You've got to love it when a potato farmer, who has seen plenty of fields in bloom, for whom said fields mean work, work and more work, still stops to soak in the glory of a field of potatoes in bloom, take a photo, share it online and invite people to take a drive up … Continue reading Potato fields in bloom still make Michelle Beks sigh
Contributor Michelle Beks shared this on her instagram this morning, and it struck me as the most fantastic shorthand to potentially diffuse a tough domestic conversation. "Don't blame the lettuce." What happens if we tend ourselves, and each other, as if we were plants (that we wanted to keep alive?!) When you plant lettuce, … Continue reading Don’t blame the lettuce
Michelle Beks follows Kamana Bikadi at the helm of the Wellness Almanac on instagram. I hope you're following along.
It doesn't get more "wellness" than having to shake the dirt off your carrots and knowing your grower. So we're stoked that Michelle Beks, Wellness Almanac contributor, has started instagramming for Shaw Creek Farm. Michelle lives up the Valley on the 3rd generation family farm, (find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Shawcreekfarm), where she and husband … Continue reading Instagrammers of Pemberton features @shawcreekfarm
Driving home from Squamish one day, 20 or more years ago, I was listening to The Almanac on CBC radio. The topic was small acreages and people going back to the land. The guest mentioned this book by Carla Emery more than once in his hour on the show. It was called The Encyclopedia of … Continue reading #Wellness Reads: The Encyclopedia of Country Living
A few pretty blooms have been proliferating in my yard of late, but this year, instead of saying, oh, how lovely, I've been saying, "No! No! Don't eat that!" (to the toddler) and "don't think you can trick me with your innocent face" (to the daisies). I've been tearing a few of them up, because … Continue reading Of Good Flowers and Bad Flowers, an Invasive Species Hunt
I am not a columnist. I prefer asking questions to offering opinions (unless I'm at a dinner party and a little sauced.) And my skin isn't thick enough to put my unfootnoted thinking all naked out into the world on a regular basis. And I'm not funny (like my favourite columnists are - to wit: … Continue reading The Wellness Almanac In Print: This Week in the Question
It is spring in the town of Pemberton. Snow has melted, the grass is turning green and trees are about to bud. The daylight hours are getting longer and people are shedding layers of winter wear. It is a whole different story just a few miles north on the Pemberton Meadows Road. Every winter as … Continue reading Seasonal Observations: 5 Signs of Spring in the Upper Pemberton Meadows
The newspapers under the floor... Sounds like the title of a Nancy Drew mystery. What my husband found one wintery Sunday afternoon was nothing short of amazing. He was in the process of beefing up the floor of his wood workshop on our farm. He wanted to lift up the old lino in the building … Continue reading Finding History Under the Floor
I am often asked "What do you farmers do all winter?" - as if the blanket of snow has by some magic made all of our work disappear. (It does do a good job of covering up certain jobs but they are still there... under the snow.) When potato harvest is done in October, we … Continue reading January Sweet January
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