Starting from scratch

It's a very odd feeling to come to a piece of land, and realize that it's an empty canvas and you're in charge of making it look the way you dreamed. It's almost impossible to run a full list of things to do, since that would make my brain explode. Let me see: build a house. Create a beautiful, yet functional and reliable food system. Not kill each other. Hmm, shorter-term goals are probably the way to go here :-)

So instead we're trying short to-do lists for when we spend 2-3 days at the property. In our first week, the things to do included: mow down the clearing, till garden patch, limb driveway trees and stake the driveway and house. Done, done, and done...

We planted this year's garden with soldier beans and potatoes. We're treating this garden plot as a "year zero" experiment (as Josh calls it), or "throwaway year" as I call it. As in - if anything grows, great. If not, we're not going to be too sad about it. The soil in the clearing is mostly clay, since the clearing has been cut for (likely) many years now - the organic matter has been repeatedly stripped from it, leaving not that great a soil behind. In comparison, the soil in the forest not 20 feet away is much richer in organic, darker, and crumblier.

In that first week we also planted black currants - we brought 2 currant plants with us from BC. I bought them from a Russian lady in Castlegar, who was swearing to me that they were special, "from Siberia". There are 3 berries on one of them, and they are darkening up fast. We'll see how special it is in just a little bit! In addition, we planted 3 rhubarb plants and a bit of mint.

<-- rhubarb, happily growing in its new spot


Black currants working on getting ripe        -->











Since that first week, the list of small, yet important accomplishments got longer: moved a wild rose plant from the river, where they grow by the dozen, to our property, moved three baby trees (one goosefoot maple and two beeches) from the driveway, where they would get trampled by heavy equipment, to the edge of the clearing, made vertical potato boxes and planted them with late potatoes, built a compost bin, and filled it with a whole pile of fallen leaves left behind by Arthur, and planted pole beans, peas, arugula, and kale. Most of this work was done by Josh while I was trying hard to maintain my full-time work schedule.

<-- vertical potato planter. Yes, they did get covered (and mulched) one the picture was taken.


First-year compost bin. Will get more elaborate with time, but good enough for now    -->






In the meantime, the builders just about completed the driveway to our place, which means that now we can actually drive up the driveway all the way to the house site, instead of hiking out with all of our gear. What a concept!

<-- driveway in the making



Local wildlife coming out after the rain. Unrelated to this post as such, but very cute :-)                          -->

Walking our land and some pretty pictures

We have now successfully moved back to NB. In the past few days, we have been staying with Josh's parents, who have been most kind and helpful. We've gone to our little piece of heaven (and hard work) twice now. In the first time, we aimed to see how things were progressing, with it being summer and all, and to place temporary stakes for the locations of the well and the corners of the house + garage.

The area is all in bloom and beautiful, such a difference from the gloomy days of fall when we first saw the property! Now, remove those pesky blood-sucking insects, and I'm officially in love :-)

                         

<-- Location of future garage corner. ^ view toward future house

Here are some pictures of plants we took on that first walk while running around trying to escape the multitude of mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies that thought we were supper...

Highbush cranberry in bloom

On the second visit to the property, we met with our builder, went over the general locations of things on the property, staked out the world's longest driveway, and cleared some low-hanging tree limbs from the existing driveway, in preparation for putting gravel on it next week.

American beech, identified via FB friends...

  

Gorgeous flowering pitcher plants by the lake... 

So beautiful, that I was OK with getting bitten while snapping some pictures :-)

 The elusive butthole tree... And now you, too, cannot unsee it. 

I'm really looking forward to having some plant-knowing people over to our new place and learning more about what species are growing readily around. Assuming that the driveway will be made more accessible next week, we might have a bio-ID-blitz in a couple of weeks. Rumour is there will be a bottle of (excellent) homemade red wine for the winner! 

Our quest for the awesome homemade sourdough bread recipe

I've been making my own sourdough bread for about four years now. My sister and her husband got me hooked - they were making theirs for a while, and when I tried a slice, there was just no coming back. I was always a bread lover. Real bread though, the heavy, tasty kind, not the white fluff you usually get at the store.

<-- white fluff....        ^ happy-Sima bread


In the first two years, bread making was a struggle - the dough had to be kneaded, and left to rise twice at somewhat specific intervals, which made it harder to make during the workweek. The center did not always bake through, while the outside sometimes got too crusty. Then, two years ago, everything changed. I went back to my sister, and noticed that she did no kneading. So this time I listened carefully when she explained the process. I also combined her recipe with this one, from a blog written by a friend. The resulting recipe is what we've been following for the past two years, happy and content. Work time: 10 mins. Price: pennies. Results: awesome bread.

Not only that, but I've spread the goodness - I shared my sourdough starter with at least four people in the past year or so. One of them, a friend from work, has done no baking before. Within a few weeks, he was raving about the awesome bread he was getting. Another share, which happened on our travel from BC to NB, was at a bed and breakfast in Ontario. The hosts let me feed my starter in their kitchen and asked for a bit for themselves. A few days later, I got this email:

" I just wanted to tell you how much we’re enjoying the gift of your starter.  I just put together the 3rd loaf and as yet have not started adding anything as we’re enjoying it so much just as it is!"

Anyway, enough talk, here's the recipe. It requires a starter. Which you can get from someone you know has one (like myself) or make your own (takes flour, water, and about 5 mins of work / day for a week or so, here's a recipe for a rye starter).

Things you'll need: whole wheat flour, white flour, starter, salt, water, large container with a lid (plastic bowl, large pot, whatever, as long as the lid fits well), spoon.

1) Combine 1.5 cups of whole wheat, 1.5 cups of white unbleached wheat, and a sprinkle of salt in a large bowl.

2) Mix the starter and pour in most of it into the bowl; leave about 1 inch of starter in the jar

3) Start mixing the dough, add water as needed to get a thick, but droopy dough. You don't need to knead at all, I only use a regular spoon to mix it; so if it's too difficult, add a little water. Cover and set on the counter to rise. You’re basically done. At this stage I also add sunflower seeds, walnuts, crushed chili peppers, olives, oregano, and all kinds of stuff, depending on the mood.

4) Add 1 cup of whole wheat to the starter, and add enough water to make it liquidy again. Stir well, cover with a cloth and leave on the counter for a few hours (I leave it out while the dough in the bowl is rising). That's when the starter is eating and getting bigger for next time. After the eating period (= when you put the bread into the oven), put it in the fridge (covered with a cloth, because the starter still needs to breathe). The starter stays in the fridge between breads; you just use it as is, cold and all. If it starts smelling weird, gunks up on the top or whatever, just scrape and discard the gunk, stir the starter, pour most out, feed, and let sit for a few hours to get bubbly again.

                                                                                      

Left - just-mixed starter. Right - starter after a night of eating on the counter. Most of the flour is on top, trapped between gas bubbles from the starter's breathing.

5) Once the dough in the bowl is quite bubbly (2-3 h in the sun in the summer, or ~ 12 h in the cold of the winter), it’s time to bake.

6) Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C, different ovens might be different; slightly change heat / time as needed through experimentation). Oil and flour a bread pan (or a cookie sheet, or a muffin tray). Gently pour the dough in, try to not squish the bubbles too much. Bake for 40 mins or until the crust is golden to your liking.

                              

As muffins or ciabatta-like, this bread seriously rocks.

Let it sit for a few minutes before you cut it. If you can wait, that is :-)

Fresh from this morning

One couple, 2 gardens

Garden 1 - BC
We knew we'd be moving from BC months ago. Therefore, we knew we wouldn't have much of a garden at our current place. Still, I wanted to eat some fresh, home-grown things, so I planned for early-crop vegetables. On the plus side, the garden was all set up, I had seed-starting equipment, and I was eager to get going. On the downside, I really had to stop myself from planting things like tomatoes and such, since they would never make it in time for our move...
We planted early, when most BC dwellers were only ordering seeds or starting to think about wrapping up their skiing season. We used plastic to protect the little guys overnight, and it worked quite well. The peas were flowering as early as May, and we even got a bunch of pods before we left! I was hoping for more, but we didn't continue with the plastic-overnight protection, so plant growth was on the slow side. That said, we've been enjoying fresh arugula, mustard greens, radishes, sorrel, chives, and thyme from the garden for several weeks now, and it's been wonderful. Before we left, another crop of arugula, kale, mustard greens, and radishes were ready, so we were able to them with us on our travels.

Picked about 5 minutes before leaving Castlegar, BC

Garden 2 - NB
On the other side of the continent, the summer is so delayed in comparison to BC, that we actually will be able to pull off an almost-full growing season once we get there in late June. The planting list is fairly short, since 1) we don't know what we're doing, 2) will be busy with the whole building a house thing, 3) won't have 100% of the growing season. What made it on the list are potatoes (late), soldier beans as homage to Josh's grandfather, who grew them on the Kingston peninsula, beats, turnips, greens (arugula, kale, and such), and peas.

Soldier beans

On the cons list, the garden is completely unprepared (= hay field), we won't be able to set up much of an irrigation, the site will be busy with building crews, and we won't have time to start our own seeds. On the pros side, Josh's parents (thank you, thank you, thank you) are buying and starting seed potatoes and beans for us, and will be able to help us to till the garden prior to planting. Side note - yes, we're planning on tilling. Once. After that, we will be using the no-dig approach.

Yay, gardening for everyone!

Moving - what makes it and what doesn't

Josh usually calls me a gypsy, referring to the fact that I've moved a lot throughout my life. By the time I was 10, we have lived in 3 different places (in 2 different countries). I stopped counting how many apartments I have lived in by the time I finished by Master's degree. Every time I moved, whether as a child or as an adult, I had to make a decision of what gets left behind and what comes with me.

It used to be easy, I'm not too attached to most of my things. But house plants have been my downfall. I have collected a fair number in every place I've lived in Canada. Every time I moved town, a few had to be given away, while the "chosen ones" would stay with me. We hauled 2 boxes of plants from NB with us. They were hardy enough to make it through being locked up in a dark trailer for a week in July. Currently, the count at our place is 33 green pets (holy crap, when did that happen??).

My problem is that I also want to take a bunch of tree cuttings with me. What kind? I have access to different apple, plum, walnut, and cherry trees, and a bunch of other goodies. I've been reading about tree propagation, and most trees can be grown from cuttings (yay, cloning made easy!). Since the trailer is a finite space, I will need to make some hard choices (see? I'm already better at this than most of the world's leading economists). Each house plant I keep means one less fruit tree or shrub I can plant (and another $20-30 per cutting we'd have to pay at a nursery). So over the past few (and next few) weeks, there will be a box of plants by the door, waiting to be dropped off at another nice person's home. Hope they treat 'em well...

We're social animals - sense of community

Last weekend, we visited a couple of friends, Thom and Torie Foote at Footehill Farm, near Spokane, Washington. Well, people we only recently met in person and we'd be honored to call them friends. We became Facebook friends a few months ago, over our shared interest in permaculture (and smartassery), but have not met until now. Summary of said weekend: this was one of the best weekends I've ever had. The feeling of meeting welcoming, similar-minded, intelligent people (try not to get too smug, Thom!) was just therapeutic.

Thom secretly enjoying my inability to operate a non-power-steering machine

People's needs for social interaction vary from pure hermit-ism to 100% party animals. We're somewhere in the lower third or maybe up to halfway on the scale. That means that while we appreciate our alone and quiet time, we also cherish positive social interactions, appreciate constructive feedback, and enjoy feeling that we're not alone in this world. At Thom's and Torie's, we learned a pile of new things, talked and argued about garden and orchard design, experienced driving a tractor (weeeee!), had dog therapy provided by Chena, and joined a permaculture group site visit to learn about revitalizing soil.

Personally, over the past few years, I have shifted from the "I don't really need anyone" to my current state of mind. I feel that as we change our focus from consumerism to sustainability, our attitude also changes from "the cult of individualism"  to an interconnected community. I feel that it's important to have people close by that you feel connected with, share interests with, can teach and learn from them, and can help them or rely on them in a case of need. This feeling of community, which was fairly common in smaller villages and towns (think Anne of Green Gables), has weathered out as (I think) cities grew, consumerism thrived, and each millenial bought into the "I'm the best" set of mind.

Our move to NB is going to bring lots of changes. One of those, I hope, will be a creation of a tight(ish) group of friends, neighbours, and over-the-internet-supporters. I would like to believe that there will be potlucks, "barn raising days", evening chats over tea or wine, and a general sense of being part of a positive group of people. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with the friends I left in NB, and getting to know other people with values similar to ours.

Gardening, version 2.0, part 1 of ?

This will be my second gardening year. I'm still the first to admit I know nothing about it, and this will be the case for many, many more years, I'm sure. However, last year I knew even less, and it still worked better than anyone could have expected (left to right: tomatoes, peppers, mustard greens)...

Gardening seems like a never ending learning curve. You never "know everything", and that's great. From my first year of gardening, I learnt that you can plant a lot of the things you buy in a grocery store (like pepper seeds and dill, cilantro, and mustard seeds from the spice aisle). A lot Most of the things I learnt were from making mistakes - the tomato cages were too short, plants needed more water than I realized, carrots take a long time to mature (so don't pull them out when the radishes are ready, Sima), the spaces between rows were too narrow (some of us, cough, Josh, cough, have size 13 shoes), and so on, and so forth...

This second year of my gardening experience has already seen its first errors. I used the rolls from toilet paper rolls as seed starting containers. The idea is actually really good - it lets you replant the starter into the garden without disturbing its roots. In my case, two things happened - 1) I overcrowded the rolls and they got very fungus-y, and 2) I made no bottoms to the rolls I was using (as opposed to this), and the roots simply went on a little tour of their immediate environment. So while the pea starter was about 2 inches tall and the toilet paper roll was about 3 inches tall, the trailing roots hanging outside of the roll were about 8'' long. That's why the peas got kicked outside and are now in the garden, in a makeshift greenhouse...

What did I learn from this? That if you use paper-based starting containers, you don't overcrowd them, and that starting containers need bottoms. Will I use rolls again next year? You bet. I like that it's reusing basically garbage, I much prefer cardboard to the plastic (or peat) seed pots, and I do like the idea of not disturbing the roots.

Another thing that I learnt this year (already, and it's only April!) is that given 10 mins of Internet research, some imagination, and a bit of luck, we're actually pretty good and making stuff ourselves and for free. It may not be a thing of beauty, but there's a chance that it'll actually work... Here's our makeshift tepee for things like peas and cucumbers. Made with sticks (picked up for free) and leftovers of crocheting twine I bought 3 years ago for a macrame project.

And it already has its first inhabitants (cue the extra-rooty peas from 2 paragraphs ago). Look at the cute little things!