Life in Aylmer Quebec

Actually, the title of this post is more of a joke than anything else. I did watch a little bit, but honestly, what a waste of time. One of the few good moments was when Al Gore won for his documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, but I have to admit I’m still pretty skeptical about the whole Hollywood is going green thing. At least the George Bush bashers are no longer targets, they are free to bash away – I must have missed it this year. Have they all forgotten Iraq? Do the Hollywood elite get together every year and decide what topic or theme should be the new in thing at the Oscars this year? Ah, it’s all crap anyway!

I did get my seed order last week, and I am trying to contain myself. It is hard to wait, but I know if I start them too early, I will wind up with leggy tomatoes. If I can just wait a couple more weeks then they’ll be safe. But the weather has been encouraging as well, nice sunny warm days. Is the cold snap over for good? I really hope so. It was getting pretty depressing for a while, too cold to go out much at all. Today Meg and I took Sasha for a walk on the (frozen) Ottawa river, and it was just gorgeous. I think Sasha was getting a little bummed out too, we weren’t going for any long walks because of the cold.

I am going to seed some eggplant soon, they can use a little extra start up time, more so than the tomatoes. And I do want to have my little plant sale this year. I’ve got tons of brugs growing on the dining room table ~ needless to say, we don’t eat in the dining room. Right now it is my growing room. I also plan to do some herbs ~ basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, tarragon ~ and of course lots of annuals for my yard. I say this every year, but this year I want it to look fantastic outside. I’m going to put in the extra work and make it look like I know that I can, with the effort. I have this down in writing now, so I will have to live up to it.

Sarah has proposed to help me with a new website, specifically for gardening and consultation, with plants, seeds and sales thrown in somewhere. I think there is a real market for heirloom and organic gardening, and of course, for my favorite plant, brugs. I’ve seen them at the local nurseries, priced ridiculously high (one was marked $80.00 and it looked horrible), and in some catalogues, again at ridiculous prices. They are still fairly new in Canada, but that doesn’t justify gouging the public. A nice brug – one that is properly named – should have a reasonable price tag. That’s the other thing, they aren’t even named varieties, just white or pink or yellow! I bought one this summer, named “Rose”, and of course when it finally flowered, it was white!!! There is no such variety, after doing some searching. The greenhouse, or grower just called it whatever they wanted to. Bad, bad, bad!!! Very irresponsible of the grower! If they don’t know the variety, they should just label it by color, otherwise it will be passed on with an improper name, and confuse the whole issue even more. Anyway, that’s a whole topic for another day. I’m not claiming to be an expert in this area, but there are certain ethics that even a novice should stick to. And passing a plant off as something it isn’t is just wrong. And with brugs, this is particularly important, as there are experts out there who are growing and propagating specific varieties for specific traits, and when these other so-called named plants are being sold, it starts to mess things up. Anyway, rant over for now. And if I was as clear as mud, I’ll try to explain in more detail some other time. Like everything else, plants are a politically charged arena, which sounds funny I know, but it is true.

So if there are any helpful ideas floating around out there, please leave me a comment.  We need a name, for starters.  Any other thoughts and ideas are more than welcome.

More later.

Well, I am so bad. I just put in my yearly order for veggie seeds, and went way overboard. Didn’t cost very much, but honestly, do I really need to grow six different kinds of tomatoes??? Even if I’ve finally gotten used to eating them, I still don’t like them as much as Todd or Meg. She can inhale a bowl of cherry tomatoes like nobody’s business. So of course one seed pack is cherry type tomatoes, just for her. And paste tomatoes, for canning, and big tomatoes for salsa, and an Iraqi heirloom tomato, for political reasons. (A bright note on the wonderful democracy that is being brought to that country: thanks to big companies like Monsanto and the new complicit Iraqi gov, farmers are being legally denied the right to collect their own seeds, thereby forcing them to buy seeds from the big companies – so called “protected varieties” – hmm, can we say genetically modified?-aaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!) Anyway, don’t get me started on the whole gm thing. As a gardener, and converted proponent of organic growing and eating (yes, Sarah, I’ve come over to the light) I’m disgusted by the whole thing. If I were allowed to have a cow and some chickens in my part of Aylmer, I would. As it is, I’m going to start looking for real farm fresh eggs, and looking into organic beef and bison,. We really are trying to eat healthier. No, I won’t give up my occasional steak, but much more fish and chicken is making up our diets around here now. And we eat salad almost everday at dinner time. (And my cow would be a hormone-free milking cow, who would probably become a family pet, and we would never be able to eat her, she would be buried in our backyard when she finally died!)

I have big plans for the garden this year, apart from the tomatoes. Our own lettuce, eggplants (that’s a new one), leeks, peppers, radishes, carrots, watermelons and cantalopes, cukes and zukes. And my other bad, I ordered all these from an american company. Please, don’t yell yet. This company supplies organic heirloom varieties, they are actually doing a good thing. No hybrids and no gm’s. And they are keeping rare varieties alive, which I believe is very important. Too many old varieties are being forgotten, and actually going extinct. We worry about the animals, we should worry about the plants too. There are a variety of different organizations dedicated to saving these old treasures all over the world, and we should support them. And, the final icing, they were soooooo cheap. Compared to my old Canadian favorite seed suppliers, this place was more than half price, even in American funds. So that’s why I ordered six different tomatoes!! I am usually very anti-US, but sometimes you gotta bend. And I think when you come across an intelligent american, you should encourage that. (I am very snobby about Canadianism, n’est-ce-pas?) I’ll post a link for anyone who might be interested.

Now, as for our newest kitty, she is quite lovely. Jing Mei is fitting in well, very sweet and affectionate, although a bit too quick with her claws, and Anya disagrees with me about her continued presence. But it is cold out, and she seems to know a good thing when it happens. Right now, she is sleeping on our bed, with Tye (my other more permanently adopted stray). She has made herself at home. So as long as it is cold, and I can’t locate her owner, I guess she will be visiting, despite Anya’s objections. And thankfully, Todd is being understanding, and pretty nice about it too. He likes Tye (another guy in the house?), and as long as I don’t try to tame the skunk, I think we’ll be okay about my strays.

The baking is still going strong, new experiments every few days, and I’m having fun. But I’ll have to update on that later. It is getting late, and I have to go to bed. I’m tired, gotta get up early to send Emma to school, drive Todd to work, and take Meg to play group.

My final thought: there is nothing like poking around seed catalogues, on-line or paper, to cheer you up on a very cold winter day. Leads you to dreaming of spring, and flowers and veggies growing in your garden. Dream BIG when it comes to your garden.