Reflections on Last Year's Season

Before I get started on all the brand new content for this coming year, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on how things went in 2017 in terms of gardening and foraging.  As you remember I posted my goals at the beginning of last year, and as I was coming up with some ideas and plans for this year I spent some time going over them to see how everything played out.

Last year contained a lot of surprises, and I was surprised to find that while I felt things in the garden went really well I actually didn't achieve most of what I put on my list, or at least had mixed results.  I don't feel bad about this.  Setting goals in this area helped guide me, but gardening is so unpredictable, and I'm also the kind of person who makes decisions on the fly, so it's not a shock to see that I missed the mark on a lot of things.  Every year of gardening is such a learning experience and I feel that I grow each year as much - or more - than the things I plant.  I do this to grow food, for sure, but I also do this because it is good for me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  I've made some goals again this year, but I fully expect that there will be some that I won't meet again, and that will be ok.  I do hope to keep gradually getting better with tomatoes, squash, and peppers though!

In terms of specific goals, foraging went really well this past year.  For the majority of the plants on my list I was either able to learn how to find and identify them, or learn how to use the things I already knew were available.  Some of the things I missed were my fault, and some - like the Oregon grapes - just weren't producing this year.  I also learned to use medicinal flowers a lot more this year and I am very happy to have added that to my life.  I made an amazing dandelion and daisy salve that works so well on minor injuries and especially blisters.  

There were so many new plants or new varieties of familiar plants to grow this year.  We tried wheat for the first time, and I planted some potatoes that I got from a local farmer that are pink all the way through and keep their colour so well during cooking.  Even though most of my herb garden didn't make it through the uncharacteristically harsh winter I still got respectable harvests from it.  I grew my first substantial carrots this year, and had great success with mystery volunteer compost pile squash.  I bought a tea plant and learned to process the tea leaves into a couple very drinkable types of tea.

I hope I can always be experimenting.  I have loved the past couple years of becoming familiar with this land.  It amazes me that in the place with the least rainfall in the province (and I believe maybe in the entire country) there is still so much abundance.  

One downside of this year that did hinder my time spent foraging, and to some extent gardening also, was the terrible wildfire season we had.  I am sad to say that it broke all the records and became the worst wildfire season our province has ever seen.  There were so many days that the health authority issued air quality advisories, and since we have Little Forager we opted to try to find indoor fun a lot of the time.  Hopefully that is not the case as much this summer, although I am sure a few fires are inevitable.  As devastating as they can be in a human environment, wildfires are actually a natural part of the rejuvenation process of the land, so it's not all bad.  Looking on the what positive sides there are in a situation like this we also got quite a few spectacular sunsets because of the smoke in the air.

One of the things I was so excited about for this year was a chance to teach Little Forager about the garden.  I knew he would be potentially also a source of chaos and destruction, but I still couldn't wait until he was old enough to understand some of what he was seeing.  I am happy to say that the destruction was minimal, and that he so enjoyed "helping" me.  His favourite things this past year were to pick random leaves, to dig with his little shovel, and to spot (and eat) berries and peas.  I hardly got to eat any of my strawberries this year because he was so good at finding them.  It also didn't help that he considered any berry with the slightest blush of colour ready to eat, but that's ok.  Part of the reason I am doing this is to pass on the joy that comes from being in the garden, and if that means fewer strawberries for me that's a fair exchange.

Foraging this year included some items for food, and some items for wreath making.  I was able to open the A Forager's Home Shop this past October, and that has been a lot of fun as well as a learning experience.  Things are going really well there and I am so grateful for all the support as I try to navigate this whole e-commerce thing.

Although we had terrible luck again this year, I still enjoyed all our fishing trips.  We need to get our hands on a boat, or some fly rods since we never catch anything!  There are some amazingly beautiful places to fish in Kamloops so I never feel like I wasted my time in going.  I think we also need to plan ahead more and get babysitters lined up for when we want to go since it is getting really hard to wrangle a wriggly toddler determined to explore everything as fast as he can, and still try to catch fish.  In not too long he might be old enough to try fishing himself, and I can't wait for him to have that experience.  

2017 was a really amazing year.  I can't wait to see what the coming year brings.  I have loads of plans, goals, and dreams for it, but obviously life will bring its own twists and turns.  I am sure there will be many challenges to navigate, but many wondrous opportunities as well.  

How did your year go?  What are you dreaming about for your future?  I'd love to hear all about it in the comments below.  I'm not just saying that, either.  I really do want to hear from you - especially after taking the time to read such a lengthy post like this!  Best wishes to all my readers for a bright and happy 2018.

Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

I have a cousin who is just incredible at decorating cookies, and on a recent visit I asked her to show me a few tricks.  I also just love gingerbread cookies, and I wanted to come up with my own special version of them.  Since they turned out so well I thought I'd share them with you!

This was my favourite of the cookies I decorated.  I have a lot to learn, but it was really fun to try and I will definitely practice my royal icing skills another time!

These cookies are perfect for those of you who - like me - like a dark, spiced gingerbread cookie.  The ginger flavour is quite pronounced since there is both ground, and candied ginger in them.  The finished result is not too sweet which is perfect since I knew we were going to be icing them. If you like a sweeter cookie and are not planning on doing any icing, I would probably increase the sugar a little bit.  I used honey in my recipe instead of molasses, so they do have a bit of a different taste, and have a soft texture after baking that is quite nice.  We also added some "Black Onyx" cocoa powder from Silk Road Spice Merchant that gives them a really lovely deep chocolate undertone, but don't buy this cocoa especially unless you want to.  It will work with whatever good quality dark cocoa you have available to you.  Feel free to tweak the spices as you like.  We went lighter on the clove this time since my mom isn't as big of a fan.

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Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups Flour
• 1 cup Butter
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 3/4 cup Dark Honey
• 1 Egg
• 2 tbsp Chai Tea (can sub water)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ground Cardamom
• 1/2 tsp Ground Clove
• 1 tsp Allspice
• 1 1/2 tbsp Dark Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 cup Finely Minced Candied Ginger

Takes approx 1 hour, yields about 3 dozen.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cream Butter, Honey, and Sugar in a blender until it lightens in colour and the sugar crystals are beginning to dissolve. Add egg, chai tea, and vanilla and mix until emulsified.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and make sure there are no lumps. Sifting is helpful here.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and when fully mixed throw in the minced ginger. Make sure it is a really fine mince since these will be rolled out quite thin.
5. Wrap dough well and refrigerate for a few hours, or preferably overnight.
6. Roll out cookies and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. The edges should be just starting to brown (it's a bit hard to tell with these dark cookies, but you'll be able to). The cookies will remain fairly soft due to the honey in the dough, but they should be firm enough that you don't feel they will fall apart.
7. When they are completely cool decorate them as you like!

Product Review: Simplee by Nuggles

Every once in a while on the blog I like to feature products that I really love.  My focus for them is that they are eco friendly, ethical, and I especially love it when they are made by Canadian companies.  In this case I am even happier to share a product from a company in my own town!  

Nuggles is a cloth diapering company based in Kamloops, BC.  The diapers are designed by moms, and they create all their own prints (I especially like the "Outdoorable", "Up and Away", and "Isbjorn" prints), and the solid colours they choose are really beautiful as well.  The diaper I am reviewing here is called the Simplee.  It's a one size, "all in two" that can also function as a pocket diaper, and it is made from bamboo, micro fleece, and TPU.  

There are lots of features in this diaper that make it extremely user friendly.  You can either layer the bamboo inserts on top of the diaper and change them out for new ones when you need to, or you can stuff them underneath the micro fleece and use it more as a pocket diaper.  If you do the former, it's much cheaper as you don't need to buy as many covers.  Nuggles sells the liners separately.  If you do the latter it's a simplified process, and typically easier for babysitters, daycare workers, or other family members who are not quite as into cloth diapers.  It's totally up to you how you use them, but having all the options is really great.

The pictures below show a few of the other features that make these diapers so user friendly.  The liners/boosters have a convenient hidden snap to keep them in place but they also come apart fairly easily in the washing machine so you don't have to worry about getting messy.  

The rise snaps and waist snaps have so many different options to fit all sizes of babies.  This one diaper goes from most 8 - 40 lbs babies!  Buying a one size fit diaper saves so much money since you're only buying one size of diaper for the entire time your child needs diapers.  We still aren't on the largest setting and Little Forager is almost two!

The other feature that I am most happy about are the hip snaps.  There are these extra snaps at the hips of the diaper that help hold the wings up.  We've had some trouble with other diapers in that way and it's so nice not to worry about it!  I hope that this is something Nuggles might consider including on their Tuck-Wrap-Go covers as well.  

Our other favourite thing about the Simplee is how easy it is to take on the go.  Most cloth diapers are much less scary to take on trips and outings than you would think (read my previous post about cloth diapering on a road trip for more information about that), but this one makes it all even easier.  We took Little Forager to the beach and changed him while he was standing up in the sand and it only took a few seconds.  

The other great thing about all of this is that I have a discount I get to share with all my readers for your purchases at Nuggles.  Click this link to get your discount!

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Nuggles provided me with some of the items in my review free of charge, but all opinions in this article are my own.  This post contains affiliate links, for which I may receive compensation.

Fishing at Jacko Lake

Looking back at these photos, it's hard to believe that this was not even a month ago.  Today my garden is a snowy winter wonderland.  This is a beautiful place to live, regardless of the season, but I especially like our autumns.  Because of the rain-shadow effect, we receive the least amount of precipitation in our province, so our fall months are overwhelmingly crisp, clear, and sunny.  Gold and blue are the dominant colours of the landscape.

This was a terrible year for fishing.  I'm not sure how everyone else did, but we caught absolutely nothing this time. There were a few factors working against us, the main one being that we don't have a boat, or fly fishing equipment.  Another is that it's trickier now that we need to schedule a babysitter to make it happen.  We used to take Little Forager along in a carrier, but now he's too wiggly and isn't content if he can't be out exploring.  When he's older we can take him and teach him how it all works, but for now it's just much easier if we go by ourselves.  Still another thing - more specific to this summer alone - was the oppressive smoke from what was British Columbia's worst ever season of wildfires.  

I knew the beautiful weather was coming to an end, and so I enlisted a friend to watch Little Forager so Mr. Forager and I could head out to Jacko Lake for a few hours one afternoon.  I'm so glad I did because I'm fairly certain that this was the last warm sunny weekend of the year!  Like I said, now everything is frozen, and likely to remain that way for a while!  It's possible we might have another warm spell, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

Still no fish for us, but it was so nice to spend a few hours alone with my husband.  Fishing is so relaxing.  This spot at Jacko was a perfect place to relax in the sun even if it was a little disappointing not to be bringing home any trout for dinner.

Jacko Lake is in the centre of a big controversy at the moment, because the land is held by a local mining corporation, but is also thought to be a culturally significant site for the Tk'emlups and Skeetchestn Indian Bands.  In the Secwepemc language the area around the lake is called Pipsell, and is thought to be where the legend called The Trout Children took place (see the link at the bottom of this page if you want to read the legend).  

I love this place, and personally it is hard for me to imagine it disappearing from public access because of the proposed nearby open pit mine.  I'm not very well versed on the politics of the situation, but I would certainly grieve the loss.

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For more information:

The Epic Tale that is Jacko Lake

What Exactly is Jacko Lake?

Secwepemc Stsptekwll "The Trout Children"