce – it’s got next to zero sugar, and is very tart – yummy with some plain yoghurt for breakfast.

Photos soon…

Update: I like these instructions for canning pears in light syrup.

An op-ed piece in yesterday’s NY Times by Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry interestingly looks to science and technology to address our food issues, not something I’ve come to expect from the likes of Berry.  The article discusses the development of perennial strains of grains such as wheat and rice, and the opportunities these crops might present for reducing dependence on fossil fuels, preventing soil erosion, and sequestering carbon.  

In 1987, Berry gave his ‘standards for technological innovation in my own work. They are as follows:-
1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.’

I’m not sure Berry would define perennialization of crops as technology as he seems to mean it here, but I’m guessing that such crop modifications could not be returned to a small, privately owned shop or store for maintenance and repair. But I’m interested in these crop modifications all the same.

I hope everyone’s having a great solstice – it only gets brighter from now on!  Me, I’m loving this ‘real winter’ thing, so I’m not at all ready to see it take leave, but we’ve got a bit more to go yet.  The snow on the island is over a foot deep, not quite as much as in the city, but still pretty darn magical.  The birds seem quite desperate, so I gave them my moulding bread…mostly as an apology for the bird our kitty killed this morning.

I recently saw The Real Dirt on Farmer John, a doc that traces the life of an eccentric farmer in Illinois from his days as a boy on the traditional farm his dad inherited from his grandfather, to his early days as a farmer, through the ’60s and his clashes with his conservative community, to the eventual founding of one of the Chicago area’s first CSAs.  The film manages to both tell the classic story of the decline and rise of the American family farm, and tell the story of one farmer who does not fit the mold.   It’s a bit long-winded, but the epic tendencies are in part because the film was shot over more than 25 years, which makes for an unusual sense of intimacy.  It’s a quirky little film.

My shutterbug friend Fabrice Grover did a shoot recently for an article on BC’s pioneers in organic farming.  Sneak preview of his fantastic photos here.

In a very exciting turn of events, the UBC Board of Governors has recognized the incredible value of the UBC Farm, directing the administration to use the farm for academic food sustainability activities and not housing!  This is fantastic news.  More info here.

Picked ripe huckleberries from our bush today.  They ripen after so much else is long gone…it’s just them, the rosehips, and the well-named everbearing raspberries now.  And they’re tasty! But they’re so very fussy. Picking their stems off took an hour for about a quart.  They’d better make one heck of a pie, that’s all I’m saying.