My favourite urban farmer

I went to TEDx Victoria on the weekend and though many of the talks were interesting, funny, musical and inspiring, the last talk of the day was a bit of a downer. Garth Lenz talked about Alberta's Tar Sands and showed photos of the destructive impact that our demand for oil has on the land and people in our country. If you don't know much about what is going on up there, listen to this talk to get up to speed. It's insane.

Here's the good news. My friend Carolynn. Actually I don't think that what she does is motivated in any way by the Tar Sands. She just loves gardening, mothering chickens and eating good food.

I visited Carolynn in Vancouver recently and she gave me a tour of her backyard farm. After being the recipient of many text messages that were simply photos of eggs (it's amazing how that proud mother feeling doesn't wear off), I finally got to meet Carolynn's flock. She has been raising chickens for eggs since the spring of 2010 - minutes after Vancouver passed a by-law allowing chickens in the city. At the moment, she has a Wyandotte (the speckled hen) and a Silkie (the white lady) and they live in the most luxurious coop a chicken could dream of. Seriously, it's made of cedar. Since there isn't much daylight at this time of year, her egg harvest is at its lowest (7-10 a week), but that's a pretty good haul for one person.

Carolynn's little farm also consists of a strawberry patch and four raised beds where she grew vegetables this summer. In fact, there were still beets and chard in the ground when I visited. Unfortunately I was too excited about the chickens to take photos of anything else.

Redheaded roommates reunite

This is me in 2007, milking a cow for the first time. It did not go well. First she peed which stunned me, making my nervous hands even more unsure as I timidly pulled on her teets. A few minutes later she pooped. The manure got all over my arm, some dropped in the bucket and we had to throw the milk away.

I haven't had much chance to practise milking by hand since then, so I'll credit my time with the Dowlings on Howe Island (where the milking was done with milkers) for my newfound confidence around dairy cows. This past weekend I visited my friend Kate at the eco-village/farm here on the island where she has been living for almost a year, and I got to try my hand at milking again. It went well - the cow, "Bossy", did not treat me like a toilet this time - though I have some work to do in the speed department. When she got restless, indicating that she had had enough with the beginner and wanted to get it overwith, Jason took over to finish the job. 

Jason, Kate and Mike are in charge of Bossy and it was incredible to see how much they have learned about milking (and how fast they can squeeze milk out of an udder) in such a short time without much prior cow experience. As I learned with driving standard, it's all about immersion.

Josh and I got a tour of their fancy homemade beehive where the bees make their own comb - very different from your typical commercial hive. Here Jason and Josh look in the special viewing window. You can't see it but Josh is sticking his tongue in to see if he can get a taste of honey.  

 The eco-village runs courses on sustainable building - here is a structure that they built out of cob (clay, sand, straw, water) that includes a little wood-fire oven.

Kate and I lived together in Ottawa and I have been stalking her at the various eco-villages that she has lived at since. She has become a dairy-making guru so we traded notes on cheese-making and she snuck me some of her raw milk yogurt (to use as a starter to make my own). We were also glad to discover that we now have matching-coloured rain boots.

Josh had a hard time saying goodbye to his dear friend Jason, but the weekend had come to an end and it was time to head back to the city.

Wordless Wednesday (kind of): List

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