Dec
10
By Marion Yas
Garden Committee Member, James Bay Neighbourhood Association
Edible flowers, fruit in abundance, organic vegetables to tempt the palate, and one huge, delectable fungus at the end of the garden path.
It was a grey October afternoon, rain gently drizzling, as we set off to tour the garden of Tim Van Alstine, avid James Bay plantsman. We wended our way through the front yard, stopping by a fig tree to study the bare mulch at its base. Beneath this pleasantly odourless surface of coffee grounds, straw, and hard wood chips, lay the vegetative mycelia of Pleurotus ostreatus var. columbinus, the blue oyster mushroom. Tim was awaiting the appearance of the fruiting bodies, which, in our climate, pop up in both the early fall and early spring. Mild in flavour, but rich in protein and vitamin-D, oyster mushrooms are surprisingly easy to grow: purchase fungal spawn, tuck into mulch, add water, and wait. In a year or so, you'll be enjoying fresh oyster mushrooms in stews, soups, and salads. Plus, if you're concerned for your arteries, medical research is indicating a variety of health applications, including cholesterol-reduction.
Reeling from our short-course in applied mycology, we moved along, past a patch of blueberries and black currant shrubs, to the south side of the house. Where I saw remnants of lettuce, dying off at the base of tomato vines, Tim saw an efficient use of limited urban space called catch cropping. The lettuce was the fast-growing catch crop, grown to maturity between the slowly developing stems of the main crop, here, a variety of heritage tomato.
In the backyard woodland, Tim pointed out a medley of rose-family relatives, including apple, peach, plum, pear, and raspberry. Under a spreading fig tree, lying across an old oak barrel, were a couple of hardwood logs that looked lifeless but were teeming with potential—Tim had inoculated them with the spawn of Lentinula edodes. This is the shiitake mushroom, known for both its healing properties and as a tasty ingredient in Japanese cooking. But, still no obvious signs of edible fungi, as this foray into natural forest farming will only bear fruit in one or two years.
We looped back to some raised beds by the house where Tim introduced us to a form of square foot gardening. Instead of single-row plantings, but with equal productivity and requiring one-fifth the space and labour, he set out single seeds in a grid pattern. And added a border of hardwood mulch. The result, a rainbow-coloured array of tomato, bean, dill, arugula, sorrel, beet, nasturtium, and, at the very end of the bed...the promised mushroom, hugely, mouthwateringly ready for the grill at 18cm across. This was Tim's prized wine cap mushroom—Stropharia rugosoannulata—the garden giant, capable of reaching 35cm across! Tim enthused over its magical overtones of wild asparagus as he fired up the BBQ.
If you too are growing food in the neighbourhood—back yard, front yard, balcony, sidewalk—and would like to see your garden highlighted in the Beacon, please contact me through the JBNA, at jbna@vcn.bc.ca.