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Nettles to Earth Day
It’s been a busy busy week!
Seven days ago, I started off up a murky old Malahat
to spend the day taking tickets at lovely Fairburn Farm,
home of Vancouver Island’s famous herd of water buffalo,
where Mara Jernigan
and her team presided over a Stinging Nettle Festival.
Farmer John Ehrlich, of Alderlea Farm, talked about the biodynamic farming uses
while Katy Ehrlich talked about medicinal and nutritional aspects of stinging nettles.
Mara gave a demonstration on the making of nettle spanakopita.
Nettle tea was on offer
You could have nettle pesto (and extremely local buffalo mozzarella) on your pizza
or a flowery bowl of nettle soup
or a piece of nettle tart
and end, if you wished, on a piece of rhubarb tart.
Much of the rest of the week was taken up with food preparation and planning for a one-off catering event. On Thursday, Dayle and I celebrated Earth Day and the new municipal cosmetic pesticide ban by providing a pesticide-free lunch to 100 people at Saanich City Hall. We had musical accompaniment
and a good-ish crowd who milled and ate over the lunch hour, checking out the pesticide alternatives information and talking to stall-holders like Glendale Gardens. I was very happy to be able to give a resounding NO to the person who came by to ask if the food being served would be hamburgers?
With the help of Dayle’s versatile farmer Jordan, we served cauliflower-lime soup with cumin,
Michell’s farm hubbard squash soup with ginger and tamarind; accompanied by Wildfire croutons,
raw almond-carrot pâté wraps (wrapped in kale, collard or chard leaves)
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How it went in Parliament: C-311 & C-474 passed!
Well. The outcome of yesterday’s votes on bill C-474: proposed Seeds Regulation Act and bill C-311: Climate Change Accountability Act were both excellent, from a citizen’s point of view: for C-474 the vote passed 153 to 134, and C-311 passed 155-137.
Discussion and voting records for both are in the Hansard, which I encourage all interested souls to read: there is so much said and so little reported on matters which affect all of us.
For bill C-474, here’s another place to look to see how your MP voted, so you can drop them a line of thanks or supply them with more improving reading, as the case may warrant. As you will note, a great many (but not all!!) of the Conservatives do not really seem to have a clear grasp of the ramifications of GMO products on international trade, and I hope you will all make sure you explain it to them, loudly. Because you can be very certain the biotech companies will be whispering in their other ear.
Passing this motion means the bill is going to committee for further study and amendments. The Standing Committee Members on Agriculture and Agri-Food will be deliberating the matter further. If your MP is on this committee and voted against the bill, they would benefit from an extra helping of information from you, as there will be strong lobbying coming from the opponents of this bill: they have a lot of money riding on it (we have only our health and future).
Likewise, your MP will benefit from knowing more about your opionions on the Climate Change Accountability Act, and what more you would like to see done in the way of a plan for Canada to meet its climate change obligations. C-311 sets and enforces national emission targets, but it leaves the preparation of plans to meet those targets to the Minister of the Environment. If Mr Harper’s government does not hear from us, they can go on saying that they are acting in all our interests. Which just isn’t so…
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Water water water
For those who haven’t turned off the tap on bottled water, here’s the always entertaining Annie Leonard to show us the craziness:
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
