Farms & gardens

Sooke's Sunriver Allotment Garden opens properly with a garden dedication this weekend. I won't be there for that but hope to have a look round soon.

There's been a lot of buzz about Chinese organics, since this article about dodgy dealings on the inspection end hit the NYT headlines. More fuel for the locavores, and even more fuel for the urban farmers.

Good to know therefore that there's clean and impartially inspected certified organic food on offer nowadays at Haliburton Farm's farm stand,



gearing up for full scale summer produce in the next few weeks, but open now with fresh greens, salad fixins and - gosh is it summer already? - strawberries



and (ahem) a little home baking.



Our work parties at the farm have moved to the plot formerly worked by the farm's gardening and cooking school arm, Terralicious, which has sadly ceased to be since its owner is moving to California. There's lots to weed



and lots to plant (beans, in yesterday's case).



We had our own local urban farmers' garden tour last weekend on a (so far) unusually warm and sunny day, and I found it reassuring to see that even though we've had such a chilly spring, there's lots of life in them there gardens, and some tantalizing signs of summer ready to pick.