Have you ever chuckled at the sight of suggestive appendages on carrots? How about extra limbs on parsnips? Knobby looking potatoes, gnarly peppers folded in on themselves? Misfit fruit and vegetables range from the grotesque to the bizarre — and sometimes the belly-laugh funny!

I profess to being a kelp collector, a leaf lover, and a compostophile! Autumn weather here on the West Coast has deposited seaweed onto the beach and blown the leaves off the trees, and so it’s time for an annual ritual. The other day I gathered up some of this bounty, added glacial rock dust…

I burst out laughing the other day when an order came in for a liter of fish fertilizer and a bar of soap. How appropriate! It’s true, that liquid fish can get pretty smelly, especially now at the height of summer. And yes, my wonderful, locally made, plant-based soap (now discontinued) is perfect for getting…

It’s Year 8 for me running the Pantry! Time truly flies when you’re having fun. And I’m having so much fun, thanks to you! Whenever I get to talk to one of you in person, on the phone, or online, I realize what great persons my customers are. We make a connection, realize we have…

I used to think I couldn’t be bothered with bokashi. After all, between my six chickens, a worm bin on the deck, and a two-bin garden compost out back, there really wasn’t any kitchen scraps left to dispose of. Well… the chickens have all gone to chicken heaven; the worms died after I mistakenly put…

In the third part of my chat with Jack Etkin of Shaw TV’s Citizens’ Forum here in Victoria, BC, we are looking at organic gardening practices. Nature always puts the right plant into the right place. So what is the ecological role of those plants we call weeds? And how can we get away from…

Here is the second part of my chat with Jack Etkin of Shaw TV’s Citizens’ Forum here in Victoria, BC, about the science and practice of organic gardening. Having explored the connection between nutrition and health in soil and plants, we are now taking the idea one step further by looking at the ecological role…

The Pantry is on TV! In the summer of 2013, I had the opportunity to chat with Jack Etkin of Shaw TV’s Citizens’ Forum here in Victoria, BC, about organic gardening. We ended up filming three installments, actually, because there was so much to talk about! Have fun watching the first episode today. We’re looking…

Whether a tree falls in the forest… or your wooden compost bin falls apart: To Nature, it’s the same thing. The body of a tree, cut up or intact, is a valuable source of carbon and other nutrients, and a whole crew of decomposers large and microscopically small are ready to transform this bounty into…

To All Customers, Supporters, and Friends of the Pantry in 2012: Thank you, thank you so much for this fabulous past year! Granted, you saw the last newsletter in February, and here we are on New Year’s Eve – time sure flies… So what on earth have I been up to? Well, here’s a long…