While bees have always intuitively been welcome friends in the garden, and no doubt their role in pollination is an important one for food security, I had never really thought too much about beekee…

U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo, including American farms dealing in rice, wheat and soybeans.

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Have you ever noticed that during the times of greatest turbulence and turmoil that people are most sparked into action to come together in support of one another? As someone who has led a career i…

While I did include a grant list in my February newsletter, I have since found more opportunities to add and figured it made more sense to put them in a post of their own. Here is a list of what I …

Last spring, I was in a little thrift shop that was about to close and saw this “make the planet great again” sign hanging behind the cashier while checking out. In the moment, I was re…

Low-income families are being priced out of being able to afford to eat healthily, a charity warns.

I had never successfully grown anything edible before I became a Mama. Fond childhood memories in my great grandparents garden sparked an interest that had been developing a few years prior as I co…

933 Park Ave. property will be developed as nature park and urban agriculture centre

What happens when people with chronic, unstable diabetes eat food grown in local, regenerative farms? Erin Martin shares the dramatic improvements in health her group FreshRxOK saw in Oklahoma when th...

Director and actress Rachel Ward joins the farming revolution in Australia.

One year ago this week I uprooted myself and three kiddos from our idyllic and remote community of Mayne Island, BC in search of a fresh start on Vancouver Island. It was a culture shock to return …

While I have participated in half a dozen Seedy Weekend events over the years as both an attendee and an organizer, it was only in preparing to write this blog that I asked myself "When and where did this delightful, community-led, seed exchanging tradition start anyway?" Originating in Vancouver, BC back in 1990, founder Sharon Rempel has retired from an extensive career in food security advocacy but you can get a sense of it from her now inactive website…

While I have participated in half a dozen Seedy Weekend events over the years as both an attendee and an organizer, it was only in preparing to write this blog that I asked myself "When and where did this delightful, community-led, seed exchanging tradition start anyway?" Originating in Vancouver, BC back in 1990, founder Sharon Rempel has retired from an extensive career in food security advocacy but you can get a sense of it from her now inactive website…

Truth be told, I was at least five years into my gardening journey before I was able to successfully grow a pepper and more like seven years to get a good yield. When I first started putting seeds in dirt I didn't really know what I was doing and how to finesse each type of seed for optimal germination and production by starting them at the right time and in the right conditions.

Wasn't 2020 a wild one? While I had already been growing in my passion for learning about the diversity of heirloom seed varieties, I was locked down inside a half acre dream of a garden that year and two more after it. During that time I became a completely unhinged plant lady that amassed a collection peaking near 500 varieties of seeds from both heirloom seed companies and seed exchange Facebook groups where I swapped with many other gardeners from all across Canada.

Who says you have to wait for spring to start planting seeds in the dirt? Winter sowing seems to be all the rage in my gardening groups, but if you haven't heard of it, this is a rather effective method to stifle that early season itch to start planting any time between winter solstice and spring equinox. If you haven't tried it before, here is a quick tutorial to get growing!