"We need to create a vibrant and tight knit community around our food systems in order to achieve substantive change." -Zev Friedman Part of the aim in creating Hereabouts was to broaden our experience of community by opening our property up to others from near and far along with their varying perspectives, interests, and circumstances. We hoped the tiny house would draw like-minded people to us while, for others, serve to inspire possibilities around small footprint living,

Summer has come and gone in Alberta and as you may have heard (or experienced yourself!) we actually endured several weeks of winter before autumn arrived. Yes, we were plunged abruptly from August's heat into what felt like a punishing deep freeze in September, our gardens meeting an untimely death. Our raised bed on September 16th Our growing season in the foothills is short indeed and it's easy to despair that it was all for naught when it ends before you can reap what you

"By this action, what am I saying 'yes' to?" -Charles Eisenstein, The Yoga of Eating Deep into last winter I had my doubts we'd ever feel the warmth of July again. Yet here we are, well into summer, the season of abundance, the earth putting forth food in full force. And with all that production comes opportunity. Opportunity not only to seize fresh, nutrient-dense, full-flavoured produce, but to connect more deeply with place and shape the world we live in. Because eating is

Those of you in milder climes may find it hard to believe, but here in our Cochrane yard, approaching the end of April, just about the only things I can find poking through the newly-thawed ground are chives and perennial onions. It has been One. Long. Winter. But let's work with what we've got, right? Hungry for a sprig of anything fresh and alive from soil that has been asleep for so long, I'm ready, scissors in hand, to reap a wee harvest from those tiny allium tufts. And

With summer well and truly behind us and fall swiftly morphing into winter, it's a good time to don a thick sweater and take stock of what we reaped this past season. The freezer is full of pestos (spruce tip, nettle, basil, arugula, etc.), raspberries, saskatoons, applesauce, and rosehip syrup. There's a sack of colourful potatoes keeping cool, cabbage fermented into sauerkraut and kimchi, and some extra root veggies (carrot, beet, burdock, and celeriac) in the crisper. Ther

Spring has finally arrived in Alberta and, along with birdsong and bicycles, this means a whole lot of green. Green - a favourite colour of humans! In the landscape it suggests abundance and moisture; in nutrition, green leaves are the most nutrient-dense of all vegetables, packed with heaps of vitamins and minerals including the ever-needed magnesium, heart of the chlorophyll molecule. Wild plants tend to have much higher levels of phytonutrients (those multitudinous, but le

“Cooking gives you a chance to practice the esoteric art of manifestation - bringing something from the imagination into physical reality.” -Andrew Weil There's a dichotomy in how our culture views the act of preparing food. It's either looked upon as the realm of domestic drudgery, historically the sad lot of the paid domestic worker or unliberated "housewife", or we exalt it as the domain of high-end visionary chefs. But is cooking not a daily act of creativity available

The First of March. That time of year when we feel we can almost glimpse spring ahead. And yet, if you've lived in Alberta long enough you know to reign in your enthusiasm - the season of frost may be easing up a touch, but it will be with us for at least another month or two. Perfect timing, then, that just as the charm of winter's quiet and coziness is wearing thin, we have the happy task of planning for this year's spring plantings. If you haven't already, you may soon be

INDIGENOUS: "produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment" "Someone who learns to use all their senses to carefully observe nature and people before making judgements, use intuition and subtle sensing instead of reductionist thought to make choices and guide relationships, articulate and adhere to goals and priorities, and pragmatically mimic the elegant and effective patterns found in natural ecosystems and in organisms, this person