Wild Salmon in Trouble

I just wrote about how blessed we are here because we get to eat wild salmon relatively inexpensive. I must admit that i was a little naive to have written that, because wild salmon are in trouble now, and sooner or later not only will we have little wild salmon left to eat, but also the entire ecosystem that depend on wild salmon will collapse, if we continue to be oblivious about the open-net practice of salmon farming.

below is a neat little animation that describes the impacts and relationships between sea-lice, salmon farms, and wild stocks

http://www.focs.ca/fishfarming/SealiceVideo/WW_sealice_video.html

It can be concluded that farmed salmon are bad for many reasons: wastes produced by farming, escaped farmed salmon into the wild, diseases and parasites, chemicals used in farms, toxicity to human health etc.
Not all farmed fish is raised equally though. Salmon are carnivorous so large stock of wild fish has to be captured to make into salmon feed, which is not sustainable. Instead of farming carnivores such as salmon and we should be farming herbivorous species lower down the food chain such as tilapia.

Wasp Hive!

This wasp hive was found under the roof of the shack we use to keep firewood. My dad took it down in the winter when no wasps were flying in and out of the hive. It's a ball shaped thing composed of layer and layers of thin paper like substances. We wonder if the larvae were still in there so we cut it open. Inside it revealed an amazing multi-story construction of combs made of gray wax (not so waxy as normal honey bee's wax). We saw some dead larvae and half-larva-half-wasp things but it was pretty much empty. They must have abandoned this hive in search of somewhere warmer to spend the winter.

Growing mix

top left: peat moss, bottom right: growing mix

When we seed, we first sow the seeds into plastic pots/growing trays containing a growing mix. We mix top soil with perlite (to make the soil more breathable) , peat moss (for its water holding capacity) and dolopril (to add alkalinity) to make the growing mix. People use different ingredients to make growing media. When I was in Kaneko Yoshinori's (Organic farming expert in Japan) farm they used sifted top soil, charred rice chaff and wood ashes only.

Tasty bites

Living on the West coast is a blessing. Among many other reasons is that wild salmon and oysters are not a rare luxury. We can buy Coho salmons directly from fishermen at Comox fisherman's wharf. We smoke salmon to make great omiyage (souvenirs) for friends and family. Oysters are ready to be picked up at the beach when the tide is low. (of course you need a license for oyster picking)

Energy assessment

Today we had an energy advisor came in to do an energy audit on our house. We were looking into solar hot water heating and found out that there are currently 3 government energy efficiency incentives programs for British Columbians: the ecoENERGY (Federal), LiveSmart BC, and SolarBC. (The SolarBC deals with solar hot water heating exclusively and a rebate of $1000 is available through this program).

One of the requirements for qualifying this government money is to do an energy audit on the house before and after the home improvement (one of the audit can be rebated $150). We went ahead and called City Green home energy advisor and made an appointment. So Zack, the auditor, came in this afternoon to measure the dimensions of the house, inspect the insulation and do a number of other poking-around. And he did a curious thing, which was to seal our front entrance with a sheet that has a giant fan and a meter attached. It sucked air out of the house, creating a lower air pressure indoor; it was supposed to measure the air-leakage of the house mathematically. And then we physically walked around the house, we could literally feel air blowing in from outside through where the areas of significant leakages. These areas include: the attic hatch, the floor, the places where pipes were going into the house from the crawl-space, etc.
One thing we know (and was reinforced today) is that the simplest step one can take towards energy efficiency is CONSERVE and INSULATE. Surely they sound a lot less sexy than renewable and alternative energy sources, but ultimately conserve and insulate are the most economic and practical measures to take.

We’ll receive our report in a week and then we have to determine what specific improvements we want to make. If we are to qualify for government money on such retrofits, we need to make them within 18 months from the time of the assessment.

B.C still has a relatively cheap energy. The solar electricity generating system (off-grid or on-grid) has high initial costs and we do have lots of over-cast days here on the island, so the pay-back time may be very long (up to 20 years…really depends). However, Solar Hot water heating is a good investment for British Columbians, because it can generate about 60% of all hot water heating, and the system has the potential to pay itself back in about 5 years. Maybe we’ll do that, in combination with insulation improvements on a couple places recommended.

If you are thinking about making your home more energy efficient, now may be the time! (for Canadians at least) . Do an energy assessment of your house first, you may learn a lot about your house that you never knew about!

Global Food Crisis

Vandana Shiva accuses Worldbank and IMF of being the architects of the crisis and gives some advice how to cope.

http://www.wakeupsydney.com.au/Other-Videos/Global-Food-Crisis.aspx

Just as the old snow had melted away...

Things are going slow, coz the temp is still going low. We had a big snow on Tuesday that covered everything in white. A little more seedlings were done and Lijen almost finished pruning his fig trees. Figs don't bear fruits on the last year's branches, so extensive pruning must be done in early spring (Pruning in the middle of the winter might be harmful to the plant, and pruning well into the spring takes off new growth--> energy wasted). These fig trees look like amputated victims…but space and efficiency need to be maintained even if it means costing an arm and a leg (multiple arms and legs actually, of poor figs)

What do you think these are? Lemon zests? They are actually thinly cut strips of ultra thin omelets. Our hens lay eggs that make into omelets of such striking shade of yellow! That's because our hens eat grass, and the carotene in the grass gives egg yolks the bright yellow color! If you ever see eggs from chickens that only eat chicken feeds, you know how pale those eggs are compare to this beauty.

What's in the green houses

This farm came with 2 green houses when we first bought the farm. Over the years, Lijen have built, with the help of friends and WWOOFers, another 4 green houses to make the total of 6. Green house allows leafy vegetables to grow in late fall and early spring. Summer in Vancouver Island is mild, plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers don't grow as ideally if they were not put in the green house. In recent year, Lijen also began planting fruits in the green house, such as figs, peaches, melons, kiwi and grapes.
At this point, not much is happening in the green house yet, but you can still see some stuff going on...

Left to right: shelling peas, kale (over winter), sugar snap peas

Bok-Choi (over-winter)

Lijen's big bonsai: a second year peach tree after extensive pruning and bending

Left to right: grape vines , veggies left on the ground over the winter, kiwi vines

Fig trees all lost their leaves over the winter

Spring is coming!

As the Chinese New Year celebration draws to an end officially yesterday (Jan 15 on Lunar Calendar; Feb 9th on Solar Calendar this year), I can no longer legitimately put off this project of starting up a blog for my parents for the New year. I hope this blog helps to document important events on the farm and the exciting growth of this place.

Spring is just around the corner with warmer temperatures and the budding energy in the soil that's waiting to be unleashed!

We began seeding as early as Jan 21st. A pebble counter embedded with heating cables in the green house allowed us to prepare seedlings without worrying the soil would turn into frozen blocks.
So far we have seeded fava beans, shelling peas, sugar snap peas, beet, spinach (including the spiky Japanese spinach seeds saved by the organic farming guru Kaneko Kaneko. They were given to Michelle while she was apprenticing on Mr. Kaneko's farm), cilantro, arugula, bok-choi, artichoke, Ta-tsai, Kabu (Japanese turnips), cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, fennel. As you can see, quite a line-up of vegetables!
We also started transplanting peas into the green house.