Hops are an essential ingredient in Canadian beer along with water, barley and yeast, and hop farms are coming back to British Columbia. Hops have been grown in BC since the 1860s when two prominent Victoria brewers, Arthur Bunster and Alfred Elliot decided to stop importing the crop from the United States and instead offered […]
Archive | Agriculture
Agriculture
Fall Fairs
Fall fairs have been a community tradition since the concept of agricultural fairs was brought to Canada by the early British settlers. A familiar refrain for many people in British Columbia at this time of year, is “I’ll see you at the fair”. Fairs have been held throughout the ages and some trace the heritage to […]
Macs are Rolling
When I attended elementary school in Manitoba in the 1950s, our grade 4 or 5 reader was Wide Open Windows (Copp Clark, 1947) and one story we read was “Macs are Rolling‘ by Helen Dickson. My sister and I were fascinated by it then and still talk about it. It was probably of interest to us […]
Growing BC Garlic
This has been a very good year for growing garlic in the North Okanagan – enough moisture but not too much, and a warm spring that encouraged the growth of large bulbs. It’s easy to grow – plant early to mid-October (separate bulbs into cloves), 5 cm. deep and 15 to 20 cm. apart, mulch […]
Armstrong BC – Celery City No More
Image of Celery Fields in Armstrong by C.W. Holliday [PDP03645] courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives In the first part of the twentieth century, the small town of Armstrong in the North Okanagan Valley of British Columbia was known as “Celery City” The celery plant that gave Armstrong this name (Apium graveolens var. […]
BC Cherries
Ready to (sour cherry) crumble? BC cherries are a summer fruit in Canada. In the Southern Hemisphere they are a Christmas fruit, since they ripen in December Down Under. Growing Conditions Cherries can be difficult to grow. They need a sustained cold period for the fruit to develop but not below -20’C.; they hate wetness, […]