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Trauma Farm x2: Picking up the pieces
Blustery is one word for the weather on Good Friday, much of which I spent at Haliburton Farm. While we were inside potting a few tomatoes, there was a noise, and this turned out to be what it was: the newly built farm stand upending itself on the newly donated greenhouse, which we were to have finished assembling on Saturday.
Friday night’s reader at Planet Earth Poetry was, therefore, most appropriate: Brian Brett read from his poetry and also from his latest memoir, Trauma Farm, about his 20+ years farming on Salt Spring Island.
Saturday arrived and it was time to survey the damage at Haliburton and marshal the many volunteers who answered the call for help. Ray’s beautiful hoop house, recently filled with over 200 hanging baskets of strawberries, was, shall we say, hooped.
The row covers needed to be replaced.
The Terralicious hoop house was put back together.
And many hands helped to dismantle the farmstand, ready to start putting it back together at upcoming work parties.
The children were put to work panning for gold to fund further repairs.
We had lunch – crowded but convivial.
And after shovelling and wheeling a few hundred loads of wood chips, to keep the weeds down between the rows, we called it a day.
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Bill C-474: proposed Seeds Regulation Act
And now, a message from CBAN, which is campaigning for Bill C-474 (Seeds Regulation Act), which aims to protects Canadian farmers who grow crops for our export (and organic) markets, by requiring Canada to perform proper analysis of potential harm before it allows any more GE crops into our fields.
This analysis is not being done at the moment: you may recall that flax contamination badly harmed our exports last year. The matter is urgent because Monsanto aims to introduce GE wheat and alfalfa into our markets, which would cause immeasurable and permanent damage to the purity of our wheat and alfalfa crops, and our ability to export to markets like Europe, which has banned GE products for human consumption. Italy, for example, relies upon Canadian wheat for its pasta industry.
You can listen to the First Reading debate on Deconstructing Dinner’s March 25 episode.
Here’s what CBAN has to say:
Action Alert. Please distribute widely.
Action Alert #3: Take New Action before April 14, 2010!
Support Bill C-474 – before April 14, 2010 – Support Canada’s Farmers! You can stop GE Alfalfa and GE Wheat!
Write an instant letter to Michael Ignatieff, Liberal Party leader from http://cban.ca/liberalact474 and ask him to make sure the Liberals pass the Bill on April 14.
You can also write to your own MP at http://cban.ca/474action
Bill C-474 was voted down but not out on April 1. The Liberals support the Bill in words – but will they support with enough votes on April 14?
Private Members Bill C-474 was debated on March 17, and April 1 with an oral vote. The recorded, official vote will happen on April 14.
Your concrete action could stop genetically engineered (GE) seeds from causing chaos in Canadian farming!
Bill C-474 would require that “an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed is permitted.” The Bill could stop GE alfalfa and GE wheat.
This Bill is critically important because, as we know from experience, the introduction of new genetically engineered (GE) crops can cause economic hardship to farmers. Farmers are at risk when GE crops are commercialized in Canada without also being approved in our major export markets.
Flax farmers in Canada are now paying a heavy price because of this exact problem. Late last year, Canadian flax exports were discovered contaminated with a GE flax that is not approved in Europe or in any of our other export markets (except the U.S.). Flax farmers actually foresaw that GE contamination or even the threat of contamination would close their export markets. That’s why they took steps in 2001 to remove GE flax from the market. Despite this measure, flax farmers were not protected. The GE flax contamination closed our export markets in 2009. It has created market uncertainty and depressed prices. Farmers are also paying for testing and cleanup and may be required to abandon their own farm-saved flax seed and buy certified seed instead. These costs are an unnecessary and preventable burden.
We cannot allow GE seeds to harm our export markets. Please support Bill C-474 and protect Canada’s farmers.
Write an instant letter to Michael Ignatieff, Liberal Party leader before April 14 http://cban.ca/liberalact474
Bill C-474 was introduced by Alex Atamanenko, the NDP Agriculture Critic and MP for British Columbia Southern Interior.
For updates, more info and action options, see http://cban.ca/474 or contact Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network 613 241 2267 ext. 6
This action alert was issued by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) http://cban.ca
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The last Seedy Saturday, and Slow Cheese & Charcuterie
Last Saturday I attended the final Vancouver Island Seedy Saturday of the season, in Duncan. Lots of people wandered through, looking for seeds, seedlings and advice; there was a seed swap table
and a workshop series, as well as a chance for youngsters to hunt for worms in a wee pile of dirt.
But before they entered the hall, visitors could stop to chat with a local forager,
who had a table full of edible weeds, a pot full of burdock & dandelion root tea,
and lots of information and advice on using and eating native greenery, including dead nettle, which is blooming in many a local garden bed just now, and which resembles wheatgrass when juiced, and whose leaves can be eaten.
Meanwhile back inside, some interesting plants on offer..
Lots of familiar faces including Carolyn Herriot with her always remarkable range of Seeds of Victoria – and featuring some fine looking succulents
and Providence Farm, with a mixture of plant starts and produce
some young Metchosin Farmers
and of course Haliburton Farm was represented by some sturdy seedlings
and a fine farmer, Elmarie Roberts of Haliburton’s Sunbird Farm, which grows organic flowers and vegetables.
And then it was Monday again and time to gear up for a Slow Food Cheese & Charcuterie event at Sips Bistro. We began with the charcuterie, which included ham and headcheese from Choux Choux Charcuterie
and also duck prosciutto (one from Oyama Sausage Co. and one from Two Rivers Specialty Meats) and buendnerfleish, one made from beef (Oyama) and the other from muskox (Continental Sausage Co.)
before moving on to the cheese. Here we sampled a couple of soft cheeses – Natural Pastures‘ Comox Brie, followed by Little Qualicum‘s Island Bries. Then on to a couple of washed rind Cowichan Bay hard cheeses, from Hilary’s Cheese, both washed with Cherry Point Blackberry Port: Red Dawn (cow’s milk), and Belle Ann (goat). And finished with Hilary’s blue cheeses, one cow (Cow Bay Blue) and one goat (Valley Blue).
Hilary Abbott himself gave us an excellent talk about the cheeses, cheese making, milk production, blue cheese inoculation techniques and many related matters.
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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.
