In The Weeds TV

I'm excited for this show! Forbes is a wonderful wild foods supplier in Ontario who comes to Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers Market weekly. Can't wait to learn more!  Foraging really feels like it transports me to a magical time in the past when I probably didn't know what a banana was because I lived in Canada...
http://intheweedstv.com/

Apple Butter–Step 2

Step 2–Apple BUTTER from the apple sauce!

So my apple sauce looked a bit like this after cooking and I needed to get out all the peel before simmering further.  Apple skin has it's own pectin so apple butter doesn't need it–pretty nifty! But skins, not so tasty when everything else is mush....

I don't have a "food mill" (still not quite sure what that is...) but some makeshift ladle mushing action in a sieve worked pretty efficiently.
I simmered it down with "some" sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger.  My recipes work by dumping and tasting....  Who measures?! Putting the stove on medium heat made the apples bubble like mad and shoot burning hot apple sauce at me...  It wasn't nice....  I eventually figured out how to lift the lid like a shield and stir with a LONG HANDLED SPOON.  In the recipe I found it said kids were great to do the constant stirring. I see how things used to be. Apple butter must have been punishment for not doing their chores! In any case, I didn't stir consistantly, just every once in a while and I didn't have anything stick.  Frankly I simmered in batches, turning the stove of occasionally when I had to go run an errand/have singing practice. I finished cooking it down when if I scooped up a spoonful and tilted the spoon, it didn't drop for a moment.  I'm letting it cool overnight to put in the fridge in the morning to can tomorrow!  Baby steps!

Not Far From The Tree

There is an amazing organization here in the city which gleans a large amount of the available fruit, berries, nuts, and sap from trees and bushes in the city–Not Far From The Tree. They are volunteer run except for a handful of key staff and have an awesome concept: volunteers come and pick after homeowners let NFFTT know their trees are ripe, 1/3 of the fruit picked goes to the homeowner, 1/3 is split amongst the volunteers, and 1/3 is given to the food bank.  

www.notfarfromthetree.org

I went the other day to pick apples and was shocked!  One tree gave us 113 POUNDS of fruit!  And that wasn't even all of it!  I took home a good 25 pounds of apples since the homeowner didn't want any.  Hoping to make apple butter, perhaps a crumble or two, and maybe some chutney… So fun!  And free except for 2 hours of my time… Incredible the bounty that's available in the city!

Plantain Seed Grain

My roommate Alex Baczynsky has been foraging tea around the city and hosting the Red Tent Tea Party in Trinity Bellwoods Park each Sunday evening (www.facebook.com/RedTentTeaParty) This past Sunday she made plantain tea from my garden and I saved the seed spears to dry.

 Along with my island forages (much more impressive than the tiny plantain from my yard) I;m going to dry out the seed and try cooking it like quinoa–apparently it's a close relative! FREE GRAIN?!  Yes please!

http://www.voyageurcountry.com/htmls/floweringplants/plants/plantatain.html

Mulberry Tree!

I had an awesome surprise today when I walked outside and noticed berries staining my front walk.  The tree next to my porch is a mulbery!  Apparently it has never fruited until this year–perhaps it was to young? In any case, they're delicious!  I just need to figure out how to harvest the ones off the tall branches....

Free garlic!

I sang at a fundraiser today, which had some beautiful table displays of young garlic.  I totally grabbed a bunch as they were cleaning up (they wanted to get rid of so much!) and hung it on a banana hanger to dry and enjoy soon. Always check if people are throwing things away after parties–so much waste happens at corporate events!

Lamb's Quarters

Ever since I got back from my friend Derick's farm, I've been seeing Lamb's Quarters everywhere!  They're a great addition to steamed veg, a salad, or an easy, free snack when you're walking down the street.  You will never look at a streetscape the same again!
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2013/05/22/edible-weeds-lambs-quarters-and-orach/

Strawberry Patch!

I'm so excited for this!!!  It was completely unexpected and unplanned.  My friend Derick gave me a whole flat of alpine strawberry seedlings, and I had 6 everbearing plants given to me from various places.  Now i have strawberries, rhubarb, AND raspberries!  What a wonderful fruit bearing surprise!  Next year, I'm totally adding currants to this beautiful perennial garden that developed!

Shared Raspberry Plants

I was at my parents place today and they have a significant raspberry patch in their backyard.  The way raspberries grow, the top of the plant will reach down to the ground and, where it touched, will root itself to spread. My parents usually just throw out these "babies" since they have no more room but I took them this year to start my own patch :)

Take a spade and dig down around the rooted plant in all directions.
Pull up seedling with as much root mass as you can.
Move to it's new location.
Water well in the first few days so that the roots really establish themselves.
New raspberry patch!

Living With Roommates

It's spring and part of the roommate deal for growing food on my kitchen window ledge was that I'd get rid of the clutter of it when I had lots of food growing outside.  I'm headed away for the weekend and have been taking up all the window space with other seedlings so the indoor free food ledge is done for the year.  I'm particularly impressed with the beet tops:

 and the celery:

although the lettuce was also pretty spectacular and beautifully tender.  You really do forget what literally just picked produce tastes like!  Everything is divine!!!  I snuch a bit of a beautiful kale plant that was growing at my community garden plot–SO TENDER AND SWEET!  Yes, KALE.  Tender and sweet–PHEW!  Getting me extremely excited for the upcoming harvest!

On a side note–look at the size of my potato plants!  Wow!! And I only planted them 2 weeks ago!

Bartering–Baby Steps

I'm trying the bartering thing.  In doing all the considering about money that I've been doing, I can't help but consider what things I can barter for.  It's fantastic to do a run down of all the things you have to offer and make a list of all the things you spend money on.  It's nice to categorize the things you spend money on and think if there's any way you can sart spending less money on those things–whether it's exchanging time to get those things for free–who you could ask for some of those things (the internet and social networking is your friend!) or if you can live without.

To start, I'm exchanging planning and starting a friends veg garden for hand drumming lessons–a great skill for when I'm singing, and great for when I'm teaching!

Sites like SwapSity are great for skill and product exchanges.  And never overlook Kijiji or Craigslist if you're looking for things–try to find used before you go new!  I've gotten free haircuts on Craigslist and there are always "Curb Alerts" about things seen on the side of the road.  There really is no need to spend money on new products ALL the time, and you'd be surprised how many skills your friends have....

Composter, Rhubarb, and Chives Delivery!

I got a fantastic delivery from my mum today:
A composter that my parent's neighbours don't use

 A rhubarb plant from my grandma

 Chives from my mum's garden

DON'T BUY THINGS UNTIL YOU ASK AROUND IF ANYONE HAS ANY TO SPARE! SAVE YOUR MONEY!

Free salad

I harvested a lovely baby greens salad from some of my lettuce "garbage"(stumps) that I was regrowing.  Living food in a time where you're waiting for the new growth to flourish is such a gift!  I realize that as the weather starts to turn cool this year, I will definitely begin regrowing from stumps and sprouting again to keep me in living food until next season!  The stumps are being replaced by seedlings lately (I only have so much window legde space, unfortunately)
Of course season extension is going to be tried and root cellar ideas will come out on here sooner or later, but nothing quite beats a living salad in the early spring!

Free Garden Edging

As we were digging out my plot, there were TONS of rocks coming up and being shifted out to the yard. Today I started collecting those and making a free edging for the plot!  Free and cute!

If I can't edge the whole plot with rocks from my own garden, I'll start collecting them in my walks.  It will be a nice habit to start!  The city is beautiful when you keep your eyes open for little treasures :)

Growing from Kitchen Scraps

My beet greens don't seem to be loving this whole re-growing thing....

But the green onions:
Speediest growth yet!

Carrot tops are doing ok too :)

My Little Urban Farm Plot: Before and After

Beauty!!

Pet Beet Greens?

In making my beet preserve the other day, I decided to put my beet tops in some water and see if the greens would grow. I cut the bottom off a mushroom container that my roommates had bought–a perfect shallow dish! We'll see how this goes!

Successful Juicer "Garbage" Wraps

So my second attempt at using my juicer "garbage" (beet, celery, apple, orange) to make a fruit leather turned into a wonderful mistake–I turned it into wraps instead!

For some reason, this time around, all the sweetness disappeared from the leather so it was great with savoury foods.  I think by leaving it in the stove longer (I forgot about it and ended up leaving it a day in the stove) it had longer to dehydrate and all the sweetness disappeared...  Maybe... It was also quite dry so I wouldn't eat it by itself but hummus or guacamole or a bean dip would have also been nice!

It worked much better on parchment paper, where it came off in one whole piece instead of in chunks (as it did off the tin foil). I rolled up the parchment paper to save for next time. Yum!

Low-Impact Living

I heard from my friend Andrew today about an event going on at University of Guelph, Sustainability Week.  He was mentioning that there was a panel on "Low-Impact Living". The phrase sounded totally appropriate and so I did a little looking around and found this fantastic resource on anything and everything Low-Impact!  It is a British site so some of the resources are irrelevant for North Americans (like workshops) but the general information is beneficial nonetheless.
Have a look around! Be inspired!
http://www.lowimpact.org/

Fruit Leather/Crackers

Seeing as my worms were needing a break from feeding, when I made a new batch of juice, I tried to think of another thing to do with the leftovers.  And I remembered my friend erin telling me a recipe for a fruit leather-y type thing.  So here is my attempt: 

I spooned some chia seeds into a small bowl with some water (about 2 tsp of chia with 1/4 cup water) and let it make it's gooey magic (technically, chia is mucilaginous, but you know, ooey gooey works too...) for about 5 minutes:

While the chia goo-ified itself, I spooned the leftovers of my apple, orange, beet and ginger juice onto a tray that I had lined with tin foil:

I then mixed the two together on the tray and flattened it out along the tray, pulling out any seeds or big chunks as I went.

I put in in the oven at the lowest heat (on my oven 200) for about 2.5 hours then left it sit in the oven as it cooled for another hour or two. I peeled the dried fruit off the tin foil an put it in a tupperware to store and munch on over the next few days:

They're somewhat of a cross between a fruit leather and a cracker.  I think they would be pretty tasty with hummus or guacamole or maybe a yoghurt dip too.  Yummy food made from "garbage bits"–fun!