A taste of honey

I have arrived. Yesterday I received my first ever organic vegetable delivery box. Precisely. Actually, it was my first ever vegetable delivery box. But it being organic, you can understand how I feel that my life is getting on for being almost complete now.

It felt like Christmas-time, especially as once I'd opened my 'present', I had to cook the dinner!

I signed up to this scheme some weeks ago. I’m not sure why (probably just my general pessimism), but I did wonder at one stage whether Danny and Miranda were going to be able to pull this off. Something in one of the emails Danny sent out maybe gave me the impression that they weren’t getting the numbers they wanted. Anyway, they did it, and what a great job they've done so far. Lots of lovely salad vegetables, plus a big bruiser of an avocado were packed away in the box. I was pleased to see that the box was sturdy and completed covered the contents (I had visions of the squirrels munching away at my tomatoes). It was also good to see that packaging inside the box had been kept to a minimum. As well as all the veg, there were bananas, oranges, and apples. And it was great to see apples that weren’t the size of footballs and impossibly shiny like the ones at the local grocery store.

Danny and Miranda’s delivery service is called The Organic Box. It’s based in Edmonton, Alberta, and it’s a new venture which I hope is going to prove very successful. I’ve signed up for a trial three-week period, with delivery every other week. I wasn’t too sure that my husband and I would get through all the contents of one standard size box, which is why I opted to receive a box every two weeks. But I now realize that that won’t be a problem - today's Wednesday and we’ll be lucky if it lasts out the weekend! The cost is $50 a week for the trial three-week sign-up, or $45 if you sign up for the full 13 weeks it’s offered for (another reason I opted for a box every two weeks instead of every week). I did the math before signing up, and I worked out that we only spend about half this sum a week on fruit and veg (hence the delivery every two weeks). So while it's more expensive than shopping at the local store, it does mean that I'm not buying (and eating) suspiciously shiny apples the size of footballs, and I do get all the heavy stuff delivered.

What I've tasted so far of the fruit and veg has been good. Maybe I'm raving about the box because it contained Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes as they're called here), and last night was the first time I had tried them. And they were delicious! However, I think I should reserve judgement on the whole organic veg box delivery thing until I've eaten everything that was delivered.

Even so, although I’m an impoverished writer, I’m seriously considering signing up for the whole shebang: weekly delivery for however long they’re doing it. How can I go back now? As Smokey Robinson knew only too well, a taste of honey is worse than none at all.

The right funk

So the snow’s gone and I’m now out of my funk (as they say here in Alberta). Not too sure what a funk is exactly, but I think the English equivalent might be 'having the hump', or as any wannabe-Cockney would say, 'the right 'ump'. Anyway, with the snow gone, I was able to finish off the beds, and rather fetching they look, too.

As luck would have it, while the ground was covered in snow for those few days last week, a flyer was put through the door advertising a compost sale. A local swimming club was having a fund-raiser and selling bags of organic compost. As my compost isn’t ready – at least not in any amount that’s worth digging into the soil – you can imagine how deliriously happy I was to receive this flyer. I quickly called and placed an order for one 40-litre bag, at the price of $10. I worked out that I would be able to get the bag of compost back home (the sale was being held about 20 blocks or so from my house) in my shopping trolley. Brilliant!

So the compost is now dug into the beds, and I’ve sown some seeds directly into the ground. I’m hardening off the plants I started off indoors from seed. Unfortunately, I think the cucumbers must have had quite a shock at the weekend when I placed them outside for a few hours as they’re looking very sorry for themselves. The tomato plants seem to be doing well, as are the onions and parsley.

I also bought some bedding plants at the weekend for containers and the one hanging basket the previous owners left in the back garden. However, I’m not planting any tender plants out just yet as there’s every chance that we’ll get another dump of snow before the summer really starts – which will give me the right funk!

Well iffy

When I said that May is a little iffy, this is what I meant. This was taken at 9.30 this morning. R.U.B.B.I.S.H.

Short and sweet

The growing season here is Alberta is relatively short. It’s a fairly safe bet that June, July and August will be snow- and frost-free. May is a little iffy. Last year we had frost in May and a few tomato plants I had in the ground didn’t fare too well. The first autumn frosts, or rather two inches of snow, came fairly early in October last year, which is a pity because my cucumbers were still going strong and I could have got a few more if the snow hadn’t killed them off. So if you want to grow anything in this part of the world, it pays to make hay while the sun shines – as they say.

Given the short growing season in Alberta, it’s surprising that anything is actually produced. However, once the summer gets going here, it brings with it very long days of sunshine. There’s little rain which means that you have to make sure you water often. Last year I was watering my veggies at least twice a day during most of the summer (last year I made do with a watering can; fortunately, the previous owners of this house kindly left us a watering hose which we’re already finding very convenient).

Having now hit May, we’ve already had a taster of what’s in store with some very nice warm and sunny spells so far this year. Looking to the summer to come (which is hugely anticipated by everyone after five months of snow covering the ground!), I’ve dug out two vegetables patches in the back garden. Each is about ten feet by about four. I collected my compost from my old house last week (I couldn’t bring it with me - literally - when I actually moved house as it was frozen in the ground, it being the middle of January then). Anyway, it’s looking – and smelling – good. Unfortunately, there’s only about six months’ worth so not really enough to dig into the newly created vegetable patches just yet.

Not that I’ve been waiting for all possibility of frost to pass in order to start planting, though. I’ve started a few vegetables off indoors. Cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and thyme and parsley I started off in the basement a few weeks ago. However, it wasn’t light enough for them down there and they germinated a bit spindly. Having moved them upstairs to the kitchen table, they’re doing much better now and I’m hoping that they will be established enough to hold their own when planted outside. As well as placing these few plants into the vegetable patches, I’ll also sow some seeds directly into the ground – lettuce, beets, maybe carrots, and perhaps a few more herbs. And then the race is on to see how much produce I can harvest in the months ahead!