my skillset and experiences

I have a wide range of experiences. I was born and raised on a mixed farm in Manitoba. I hand milked cows for 14 years. Picking stones and baling hay were the usual summer holiday fun. I often drove tractors and other farm equipment. We had cattle, pigs, chickens, and sometimes turkeys, geese or ducks. I was the oldest of six children and often babysat, both at home and for neighbours. We had a riding horse and an old workhorse who was "retired'. I was lucky enough to be able to "break" in the riding horse. Actually there were times I was the one who felt much more broken :D We grew most of our own food and I learned to cook, bake bread and can veggies and preserves. We butchered our own meat and I helped in all parts of the process.

I've had various and sundry customer service jobs, from being a waiter to bar tending, to managing a fast food restaurant. I was on the road for 6 years taking children's pictures, and enjoyed it immensely. I worked in the seafood section of Regina's first superstore- when there was still customer contact. Luck also got me jobs cooking in a couple of upscale restaurants.

In my late 20's and early 30's I farmed in the dry area of Saskatchewan for 3 1/2 years organically with some irrigation. I learned how to repair most makes of non-computerised engines, as well as farm equipment. {Thank the gods for Chilton repair manuals}. We raised lambs, goats, chickens and turkeys. I was the butcher, and slaughterer. This is not a joyous experience, but if I'm going to eat meat I need to be responsible about it. I try to do it as respectfully and humanely as possible. I also had a stint working in the Co-op meat department. Farming teaches one independence and self reliance.

When the relationship broke down, I moved back to Winnipeg. There I joined home care as a home support worker[basic cooking and cleaning]. After a year I got my home care attendant [personal care-diapering, toileting, and bathing] certificate, and worked as one for 18 years. Home care workers are termed casual in Manitoba. This means that one week you can be working 50 hours and 3 hours in the next week and for weeks thereafter. Therefor I took other casual and part-time jobs on the side. I worked for community respite with multiply disabled children and adults. I escorted a quadriplegic gentleman to Hawaii. Luther home gave me a job as a health care aide in the nursing home. I designed and maintained gardens organically for others and myself. I also volunteered for a while at the Kali Shiva organisation. We assisted people living with and dying of HIV. It was very rewarding, but because I also worked with many dying clients in my jobs it was emotionally difficult.

After resigning I got to design and mentor community Gardens. I designed and implemented some prairie plantings. Best of all, I mentored many children's garden groups. It was totally soul satisfying to introduce them to great organic foods they'd grown themselves. We introduced them to the spirituality and peace of nature. Children who were overexcited and aggressive would become loving and peaceful after a couple of hours gardening. Most of them were disadvantaged, and came from troubled homes. Some of them were fire starters, or acted out in other ways. The garden seemed to ground and reassure them of their value. The group leaders were also great at giving loving respectful boundaries, and modelling beneficial behaviors.

I also worked as a jack of all trades for some people who couldn't do some of the heavy work in their yards. I hauled stuff to the dumpster, moved rocks, cleared scrub and garbage and much more.

While in North End Winnipeg I volunteered at the local community centre. We had a free skate program, where I got to show newbies how to skate. I was amazed at how little I fell after not skating for over 20 years. It was great fun to play tag and watch children who couldn't skate catch up. I got to be Santa for the Christmas gathering. Working to fix the community gardens was also rewarding in an impoverished and under loved community.
For more on the gardening, permaculture and other aspects check out the rest of the postings in this blog.

here I am on denman Island

This is going to be cool. rain Forest,s function much faster than prairie gardens. The sheer amount of biomatter created and composted in any given year is mindboggling. WOW.
The variety is also amazing. Birds, trees, vines, shrubs, creepers, groundcovers, perennials, biennials and annuals abound everywhere. Blackberries are a "weed" and tend to exact a toll in blood. I picked raspberries and blackberries today. Nibbled on some hawthorn berries for my heart. yes, my heart is fine... and I want it to stay that way. had apple pie from apples from neighbours trees today. This island is amazingly abundant, but because of that we must be careful to maintain the healthy balance. most islanders seem committed to that.

New seeds are in, some of very limited amounts.. order early

• flat leaf parsley - petroselinum crispum- I got the original seed for this from a neighbour in North End winnipeg. It reliably self seeds here. Sun/ part shade
  
• Large White Poppy - Papaver somniferum- Large White flowers, extra-large seedpods for crafts, white poppy seeds for baking. full sun
• Wine red poppy - Papaver somniferum- Deep burgundy single flowers that seem to glow, black edible seeds for baking. Full sun
• Double red poppy -Papaver somniferum- peony flowered orange red blooms, edible black seeds, smaller seed pods for crafts. full sun
• Lovage - levisticum officinale- 6-7ft tall perennial herb with a VERY stong celery-like flavour and look. Use in soups, salads and stews. Seeds, leaves and stalks are all edible. This plant is diuretic[ removes liquids from the body]. full sun/ part shade
• Black valentine Bean - heirloom introduced 1897, bush, 50-55 days for snap[green] beans or let mature for pretty black dry beans for baking. productive. Full sun
• Jessy's Family Bean - check out the desciption for this in the heritage harvest seed catalogue online. It's a local Manitoba company that produces organically raised heirloom seeds. This bean is a type of sulphur bean. They cook down to a "gravy" or "dahl". This is a rare heirloom from southern manitoba. 100 days to maturity. seeds are large and kinda yellow/khaki-ish coloured. bush plants. full sun. Very limited Quantity
  
• Red peanut bean - bush plants with pink maturing pods- very pretty. 85 days for dry beans. seeds look like small peanuts
• Purple podded capucijners pea - heirloom pre-1800. This is an amazing plant. this year they bloomed till mid august. flowers are purple-pink, pods are purple[rogue offtypes if you're saving your own seed] and edible while still flat, they can be eaten as very sweet green peas, or left to mature for dry soup peas. Very productive. I would grow this plant even if it only had it's ornamental and nitrogen fixing values. 5-6ft vines need support- twiggy branches work fine. full sun
• gold ball feverfew - Tanacetum parthenium [chrysanthemum parthenium]- One foot tall ornamental herb with small golden ball shaped flowers[like a daisy without the white petals]. some varieties have the petals and some are doubles- this is the one the herb seed company sold me 2 years ago. self seeding perennial. medicinal for migraines and headaches. Placing 3-5 fresh leaves between sliced bread is supposed to help a migraine. Leaves are bitter. full sun/ part shade
• Salad burnett - sanguisorba minor[poterium sanguisorba]- ornamental edible herb to 1ft, pretty leaves are edible in salads when young, and supposedly tastes like cukes-tasteless and tough when older- has an unusual flower head with tiny red flowers on a green ball. perennial[ I suffered some losses last winter- hopefully that means these seedlings will be a bit tougher] full sun/part shade
• Sorrell- Rumex acetosa- self seeding perennial for sun or shade, has large edible "sour" or "lemony" leaves used for soups or salads. Contains oxalic acid, so should be eaten in moderation[spinach, rhubarb, oxalis and other edibles also contain this]
• Lettuce - This is a self seeding variety that I've had for 3 years growing in semi-shade[ produces leaves poorly there]. It's a looseleaf type with reddish brown speckles. plant full sun for better production. Very Limited Quantity
• Elecampane- Inula helenium- 7 ft. tall ornamental perennial herb with large shaggy yellow ray daisies- flowers and 2nd year roots are medicinal for digestive tract, respiratory tract, and as a mood elevator. self seeds but is easy to pull and first year roots have been eaten as a vegetable. be prepared for the bitter taste. You can harvest the second year strap roots without harming the crown which will re-grow
• Wild cucmber vine- Not edible- self seeding canadian native annual selfseeding vine with fluffy small white flowers and spiny cucmber-ish fruit- makes a nice place for the birds to hide when climbing a chainlink fence- due to difficulty in harvesting a volume there are only a dozen seeds in a pkt- Must be seeded in fall or winter in order to germinate- planted my first seeds in spring of 07, got plants from those seeds in spring of 08. seedlings are easy to pull where you don't want them and only seem to germinate for about a month in spring- you don't have to keep weeding for them all summer. http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=1
• jerusalem artichoke - native perennial, spreading from the roots, sunflower relative with edible small potatolike roots. The starch in them is inulin, good for diabetics. Some people get bad gas from them.. maybe one needs to slowly introduce them to the diet. Tubers must be planted in fall or spring and do not keep once dug for more than a week. If you want these you'll need to come to the permaculture. 1$ per root
• Cosmos - cosmos bipinnattus- Pretty self seeding annual with, usually, pink, red or white daisies and ferny foliage. What came up in my yard this year were almost all pink ones. I tried to include seed from all 3 colours, but the strain may be breeding towards pinks. These flowers are wonderful insect attractants for all kinds of winged critters. They also are a great late fall seed source for the birds. These will grow in shade but mine there are much smaller plants and flowers. This plant prefers poor soil, and makes Large plants with few flowers in very rich soil.
  

You can buy these seeds and all my stuff from Cloaked Realm- a winnipeg home based pagan emporium- at 381 Agnes street in west end winnipeg , http://www.witchyware.blogspot.com/
open sundays from noon to 4p.m.[ check the website for any changes]if you wish to purchase from here, please send me an email @ pan_kisst@yahoo.com
don't send money till I confirm your order.
seeds are $2.00 per pkt of somewhere from 20seeds to thousands of seeds per pkt depending on seed size and availability
There are still more seeds to harvest and process, and many of last years seeds are still available and viable.
There were a few kinds of last years seeds that didn't germinate. I have removed them and will happily refund money for dead seeds or replace them with something else.
I will be making salves this week, and hopefully have them to cloaked realm by this weekend.
This years salves will be Gardeners hand balm, Comfrey, heat n heal, and.. a new one I'm calling bug juice- it'll be a lotion that will hopefully reduce the amount of mosquitoes landing... and biting :D.

Sallett.. what is it?

at the farmers market this year I sold a gentled version of a sallett. Sallett were served in medieval europe and were predecessors to our tasteless iceberg salads.
Almost any veggie thats edible raw was used in salletts. Medieval ideas of veggies were more relaxed than ours. so these salletts included things like lambs quarters, redroot pigweed, dandelion, portulaca[the "weed" not the flower], good king henry, chickweed, lettuce, chard, spinach, mustard greens, nastursiums and leaves, hollyhock flowers, sweet dames rocket leaves and flowers, mints, parsley, sage, savoury, thyme, lemon balm, borage, onion, garlic, leeks, arugula and more.
For myself I create a version of these salletts, and include full handfuls of herbs like parsley, mint, etc. I find that very simple dressings work best.. E V olive oil, sea salt, and a splash of [real organic] lemon juice.
The flavours combine into a beautifully fresh taste with hints of each flavour. I loove thm, and they are chock full of nutrients, as opposed to those things you get prepacked in the plastic bags at safeway.

the last prescheduled garden class

This thursday, sept 17th will be the last regularly scheduled garden class. It will be on seed saving.. the hows, whys and whens thereof. I will be holding a few classes next month on special topics depending on what people ask for. They can also be held on other days than a thursday.
possible topics include- herbal salves, beeswax candle making, preservation of veggies[i.e. a canning, freezing or drying workshop], getting the garden ready for winter, and more. please ask if you have anything you need to learn.

new products coming in

I lucked into a large bunch of beeswax sheets and candle moulds and have been making tapers like crazy. They come in different sizes and colours. I can also make candles to order, just contact me thru email or by phone- 942-4653.
some seeds are also coming in now- cosmos, joe pye weed, canada goldenrod, edible chrysanthemum, dbl red poppy, single large headed white poppy, single wine red poppy[very few pkts.], sorrell[rumex species], salsify[oyster plant][trapopogon species], and more.
The medicinal herbs and the spiritual ones are ready for harvest or are being harvested.
this is a partial list of whats available- elecampane, wormwood, Hyssop[the biblical herb], anise hyssop, mints, sage, thymes, savoury, sweet cicely, dandelion roots, plantain, verbena hastata, marshmallow, comfrey, feverfew, bee balm, catnip, oregano, and much much more.
If you are in the market for a particular herb please call me, or drop by the garden and we can go herb hunting :D

eating what is produced

As a culture we have decided that it's ok to transport most of our food tremendous distances, and to demand out of season produce.
This year, in winnipeg, if we ate what was produced[ because of the weather], what we'd be eating would be mostly greens[both salad and cooking].
The fruit vegetables- tomatoes, peppers, cukes, squash, etc.- are just starting to come in. As is the corn.
Many things germinated poorly, or extremely late. The slugs loved the cool and damp, and ate as much as they could.
what came well, was garlic, onions, beets, lettuces, greens, cabbage family, peas[ absolutely amazing this year], snap beans, most herbs except basil and verrry late dill, carrots, salsify, and the small fruits[raspberry, strawberry, currants, etc..]
This diet would still provide an amazing variety of vitamins and minerals. Then, of course, our society has chosen to buy our produce for looks and transportability, as opposed to taste and vitamin content.