Sommaire pour Summer 2021 de Harrowsmith

MARK AND BEN CULLEN Mark is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son, Ben, is a fourth-generation urban gardener and a graduate of the University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @MarkCullen4 (Twitter) and @markcullengardening (Facebook) and look for their latest book, Escape to Reality. ROBERT DICK is one of Canada’s foremost writers and educators on astronomical topics. Harrowsmith has benefitted from Robert’s expertise since its inception. Robert is passionate about reducing light pollution and promoting science literacy. He has been an astronomy instructor for our astronauts, and ensures that our sunrise and sunset charts, stargazing and celestial events information will leave you starstruck. ALICIA FARROW studied photography at George Brown College and has been passionate…

STAYCATION HEAVEN Editor’s note: In our Winter 2020 issue, we asked you to send in your favourite photos of past staycations and your favourite places across Canada. Here’s what you shared. Here is one of our memories of Mabou and Inverness, Cape Breton. We stayed at the Glenora Inn and toured the region in early October. The leaves were just beginning to turn colours. Paula Lessard, Kingsport, Nova Scotia We have lived and worked in an isolated fly-in community in the far, far north of Saskatchewan (Stony Rapids) for 5-plus years. In 2020, we’ve been even more isolated than usual, and this photo is from our only real vacation. We flew down to Saskatoon and then road-tripped to this location, a geodesic dome at Buffalo Pound Lake, Saskatchewan. A true…

Kids are great for bringing our attention to the magic of gardening. For Mark, watching a grandkid eat their first carrot out of the ground never loses its excitement. The crunchiness, the sweetness and, above all, the fact that it came out of the ground is a miracle that should never be lost on grown-ups. The list of miraculous root vegetables is long. They’re a diverse group that store well, grow well in colder months, and are generally high in starches and sugars. Of course, they grow in the ground, creating this mystery about what is going on down there until the day you pull or dig them. True root vegetables are those that grow taproots or tuberous roots. Some common taproot vegetables are carrots, parsnips, beets and radishes, and…

No matter how convenient it becomes to buy and eat prepared foods from the supermarket, this still leaves some of us wanting more. Are you attracted to the idea of stocking up on bulk quantities of wholesome produce at low harvest prices, then enjoying them for months of savings afterward? Are you concerned about food supply and food security? Have you ever dreamed of regularly buying organic heirloom fruits and vegetables from small farmers in the autumn, then using these special foods to enhance your gourmet cooking? These are all reasons people are getting interested in root cellars again. Ever since I wrote The Complete Root Cellar Book back in 2010, people have been asking me the same questions when they learn that root cellars really are an option for…

Between the longtime efforts of P.E.I. chef Michael Smith, all the international buzz around the Fogo Island Inn, and an exciting crop of young chefs embracing and seriously jazzing up what the land and sea has always provided, East Coast cuisine is enjoying a renaissance. Foraging, fishing, hunting, making unique dishes from sea vegetables and all the odd bits such as dulse, caribou moss, cloudberries, cod tongue and seal flipper pie — Canada’s East Coast is a celebration of place and season. And with a long and storied history as a point of first contact for traders, fishers and invaders from many parts of the world, the area’s global influences, perhaps most enduringly from the U.K., can also be found in East Coast cuisine. The classics, or at least the…

When it comes to advances for humankind, our minds can quickly jump to the busier metropolises. And yet it’s the quieter East Coast and Atlantic Canada that can be credited for an incredible share of the inventions we enjoy today. Wood-Based Paper In the 1830s, a teenage Charles Fenerty from Sackville, Nova Scotia, began grinding wood into pulp to make paper after discovering wasps chewing on wood fibre, which turned into a paper-like substance. Most paper, until this discovery, was made from rags. The demand for paper was getting higher, and he produced a quality product from his wood pulp press; however, he unfortunately did not obtain a patent for his invention. In 1987, though, Canada Post issued a stamp in his honour, titling him as the inventor of the…

A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat (Douglas & McIntyre, 2012) In the 1960s, author Farley Mowat was living in a small fishing town called Burgeo, on the southwestern coast of Newfoundland. Mowat was thrilled to discover an 80-ton fin whale that was trapped in a nearby saltwater lagoon, because it finally offered him the chance to study one at close range. He believed that the whale was one of the most magnificent animals in creation. Some local villagers did not agree and blasted the whale with a rifle. They continued to torment the whale by hacking open her back with a motorboat propeller. Mowat appealed urgently to the authorities, including marine biologists, the police and the Canadian press, but unfortunately it was too late for the poor whale.…

For a species that has become habituated to shuttling food around at great distances, the concept of microclimates is seemingly lost on modern humans, as is the immense opportunity it provides for growers. The fact that we need more variety in our diets from local and sustainable sources is even more important in the world today. Microclimates are a big part of the answer! These unique growing areas have maximum relevance to community well-being, profitability and resilience because they offer a local hot spot of edible biodiversity potential in any region by allowing more food plant varieties to survive and thrive. Why We Should Grow Edible Biodiversity Climate is a determining factor of regional agricultural diversity. This can be simplified by understanding the effect of moisture, temperature, and geomorphic and…

Depending on where you live in Canada, it’s often possible to keep root crops in the garden over winter without freezing. If you grow a mulched garden, pile a deep layer of mulch over carrots, beets, potatoes and other root crops during autumn before sub-zero temperatures hit. Piled deep enough, this mulch will insulate the soil and keep it from freezing. Instead of one big harvest in the fall, simply burrow down through the snow, dig out the produce you need, then tuck the mulch back over again. The carrot here was dug in April after winter snows and –25°C lows had gone.…

I was just reading a piece in the New York Times about how people have been fleeing the city in droves this past year to find freedom from the pandemic. The same thing is happening in our neighbourhood, and rural real estate prices have surged as a result. What interested the Times writer was how these “refugees” were discovering how unprepared they were to cope in a house that relies on a well and a septic tank. A country house has a lot of moving parts that can stop moving at any moment, and there is no condo board to call about it. You are on your own. So you start picking up a lot of new skills, usually quite soon after you hire that guy in the truck with…

Canadian gardens are fantastic. We think Canadian gardeners are a creative lot, and every time we travel around our great country, we are reminded of this fact. Often, we see something that inspires, something that grabs our attention, and something that we need to try in our own garden. So, we whip out a phone or camera and snap a photo. Or we use a pen and paper and jot down a few notes. Reminders for later. stories about Anne of Green Gables, and we think they continue to inspire Canadian gardeners today. We recommend a trip to Prince Edward Island any time during the gardening season. You will find horticultural inspiration there and, Mark adds, good golf courses too. If you are unable to get to the Island in person,…

Canadian history was built on the surf and turf of our great land and the labour of those working it, from the earliest people to the present day. A humble but vital part of the journey has been the livestock in barns, in fields, from coast to coast. As a country, Canada is recognized for the development of livestock, worldwide, and for its contribution to development, transportation, the food system and the economy. This is true in the present, but it has also been true throughout our history. We have “made in Canada” breeds that we should be proud of! These are unique animals that have important characteristics of value to the specific environments of our vast country. These animals are a walking history. They have tales to tell! Their…

We had five laying hens last spring and summer. Six, originally, but one of the family dogs ordered takeout from another farm’s henhouse. Our No. 6 became the reparation payment. There were two hens commonly called Browns, two Plymouth Rocks, and a lonely Leghorn who found herself the odd gal out after “the incident.” Each morning, one of the kids would pop across the farmyard in their PJs to gather the eggs. Five hens, five eggs, every day. One of the hens had a talent for dropping double-yoked eggs now and then — nature’s version of a Kinder Egg surprise. The accessibility of natural suspense and instant omelettes every morning was a minor miracle for a family that usually calls Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood home. As with so many stories for…