Posts Tagged ‘local food’
yard work – the grape harvest
We had a frost on October 4 and today, I harvested my grapes. You will imagine tubs of ripe fruit, hands stained purple and a row of grape jelly jars on the counter.
~
my grapes, wandering about in the birch tree
~
But my grape harvest is a bit small. However after ten years, this is the first ‘harvest’ from this vine so I am quite proud! No jelly though. I ate the lot of them, sitting in the yard, admiring the autumn leaves. They were juicy, sweet and delicious.
~
the entire harvest!
~
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
getting ready for fall – blueberries
Another painting in my series! I could call the collection paintings to illustrate ‘within easy reach’ since each one was inspired by a poem in my book.
~
Blueberries are probably my favorite berry to pick. This could be because every summer, when my family visited Nova Scotia, we spent a week at my Grandfather’s blueberry farm. I picked blueberries with cousins, siblings and parents. I was never very good at the task but my idea of picking is one for the bucket, two for the mouth, so I guess you now know why I love picking blueberries!
~
This little painting was fun to do. I was inspired because I had just finished putting together freezer bags of blueberries from a big box we bought at McKay’s Wild Blueberry Farm Stand in Pennfield, New Brunswick (https://janetims.com/2012/08/04/blueberries/).
~
The painting is 10″ X 10″, gallery edges, acrylics, painted with Ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow, Cadmium red, Burnt sienna and Titanium white.
~
August 20, 2016 ‘pick faster’ Jane Tims
~
And, to accompany the painting, another sampling from the poems in my book ‘within easy reach’. My book of poems and drawings is available from my publisher http://www.chapelstreeteditions.com
~
~
pick faster
for Dad
~
blue ripens as morning, deft fingers
noisy pails, hail on metal gutters
this bush spent, unsatisfactory
berries over there fatter
bluer
~
I am certain I see, beside mine
my father’s hands, callused
and quick
~
berries roll between
thumb and fingers
~
I try to meet
his expectation
~
pick faster
~
~
~
within easy reach, Chapel Street Editions, 2016
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
getting ready for fall – choke-cherries
I have finished the final painting in the group for my sale in November. The last one is titled ‘within easy reach’, the title of my book and the first poem in the book! The painting is done in acrylics, 8″ X 16″, gallery edges, with Ultramarine blue, Cadmium red, Cadmium yellow, Burnt sienna and Titanium white.
~
Choke-cherry is a large weedy shrub, found along roadways, at the edge of fields and woods, and in barrens and lakeside thickets. The dark red berries occur in drooping clusters. They are very sour but are used to make jelly and wine. When the choke-cherries are ripe, all you have to do is reach up and your pail will fill to overflowing!
~
August 30, 2016 ‘within easy reach’ Jane Tims
~
within easy reach
~
Choke-cherry (Prunus virginiana L.)
~
Choke-cherries flow
into pail, sunlight
into winter, glint
of ripening by fireside
and flame, a taste
of dry wine, cherry-laden
and summer within
easy reach, berries
by the handful, ice-pellets
against the glass
~
~
within easy reach, Chapel Street Editions, 2016
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
‘within easy reach’ – cover art
This is reminder that I am offering a chance to win the painting ‘brambles’ on the cover of my book ‘within easy reach’. The last day to enter is June 7, 2016.
~
The draw for the painting will take place at the launch for my book, on Thursday June 9, 2016 at Westminster Books in Fredericton (7 PM). I’ll let everyone know who won the painting on Friday, June 10.
~
Those who entered for the draw are also entered in another draw to win another painting ‘berries and brambles’. Anyone who has purchased a book from me or the publisher is entered for this second draw, to take place June 30, 2016.
~
~
To win the cover art ‘brambles’, you have to do three things.
- Purchase my book through my publisher’s website (www.chapelstreeteditions.com)
- Leave a comment on any of my Blogs (www.nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com or www.janetims.com or www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com) with the words ‘within easy reach’ somewhere in the comment
- Be prepared to send me, via email, a scan of your purchase receipt.
~
The cover painting ‘brambles’ is done in acrylics, size 10″ by 10″, with gallery edges.
February 29, 2016 ‘brambles’ by Jane Tims
~
Your name will be entered once for each book purchased. The contest will run for the first five weeks following the publication date of within easy reach (until June 7, 2016). At the end of the contest, anyone who has purchased a book from the publisher and left the comment as described above will be entered for the draw.
~
I hope you will enjoy my book. And some reader will be the winner of the painting ‘brambles’!
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
Growing and gathering – Spring salad
I make a new batch of sprouts weekly. This week’s crop was something I haven’t tried to grow before … pea shoots. I sprouted the peas in my 8 X 10 Sproutmaster from Sprout People.
https://sproutpeople.org/sproutmaster-8×10-tray-sprouter/
~
Pea shoots sprout sooner if they are soaked in water first. I let mine sprout with just the rinse water.
~
For me, a twice daily water rinse and careful draining is key to growing the best sprouts. I know pea shoots can grow quite tall with a vermiculite base and some propping at the sides but I was content to just let them peak above the sides of my sprouter.
~
~
To prepare the pea shoots, I washed them well and harvested them with scissors.
~
~
Then I added a chopped onion, chopped celery, chives from the garden and a sprig of mint. Just plain mayonnaise for a dressing. Yum!
~
~
My husband shook his head and said (as a joke) I would have to survive the Apocalypse all by myself.
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
‘within easy reach’ … a poetry book about wild edibles and local foods
all about my new book:
within easy reach by Jane Spavold Tims
(with a foreword by Freeman Patterson)
Chapel Street Editions, Woodstock
May 2016
~
~
includes poems and pencil drawings about
eating local foods and gathering wild edible plants
~
~
poetry about picking berries, gathering herbs and roots, gardening, fishing
local markets, beekeeping and salad greens
explores how easy it is to bring local foods into your diet
and
considers the barriers to eating local and gathering wild foods
explores abandoned gardens
poisonous berries and berries in bottles
includes poems about our history of eating wild foods
and about New Brunswick’s special local foods:
maple syrup and fiddleheads
coastal plants like goosetongue greens and samphire
land-locked salmon
notes on each plant – characteristics and uses
seventeen pencil drawings
~
~
this book will remind you of your own experiences picking berries
a tribute to every age of our lives – dancing in the school gym and picking berries with arthritic hands
it will recall the habits of your ancestors
a beautiful book – rests open in your hands as you read
a font so easy on the eyes
I hope you will love within easy reach
~
Jane Tims
2016
~
‘within easy reach’ – a chance to win the cover art
This is reminder that I am offering a chance to win the painting on the cover of my book ‘within easy reach’.
~
~
To win this painting, you have to do three things.
- Purchase my book through my publisher’s website (www.chapelstreeteditions.com)
- Leave a comment on any of my Blogs (www.nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com or www.janetims.com or www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com) with the words ‘within easy reach’ somewhere in the comment
- Be prepared to send me, via email, a scan of your purchase receipt.
~
The cover painting ‘brambles’ is done in acrylics, size 10″ by 10″, with gallery edges.
February 29, 2016 ‘brambles’ by Jane Tims
~
Your name will be entered once for each book purchased. The contest will run for the first five weeks following the publication date of within easy reach (until June 7, 2016). At the end of the contest, anyone who has purchased a book from the publisher and left the comment as described above will be entered for the draw. I will notify the winner and let the readers of the blog know who has won.
~
I hope you will enjoy my book. And some reader will be the winner of the painting ‘brambles’!
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
‘within easy reach’ – a painting for the front cover
As the release date for my book of poetry ‘within easy reach’ draws near, I have been doing some painting.
~
I began my project ‘growing and gathering’ and the poems for my book ‘within easy reach’ after my husband and I discovered blackberries on our new property at the lake. For this reason, blackberries seem a fitting subject for a cover painting.
~
I think blackberries are fun to paint:
- a basic berry-shape of Payne’s Grey
- a highlighting of each seed in the drupe with Payne’s Grey mixed with Titanium White
- a spot of white to highlight berries on one side of the drupe
- a background of blues and purples to simulate the shadow in the thicket
- leaves and a stem
~
This is my ‘practice painting’, in acrylics, 5″ by 10″.
~
~
I’ll be showing you the final cover painting soon – 10″ by 10″, a perfect shape for the cover of my book.
~
On a windy, wintery day, it is hard to be patient, waiting for blackberry season!!
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
edible wild – spruce gum
In my part of North America, we have freezing temperatures and snow on the ground from December to March. With a few exceptions, most plants go into sleep mode during these months and foraging for edible plants is difficult. You can dig beneath the snow to find a few evergreens, but most of the edible wild is above ground.
~
~
When I am in the woods, even in winter, I am always on the look-out for spruce gum, a natural sugar-free treat from the forest. Spruce gum is found, as the name suggests, on spruce tree bark. We have a large stand of spruce in our grey woods, but the tree below grows, conveniently, beside our driveway. For a map of our woods, see the right hand column ‘map of the grey woods’.
~
~
When a branch is broken or the bark is wounded in some way, the spruce oozes a sticky resin that eventually dries to a hard amber-coloured nodule. These nodules can be harvested and chewed like gum. My mom taught me about spruce gum, how to identify the spruce tree and to look for the sticky dark lumps where resin is hardening.
~
~
It is possible to collect a quantity of spruce resin, pulverize, melt and strain the substance, and solidify it, cracking it into bite-sized pieces. I chew the nodules right from the tree, with a little scraping to get rid of any rough bits. At first the gum is hard and crumbly, sticky and intensely aromatic, a little risky for dental work and made interesting by the accidental inclusion of bark bits. After a few minutes of chewing, the gum becomes pliable, woodsy-tasting and orange to pink in colour!
~
photos of chewed gum are a bit disgusting, but I want to show what normal-looking gum a two-minute chew produces. A rough nodule is shown above the chewed gum for comparison.
~
People of the First Nations have always known about this woodland edible and used it for medicinal purposes. In the nineteenth century, spruce gum was harvested with long handled spruce scrapers and sold commercially. Woods-workers made small carved boxes with sliding tops (gum books) to carry and store the resin nodules.
~
Robert Frost, wonderful poet of all things rural, wrote about spruce gum (‘The Gum Gatherer’. Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916):
He showed me lumps of the scented stuff
Like uncut jewels, dull and rough …
~
You can find the rest of the poem at Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29345/29345-h/29345-h.htm
~
~
My upcoming book of poetry within easy reach includes a poem about spruce gum. The poem begins:
Black Spruce weeps if wounded
oozes to heal, embeds
pain in amber …
~
As I wait for spring, I intend to ration my small store of spruce gum and use it as a kind of countdown toward the end of our winter weather.
~
some very clean seeps of resin – these will harden eventually and make great spruce gum !
~
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 
within easy reach – what did you think?
with 2 comments
I have had my book ‘within easy reach’ in circulation since early May and I have had an enjoyable time getting it into the hands of readers, including some of you!
~
~
I have had some feedback but I continue to be curious about what you think of my book. I wonder if you’d take the time to give me some comments. Positive or negative … all will help me in my quest to be a better writer.
~
~
If you are willing to go even further than the comments section here, perhaps you’d do a short review of my book on Goodreads or Amazon, or leave a comment on my Twitter account @TimsJane
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30105132-within-easy-reach?ac=1&from_search=true
~
You can also take part in my poll:
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2016
Share this:
Written by jane tims
June 21, 2016 at 7:43 am
Posted in within easy reach
Tagged with comments, edible plants, feedback, local food, review, within easy reach