On the Root Cellar Route

November 26 was our second annual root cellar tour.  (Check out last year’s tour here.)  If you’re interested in root cellaring basics, check out our past post on the topic.

On the root route this year, we stopped by Sylvia’s basement cold room once again.

In addition to checking out the cold room in this 1920s house, we had a great conversation about bulk buying.  Just where DO you get all the veggies to fill up your cellar?  If you aren’t growing them yourself, talk to farmers at the market about buying in bulk.  Sylvia also stores her flour, preserves, and nuts in the cold room.

(For those interested in local grains, check out Speerville Mill. If you’re in Halifax, you can order Speerville products in bulk through the Grainery Food Co-op.  If you’re outside of the city, and want to order in bulk, gather together a group of neighbours or co-workers to put in a bulk order.  Contact Speerville for info about minimum orders.)

Then we moved on to Louise’s root cellar.  This root cellar is in its third season.  Louise shared with us the good, bad and ugly of root cellaring.  This cellar was built through a group work party.  She put out a call to friends and neighbours, and had a whole team of people interested in learning how to build a root cellar.  She recommends this as a great way to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time.

Carrots stored in sand

Unfortunately, she ran into problems during the first year of the root cellar.  Problem one: arsenic.  Arsenic is naturally occurring in the bedrock of Halifax.  In digging out this area of the basement, they found arsenic.  Not lots, but enough that she was concerned about sitting food on top of it.  The next season she fixed this by covering the exposed rock and soil.

Problem Two: mice and rats.  She acquired a large, old metal container.  She now stores the carrots, potatoes and other root veggies in that to keep the critters out.

Problem Three: Insufficient ventilation.  The original vents were 1.5″ pipes and she found that this wasn’t large enough.  She has since increased the vent size.

Storing leeks in the root cellar

So, her first year of root cellaring wasn’t successful, but she learned a lot!  Year two went much more smoothly.  And now the root cellar is heading into year three.

The third and final stop on the tour was the root cellar here at the Ecology Action Centre.  I won’t go into a lot of detail, as we’ve posted a lot about our root cellar already.
Root Cellar Construction – Day 1
Root Cellar Construction – Day 2
Root Cellar Building Materials

The Ecology Action Centre root cellar is being run as a community root cellar and our winter vegetable order is due to arrive any minute.  I have several more blog posts about our root cellar planned for the coming weeks.

Sauerkraut in the EAC Root Cellar

And as a little bonus, here’s one more root cellar that wasn’t on this year’s tour, but will hopefully be on next year’s.  Here’s my root cellar:

Behold! A door!

Behold! A tiny, cold, empty room!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently moved to a house in the west end of peninsular Halifax and this little room was already part of the basement of my 1940s house.  It’s vented to the outside, though appears to need some critter-stopping mesh on the pipes.  The inside walls are cinder block.  And it’s ready to be filled with veggies!

Do you have a root cellar?  Send us a photo and a short article and we’ll be happy to feature it on our blog.  Want to build a community root cellar?  We’re accepting grant applications until December 12.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Partnership Award 2011

I wanted to share an exciting piece of news with you all!

The NS Food Security Network and the Participatory Action Research and Training Centre on Food Security won the 2011 Partnership award from the CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research). (I have been co-chair of the coordinating committee of the NS Food Security Network for the last several years.) The award comes with $25,000 that will go to supporting the work of the two organizations.

Dr. Patty Williams, of Mount Saint Vincent University, and I were in Ottawa earlier this month to accept the award on behalf of the two organizations. We also met briefly with the Minister of Health.

Marla MacLeod (left) and Dr. Patricia Williams (centre) with the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq (right), Minister of Health.

And here’s some info about the organizations (From the CIHR website):

In 2000, community members and other partners concerned with sustainable food systems came together to discuss food security in Nova Scotia. The workshop resulted in a unique collaboration between the Nova Scotia Food Security Network (NSFSN) and the Participatory Action Research and Training Centre on Food Security (PARTC–FS). Together, they have challenged old assumptions and generated new strategies for improving access to healthy, affordable food.

Through the partnership, researchers, representatives from family resource centres and the Nova Scotia Nutrition Council, and people who have directly experienced food insecurity have come together to calculate the cost of a basic healthy diet in their communities and identify barriers to accessing safe, nutritious food. They have also examined the issue from the suppliers’ side, looking at the capacity of communities to produce their own food and support local farmers and fishers. The partners have used this research to create a more comprehensive definition of food security and they have developed new tools to help communities and policy makers build better food policies. Two of these tools, a workbook called Thought about Food? and a DVD entitled “Food Security: It’s Everybody’s Business”, have been distributed to policy makers and resource centres in over 800 communities across the country.

Dr. Patricia Williams, Director of PARTC–FS, and Marla MacLeod, Co-chair of the Coordinating Committee at NSFSN, say that these resource materials are designed to start discussions about food security at local, provincial and national levels. The partnership has also led to a multi-year, community-university research alliance to explore what community food security (CFS) looks like in four Nova Scotia communities and strengthen their capacity for policy change to achieve it.

“The idea is to take what we learn here [in Nova Scotia] and, in partnership with others across the country, apply and share those lessons,” says Dr. Williams.

The CIHR Partnership Award recognizes partnerships with one or more external partners from the private, voluntary or public sectors which exemplify excellence by bringing health research communities together to create innovative approaches to research questions; to develop research agendas that are responsive to the health needs, concerns and priorities of Canadians; and to accelerate the translation of knowledge for the benefit of Canadians.

Want to know more about the work of the NS Food Security Network and sign up for our e-newsletter?  Visit nsfoodsecurity.org.

Homemade Grape Juice

We moved to our property on the Eastern Shore last November.  It was great to walk around the yard this spring and summer to see what new perennials were popping up, and to discover the wild blueberries in the back woods.  Midway through the summer, I started noticing the ominous growth of something viney and leafy in the ‘wild’ corner of my front yard.  Something vaguely grapey… but surely the growth of vines 20 feet up the birch tree couldn’t be grapes??

They certainly did end up being grape vines - masses and masses of grape vines of an unknown variety.  It was a big project to cut the vines down this fall in order to save the trees – there were a few 6-foot spruce trees that had been holding up a portion of the vine mass that now have curved, sickle-like tops.  (I know where my Charlie Brown style Christmas tree is going to come from this year!)  We harvested the grapes once the vines were cut down – many of them were underripe, overripe, or damaged – but we still managed to gather up around four 5-gallon buckets of ripe grapes.  Many were given away to grape-loving Food Action Committee members, but I saved about eight gallons or so to make some juice!  I’m not much of a jelly fan, but who doesn’t like grape juice?

The first step was washing, cleaning and sorting the fruit.  The cleaned grapes went in a big pot with just enough water to cover them.  Once the pot got close to boiling, I mashed the berries down (some recipes called for mashing the grapes at the very beginning, but I found them a lot easier to mash once they started cooking up a bit.)

I kept them just under a simmer for another 15 minutes or so, and then drained them into a new pot through a cheescloth lined colander.  A new batch of berries was started up, and then drained into the same big pot when it was done cooking.

 

I let the big pot of unsweetened juice settle in my cool sunroom for a day or so to let the sediment collect at the bottom.  Then I carefully drained the juice back into another pot, added some sugar to taste and let it come to a boil before canning it in 1 litre jars.

Voila, Grape Juice!  It’s a concentrated juice that tastes great with a bit of soda water.

We left a good chunk of the root system to start again next year, but hopefully we’ll be able to manage the growth a little better so we can actually access the grapes without yanking down the vines!

Yours in Food,

Alison

November 2011 ACORN Conference Top 10 List

The Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN) conference was held in Dartmouth, NS on November 11-13.  It’s always both practical and inspiring.  Given its location this time, there was an increased focus on new farmers and urban agriculture.  The location also meant that a lot more of our Food Action Committee members were able to attend than in past years.

At our meeting on Monday, several people shared their favourite moments from the conference.  They ranged from feeling inspired they stories of community support for new farmers to a new-found fascination with farm equipment to reflections on the importance of seed saving.  Others felt inspired by the urban bee keeping and urban chicken sessions

As I’ve done for past conferences, like Food Secure Canada and the March 2011 ACORN conference, I’d like to share some of the top things I learned, felt inspired by or just generally enjoyed:

In no particular order…

1. Root Cellars: It’s probably no surprise that I found this one interesting.  Both of the speakers were winter CSA farmers.  Amy Lounder has a simple, urban root cellar in the basement of her parents’ home.  It cost about $1500 to build.  Tarrah Young has a much larger root cellar, which was converted from an old swimming pool on her farm.  It also serves as a washing station and cost $12,000 to build. (You can see Tarrah’s webinar on the topic here.)

2. Soil: I generally attend the sessions that are most closely related to my work at the Ecology Action Centre, but I decided to sit in on a session on soil health, because it’s something I know little about.  While a lot of the discussion was beyond was knowledge level, I am feeling inspired to learn more soil structure and health.

3. Forest Gardens and Edible Landscaping: Jayme Melrose gave a great talk on this subject.  As a home gardener who just moved, my new backyard is somewhat of a blank slate.  Jayme recommended the book “Edible Forest Gardens“, which I’m planning to check out soon.

4. Four Season Harvest: This book by Eliot Coleman was mentioned in at least 3 sessions I attended.  Season extension is so key in this climate.  And apparently this book also has good information on root cellaring.  I’ve just put on hold at the library.

5. Farm Internships: I really enjoyed the panel discussion on internship programs from people who had attended different programs in North America and in some cases had run internships programs or had interns on their farms.  One panelist recalled listening to the conversations between farmers during the farm visits that were part of the internship program.  She found it interesting and helpful to learn what farmers asked each other about and what was important to them.

6. Cold frames and winter gardening: By the end of this talk I was mentally scrapping all of my summer gardening plans in favour of cold frames full of kale and window sills of microgreens.  Niki Jabbour has a new book coming out in a month called “The Year Round Vegetable Gardener” and I think I’m going to have to check it out.

7. Passing on the Gift: In a session on guerilla marketing, Shannon Jones of Broadfork Farm, outlined many of the activities they undertook this summer including monthly learning sessions at the Bridgewater Community Garden, “Grow a Farmer” sessions, and having school groups visit the farm.  A requirement of the Heifer International Funding they received was to “pass on the gift”, by giving back to the community.  They have fulfilled their obligations and more, and plan to continue passing on the gift because it’s something they enjoy.

8. The in between times: Often some of my favourite moments of any conference are the conversations that occur between sessions.  One such moment was a conversation about the “Little House of the Prairie” books that my co-worker is re-reading.  (This is, in fact, the third conversation I’ve had about these books in the past few months.  Apparently my favourite childhood books are all about food preservation!)  Another such moment was the enthusiasm of a couple who recently started a vermicompost business and their description of their quickly growing worm population.

And because she’s sitting right behind me, I asked Garity, our Urban Garden Coordinator, what a couple of her conference favourites were:

9. Nutrient Definiencies: During Av Singh’s talk on Nutrient deficiencies and this moment of awareness I had of how the soil is so much like the body, complex and interconnected, but also surprisingly resilient. He pointed out a few areas where one deficiency can be caused by a surplus of another nutrient that can prohibit uptake of other nutrients. (ie.an excess of Phosphorus can prohibit the uptake of other micronutrients such as iron and zinc). We need to be gentle and attentive with our soil.

10. Permaculture 101: Alex Denicola’s talk on Permaculture 101 blew me out of the water. He talked about peak oil, education and the land in such a frank but witty way, it was one of the first times I truly related to the principles of permaculture and wanted to know more and more.

And that’s 10.  Looking forward to next year!!

Meal planning and a supper of squash soup

Oh little neglected blog… how I’ve missed you.

It’s been one of those months when too many things have been crammed into too few days.  And updating the blog has fallen off my to-do list.  But, I’m back!  (More to come about my recent travels and conferences.)

I came to the realization this weekend that the only thing I had cooked in over two weeks was spaghetti.  All the other meals were in restaurants and at conferences.  Though fun for a while, I’ve definitely been missing my kitchen.  So, the theme of today’s post is getting back on the homemade local food wagon.

Friday night, in a moment of inspiration I made a meal plan for the week.  I love meal plans.  And I hadn’t done one in ages.  Here’s how I meal plan:

First, I take a peek at my schedule and my partner’s schedule and figure out how many nights we’ll actually be home for dinner.  On any given week, I generally plan 4-6 suppers.  This leaves space for nights when we have dinner with friends, go out to eat, have a sudden craving for something that’s not on the list, or simply want to make spaghetti or grilled cheese sandwiches (these are my go-to meals, for nights when I don’t feel like cooking).

On the meal plan this week:
- Squash soup with roasted vegetables
- Minestrone with either roasted vegetables or a winter salad of grated beets & cabbage
- Homemade pizza
- Quinoa salad with peanut sauce

I choose meals based on what ingredients are already in the house and what’s in season.  And I cook enough so that we have leftovers for lunch the next day.  In the case of soups, I often make enough that we can freeze some for a later date.

So, last night was squash soup and roasted veggies.  I don’t have a recipe per se, but here’s the general method:

Step 1: Roast the squash.  (I did this earlier in the day using Alison’s method.)

Step 2: Peel (if necessary) and chop root veggies.  I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, and turnip last night.  You could throw in onions, garlic, squash, rutabaga, carrots, or parsnips.  Whatever you like!  Drizzle with oil and roast at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Stir occasionally.

Step 3.  While the veggies are roasting, make the soup.  Chop up an onion.  Saute for 5 minutes or until soft.  I like to add carrots to my squash soup, and sometimes sweet potatoes, apples, or pears.  It’s flexible, so add in what you like.  When the onions are soft, add the veggies above, as well as a couple cloves of garlic (chopped), some ginger (a tbsp or so), a dash of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.  Also add salt and pepper. You may need to add some water at this point, so the veggies don’t stick to the bottom.  When the carrots have softened, add the roasted squash.  Simmer the soup and stir frequently.  It’s probably quite thick, so add some water or stock.  At this stage, it’s generally the consistency of apple sauce.

Step 4: When the vegetables are soft, blend the soup with an immersion blender or a regular blender.  Return to pot and add at least a half a can of coconut milk (sometimes I’ll add a full can, if the squash was large).  Taste to adjust seasonings.  I like this soup very ginger-y.  Sometimes I add a little maple syrup to sweeten.

By this point, the roasted vegetables should be just about done.

Voila! Dinner is served.

How do you plan your meals?  What’s on the menu for this week?

Notes from afar

You may have noticed that our blog has been a little quieter than usual. Conference season has hit, and I’ve been out of town.

I just got back from a conference in Toronto, where I had the privilege to met a number of wonderful people working on food security initiatives in other provinces.

Here are some blogs to check out:

Our Food, Our Health, Our Culture is the blog of Food Matters Manitoba.  Their most recent entry covers the anatomy and traditional uses of caribou.

Root Cellars Rock has been on our blog roll for a while now.  This blog is a project of the Food Security Network for Newfoundland and Labrador.  It covers a wide range of food issues, including, but not limited to, root cellaring.

I also had the opportunity to visit The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.   It’s an inspiring organization that grew from being a small food bank in the 1970s to a community food centre that included drop-in meal programs, community gardening, community kitchens, and a whole host of other programming.

Yours in Food,

Marla

Homemade Applesauce made by St. George’s Youth Net

This blog post comes from Maria, one of our Dalhousie University Nursing student interns.  Stay tuned for more posts from these two, as they’ve got a series of cooking workshops planned for the fall. 

One Thursday after school at St. George’s Youthnet, my fellow student nurse Candice and I were setting up pots, cutting boards, peelers, and yummy apples, spices, and sugar for a cooking class with kids ranging from 6 to 12 years of age. We were blessed to have the help of Keltie a former EAC employee who volunteered to show us the ropes for our first cooking workshop.

In the quiet of the kitchen before the children arrived we had many ideas of how things would go, which were all put aside when the kids arrived with more energy then you could imagine, it sounded like someone had turned a radio on full blast, and that was with the kids on the other side of the door to the kitchen.

When the kids got in the kitchen and were told they’d be making applesauce they were excited saying things like “I’ve never had homemade applesauce!” We quickly got underway, setting the kids up around a table with a large pot in the middle of the table. We had the younger children peeling apples, with the older kids chopping them up and putting them in the pot.

Many of the children commented that they liked healthy snacks like celery, and strawberries, so the apples were really well received, actually one or two apples may have been eaten before the applesauce was made. Amidst the peeling, chopping, then boiling, and mashing there was a great deal of discussion and many stories that were being told about the adventures the kids had at school that day. There was also some discussion about what we would make during the next workshop, eventually we decided on pumpkin muffins.

In the end the kids were happy with the results of their work, one of them saying, “I want to take ALL the applesauce home!”

Applesauce Recipe

Ingredients
16 apples – peeled, cored, and chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Directions
1.In a large pot, combine apples, water, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Take them off the stove and allow them to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.