Garlic (Allium Sativum)

Garlic It’s easy to grow, hardy, and not usually attacked by pests or diseases. In warm to mild climates it can be grown all year, unfortunately though, our Canadian winters don’t allow for such warmth and so we can trick these little cloves by planting them inside!

Start off with a Canadian grown organic head of garlic. You can choose to refrigerate your garlic for a few weeks prior to planting or placing the potted garlic in the fridge later on, whichever works best for you (I refrigerate mine prior so that the dormant period for proper growth has already occurred). Separate each clove, trying carefully not to peel the skin from each one. 

In your chosen pot filled with nutrient-rich soil, dig a small hole about 3-4 inches down for each clove and place the cloves in each hole with the pointy end facing up. Garlic does well in an acidic soil pH so if you have any leftover coffee grounds sprinkle a handful across the top to help with growth and then cover the cloves with soil. Leave in a sunny place and water every other day to avoid root rot.

Your garlic sprouts will push through usually within a few days (this is when you should store refrigerate, shortly after they sprout, if you didn't prior to planting) and will grow high green stalks which will eventually form beautiful flowers at the tippy top, however, if you want large garlic bulbs it’s best to cut off the stalks before they flower so as to ensure all of the energy goes into bulb growth. These stalks, or garlic scapes as they are more commonly known as, can be used as a garlicky addition to many culinary dishes in the meantime. 

When the leaves at the base of the stalks (I like to have at least 4-5 left at this point) have yellowed and dried, it’s harvesting time - this could take 8-10 months. From what I've seen in harvesting garlic, the number of green leaves remaining at time of harvest equal the number of intact wrappers surrounding the head. A few weeks prior to harvesting reduce the amount of water given, then dig up your bulbs.

Leave your fresh picked & washed garlic laying out in a warm, dry environment for a week or two so they develop several 'wrappers' of dry material around them. Store them in a mesh bag to keep for months, replant and/ or enjoy them right away.

Cooking with garlic

Crush or cut the garlic, then leave for 10 minutes to allow the allicin to fully develop before adding to recipes. Add the garlic about five minutes before the end of cooking - this way you apply just enough heat to convert the allicin into medically active compounds.

• Purée fresh garlic, canned garbanzo beans, tahini, olive oil, pinch of salt and lemon juice all together to make quick and easy hummus dip.
• Sauté steamed spinach, garlic, pinch of salt and fresh lemon juice.
• Purée roasted garlic, cooked potatoes and olive oil together to make delicious garlic mashed potatoes. Season to taste.

Fresh garlic has many useful properties such as:

• Antibiotic (anti-bacterial) 
• Anti-viral
• Fungicide
• Blood thinner. Use it to treat high blood pressure, lower cholesterol, dissolve blood clots, help prevent heart attacks and strokes 
• Expectorant, good for bronchial and pulmonary secretions
• Immune stimulant
• Cardiovascular health. A number of studies have found that garlic reduced the accumulation of cholesterol on the vascular walls 
• Sulphur source
• Reduces platelet aggregation 
• Gastric stimulant. Helps with digestion, acts as an anti-flatulent, carminative and diaphoretic

Happy Healthy Harvesting from our family to yours, 

Sherri.

The Vegan Evolution

The vegan ideal embodies the highest of ethical aspirations – non-violence, justice and compassion toward the innocent. Yet this deep and powerful value system continues to be marginalized by society. The example set by those who embrace these principles is too often vehemently opposed, trivialized or simply ignored. But the effects of this paradigm shift in perception are far-reaching, and the rewards beyond measure.

And yet, it somehow appears that the light of veganism is so bright that people are afraid to open their eyes to it, even individuals whose eyes are open to the truth behind other social causes. What is it that makes us cling so stubbornly to a practice that is clearly unnecessary, devastatingly cruel, and, if left unchecked, will almost certainly end up destroying us?

More and more people are recognizing the prejudice and injustice inherent in enslaving and slaughtering animals, in order to feed our appetite for flesh, eggs, milk, and other products of exploitation. It is no secret that animal concentration camps create breeding grounds for all sorts of infectious diseases. It’s also becoming known that animal products are detrimental to human health, and that animal agriculture, including ‘free-range’ and ‘organic’, is implicated in some of the worst crimes against the planet. Even the truth about the animal industry’s role in world hunger and food shortages is starting to come into the open.

Despite all the advancements of human ‘civilization’, our addiction to killing keeps us in the dark ages. It inhibits us from cultivating our capacity for kindness, empathy, and justice; the very qualities we need to develop if we are to move forward into a safe and prosperous future, in which we do not fear one another.

Animals value their lives, and strive to be free from pain. Since the same qualities exist in us, empathizing with them comes naturally. When we suppress that empathy, it makes it impossible for us to look more deeply into the true nature of animals, and the rest of the natural world that we all rely on for survival.

Indifference toward the suffering of other creatures is an accepted societal norm that calls out for us to remember what basic human values are: justice, empathy, compassion and respect; for the natural world, for the other animals, and for our fellow humans. By re-evaluating and renewing our commitment to these fundamental values, and by calling attention to the need for an ethical evolution, we can create new standards of behavior, motivated by our desire to be better people. Only in this way will we become deserving of the position of stewardship that our physical evolution has granted us, but which we have rejected in favor of self-serving domination.

All over the world, animals are imprisoned, enslaved, tortured and violently killed, and all over the world, people who are otherwise kind, gentle and caring, continue to ignore this unspeakable suffering. And yet we wonder why the human race is plagued by violence on a world-wide scale. We go about our business, acting as though this state of violence does not indicate something terribly disturbing about our psychological state, individually and as a whole. Our lack of concern for innocent beings has caused us to de-sensitize ourselves to suffering, which in turn enables us to inflict pain on each other.

The vegan ideal is at the core of the shift from predation to protection and from prejudice to justice; an essential step into a way of living that is more suited to the nature of people who care about the suffering of others, and who can empathize with another’s situation. The vegan solution contains within it the power to solve even the most overwhelming problems we are facing, on every level from personal to planetary.

If we are to have a future, the people who live in that future will not be addicted to products that are a result of exploitation, suffering and environmental devastation. They will not source their food from animal farms or slaughterhouses, but from fertile gardens, vibrant orchards and veganic farms. People will be kind, compassionate, gentle and just.

This quantum leap in perception may seem unlikely from the position we are in today, but it is within this very change that our hope for the future lies.

http://gentleworld.org

The Growing Challenge - Week Two

The Growing Challenge - Week Two

The Challenge: Grow one additional type of fruit or vegetable than you did last year, and grow it from seed. Post about your gardening experience once each week.

The Goal: To push ourselves to grow a little more food than we have before.

The Challenger: One Green Generation

After two weeks of waiting, they finally arrived! What, you ask? Why SEEDS of course :)
Beautiful organic heirloom seeds. That will eventually turn into fruit and vegetables, some herbs as well, and finish up quite nicely on our dinner plates.

I can NOT WAIT to start gardening...... my green thumb is losing it's color and needs some bird chirping weather stat!

By next week I will have many of these seeds started out in my front room where the suns warmth will help them grow. Pictures will accompany next weeks post.