Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 1:16PM February 14th, the feast of Saint Valentinus, commonly celebrated as Valentines Day, is an international day for romantic gestures. This week the chocolate confectioners, florists, card manufacturers and many others are looking forward to checking their bank balances as we are compelled to purchase gifts that demonstrate our affection. But can we make it this year’s Valentine’s day green?
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 7:36PM I was taking stock this weekend of our supplies in our cold store – jams, marmalades, chutneys, tomato sauce, tomato puree, salsa, root vegetables and winter squash, as well as soups, pies and vegetables in the freezer. We seem to have enough to see us into spring. All of this was picked, processed and preserved or stored at its best having been grown without pesticides. We did pretty well in our garden this year. Of course our own produce cannot meet all of our needs so we have to visit the grocery stores, but we are picky about what we buy. We like to support local growers and have a chance of knowing a little about how the produce is grown, and we buy Canadian where we can – you could call us locavores.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 6:59PM Last week, we showed ‘Fresh’ the movie, a film that encouraged us to think a little more about where our food comes from and how it is produced. The film showed us how food production has got so far from a natural process that it has become a system reliant on artificial inputs, and carefully timed and managed practices, with little resiliency to anything outside of the normal range such as weather, pests and disease.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 9:24AM This article builds on one titled ‘Designing Steinbach’ published in November where we introduced Christopher Alexander’s ‘Pattern language’ on building design. A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging, croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball for the dog. But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all.
Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 2:41PM This week I picked up my first annual supply of grass fed beef. Why am I excited? . . . Dave is joining a growing number of Manitoba producers moving toward grass fed beef.