a tractor & traveling farm folk with a cause

John Varty and Molly Daley have traveling across Canada on their tractor to raise awareness of issues faced by our country's family farms, as well getting stories from farmers across the country.

You can track them, see photos of their progress and the building of their cute home for the road, and more over at their website.

CBC also has a great digital archive entitled What is Happening to the Family Farm? that addresses some of the issues that these folks are trying to raise awareness about. The archive is definitely worth a look.

Sláinte!

Laurel

amazing new local community garden

{capture from article}

The Gathering Place, a North Bay soup kitchen has started a community garden {!!!}:

Using a soup kitchen for the first time doesn't mean giving up garden salads.

"They're my favourite," says Bernadette Bellaire.

"We're getting more variety of food, and I enjoy it."

"The soup kitchen has healthy food for families when they don't have food at home," said Joady Langlois.

The Gathering Place opened its garden on Saturday as the province announced $58,200 over two years so the soup kitchen can continue putting fresh vegetables on the menu.

One-third of the garden is completed, with several varieties of peppers, buttercrunch lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cucumbers among the first batch of vegetables growing on a parcel of land at Algonquin Avenue and McLaren Street.

You can read the rest of the North Bay Nugget article here. You can also see more about the garden and view a plan over at The Gathering Place's website.

This is so great! I intend to go over and check it out, and perhaps I will snap some photos to share with you all here. :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

a refreshing summer salad

With the kind of heat that we have been getting, I really want nothing to do with stodgy foods nor cooking. But I sure as hell will nom fresh fruit and veggies all day. Here is something that I threw together for lunch/dinner {best part, it's all local or right from our backyard}:

bed of nasturtium leaves
cantaloupe
blueberries
green tomatoes
cucumber
drizzled honey
topped with nasturtium flowers

Please feel free to share your salad ideas! :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

luverly of the week: harvest time again by victor bezrukov

{photo by Victor Bezrukov}

dinner from the garden

After an afternoon of intensive weeding {yes, I actually do weed sometimes!} we had some squash blossom soup and salad for dinner. Because it has been such a challenging gardening year so far, I think that every meal that we get from our wee patch of dirt is extra special.

I hope that all of my fellow growers are enjoying a bounty in their gardens as well!

Sláinte!

Laurel