Eco-Sense

Yes it is true.   Ann and Gord are running for District of Highlands council.    More info coming on Wednesday.      What do you think we have to offer?    Let us know, send us a comment.

Cheers from Ann and Gord

Ann and Gord… on the roof of their Eco-Sense home.

The Change of Seasons:  We started our morning rescuing the sweet potatoes from the various little four legged rodent “friends” who also share our food.   I used to hold a distasteful opinion of the rats and mice helping themselves to our food.  I recall a time when we lived in the trailer while building our home, when we (actually me) spent considerable time live trapping our trailer companions while on route to relocate them while Ann would pet the little guys on the head as I walked by… the mom mouse in the live trap and babies hanging around.  Long story, cute story, and in one of our updates about 7 years ago.     (Everything becomes a better story with the passing of time.)  Today, I look at the rats and mice with more affection, very beautiful and healthy little beings that climb the Arbutus, eat the beets and carrots and this week, the sweet potatoes.   Time to encourage them move on and signal us to the next crop that needs to be picked… and something says apples and tomatillos based on the chew marks. Really, the rats are amazing, as they know when something is ready to eat, and by watching their actions in the garden, we can respond in enough time to collect our share of the garden goodies; they won’t drink a fine wine before its time.  (Gord might…but the rodents have more sense).   And there are the other messengers –  the rabbits eating the goji berries, lentils and chickpeas, the robins with the raspberries, and the yellow jackets with the grapes. So today as we  also harvest the dried Orca beans, scarlett runners, helda green beans for fermenting, chickpeas, lentils, sweet potatoes, quinoa, and the list goes on, we wonder why our harvest season is a bit different than most.   Then it strikes us – we are shifting our production and preservation systems away from the more perishable annuals, as well as shifting from canning and freezing to drying, fermenting, and to foods that don’t require much processing.   There is less of the urgent rush that you can not keep up to.  It gives us a false feeling that the garden is not productive this year, but the pantry jars are filling with dried foods and the garden keeps producing…yet Ann has been mumbling something about all the winter veggie starts getting eaten by tiny slugs.  Sigh…but then we consider that this land is not just here for singular human purpose..the land is primarily here to feed all the others  (the ecosystem); and this is exactly how it should be.  Nature gives to us and we need to give back…it’s called sharing.

Cob bathroom at Eagles Lake

The Zucchini god has visited Eco-Sense this year and the prolific harvest has been dried into cubes and slices, and later this week they’ll be grated, mixed with garlic, apple cider vinegar, tamari soy, sesame seeds and then dried in sheets to make crackers.     Imagine… no rush to force zucchini onto the arms of unsuspecting strangers while they are using the composting toilet facilities at the Eagle’s Lake cob bathroom.

Sweet potato greens exploding.

The other wonderful surprise this year has been learning that sweet potato leaves are highly edible and nutritious.  I (Gord) eat them when in the garden, and Ann has been drying them for tea and for seasoning hearty winter soups.  I learned of the immense benefit of these while researching food items for Emily, and WOW are the leaves ever chocked full of nutrients.     The dried leaves are an amazing tea, even better than dried nettles in both taste and nutrients.

So Small and has fruit!

Fall Sales of Edible Perennial Plants:  On a different note, we had our fall order of plants arrive; an exciting time as the plants are beautiful and long awaited additions to all of our regular items.  The 2 year old Sweet Fuyu persimmons arrived, and some have fruit on them!   I’m also personally excited about the new hop additions of Sterling and Willamete to add to our Cascades.  (Gord lives for beer).   If anyone has had our home brew… we will have some fun opportunities to play with new flavours.  The really exciting thing is the arrival of the Illinois Everbearing Mullberry; we sold out right away on the last order.   This time, to place the order, we were told to phone six months in advance.  So on July 1st at 7am we ordered  40.

So many plants, so many functions,

We often get asked, “what plants are we most impressed with since we started our nursery this past spring?”   A tough question as some plants have been the biggest sellers, and some we have fallen in love with.  The big sellers here are the sea buck thorn (sea berry), walking onion, goumi, crosne, oca, currants, figs, dwarf cherries and a whole shit load of various hardy kiwis.   The plants we have fallen in love with have been the tea, mulberry, cornelian cherry, chestnut, autumn olive, yellow horn, the hardy kiwis… and our lemons too!     Then you walk down the path and you just can’t stop and think how much you admire the properties of each of he plants.  Click here for a complete list of plants, availability, and prices.

Two Perennial Plants Sales This saturday (September 20).  For those who live on Southern Vancouver Island there are two options for drooling over perennial plants:  the Eco-Sense Nursery from 10am-2 pm, and Hatchet and Seed’s perennial plant sale from 1pm-4pm in North Saanich.  What a fabulous place to live with huge local selections.

Our Big News:  We are looking for home-steading partners
As the seasons change so do our lives.  This is a time of family transition here at Eco-Sense as Ann’s parents are moving back to Vancouver.  We are looking for like minded fragrance free friends to embark upon the next co-housing homesteading phase of Eco-Sense with us.   This PDF link  provides the details of this very unique opportunity to live in a mud house and shit in a bucket.

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Could it be that the nuts trees are growing crazy?

Could it be that we are going nuts?

Could it be that … ooops we have to wait just a few more days before the news.   But if we are caught in a plant frenzy stupor this Saturday while we sell our nuts trees, like our 3 types of walnuts, 3 types of chestnuts, yellow horn, sweet ultra hardy northern pecan, and blight resistant hazelnuts from OSU (Oregon State University), we might be spill the beans.

We went through the summer with our nursery plants, not expecting anything other than just caring for them through the drought of July and August, not expecting to have any surprises, but low and behold we had gojis, sea buck thorn and autumn olives set fruit, and the european olives and lemons have fruit on them.   Yum!

Other things experienced this week include Boo going in for surgery, having four teeth pulled and costing close to $2000.  No hard feelings, but wow, having a dog that has the freedom Boo has, can be costly… and it was pointed out that wolfs only live four to five years due to fractured teeth.

Our Goumis, Illinois Everbearing Mulberries and 4 variety of hops are delayed in Vancouver, and will not arrive till Monday, so for those on the waiting list, you will receive your call soon, and we may have a few extras, though they seem to go quick.   Email us if you wish to be on the backup list for any of the extra items.

See some of you tomorrow, Saturday between 10 am and 2 pm.

Sweet Fuyu Persimmon
Illinois EverBearing Mulberry
Tasmania Vine
Sezchuan Pepper tree
Goumi
Hops (Willamete, Sterling, Cascade)
Kosor Elderberry
Ready to go for Saturday Sept 20…
Today almost all the Meyer lemons, all Sepp Holzer edible lupines, and most of the European Arbequina olives disappeared, plus autumn olives, dwarf sour cherries, and various apples.
Someone out there with Danish Heritage was interested in the combo apple, Belle de Boskoop /Triumph de Boskoop. If you know who you are, let me know and I will set it aside.

Gord and Ann

Wow, that summer went FAST.  Lots has been going on (as usual) on the Eco-Sense homestead.  Our first open house of the fall season for sales of PERENNIAL EDIBLE PLANTS is on SATURDAY Sept 6th from 10am-2pm.  

Details:

3295 Compton Road in the East Highlands.  If you are able bodied, please park at the bottom of our driveway and enjoy the walk up.  If you think you might buy some plants there is room to park up top.  Please leave dogs at home as we have chickens and ducks about.  We do not give formal tours during the plants sales open houses, but please feel free to explore our gardens and look at the house from the outside. Here is the list of plants we have in stock with more coming next week.  Click for Plant List  We also have eggs for sale.

Other items to note:

* Special Eco-Sense news coming next week…for now, it’s a secret.  Stay Tuned.

* The EcoHut is almost complete.  Currently, we are using it for the office for the perennial plant business.  If you are fascinated and inspired by tiny homes (as we are) you will love this small off-the-grid mini home.

Inside the Eco-Hut with archway into sleeping nook.

* We are thinking about what it would mean to go completely local with our food…100%.  Anyone else have these thoughts?

* Roof top solar real estate:  We are now growing food on our solar roof between the solar PV and the solar thermal.  We have squash, watermelons, chard, tomatoes, tomatillos, kale, lambs quarters, etc up there.

Our cob oven and cob benches have been repaired and they look fantastic!

* We’ve been busy fermenting food and beverages.  Gord’s been making beer and wine, and Ann has been brewing ginger beer…here’s the recipe:

• 1 gal jug that fits cork with air lock
• Dissolve 2 1/4 cups of sugar in hot or warm water in the jug. If you are worried about sterility use boiling water…but don’t add yeast until it cools. (If you are using chlorinated city water you should boil the water)
• Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Add 4 tsp powdered ginger (or fresh grated)
• When water has cooled to warm, add half package of champagne yeast
  swirl/shake to dissolve everything
• Top up 1 gal jug leaving a bit of air at the top
• Put air lock on
• Gently shake gal jar every 3 days or so (remove air lock and put proper cap on). 
• After about 10-20 days or so taste a tiny bit…if still quite sweet let it just sit for a while longer. If it has used up all it’s sugar, add a bit more just to allow the carbonation…(see next step). 
• When most of the sweetness is gone, decant into flip top glass jars (or plastic with tight lids). VERY IMPORTANT to flip the cap gently EVERY day so that glass jar doesn’t explode. For plastic jugs just vent daily when the jug gets hard. 
• When you think it’s done and used up most of the sugar put in fridge rather than let the air pressure out to hold in the carbonation…keeping it cool will stop the yeast. The more sugar is used up, the higher the alcohol content.
• Leave the sludge in the bottom of the jar and have another go at it…add sugar, add lemon, add ginger and no need to add more yeast. It worked for me.
• I bet one could make a similar beverage with mint instead of ginger.

Hi Everyone, Have you ever wanted to post this ad on Used Victoria?
Free to a good home, one husband, slightly used, somewhat self grooming, almost house trained. Has a good understanding of plants and mechanical systems, but a poor understanding of complex (female) systems.   Does not multi-task very well.  He will work for food, and is highly motivated by beer.   If you already have one of these, I have empathy, sorry not open to trade.

Here is a brilliant idea I came up with and it’s even better than husband recycling…  train your husband to listen to and understand mother nature and to do what you say.  This training can occur either through husband daycare, slyly called “Permaculture Systems In Action” where Solara (of Hatchet and Seed)  and myself (Ann) will train your husbands how to understand integrated systems, using ours as examples, or  better yet come yourself and see how we train these stubborn handsome hard working creatures to work with and understand our complex systems… using permaculture design principles applied to plants, rain water, grey water, composting, solar, soil, animal and other systems to drive the point home… that nothing is separate.      Bring your husband – leash is required, must be muzzled and fragrance free.

(Notes on above:  Could be role reversed and gender neutral…just insert appropriate pronouns and descriptions.  Can anyone guess who wrote this?  Ok, for a more serious take, see short update below)

Hello,  Here are three notices from Eco-Sense.

1.  Next weekend (July 12th and 13th), we are offering a 2-day course:  Permaculture Systems in Action: A 2-Day Introduction to Permaculture Design.  In this course, we’ll introduce the concepts and then show you many examples of what it can look like.  You will be immersed in what it is like to live in a system where everything is connected, whether it is plant, animal (including humans), water, energy, social, food, financial, solar or building systems… you’ll see it all.  Two Gardens and four instructors in partnership with Hatchet & Seed.  Check out this link to learn the details and register.  https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/permaculture-systems-in-action-a-2-day-introduction-to-permaculture-design-tickets-11818781293

2.

Tour group in front of Eco-Hut (office for farm business)

Eco-Sense Farm Gate Sales for Perennial Plants.  First spring season was an incredible success…on so many levels.  We really enjoyed meeting so many new faces and connecting with old friends.  Some people came to buy plants or eggs and some just to say hi and walk around the gardens.  It was all good and our farm business looks to be financially and socially viable while meeting our needs to share and connect with people learning about adapting to our changing climate.  If you wish to buy plants over the summer please send us an email (gord@eco-sense.ca) to set up a time.  Our next farm gate open house for perennial edible plants will be Saturday Sept 6, 2014 from 10am – 2pm.  Also, we are looking for 2 gallon or bigger pots.  If you would like to recycle your pots with us please send us an email.  As a thank you, we can offer you a very nice Oca plant.  We call this tubers for tubs.

That’s all.  Thanks!  Ann and Gord