As leaves start to fall and I swaddle my garden in rows of spun plastic to protect it from night frosts, I am exploring my family connection to gardening. Perhaps it’s because I feel a little alone sometimes, a spur way out on the family tree with little connection to roots that lie in other countries and cultures.
Raspberries, blueberries, crowberries and cranberries: being on Yukon time means planning your weekends around where to pick once the – dare I say it? – latter part of summer rolls around and hints at fall. There is one berry fairly new to the Yukon scene that is well over and done with by the time …
The light returns to the Yukon long before the heat and we’re still in the prime season of huge oscillations in temperature between day and night. Mornings dawn crisp – but early – and as of yet we feel no compulsion to head outside until it warms a little. Midafternoon brings mud and even t-shirt …
The warm winds of spring have brought with them the promise of little green shoots popping out of their seeds to generate the stuff of salads. There is a brief moment in our northern spring between the holding cold of winter and the heady 24-hour daylight, before our winter habits – frozen into trails through …
I was making a carrot cake this week for one of the Jack Russell’s birthdays (he gets the carrot ends, we get the cake, seems like a pretty good deal), and the subject of peeling vegetables came up. I have always been reticent about sending the outer portion of my fruits and vegetables to the …
It struck me a couple days ago that I have gotten out of the habit of baking, and was missing having nibbly bites about for those mid-meal moments that require just a little something. I briefly mentally bemoaned my lack of muffins, before remembering that this is one of the things that I can actually …
If I were to search out the exact opposite of local, homegrown food, I would pass through the security gates at an international airport. The sportsbars, food courts and even neo-eco-healthy cafés are part of an isolated microcosm that I’m sure has allowed for evolution in isolation of the trends towards local, fresh food that …
The circle is often used as a symbol of perfection. The delicious combination of sweet or savoury filling and flaky pastry at its best when round is known as “pie.” The magic number that tells us everything we need to know about a circle is called “pi.” Coincidence? I think not. Perhaps this relationship between …
Jennifer Tyldesley has spent her life behind the controls of aeroplanes: in the Air Force, flying search and rescue and most recently for Air North. I imagine her in a crisp white shirt with epaulettes gleaming, watching the Klondike Valley sweep away beneath an old Hawker Siddeley when she is struck by an epiphany: “One …
You know that thing you’ve had for years and haven’t been quite willing to part with, though you haven’t yet discovered its particular niche? Mine is a small hand-crank cast iron meat grinder, and the niche has been found. Two in fact, in the disparate realms of ferments and ice-cream. I’ve been on a pretty …
I extracted a small tub of raspberries from the freezer yesterday, comforted to see it near overflowing with the season’s harvest. Though saskatoons and blueberries came in in droves this year, the raspberries that made it to the freezer were few and far between – their perishability and spotty cropping this summer made them all …
Ok, so when I hear the words “pelvic floor” the folks I think of are pregnant women and the elderly. It’s also a term that has come up in yoga classes, usually in the context of maintaining strength en route to joining one of those groups of people. Shows how much I know. Sophie Villeneuve …
One of the fun things about fermented foods is passing on bits to others, knowing they will grow and spread like a great idea. It required a bit of a mental leap to go from creating my first ferments to seeing this possibility, kind of like going from growing your own lettuce each year to …
I’ve put a lot of miles under me this spring between Victoria, B.C. and the Klondike Valley, and had thought I would be riding the green wave north. It is true that there were more leaves out on the Gulf Islands than there were when I arrived at home in Mount Lorne, but in between, …
“‘…but gracious me! It’s getting light! Good night, old Turnip-top, good-night!’ A nod, and he was gone.” So ends the sixth canto of Phantasmorgia by Lewis Carroll (better known for having written the topsy-turvy classic Alice in Wonderland), with the parting sally of a young phantom as he leaves the residence of the …
Ah, arnica. Renowned for its power to soothe sore muscles, sprains and bruises, and a common gateway drug into the wonderful world of the do-it-yourself apothecary. Most often it is in the form of arnica oil, where the bright yellow flower heads are wilted and then used to infuse oil that can be used in …
Yes, a new form of torture has been developed, involving an unrelenting repetition of a single passage from the Myth of Sisyphus – what? C-A-M-A-S? So, not Albert? Oh…sorry about that. Let’s begin again. I love the flowers of death-camas. I love their Dr. Seussian protuberances, like false noses in bizarre and marvelous shapes. This …
When I first began eating wild mushrooms, I was studying squirrels. I watched which mushrooms they picked to stash in trees, and figured that whichever ones they ate were probably not (or not very) poisonous. These days I know a little more and am glad I didn’t base my entire wild diet on this type …
Nitrates, nitrites, nitrous… makes me think of big industrial fertiliser companies, laughing gas, and that wheee sound the cars in videogames used to make when you gave them an extra burst of speed. They also raise a flag as something to be consumed in moderation, or not at all, because of various reports over the …
Pike are notorious for being boney. As a child, I developed an intense fear of choking on fish bones. Not from any horrendous experience, but probably from my little-girl brain taking an off-hand comment from my mum to be careful way too seriously. Don’t get me wrong, choking isn’t any fun, but it doesn’t mean …
Festival season is in full swing, and every weekend sees crowds descending on another Yukon community for a bit of all-night sun revelry. My personal favourite, and often my only festival of the summer, is the Atlin Arts and Music Festival. This year’s festival had an impressive array of food vendors who seemed to be …
I was visiting a friend down on Lewes Lake last week and was delighted at the profusion of blue and pink lining his driveway. Wild roses and lungwort — which he told me deserved to be called bluebells, their prettier name — were both in full bloom. The bluebell is an interesting flower in that …
Well I hope that sundrenched stretch wasn’t summer. It was glorious, hot, and beautiful — what a tease. I’m sitting inside with the rain lashing the windows under our first precipitation since Environment Canada’s icons changed from snowflakes to water-drops; I actually lit a fire today to ward off the chill and damp. Nothing outside …
Arriving home after time away, without stopping by the grocery store, may seem overly optimistic, but I was rewarded by finding the freezer just as I had left it. While the remnants of last year’s harvest are certainly dwindling, there is plenty to keep me going as the new crops begin to poke their heads …
Returning home after traveling can bring culture shock that’s just as discombobulating as that experienced when heading off to the far side of the globe. I’m learning that staging the return helps ease the transitions of climate and jet lag, as well as culture. One of my main reasons for traveling is the fresh perspective …
The title is a misnomer. Perhaps it is ironic, but I’m not literary enough to remember the nuances of such terms. At any rate, it is inaccurate. The moose ribs I cooked up last week were anything but fast food, and that’s one of the reasons they were so good. The cooking itself took time (ten …
I was having dinner with a neighbour the other day and she asked me if I needed any dried greens. She was referring to turnip tops and kale. She had just come across a large, forgotten jar and with the onset of spring it was high time to use them up. I declined, because her …
In February I had the privilege of running a workshop on cheese-making for the Learning Lions, a homeschooling group that meets out at the Mt. Lorne Community Centre. What a fun time. A farmer friend generously donated the milk, and I delved into my cheese books to come up with a lesson that would pack …
Over the last few years I’ve been gathering the components for a makeshift “solar system”, relying heavily on generous donations from friends for parts. Many of these gifts have found their way into the current version, though a few have been cycled out as they were less than functional, and this winter I finally completed …
Seasonal eaters, whether they are gardeners, foragers, or locavores reading the labels at the grocery store, know that the lean time of year isn’t during the dead of winter. Then, storerooms are still stocked with plump sacks of potatoes resting contentedly beneath jars of pickled beets that glow like rubies in the dusty shine of …
Right on schedule, my sprout craving has arisen from where it lay quietly dormant since the fall, nestled snug beneath the desire for stews and roasted root vegetables. The herbs I’ve kept in the house are responding to the same cues, with tiny pale green leaves emerging from the nodes of their twiggy stems. I’m …
As the days lengthen and I embark on ever-longer forays out into the world, I remember wistfully the easy goal of foraging. Foraging itself is not effortless, but during the snowless seasons the decision to do so is. It is simply part of the reason I wander — both the carrot and stick that goad me onward. In the winter, it takes extra effort to get away …
Is it really true, is another holiday season has come and gone? So much anticipation, preparation, anxiety or eagerness, and then once again time plays its disappearing trick and we find ourselves in January. Whether you love the Christmas/Chanukah/New Years/solstice season , or hate it, it seems to whizz by. Well , I refuse to …
Ah, Christmas — the time of year when magazines abound with recipes promising taste sensations derived solely from rainbows and snowflakes. At least that’s my assumption because they are the only things not on the list of excluded ingredients. Consider a delectable chocolate cake that carries no sin because it has no fat, sugar, or, …
Superlatives aside, I did just finish a pretty amazing sandwich. First, let me describe the creation that, to date, is the pinnacle of my gustatory experience in the realm of that iconic thing: the grilled-cheese sandwich. It was consumed perhaps a month ago, when I dropped in on my friend Lori, who is a dab …
In chapter six of A.A. Milne’s classic, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore has a birthday. Miserable to begin with, and sure to become so again soon after, we leave Eeyore at the end of the tale at perhaps the happiest we’ve ever see him — because of a useful pot, and something to put in it. …
The first snow is a long-anticipated event for me. It is not only eagerness, but also apprehension, that keeps me company on my tenterhooks. Either way, there is relief when the white stuff finally flies. I missed the first two snows that came and went, so I was truly chomping at the bit by the …
The rain was turning to slush against the windows of the plane as we scooted down the tarmac a few weeks ago, on its way to becoming the first snow of the season in Whitehorse. I was headed south and in good company —it seems that seasonality is a trait shared by many Yukoners, feathered …
If our external environment is a reflection of what is happening within, I must be going through a deep transformation. My little cabin is filled with aromas emanating from myriad sources — jars and jugs of various ferments, baskets and bundles of herbs hanging from every available hook and corner, and an ever-present pot of …
Yesterday the sun sank behind the mountains at the same moment as the final round of applause burst forth from the tents lining the roundabout at Shipyard’s park — a poetic end to the farmer’s market season. Well, the end of Thursday markets at least; this year, the Saturday affairs will continue through the end …
I was re-routing some electrical cables through some bushes the other day, and what did my little eye spy? Not one, but two beautiful Agaricus mushrooms, one quite large and already flattened out like a pancake, the other with its veil still intact. This combination is ideal for identification. I promptly sliced them off at …
Ah the glory days of a Northern summer!It’s the few short weeks when I take the covers off of the garden beds (always ready to run out at night should the temperature dip), and the days when the lakes are swimmable (not just dip-able). It’s the season of outdoor festivals, hiking and camping trips, and …
My lack of birding skills used to be a secret shame. When it did come out, it was with an embarrassed acknowledgment that despite a background in biology and an intense love of nature, I was at best a “crap birder”. That, however, was inaccurate. I was no kind of birder, for I had given …
I feel a bit like Gollum. I am squatting on my haunches, slurping delicious juices from my fingers as I delight in a fresh pike. Perhaps muttering to myself a little. Except I’m picking out the bones, whereas Gollum relished them with a crunch. And my fish is piping hot — J.R.R. Tolkien’s pity-worthy character …
In approximately 100,000 years since we began to speak, we’ve classified and described plants. Carl Linnaeus devised a system of naming using two Latin names for each plant — binomial nomenclature — which has endured as the scientific standard for all forms of life. In a time of unprecedented global travel and information sharing, binomial …
I was shopping at my local free store the other day when I stopped in the middle of a wave to a fellow browser. He peered at me, and I at him, for a good minute before I said tentatively, “Dom?” His grin affirmed my suspicions and as we caught up we shared a chuckle …
I walk the woods to remember and discover. I remind myself of what this land, and learn what new surprises it has in store this year.
An incessant beeping. I become aware of a pillow, and the sound becomes my alarm clock. I silence the offending device with more luck than aim. I feel out of sorts, extracted so roughly from my dreams. I am certain that the makers of alarm clocks engineer them with minute precision to attain the exact …
I was in the grocery store the other day with a friend. Picking up a bag of winter produce she said, “I wonder if they will taste like tomatoes… At least they’ll give the idea of a tomato.” This had never occurred to me before. Even though it is a mere shadow of the fruit fresh off …
Cat McInroy has experience wielding a spatula, though she doesn’t consider herself a professional chef. But the numerous weddings, parties and dinners she has catered for friends and family were enough to disqualify her from Master Chef Canada, a TV show that pits lay chefs against each other, when she applied last year. That, and …
Eating seasonally teaches long-term thinking I love watching tomato seedlings poke their tiny shoots out of the soil, eagerly seeking sunlight — or UV light from a bulb, as the case may be. With the coming of spring it’s easy to feel like there will be abundant food from the ground any time now, but …
“Spring has sprung,” cries my body as it soaks up the sun streaming through my window at two o’clock on a glorious March afternoon. It retracts the statement the following morning as I crouch, shivering to light the fire. But, ever hopeful, it repeats the whole affair each day, confident that soon, it will be …
I delight in winter travel, especially once the snow pack has settled. It’s early this year, and I’m already able to break away from the packed trails and wander the woods to my hearts content. Whether on skis on snowshoes, I inevitably follow the tracks of some other creature, and, given my proclivities, I look …
When I first arrived in Kluane as an aspiring biologist, it seemed fitting that I would land in the place where the famous lynx-snowshoe hare cycles had been studied since the ’70s. Famous – at least to ecology students and trappers – graphs showing their staggered 10-year oscillations had figured prominently in my university courses. …
When Ione Christensen invited me into her home to talk sourdough, I could tell she’s done this before. I hadn’t gotten passed “Nice to meet you,” before she handed me a printout of recipes and a sample of her famous starter. She looks out from the photo on the cover page clad in lacy whites …
Midwinter is rife with tradition. Celebrating, tolerating, or avoiding family gatherings and their associated rituals is part of many people’s December, whether they ascribe to Solstice, Christmas, or Chanukah. I have no blood relatives in the Yukon, but within my family of friends there are myriad traditions celebrated this time of year, and they all …
For much of this week the smell of hanging meat has been lingering in my nostrils, and my hands are abnormally soft. That’ll be because it’s butchering time. While I have never harvested a moose myself, I like getting up close and personal with my food and I value the experience of butchering – it …
With the beauty of the fall colours comes an increase in the ever-present danger of frost. For some, this is evidence of a balance between good and bad, for others it is proof that we can have our cake and eat it too. Ice on the puddles is an indication that a transformation is taking …
Contrary to popular belief, mushroom hunting does not have the risk factor of Russian roulette. In fact, with a little knowledge and some common sense, it can be safer than many other hunts. I’ve met many Yukoners who forage avidly for berries and wild greens but draw the line at mushrooms, exhibiting symptoms of the …
