My Favorite Web Sites
Seed Savers Exchange
American Livestock Conservancy
Organic Homestead Gardening
The Society of Creative Anachronism
I now live in upper middle British Columbia, Canada, for you gardeners, that is Zone 3a. It can be a bit of a challenge from a gardening point of view with a 90 day growing period where it has been known to freeze regardless of the month. Life is slower and less stressful here in BC than living in the States. Not easier, but more relaxed. I enjoy it and do not take it for granted. I was born a 5th generation Oregonian and I never thought I would live anywhere else, but I moved to Canada in June 2001. It is a small town I moved to and more than an hour drive to the next closest town, but I would not trade it for anything. The area I live in is well diversified in cultures. We have Chinese, French, Scots, Irish, First Nations, East Indians, Americans, Canadians, Germans and many others here and each of their cultures influence the town. I have attended powwows and learned to dance the intertribals, I have attended belly dancing and Yoga classes, and have been sledding with a couple friends dog's teams this last winter. The wildlife is abundant and not a day goes by without seeing a bear, moose, caribou, beaver or deer. I believe in Sustainable living, organically grown foods for my table and in the biodiversity of our agricultural products and livestock. Too many of our valuable, unique and wonderful tasting, shaped and coloured fruits and vegetables are no longer grown due to their 'lack of shipability' and other such things, in favor with the corporate growers such as Genetically Modified foods and hybrid plants. People have forgotten what real foods taste like in trade for tomatoes shipped vast distances to your table undented and which pale in taste compared to heirloom vegetables. I take things a bit far sometimes, but I do not like to sacrifice quality in my food. I am anti-GM foods and I tend to be ‘preachy’ about it. For example, in 1900 there were over 5,000 types of apple varieties alone, today, there are less than 1,000, of which 10 or so is what is available in the grocery store. You generally can get only about 3-4 types of tomatoes or lettuce in the stores, but there are over 3,214 varieties of tomatoes and 285 varieties of lettuce to be had. Even if you do not grow a full sized garden yourself, try just a patio pot of an heirloom tomato or two, raise heirloom lettuce in a window box or contact a neighbor or a farmer to grow some for you. Support farmers and CSA’s that do grow heirloom types of crops. Keep the middlemen out of the circle. Buy Organic. I raise many heirloom vegetables and save seeds to trade to other growers who are interested in the varieties we have. I tend to put up most of my own foods. A source for heirloom and rare crops is Seed Savers Exchange. Seed Savers members have over 18,000 varieties of vegetable seeds, herbs and fruit trees for your garden. I try to raise livestock breeds which are going endangered of going extinct as well. They are not the fast growing hybrids or DNA modified animals that the big producers want, so are being lost, but they are unique and valuable in their own right. To see what domestic livestock breeds are endangered in North America, go to the American Livestock Conservancy. I am part owner and moderator at the best Homesteading Gardening Group on the web, please visit us, the link is listed above. I have been interested in The Society of Creative Anachronism- “Living History” since 1998. It fit in with the way I was living in a lot of respects, so it appealed to me. I have done many School presentations to students and brought the history out of the books into the classroom. My persona is “Mergret Dyer” and she was born during the reign of King Henry VIII, to a family of weavers. You can generally find her at any local SCA event, RenFaire or Yule Feast. Some of my activities in and out of SCA events are: - handspinning- from sheep to shawl. I handshear my animals, prepare and dye the fibre with natural plant dyes and spin into 2-ply yarns. I need to learn how to knit better. - soapmaking- I make about 100 bars of herbal soaps for home use each year. - blacksmithing- for fun and for use. I have a portable forge - calligraphy- I still do calligraphy/scribework, which I learned in High School, my favorite ‘hand’ is Blackletter. I really want to work on more illumination. - Cheesemaking- I love the bag and whey cheeses and want to start making more cheddars once I have goats again. - On my agenda for the year 2003 is learning bookbinding and making my own paper. I also want to set up and use my 4 harness jack floor loom this year. I also learned how to lay stone walls the summer of 2001 and want to do another wall. I also learned how to knit boot socks since I have many skeins of wool yarn from all my handspinning. Yet another project is making a willow chair for my porch this fall. I am also building a dog sled to run this next season.
