Garlic Harvest Update A 2016 garlic blog post on the BCFH blog came to my mind today when I heard about Northlands Urban Farm‘s garlic harvest night on Wed. August 14, one of a series of urban farm events this summer. (Don’t be jealous, rest of Canada. It’s a calming oasis of greenery right in […]
Archive | Agriculture
Agriculture
BC Sugar and Alberta Sugar Beets
BC Sugar and Alberta Sugar Beets “Sweet “ dreams come true: Recipes you’ll relish is a small 16-page pamphlet. No date or publisher is indicated. The foreword states that the recipes in the booklet were all made with PURE ALBERTA SUGAR (capitals in original) by some of Western Canada’s leading dieticians. Contributors included Hesperia […]
Enjoying Apples
Enjoying Apples It’s apple harvest time in the Okanagan. The orchards are beautiful with ripe apples and the farmers’ markets offer many varieties for sale. I am fascinated by the way apples have been marketed over the years and the traces of attitudes and beliefs that remain today about apples as a result of […]
Three Sisters
A Three Sisters garden is made up of corn, runner beans and squash or pumpkin, traditionally grown by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a sovereign people composed of five (later six) Indigenous nations in Ontario , Quebec and Northern New York. The beans give nitrogen to the soil for corn and pumpkins; the corn stalks support the […]
Laura Rose – Canada’s Dairying Queen
Laura Rose Stephen (1866-1963) was Canada’s Dairying Queen. Until big business took over the Canadian dairying industry she had a profound influence on quality and production of dairy products. She was born at Georgetown, Ontario, daughter of Lawrence Rose, a flour mill owner and had at least one sister and five brothers. The famous “Five […]
Bee Cee Honey
If you grew up in BC you’ll probably recognize the Bee Cee Honey trademark[i]. It was owned by Hodgson Bee Supplied Ltd. located in New Westminister, BC. Established in the late 1940s/early 1950s, the Bee Cee Honey packing plant handled honey from the Peace River District and became a popular recognizable brand throughout the province […]
Physalis
Physalis is the genus name for tomatillos, groundcherries and Chinese lanterns. They look alike, but they are not the same. Tomatillos are like tomatoes; groundcherries are sweet; and Chinese lanterns are poisonous. That’s incentive enough to make sure you can tell one from the other. These three plants are part of one of the greatest […]
Chinese Market Gardening in BC
While many Canadians happily celebrated Canada 150 on 1 July, 2017, Stephen Hume[i] in a Vancouver Sun article reminded us that British Columbia was late to the party and didn’t join Canada until 1871. He mentions that in 1867, “news that a Chinese gardener had driven over from Quesnel with a load of fresh lettuce, […]
How Honeybees Came to BC
The hard work by honeybees to produce honey is critically important to agriculture and food production in Canada and around the world. Right now there is a lot of interest in bees because they pollinate plants that produce fruit, nuts and seeds. Honeybees are the most recognizable bees and they aren’t even native to BC […]
Virus-Free Potatoes
Virus-Free Potatoes Pemberton potatoes are virus-free. The geographic isolation of the Pemberton Valley, one hour north of Whistler, has made it a world-wide source of virus-free seed potatoes that will protect future generations from potato famines such as the Irish Hunger Famine of the 1840s. The blight that destroyed crops overnight and caused at least […]