Though the garden season is just beginning, it’s time to bring Garden, Farming and Food month at KIRBC to a close, and what better way to do it with a little music?
At the risk of getting too sentimental on you, I’ve decided to share a song my musician boyfriend wrote about my garden. Have a listen, not just because it makes me a bit teary, but because I think he captures the gardener’s frame of mind, connection with the land, and the passage of the seasons so beautifully. So here it is, “Albany Botanical,” written and performed by Jordan Venn:
Want more Jordan Venn? You can get a taste of his rock ‘n’ roll on his website and at fine music venues around Toronto as Jordan Venn and the Slizneys.
But what of other garden tunes? In my interview with garden guru Gayla Trail, she pointed me to her list of gardening songs, which you should definitely check out. I’ve made my own preliminary list on Grooveshark, which you can listen to below! Probably you saw the abundance of Sarah Harmer coming, but what can I say, the lady gets it. The list opens [...]
I’m winding down Garden, Farming and Food month with my second-last post, this one the sequel to my earlier round-up of the titles you’ll find on the GFF section of my bookshelf. If these descriptions whet your appetite, all title links will lead you back to a more in-depth review and clicking on the title images will bring you back to the publisher’s catalogue page.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
I opened the month with this essential local food memoir by critically acclaimed novelist Kingsolver (with contributions from her husband and daughter). While most people don’t have the freedom or resources of Kingsolver, the life she chooses to live is still something to aspire to, if only in part, and her research and well-reasoned opinions provide much food for thought. I’d still promote Trauma Farm as my locovore/farming gateway drug of choice, but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle also provides a valuable starting point.
Good Food For All: Seasonal Recipes from a Community Garden
This is undoubtedly my favourite cookbook. It is published by (and supports) The Stop, a Toronto community food center that advocates for healthy food as a basic human right. Its two locations support an incredible program that focuses on [...]
By JK, on April 26th, 2012 The back cover of The Backyard Homestead claims you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of pork for a quarter of an acre of land. Whether this is an and/or situation is unclear (an “and” situation seems impossible), but the philosophy of getting the maximum yield from a small space is the guiding principle of the book itself, which is practically bursting at the seams with information.
It’s almost overwhelming, actually. While books like The City Homesteader allowed me to cruise through and get a general idea for things, this book goes even deeper, covering more categories and breaking things down in more detail. Sometimes that’s still not enough: I wouldn’t want to start canning or keep bees relying on this book alone (in fact, the author takes care to tell you you shouldn’t), but you get a pretty realistic picture of what might be involved.
Since I don’t know a lot about wine making or animal husbandry, I always use the gardening sections as the yardstick for the book. In this case, you get enough detail to grow your veg relying on this book [...]
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