fiddlehead season in New Brunswick

This time of year in New Brunswick, the fields and riversides are turning green. The leaves of the alders are the size of a mouse’s ear and that means fishing in the streams. The small leaves of the red maples are like green stars against a blue sky. And bouquets of fiddlehead ferns are unfolding in the wet meadows and along the shores.

Fiddleheads, the young coiled leaf fronds of the Ostrich fern (Matteuccia Struthiopteris (L.) Tod.), are a local delicacy in New Brunswick. Steamed, with a pat of butter, they are the perfect vegetable for a spring meal. Fiddleheads are one of the edible wild plants featured in my book ‘within easy reach’ (Chapel Street Editions). I will be launching my book at 7 pm on June 9, 2016 at Westminster Books in Fredericton. If you live in the Fredericton area, I would be so happy to see you there!

For more information on the fiddlehead, see https://janetims.com/2012/05/19/making-friends-with-the-ferns-2/

Fiddleheads along the Saint John River in the Grand Lake Meadows

Update: my poetry book ‘within easy reach’

The date for the release of my poetry book ‘within easy reach’ is very soon! The book includes my poems and drawings about edible wild plants and other local foods. It will be available through my publisher Chapel Street Editions and through Amazon. Soon I’ll be posting details of how and where to order the book and information on where I will be reading during the next weeks.

During the first month of ‘within easy reach’ book sales, I will be offering you an opportunity to win the painting on the front cover of the book. The painting, called ‘brambles’, measures 10″ by 10″. It is done in acrylics and has gallery edges.

I will post the details about how to get a chance to win the painting within the next few days.

February 29, 2016 ‘brambles’ Jane Tims

I hope you will love my book, as much as I loved creating the poems and drawings!

Local food for lunch!

My pepper plants are up today. And the day is so warm, gardening is possible!

Meanwhile, there is great local produce available. The last few days, I have been enjoying tomatoes from Real Food Connections in Fredericton.

My lunch? A toasted tomato sandwich!

keeping bees

Although I don’t keep bees, honey bees were a part of my early life. My dad always had beehives. I can see him in my mind’s eye, calmly moving among the hives. I can also remember the honey centrifuge, ‘walking’ across our kitchen floor. Today, in my refrigerator, I still have one tub, part full and over 40 years old, of my dad’s honey. Not to eat, of course, but as a keepsake of those days.

The poem ‘beekeeper’ will be in my new poetry book.

beekeeper

bees smoke-drowsy rag smoulders swung slowly protected thick

in net and cotton wicking folds into beeswax candle flame

pours golden through panes in the honeycomb

streamers sweet circles sink into bread

hollows

yeast-filled

and honey

bee sting

unexpected

beekeeper

never flinches

flicks the bee

from his fingers

spit and mud

for a poultice

Published as: ‘beekeeper’, Canadian Stories 17 (95), February/March 2014

A version of this post was published at www.janetims.com in 2014.

Spring … planting time

Finally, spring!!! The last bit of snow is melted from our lawn (although there are still patches of snow in the woods) and I have crocuses in bloom!

This weekend, a couple of years ago, I attended a strategic planning event at Falls Brook Center in west-central New Brunswick. Falls Brook Center is a non-profit group working within the community to teach skills for more sustainable living.

Setting goals for an organisation is never easy and we enjoyed a welcome break from all the group discussion and brainstorming when one of the program coordinators gave us a short workshop about how to make seed sprouters from newspaper. In the past, I have often used peat pots, milk cartons and even Styrofoam cups to start my seeds. Making plant pots from newspaper is easy, saves money, and reduces waste! And making the pots is fun!

We used PotMaker® to make our seed pots. PotMaker® is made in Canada by Richters (Goodwood, Ontario, L0C 1A0) http://www.PotMaker.com . The kit includes two wooden shapes, one to wrap the newspaper into a tube, and the other to ‘crimp’ the lower part of the tube into a closed pot.

010_crop

This morning, after a few minutes of rolling newspaper strips and tucking ends, I have enough pots to start a new batch of herbs for my kitchen window garden! Now, all I have to do is fill the newspaper pots with some planting mix and sprinkle some seeds. The pots support one another and keep their shape even wet. They can be planted directly into the garden … the roots grow through the paper and the pots disintegrate.

020_crop

greenhouse, early spring

dead plantings rustle

skeletons brittle

pods and packets rattle

whisper me to the greenhouse

weak sunshine warms the glass

my prints a path on late snow

meltwater sinks into grass

soaks into clay

bits of crockery

wooden handles

leaf mould and sand

soil pressed into pots

the gardener

awakened from winter

rooted in moss and clay

Post first published April, 2014

Poem published as ‘greenhouse, early spring’, Canadian Stories 15 (87), Oct/Nov, 2012

‘within easy reach’

This spring, I will celebrate the publication of my first book of poetry!

‘within easy reach’ is a result of my 2012 project ‘growing and gathering’ supported by artsnb (the New Brunswick Arts Board). The poems focus on harvesting and eating local foods, especially wild foods. My book will be published by Chapel Street Editions, Woodstock, New Brunswick.

The book will include about sixty poems as well as some of my black and white pencil drawings. These are poems about picking blackberries and blueberries, eating coastal favorites like goose tongue greens and samphire, buying smelts from a truck at the roadside and fishing for landlocked salmon. Every poem is based on a personal experience of harvesting and using local foods.

For more information on my growing and gathering adventures and my new book, please visit http://www.janetims.com