Great Canadian EcoFest on June 23 in Komoka

EcoFest on June 23

Mark your calendars - the Great Canadian EcoFest is Sunday, June 23 from 10am-5pm, at the Komoka Community Centre and it sounds like a great event. Numerous vendors of eco-friendly products, and local groups concerned with ecological issues.

Stop by the Transition Middlesex table to enter your name for a copy of John Seymour's classic book on Self Sufficiency, and/or put down a bid in a silent auction for a Pineapple Guava tree (donated by Artemisia's Forest Garden Nursery).

Meeting next week

In other news, we have a meeting next week, Wed June 19, at the Coldstream Community Centre at 7pm. Val will be leading the group through a needs and yields assessment, which sounds really fun.

 

Burdock stem.

  Weed-eater tip of the day

In other other news, in our neck of the woods (southwestern Ontario), it is presently the perfect time to hack the stem off that huge burdock you missed eating the root of last year. In their second year of life, burdock (aka 'Turkey Rhubarb' - that very large leafed weed that produces the famously velcro-y burrs of the fall season), push up a long flower stalk. Catch it before it flowers, hack it off at the bottom, hack off all the side leaves and stems, and you're ready to do something with it.

This is my first season trying the stems (the roots are delicious), and I'm planning to use a recipe from Fergus the Forager, which is burdock and potato cakes. He also talks about making syrup and candied burdock stems, but that's getting a bit much for me at the moment. I've already gathered three stalks, and the sap smells amazing (though warning, it does brown the hands a bit).