“Everyday is a winding road, I get a little bit closer to feeling fine…”

This 1999 song played in our kitchen from Spotify playlist when I was trying to figure out which variety and how many loaves of bread I should bake. Last week, I miscalculated the amount of starter and what I prepared was not quite enough for planned bake. Yes, it was a winding road on Friday afternoon. We upgraded our oven last year, but dough kneading, bulk fermentation and proofing are done manually. I need to adjust water temperature and bulk fermentation time according to ambient temperature by looking and smelling the dough. Too much fermentation and bread will become sour. Too little fermentation and bread will not have enough power to rise in the oven! Please excuse me if you find the taste and texture of your bread varies a little each time. I am still navigating a winding road!!

In our garden, snap peas are growing well. I hope they will bloom soon. Red Russian kale, collard, chard, beets, zucchini and garlic seem to be doing well, too.

Potatoes were taking long and I started to worry, but today, finally, I noticed the first sign of life!!

And, our Gobo, or burdock are also finally germinating. In the coming fall I hope I can bring some Gobo to the market.

I learned that tough love is sometimes needed, not only as a parent to our kids, but also as a farmer to plants. We started heritage tomato seedlings early March. As you know, much of March was really cold and the tiny seedlings were struggling in our propagation house, where it can get pretty cold especially at night. I brought some of them to our warm house and left the others in the propagation house. A month and half later today, the first photo below shows the ones left in the cold place, and the second photo shows the ones stayed in our living room for a while. The ones left outside look much healthier and are growing faster than the ones kept at home…

For the next season, we will try to establish a better environment in our propagation area so that we can give them a good balance of tough and comfortable life.

On Sunday, Yoko suggested we visit Cable Bay Trail in Nanaimo. Initially, I said I was too busy working in the garden but changed my mind and we both went. We enjoyed beautiful wildflowers.

The roots of this tree looked like dinosaur feet and we felt like we were in Jurassic park.

Summer market starts this week for both Island Roots and AGI market. Location and schedule are as follows:

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• AGI Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 2pm on Saturday

Thank you for reading our newsletter. Have a great week!