Winter Melon May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, acknowledging the long and rich history of Asian Canadians and their contributions to Canada. Vancouver is blessed with a large, diverse, and vibrant Asian community; in fact, 20% of our population is Asian (Chinese, East Indian and Filipino making up most of that percentage). All this […]
Veggies & Edibles
Top 10 Herbs
Over at his Amateur Gardening blog, Stuart Robinson lists the ten must-have herbs from a chef’s perspective. There’s the usual basil, rosemary and oregano, but also lemongrass and even borage (I’ll admit, I never knew what to do with borage. But that’s why I’m not a chef). Stuart, why no parsley? It’s my standby. In […]
Apple time
Apple season is in full swing here in B.C., which brings loads of fresh apples to our farmer’s markets and grocery stores. If you came home with just two or three of the 30,000 lbs of apples that were sold at the UBC Apple Festival, you’re probably going to want to check out All About […]
Eggling
From the Cute-but-impractical File: Egglings (from Japan) look and feel like a real egg, but are made of white porous ceramic. Kids (or adults!) just crack it open, add water and sun… and voila! Basil, thyme or Italian parsley at your fingertips. Plants grow for up to five months in the eggling’s fortified peat mixture, […]
Vegetables that are pretty enough to hold their own
Scarlet Runner Beans An edible landscape, simply put, is one that provides value visually and on the table. There are hundreds of good-looking edible plants that you can easily tuck into your perennial borders, containers, or even as a stand-alone potage. And just think of being able to pick and eat vegetables that you’ve grown […]
I heart edamame
There’s nothing better than a bowl of steamed, lightly-salted edamame (soybeans) with your beer. Why not grow yourself an appetizer? West Coast Seeds, which I love because they’re local (president Mary Ballon and I even went to the same Elementary School, albeit 30 years apart!) sells soybean seeds. West Coast Seeds carries the ‘Early Hakucho’ […]
I feel like paella tonight
Did you have any idea that you could grow your own saffron? Saffron is the dried, bright red stigmas of the flower Crocus sativus, which is a relatively easy-to-grow perennial. According to The Farmer’s Almanac, it grows well in Zones 6 through 9. It lies dormant all summer, then pushes its purple blossoms up through […]
Tomato blight
The last few years I’ve grown tomatoes, they’ve come down with the blight (kind of the tomato equivalent of bubonic plague). What to do? I had dinner with some Italian friends, and we had a rousing discussion of how to prevent/cure tomato blight, which dissolved into conflicting “true stories” involving home remedies and nylon stockings. […]