Apache Seeds Ltd., 10136 - 149 Street, Edmonton, AB

Seeds for food-bearing plants are one of our most precious assets. Bred and tested over the ten thousand years that humanity has been farming, the seeds that we propagate today produce miraculous amounts and varieties of foods. There are entities and organizations in Canada that research and protect these treasures, but we could be doing much more. Specifically, I would like to see Alberta fund a university research centre to further research and preserve knowledge in the area of cold-climate agriculture and gardening. I think that they have a strong program like I’ve described at the University of Saskatchewan (to be honest, we could have something like that in Alberta that I’ve never heard of. Please comment if you can enlighten me).

We do have a burgeoning culture emerging around the issue of seeds. Edmonton’s annual Seedy Sunday event (for those “interested in plant biodiversity, heritage gardening, organic gardening, and seeds”) is happening this year at Alberta Avenue Community Hall (9210 118 Ave NW) on Sunday March 20, 2011 from 11-4.

And we have a local institution, Apache Seeds, Ltd. I went there today since it’s time to plant onions indoors. There’s no other place that I know of that carries garden seeds at this time of year (especially not unusual ones like onion seeds) .

As the old-timey sign implies, Apache Seeds is a long-time Edmonton company. I don’t know much about its history, but its reputation suggests that it is THE place to go if you need anything beyond your run-of-the-mill tomato and corn seeds.

I wasn’t disappointed. Apache has hundreds of different kinds of seed packets from at least seven or eight different companies. They have heirloom and organic seeds. Bulk seeds. Even grass seed (including drought-tolerant grass seed, which I have had problems finding I the past).

I had four or five kinds of onion and leek seeds to choose from, plus I picked up some eggplant and pepper seeds.

seeds  read more... »

 Last summer’s garden potatoes and garlic.

The Mill Creek Net Zero Home has a cold room built under the front porch.

The cold room, or root cellar, has long been a friend to those living in northern climates. It takes advantage of the fact that the temperature six feet underground remains a relatively constant temperature year-round.  Therefore, it keeps the room cool in summer, and warm enough not to freeze in winter.

Our cold room has been working perfectly since it was built. During the winter it is about as cold as a fridge. Our potatoes and garlic are still in perfect condition four months after harvest! Plus I only need to buy beer a couple of times a year.

The room is about 6’ x 10’. It is thermally separated from the rest of the house, and we don’t actively heat or cool it. Its concrete floor was poured directly onto the earth because we actually want the heat/cold from the earth to enter the room.

Cold room, Mill Creek Net Zero Home

We insulated the interior of the walls with two inches of polyisocyanurate board (about R7 per inch), and added R28 worth of pink insulation in the ceiling. There are also two vents to the space (see above picture), but we’ve kept them plugged with rags so far. The idea is that we could attach a fan to one of them that runs during the Fall and Spring nights to further cool the space. The concrete floor acts as a heater (in winter) or a heat sink (in summer).

Some construction details: when you are standing on the front porch, there is 5” concrete on a reinforced 8” grid, a layer of plywood, 7.25” of pink insulation, and then another finishing layer of plywood under you.

The room is thermally separated from the heated space.

A reused interior door was insulated by gluing a spare piece of foam to it.

Our cold room provides us with a free way to store food from the garden long-term. It would easily act as a fridge for milk and such during the winter if we ever needed it to.

It saves us energy in today's world, and it provides us a hedge against future disruptions to our energy supply. I suspect that we will be very grateful for this cold room at some point along the way.

Swiss Chard Harvested in Edmonton on November 15, 2010

I enjoyed the book Four-season Harvest a few years back. The author is from a mild-weathered state in the U.S. (I can’t recall it right now), and he has enjoyed tremendous success in extending the harvesting season (not the growing season, mind you) throughout their mild winter. While Edmonton will never be accused of having a mild winter, we can extend our harvest so that it at least touches all four seasons.

There are a few vegetables that are perfect for growing in Northern Alberta. Of that group, my favourite is probably Swiss Chard. This leafy green, found at or near the top of every “most nutritious vegetable” list, thrives in all mild weather. Plus 30 out? No problem, harvest some chard for a mid-summer salad. Hard frost last night? Not an issue, blanch chard leaves and drench in sesame oil and soy sauce for a tasty side dish.

Chard can first be harvested around July 1st. I harvested my last bundle two days ago on November 15. That’s 4.5 months of as much chard as we wanted – it virtually never goes to seed and it requires little water to get the job done.

I did resort to some of the tricks that I learned from my parents and from the aforementioned book. I covered the chard before our first snowfall on October 25:

Think there’s nothing edible in this garden? Think again.

That evening I needed to throw some chard in a soup that I was making:

Swiss Chard is a super-hardy, cold tolerant miracle!!! *raises hands to the sky*

Even though the temperature has been dropping below –5 Celsius most nights recently,  the leafy goodness remained until today, at which point the entire patch is finally frozen solid.

A cold-hardy vegetable isn’t actually growing when it’s freezing every night. Instead, it is being perfectly stored. In its natural environment, with its roots in the ground, the veggie will taste 100% fresh once harvested.

With the use of cold frames in the spring, there is a lot of potential for the harvesting of fresh vegetables much longer than it may seem possible. If cold frame-grown lettuce is ready to eat in April (is this realistic? I  haven’t tried it yet), and tarp-covered chard ready until the middle of November, Edmontonians can eat local, fresh, organic, free vegetables for almost eight months a year!

I used to think that garlic was an exotic food. I thought it was like the mango - something so full of flavour couldn't possibly come from nearby, could it?

I couldn't have been more wrong. Garlic is in fact easy to grow in Edmonton and impossible to grow in the tropics. Ha! Suck on that year-round-luscious-food-having tropical countries!

Since it also stores very well, Edmonton could be self-sufficient in the stinking herb if it wanted to be.

It's time to plant your garlic for next year. Here's how:  read more... »