St. Patrick's Day came early!

I came out the chicken coop this morning and I found a cute little green pullet egg! What a pleasant surprise! After a long 5 weeks with a sparse collection of eggs, it's nice to add another layer hen to the count. This egg came from a Easter-egger (with a secret mix), I can't wait to she what her sister might lay and what the future holds for their eggs. In the spirit of St. Patrick's day I was blessed with a wee green egg, my lucky little clover! They don't have names yet, so I guess given the date and upcoming holiday, they'll be named "Clover" and "Patty" naturally.

I have two sisters, very similar looking, but I know it was one of them who laid this little gem!

The green egg next to an Icelandic egg!

I can't wait for more eggs! Have a great weekend and an awesome St. Patrick's day, party safely!

Amazing Zea-mayz

Some people like to collect old cars, comic books, baseball cards or what-have-you, but my collection is alive, come to life in the summer. After several years of growing your basic "household name" vegetables, it's fun to start growing the crazy stuff, rare, colourful, heirloom and fun. In more recent seasons I've been attracted to growing lots of corn. Its fairly simple to grow, it thrives in the heat of the summer, drought tolerant and you can even grow it in small spaces; including containers.

Displayed below is an ornamental form of corn, looks great with the flowers and can be a great way to sneak some exciting colour into the edible landscape. Be warned though, when you grow multiple kinds of corn together, the seeds will not be viable as they will have been cross-bred by local pollinators.

Gorgeous Japonica Striped Maize, Bamboo, Zinnia,
Tiger Lilies and Ornamental grass.

Corn or Zea Mayz is one of those basic vegetable crops that you can have lots of fun with once you get good at growing it season after season. There is also something magical and special about the heritage of corn in North America. Native peoples from across the continent from Mexico to the St. Laurence river, including the Aztec people who grew corn up to 80,000 years ago.

In Canada, the Iroquois grew corn after becoming more sedentary and developing agricultural techniques instead of hunting, coining the companion planting method known as "The Tree Sisters". They believed that good weather to grow a good corn crop was a gift from the gods or mother-nature and was sacred in their culture. This strong culture link to corn was mirrored across the southwestern states, like Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and down into Mexico. After centuries of growing corn, many striking varieties of colourful corn have stood the test of time and been passed down.

Iroquoian Corn Husk Doll

This winter I discovered an amazing not for profit seed bank based out of Arizona called Native Seeds. They're mission statement is as follows: Click here to see the mission statement.

I loved this site so much I ordered a few different crops from them this year, and I've got an even longer wishlist for next season. They also have other products and workshops. It's now certainly on my bucket list to attend one of these seed workshops and learn from the passion people down in Patagonia, AZ. From Native Seeds I bought a few types of corn;

Close up of Navajo Robin's Egg Corn, wow!

Mountain Pima Maiz Azul

Navajo Robin's Egg

Tarahumara Rosari

Maricopa

Before finding this site I had already purchased a few "more common" native corns and saved a big pile of "Earthtones Dent Corn" that I grew in the 2013 season.

"Hopi Blue Corn" - The Hopi Indians are from the
Arizona desserts, this corn is bred to withstand drought. 

"Hopi Black" is a close relative to "Hopi Blue".

"Bloody Butcher Corn" - An American Heirloom from Virginia,  a cross-breed between
 local native corns and the settlers white corn.  

"Bloody Butcher" Cobs

"Oaxacan Green Dent Corn" - Grow by the  Zapotec Indians of southern Mexico,
 it was used to make green corn flour tamales.

In April I'll show you my fool-proof corn starting method, it always works. I'll also discuss now to deter pests and everything else you'll need to know about starting and growing your own corn.

It may surprise you but you can actually eat Indian corn. You can grind it into
 flours, or feed it to your chickens, specific corn varieties can be grown
for popping corn and fresh eating (sweet corns). Pictured above is "Seneca Red Walker",
"Hopi Blue", blue corn flour tortillas, and "Mountain Pima Maiz Azul"

"Oaxacan Green" kernels in macro, "Robin's Egg Corn" in a group and the pink cobbed "Hopi Greasy Head" 

Lastly we have "Double Red Sweet" a red sweet corn,
edible after a quick boil or BBQ

New LED Lights & Early Seed Starting

This post is mostly a late winter update on what I've been working on garden-wise. I got a new LED panel from Amazon and I've been doing some tests, and I've given myself the all-good to start some of the super early stuff, like peppers! Ive also been making my plans and organizing my epic tomato seed start.

All my tomatoes laid out, trying to see how many of each do I want, what am I going to start them in, etc.

For testing my LED lights and starting my peppers, I bought 4 mini greenhouses from Dollarama. I'm not a big fan of the peat pellets for early starters, as they can dry up super quick and the roots often outgrow the tiny pellet very quickly, but in terms of checking if my lights work ok, they'll do. * I will say that peat pellets (which can be purchased in organic form) are perfect for plants like beans, corn, peas and other quick to grow seedlings that you might want to organize nicely in a raised bed.

I think I'll use these again later with new pellets for  all my varieties
of corn, peas and sunflowers. I can make a big label for each small greenhouse.

 This year I added two seedling heat mats and so far I've been pleased with my propagation among the peppers using the mats, it seems to be helping, although, I've never not had good germination from my seeds in the past.

Hydro-Farm Seedling Heat Mat - Bought it on Amazon

Ou! So pretty, and boy does this thing throw light in the room.
I can't say its super powerful for seed starting but it seems to do the trick.

Ready to go!

Testing the light using some old seeds, they worked great!

My new pepper seedlings and my newly planted fish pepper seeds.

I took them out from under the LED light for further inspection,
yellowed seedling would indicate a lack of light.

The seedlings are now about 2 weeks old and doing great, the secondary leaves have come on and I run a fan every other day to keep them strong.

Handmade seedling labels!

Here's a neat tip; cut up your old yogurt containers into seedling labels. Why pay $5-$6 dollars for a package of one-time-use labels, when you can make your own for free. Make sure you tapper the end of each so they stick into the soil nicely, and then use a fine-point sharpie to write the name. 

Gardening Aside: Traditional Winter Camping in Algonquin Park

At the end of February I spend a full week traditional camping in the center of Algonquin Park. It had been a few years since I had gone as far as Algonquin to go winter camping, revisiting the park was refreshing and grounding. As a crafts-person, I made a traditional anorak for the trip and I hope to start making my own tent to share with friends. It was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to go again. I'll let the images tell the story.

Boil-up at Redfox Lake 

View of my moccasins 

Stoker point of view

On our way out of Algonquin

Morning circle before the haul out of the park 

Hauling across the lake

View of my sled

Hauling in the forest along the dog-sled trail

Prepping the snowshoes pre-trip 

A little water-colour I did one morning.
"Otter Pond - Algonquin Park"

Panorama of Otter Pond

The Winter Blues....

It's mid-March and yet again the snowy blasts have gnarled their teeth from the north-west and piled us knee deep in the white-stuff. Ugh.

Like most Canadians I have mixed feeling about a long snowy winter. I love to cross-country ski, I like to snowshoe, I enjoy its beauty and cozy feeling it gives you when you get lost in a warm blanket, book, music and cocoa in a chair by the window. I'm also, at the same time, very "done" with winter, I want a thaw, I want to start my maple syrup tapping, I want to start more seedlings. We wont even talk to the farmer in me, who wants this all to disappear behind the jets of an American Airlines one-way flight to California. It's been a great and beautiful winter, so I'm taking some time to reflect on that.

The beauty left in the wake of the ice-storm 

Native grass field by Starskey's Loop, Arkell, ON

Beautiful contrast of fire-red and frozen ice pockets.

Farm fields towards Elora, ON

Ruins and waterways, Rockwood, ON

Swedish Flower Hen - First taste of snow

Frizzled Buff Laced Polish "Pinecone"
gives a shutter and shiver at the first snow. 

Hoar-frost in Guelph, ON

Picking out a Christmas tree at my friend's place.

Cabin in the Kwarthas. A great long weekend-stay.

"Penny" (Black Orpington) lifts her wings to avoid the snow.

The girls deciding to venture out.

As many gardeners and farmers will tell you, they're at the tipping point of insanity with the weather. Veteran growers, like myself, we're done buying seeds, we've got our lists, my have plans, its a matter of waiting. The painful grey-zone, were its too early to start anything, and you're knawing your arm off.

The best part about this lull in the year, is that almost nothing has happened, until I looked back onto my last two months of life to see, plenty had actually happened and will be happening soon!

I finished buying all my seeds! Aside from my seed-potatoes and odd bit here and there, I have all my seeds ready to go! My plant-shopping list is almost complete alongside my planting-guide, raised-bed building schedule and my supply list. After all planning is half the fun to a garden.

Last week I started some peppers and I planted my fish pepper seeds from Trade Wind Fruit, can't wait to share more on this, once they've sprouted. Depending on the last frost date, tomatoes (my glorious tomatoes) will be started very soon, within the next 2-3 weeks.

Maple syrup season is right upon us! I've been working and volunteering with an environmental leadership program for grade 12's, in which the students learn off-campus in Eden Mills, ON at Camp Edgewood. There they have a unit on maple syrup production and have access to a fairly large plot of maple trees to tap. Inspired by this, I'm going to be stealth tapping some trees in my neighborhood, and helping to teach the unit to the grade 12 students.

With the same program I traveled to Algonquin Park for a week as a supervisor. We travel by traditional snowshoe and hauling sled. We sleep in canvas tents with iron wood-stoves. We bring no electricity and all meals, activities and firewood is collected, organized and made by the students. The students also make handmade leather moccasins as footwear for the trip. This winter-trip was certainly a welcome distraction from my garden-wait and a highlight of my winter.

The most special part of all, is that I graduated from this program about 4 years ago, and I was asked to come back and help as a new leader. I feel super lucky to be helping out at my old stomping grounds, and heading the gardening unit in the spring! They have a fairly large greenhouse, which I'll be filling up with tomatoes once school is out.

All-in-all it's been a great winter, but seriously, melt already!