Table of contents for Spring 2021 in Harrowsmith

AMANDA BULMAN is a chef, writer, filmmaker and standup comic from Prince Edward Island. Her first cookbook will be released sometime this year, but she isn’t allowed to say too much more because there are still some pesky contractual details to be worked out. She lives in colourful St. John’s, Newfoundland, with her husband and a rascally basset hound named Gabby. You can follow her adventures on Instagram at @amandabulman1. 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…

RED SEAL OF APPROVAL I was enjoying a good read of the 2021 Almanac when I came upon the description of false Solomon’s seal (Say What?). I wondered why you didn’t mention that this plant is edible, then I thought you might not be aware of this information. My family has used this plant rather like fresh spinach for many years. It is considered a tonic. It appears early every year and is enjoyed much more than dandelion or fiddleheads, even. It is best picked when it is about 10 inches tall and the first leaves are budding on the stalk. Once the flower appears, it is too late in the season for picking. I just love Harrowsmith’s Almanac and the plethora of useful information and stories. Thank you and…

All gardeners have experienced a troublesome pest. From rabbits eating your lettuce to mosquitoes feasting on your neck, you are bound to encounter pests while outside in your garden. Here is our short list of the most effective controls for select pests. These solutions are, for the most part, no farther away than your kitchen. Mosquitoes Interesting pests, mosquitoes. They love to suck our blood and there are many insectivore birds and other “insectivores” like frogs and toads that like to gobble them up. Fact is, we cannot afford to live without them, as they are a primary food source for so many desirable wildlife. However, keeping them under control around the cottage and home is something that we understand. The Solution • Empty bird baths once a week. Mosquitoes…

Sugar maples yield one of the highest sugar content and sap flows, and that’s why they are everyone’s favourite for tapping, but several other maples, birches, the Juglansnut family, alders, linden, elm, hickory and sycamore trees are also coursing with sweet water in the early spring. Beginner tapping kits are available from online shops or in country hardware stores, and instructional videos are all over the internet. It’s fun and easy: Drill hole, tap in spigot, hang bucket, wait. Remember, you can’t tap a tree trunk with less than an 8-inch diameter, and some trees are potentially toxic, so always do your own research.…

1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cardamom Very clean dandelion roots, dried Scrub roots really well. You can soak the roots in buckets of cold water, but attacking with vigour and a good clean mushroom brush will work well too. Cut the roots into pieces that are about half an inch long; let dry. Preheat oven to 350°F. Roast on a cookie sheet for 4 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. In food processor, grind cooled roots with cinnamon and cardamom. Store in covered jar until needed. To make the coffee, add 2 heaping teaspoons of this mixture to 1 cup of boiling water. Steep for 3 minutes. Strain and serve. Add cream and/or sugar to taste.…

I once read a letter from the saddleback preacher who ministered to the pioneers of our community in the early years of settlement. He complained how difficult it was to give comfort to his isolated parishioners through the long, hard winters because he was so depressed himself most of the time and didn’t want to get out of bed. He helped organize one of the earliest social clubs in our neighbourhood, the Bowmore Debating Club and Literary Society, founded in 1851, as an attempt to divert the young people’s attention away from alcohol and vandalism. The first debate was held in a log cabin, and the topic before the house was “Be it resolved that the cow is superior to the horse.” The debate ended with a fistfight and the…

Canadians are planting native plants in record numbers, for good reason. First, they are low maintenance. Think about it: Native plants existed here before European settlement, and they have evolved through millennia to the specific conditions of our Canadian environment, from hot summer droughts to deep winter freezes, depending on the geographic location. Native plants are nature’s answer. Their inherent low maintenance is part of what makes them the choice for environmentally minded gardeners. Most are perennials, which come back year after year, with little disease pressure and without becoming invasive. If planted in the right place, their water demands should be met by rainfall alone; after they are established, most native plant varieties are exceptionally drought tolerant. Second, native plants play an important part in a natural ecosystem. Consider…

Canadians everywhere love their decks, but traditional deck design leaves a lot to be desired in a way you might not have considered before. Offering no protection from sun and rain, the average deck also does nothing to shield windows and doors from the weather because it has no roof. This is where the old, mostly forgotten idea of a veranda, or covered porch, is worth looking at. I’m a big fan of verandas, mostly because I feel good when I’m standing on one. The practical side of my brain follows along by pointing out all the technical advantages that verandas offer. Windows, doors and siding all last longer when under the protection of a veranda roof. And even the structure itself will outlive a comparable roofless deck because the…

Excerpt adapted with permission from Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes by Shirleyan English and Bonnie Sitter My sister, Helen, and I had heard about the government-sponsored Farmerettes program at school and decided we wanted to take part. It meant we would be away all summer, helping farmers in the Niagara Region harvest their fruit crops. I had completed Grade 9 and my two best friends, Catherine Jefferson and Winnie James, wanted to sign up too. Helen was 2 years older (Grade 11) and several of the girls from grades 10 and 11 signed up as well. It was an all-girls program, since most of the young men were already occupied. My parents were OK with it, especially since we would be there together. I was 16…

1/2 cup to 2/3 cup blanched, chopped nettles 2 heaping tbsp toasted sunflower seeds (pine nuts are traditional, but in this economy that feels like lunacy) 4 garlic cloves Salt 2 tbsp grated Parmesan or aged Cheddar High-quality olive oil (I hate to be a food snob here, but quality olive oil really does taste better) To prepare the nettles, you have to blanch them before processing them, or they will sting you and you will be grumpy. Also, blanching beautifully locks in the colour. I have skipped this step before, and the result is a very unappetizing brown pesto. So, to start, get a huge pot of water boiling and add a handful of salt. Grab the nettles with gloved hands and place them into the pot of boiling…

If you’ve ever entertained the idea of being a Jeopardy! contestant, consider this feature as part of your preparation in the All Things North category. A quick visit to jeopardy.com offers resources like a prep centre and practice tests to evaluate if you are quiz-show-worthy. If you’re biting your nails already, you can also enjoy these northerly tidbits for no good reason other than they’ll make you a more interesting coffee date or dinner guest. North House In Cambridge, Ontario, North House is a slick, solar-powered living lab that generates more energy than it consumes. Situated on the Rare Charitable Research Reserve, the urban land trust and environmental institute focuses on protecting highly sensitive habitats and ecological restoration. North House is the award-winning end product of a University of Waterloo…

North American Native Plant Society Seed-sourced natives are still largely a niche in gardening. The North American Native Plant Society (NANPS) is a great place to start if you are interested in getting involved in this area of horticulture. Worth following online, NANPS hosts excursions, workshops, social events, seed exchanges and plant sales. nanps.org St. Williams Nursery & Ecology Centre There has also been a growing industry of seed-sourced native-plant nurseries in Canada. Located in St. Williams, Ontario, the St. Williams Nursery & Ecology Centre bills itself as a “conservation nursery” that services the wholesale and ecological restoration trade. Established on the site of Canada’s first forestry station and seedling nursery, which dates back to 1908, the nursery picks up where the government left off, and it’s now on the…

Building a Bluebird House If you’ve ever seen an eastern bluebird up close, you’ll understand the attraction of building houses for them. These delicate songbirds have striking blue feathers, unlike any other you’ll see in nature, and they need our help. Bluebird populations have declined to just 17 percent of the levels seen 60 years ago. Effective nesting boxes could turn this situation around, but to make a real difference, we’ll need a lot of bluebird houses. An inexpensive and easy-to-build design can help this plight. Get your kids involved, and you can teach them a little about woodworking and the vanishing eastern bluebird at the same time. I’ve built several with the help of my children. Although you can certainly make a batch of bluebird houses using smooth lumber,…

I grew up in Hudson Heights, a small Quebec town, in a big oxblood-red house, its edges softened by wild grapevines and its foundation surrounded by cedars, ostrich ferns and huge hydrangeas. In late April, masses of tiny blue flowers (Scilla siberica), which I called bluebells, pushed through the receding snow. As I recall, spring took its own sweet time. There seemed to be months of anticipation while the sun grew stronger, icicles melted in rhythmic drip, drip, dripping, and little rivers etched their way through the rotting ice. My mother and I would pull lawn chairs up to the sunniest side of the house onto an ever-widening patch of bare ground and bask there while the hens and ducks — as impatient for spring as we were — pecked…

I write this knowing that we are not alone. The pandemic disrupted everyone’s travel plans, near and far. In 2020, a trip to a local coffee shop became just as risky as visiting Uganda. Malaria and marauding hippos aside, an invisible virus halted everyone in their tracks and travel assumed new forms. My wife and I pouted for a long while that our second leg of hiking the Camino through coastal Portugal had to be folded up for another year, but we began planning a fall exploration of Yukon in a hopeful (naive?) way. As you may have guessed, our Yukon plans fell flat, just like a quiche prematurely pulled out of the oven. Luckily, pandemic or not, we can still research and plan fantasy trips. There’s a lot that…