Increasing Food Security

Winter squash keeps for many weeks in a cool, dry place, like my pantry. We harvested these in October.

A study done in 2010 showed that only about 13% of food dollars Nova Scotians spend end up in the pockets of local producers. The average distance traveled for an item of food here is almost 4000km. Communities suffer social, economic and environmental damage from the externalities of this global food distribution system.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect is how fragile this system is in the event of natural disasters, spikes in energy prices, or climate change. What exactly is the plan if the industrial food distribution system were ever to shut down?

How many of us would be prepared for such an event, even if only temporary?

One can be better prepared with a good set of food production and preservation skills. And since it is more effective to work together in mutual support, it is important for local communities to be more food secure for the benefit of all.

That means supporting local farmers and producers over those thousands of kilometres away. I have nothing against distant farmers, but resilience is greatest in areas with strong local food production and consumption patterns.

Linda and I are a long way from being food self-sufficient, and like most of our neighbours, we rely  on imported foods for part of our diet. If we ever had to fend for ourselves, we might not be the first to die, but longer term survival would be a challenge.

Because of that possible precarious predicament (that makes my stomach growl), we are always changing our eating habits to try to align with a less damaging, more resilient diet. That means fewer bananas (4500 food kilometres), and more squash from our garden (4 meters). Fewer oranges (6300 km), and more garden kale (4 meters).

We bake our squash, then enjoy the stored summer sun in smoothies, soup, and on its own.
The larger seeds are excellent baked. We like ours natural, without oil or salt.

There is always more that can be done. The following are a few suggestions as to what you can do to increase food security in your house and community.

- Grow a garden.

- Support your local farmers’ market.

- Choose local produce when it’s in season at your usual shopping places. Try maintaining a seasonal diet year round, like we used to before fossil fuels and advertising created a desire to have every food available all the time (and damn the consequences).

- Learn and share food preservation techniques, like canning, drying, freezing, pickling, and fermenting. Many community kitchens offer low cost classes.

- Avoid buying produce that has been flown in. Hothouse tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, and asparagus are most frequently shipped by air.

- Encourage businesses and governments to adopt policies favouring locally grown, organic, and sustainably harvested foods that are minimally processed.


That all sounds like a good excuse for a larger garden in 2018, as well as a healthy dose of activism. Not to mention a whole lot of invigorating, life-affirming work in the soil and the kitchen.

As much as possible, food security should start at home, then be supplemented by foods that are as local as possible. Foods eaten will be fresher and more nutritious, and will help reduce the harmful effects of inefficient systems of food trade and distribution.

10 Survival Foods You Can Grow

The iceberg lettuce in my grocery store is 95% water, all of it from California.

Never mind food security, the way our world is going we could slip into food survival at any time. What would I do if one of any number of threats tipped into crisis mode, and the supermarket shelves went empty?

One very real disruption (it is not a threat because it is currently happening) is the ongoing drought in California.

When I lived on the west coast a lot of our food came from California. Now I am 6000 km away on the east coast and guess what? A lot of the fresh food in the stores here is also from California. They are exporting a lot of water in the food I eat.

What if the drought there continues and that food supply no longer exists?

We were not always so dependent on food from far away - our diets were far more local, perhaps even from your own yard. Those are the days to which we are destined to return. And when we do, it will be good again.

“Before the 20th century, the majority of produce consumed in the United States came from small farms that grew a relatively diverse number of crops. Fruit and vegetable production was regional, and varieties were dictated by the climate of those areas.” - California Drought

10 Survival Foods You Can Grow

Potatoes

Kale

Beans

Garlic

Squash

Corn

Carrots

Beets
Tomatoes
Apples

These are only a few examples of foods that can be grown in temperate climates. Many store very well, and a root cellar would be an excellent way of preserving them without having to depend on an external energy source.

So far I am only growing chives. They were left here by the previous occupants. I have some work to do. But it does have to be done whether it is turning new ground, raised beds, or containers.

I think about growing food every time I am in the grocery store and look at all the California water brought here in things like lettuce. California water. Scarce water.

How are you "future-proofing" your food supply?

Simple Gifts: Spring Colour

Fiddleheads splash green along the banks of Pine Brook, a short walk from our new home.

After a bleak winter of black and white (mostly white) it is nice to have a bit of colour creeping back into the local landscape. Fern fronds called fiddleheads are part of that colour, and are excellent evidence of Spring's exuberant pallet.

Fiddleheads are a nutritious wild food that have been eaten in Nova Scotia for hundreds of years. Scientists have discovered that this green delicacy contains omega 3 fatty acids, and more anti-oxidants than blueberries, another wild food that grows here.

The trees in town are greening out, but up here on the ridge the buds are just beginning to break with the green applied sparingly at the moment.

A few more warm, sunny days and 50 shades of green will flush across the valley below, a pen and ink drawing of tree skeletons no more. 

Super Gardens Not Supermarkets

We need more super gardens and less supermarkets. I want my food to come from my yard, not 10,000 kilometres away. I want food in local fields, forests and yards.

Let's barter my potatoes, squash, kale, garlic and grains for your apples, corn, beans and tomatoes.

I can't think of anything more "productive" than nature and growing your own food.

Happiness is a full root cellar and pantry. Security is a group of neighbours helping each other out and enjoying the local bounty of nature together.

What if the supermarket threw a big sale event and no one came?

“Food security is not in the supermarket.”  

“How many of us lobby for green energy or protected lands, but don't engage with the local bounty to lay by for tomorrow's unseasonal reality? That we tend to not even think about this as a foundation for solutions in our food systems shows how quickly we want other people to solve these issues.”  

From: Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World, by Joel Salatin, 

Zen And The Art Of Farming

"Observe nature thoroughly rather than labour thoughtlessly."

Masanobu Fukuoka's 1975 book The One-Straw Revolution  has been described as "Zen And The Art Of Farming". In it the Japanese farmer/philosopher lays out his natural farming manifesto which has influenced many a back-to-the-lander.

Fukuoka links the healing of our planet with the ultimate health of the human spirit - the two will improve together. Getting in touch with nature leads us back to ourselves.

I love how he questions our current notions of work. He thought that doing too much was what was harmful to our planet, and was very much into labouring efficiently.

This farming master was into doing what needed to be done and no more, and called his methods "Do Nothing Farming".

“I do not particularly like the word 'work.' Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world.  

Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, the more wonderful they think it is.  

It would be good to give up that way of thinking and live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life.  

For human beings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but simply doing what needs to be done.” 

My dad said as much in one of his favourite sayings which I grew up hearing often. When things got busy in his job as a teacher he would say, "Never mind all that - just living is a full time activity".

While he taught for 35 years, I never saw my father happier than in retirement when all he needed to do was what needed to be done. And no more.

What's a Walipini?

I want to build one of these for a four season garden.

A walipini is a partially underground greenhouse. They were pioneered about 20 years ago in South America, and were designed to enable families to increase their food security. They are also known as pit greenhouses, and pankar-huyu, depending on where they are being built.

Even in harsh mountainous climates in Bolvia, food can be grown year round in the "place of warmth".

Walipinis gain and hold their heat for free via solar radiation, high thermal mass, and the heat of the earth. When it is up and running, even the micro-organisms in the soil generate much-needed heat.

When there is snow above, under the frost line things are nice and toasty. Six to eight feet underground is a constant balmy 13 degrees Celsius (55 F) from the heat of the earth alone.

A small walipini can be dug by two people over two days, with the roof and covering taking another 2 or more, depending on how elaborate a structure is built. Underground greenhouses can vary from low tech and low cost, to fairly high-tech and pricier.

Either way you go, this is a method that can extend the growing season and therefore our food security and self-reliance. Even in the far north. Or far south.

One forward thinking group planning a self-sustaining community is going over the top in walipinis. Their designs maximize the efficiency and simplicity of these structures, and make them large enough for community-scale production.

The group is also developing aquapinis which are walipinis incorporating aquaponics. This form of food production combines the raising of fish (aquaculture) and plants (hydroponics), as practiced by the Aztecs and others throughout history.

See the designs and overall plans for community food self-sufficiency using walipinis here. For a more basic design, see here.

Now that you know what a walipini is, the only question remaining would be, "When do you want to build one?"

Walipini cross section.

Winter Gardening Monday

Our first winter garden of kale and swiss chard.

I love biking to our garden to harvest greens all through the winter. Living in Canada, I feel distinctly privileged to be able to do so. And while it doesn't increase our 'food security' by much (we would starve if we had to rely on it), it does allow us to grow at least a bit throughout the year.

For most of my life I lived in a growing zone more suited to snow people and skiing than to gardeners. I am talking where the season begins in late May if you are lucky, and ends in September. Or earlier.

Everything in between was frozen ground, snow, ice, and a noticeable lack of anything green. That is why I am enjoying winter gardening now that I live in the country's  mildest climate on the west coast.

No strawberries
till spring.

Extending our garden through the winter is something we are just beginning to explore. Like most Canadians, we didn't even think it was possible until fairly recently when it was promoted in our community garden.


This winter we are taking baby steps and are starting with kale and chard, and are learning that there are  benefits to gardening this time of year. First of all, there are no pests, weeds don't grow, and you don't have to water. Actually, there is not much to do at all except harvest and enjoy.



The trade-off is that things grow slowly, depending on the weather. This winter has been mild so far, and we have been harvesting greens regularly since the spring, although less as winter deepens.

Fresh winter chard.

While the number of things that can be grown during winter on the Pacific is reduced, there is still a pretty impressive list for off-season green thumbs. A simple green house or cold frame can expand the possibilities.

Perennials coming
up already.

The coastal gardener can choose from parsnips, beets, turnips, leeks and carrots, that will grow through the fall and into December. Then there are winter greens like kale, spinach, chard, arugula and broadleaf cress, as well as cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli that will grow through to spring.


A winter garden can keep our bodies and spirits well through the dark cold days as we wait for warmer weather and a full garden.

Fresh kale for a green smoothy.

An Afternoon In The Garden

Community Food

My mom Margaret, and my sister's daughter Kayli came to visit us from the mainland for a few days. Yesterday we took them to see the community garden, and ended up staying and exploring for several hours.

Before we reluctantly departed, we all agreed that it is a magical place.

The garden is more like a park where food grows.

We found ripe strawberries... and ate some of them.Yum!

We looked at all the flowers, and Kayli took photos. Lots of great photos.

I did some gardening in our 4X8 raised bed. Half is in strawberries, the other half
currently has chard, kale, beans, potatoes, and sunflowers.

We visited the pond and watched tadpoles and bugs.

Then it was time for lunch. We sat, relaxed, and enjoyed each others company.
Linda is under the hat, Kayli is with her, and my hungry mom is in the background.

Next time we will make pizza in the cob oven.

A bald eagle came to visit before we finished lunch (look up, way up).

Before the eagle left she flew over the garden, and us.

After a great day we returned to our home, sweet, home on the beach. 

It is fun to have visitors and share our simple life with them.

Free Food Friday

Free food - organic bounty from our community garden's mid-summer harvest 

This is the first year Linda and I have had a raised bed plot at our community garden. It is transforming our gardening knowledge, and the way we eat. It is also increasing our opportunities to meet more of our neighbours, and share ideas while increasing our food security.

After a stretch of sunny, hot weather on the coast, summer vegetables are being harvested by the bagful. We are learning more about planting now for our 'winter garden'. That's right - winter garden. In Canada this is a rare and special thing. We have never experienced it before.

Southern Vancouver Island enjoys a Mediterranean climate, so gardeners can choose from vegetables that can handle a light frost. Brussel sprouts, chard, kale, beets, greens, cabbage, carrots, and leeks are all being planted now for winter harvest. No way! But wait, it gets better.

A winter garden is low maintenance - no watering, no weeds, no bugs. Also, growth slows down, so it is gardening in slow motion. Perfect for the dark days of semi-hibernation ahead.

After surviving decades of sub-zero temperatures on the prairies, where the soil, and everything else, freezes to a depth of several centimeters, continuing to grow food through the winter will be a new experience.

I have to give a shout out to the fine folks at Sooke CHI that organized and manage the best community garden we have ever seen. With their help we are increasing our food security, enjoying the therapeutic benefits of growing our own food, and having a lot of fun too.

Sooke Community Health Initiative Goals

• To grow and provide food and food growing opportunities to support the hungry in the community by establishing, operating and maintaining community gardens and food recovery programs
• To educate the community about the need for and importance of local food production through workshops, seminars, community consultation, training, collaboration and mentoring
• To educate the public on agriculture and farming

How are you increasing your food security?

Berry Rich Monday

Freshly picked strawberries

I feel rich today. Berry, rich, that is, and I think that is the very best kind.

American first nations warned that, “only when the last tree has died, and the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realize we cannot eat money".

Although we may have heard this Cree saying many times, we still worry more about the money supply than the food supply.

Our food supply chain is dependent on cheap fossil fuels, and stable, good weather. Both are looking like a thing of the past.

If something happened to disrupt this fragile arrangement, it wouldn't matter how much money you had - if the grocery store had no food, no amount of cash could change that.

Food security is one reason Linda and I joined our community garden. Our accessible, raised bed plot is small (4X4), but productive. We are growing chard, potatoes, leeks, tomatoes, and strawberries. Lots of yummy, yummy (late) strawberries.

We have had a gloomy start to our summer on the west coast of Canada, so it wasn't until yesterday that I harvested our first crop of red, juicy-sweet berries.

While my fellow citizens were celebrating our national holiday, Linda and I were celebrating Strawberry Day. The fireworks were on our taste buds.

Better to have home grown, organic berries in the garden (or stomach) than money in the bank.

Swiss Chard - Wonder Food

Swiss chard belongs in every garden

Swiss chard is a wonder food, and has been a staple of gardens around the world for centuries. It is considered to be one of the healthiest vegetables around. How is it, then, that I have never eaten chard until harvesting some from my new garden allotment this spring?

I could see instantly at my garden that chard is a force of nature. Our plot was previously tended, so it was full of life when we got it, and there has been little to do except weed, water, and enjoy harvesting fresh food.

Most of the bed is in strawberries, which we will make into jam. But dominating a corner of our small raised bed is a steroidal Swiss chard that towers over everything else. It scared me at first.

A little research told me that chard is known by many, many other names. I wondered how it could actually be good with so many aliases - it was obviously trying to hide something.

Our towering plant of large leaves is known as White swiss chard, Spinach chard, or Silverbeet. But the name that convinced me of its value was 'sea kale', which is fitting as the community garden allotments are on land just a couple of kilometers from the ocean.

Sea kale, or swiss chard, is an annual plant that grows vigorously between June and November. Leaves can be continually harvested during the growing season.

Swiss Chard: Super Food

• Swiss chard, like spinach, has many phytonutrients that have disease prevention properties.
• Chard is an excellent source of anti-oxidant vitamin, vitamin-C. Its leaves provide about 33% of daily recommended levels per 100 g.
• Chard is one of the excellent vegetable sources for vitamin-K; 100 g provides about 700% of daily recommended intake.
• It is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids; vitamin-A, flavonoids anti-oxidants, and B-complex group of vitamins.
• It is also a rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus.

I have gone from never having tried chard to putting it in everything. It's that good.

This versatile, easy to grow food can be used in an infinite variety of dishes, but these are a few I have tried already:

• steamed and served with butter and vinegar (or lemon juice)
• replaced spinach in a veggie lasagna
• in the filling for enchiladas
• as a pizza topping
• replaced bok choy in noodle soup

Chard is easy to grow from seed, and can be grown in containers. With care, a plant can provide dark, green leafy goodness for years.

Consider it a low maintenance, highly productive plant in the garden or container that can provide as much good stuff as expensive pill supplements.

Sea kale is nature's supplement factory, converting soil into things every healthy body needs!

Happy summer solstice, and happy gardening.

Community Gardening

 My community garden - Community food is good food

This year our gardening extends past the patio container garden as we add 16 square feet of life-giving soil in a raised-bed plot at our local community garden. I stopped by today to see our allotment for the first time. I liked what I saw.

Box C is our accessible bit of soil

I was expecting bare soil, but because this is not a new garden it already has abundant growth in it. Strawberries, green onions and kale - just add water, and eat.

Gardens feed the stomach and the soul

I have loved gardens since roaming my grandparent's fecund prairie garden as a little guy. A garden is a excellent place to relax and recharge - they can provide all the nourishment we need.

A nice place to sit and watch things grow

I am excited about being part of our community garden, because it is not just about the food. It is about being outside, meeting other gardeners, and joining together to take actions that improve our community's resilience.

Happy spring, and happy gardening.