Tag Archives: Ed and Daniela Basile

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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“Freedom refers inwardly to our moral lives, and outwardly to choosing among alternatives that define our lives. Liberty, in contrast refers to the physical aspects of freedom.”
The War Against the Family by William Gairdner

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I want to thank local farmers Magi and Don Buchanan of China Valley Poultry Farm for the delicious pastured turkey.

This Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for. I have a healthy family, a successful business, and a happy marriage.

But during holiday times, food is always on my mind. I want to especially thank local farmers Magi and Don Buchanan of China Valley Poultry Farm for the delicious pastured turkey that honored my family’s table. The organic squash from Ed and Daniela Basile of Sun River Organics made a fantastic pumpkin dessert.

But I found myself looking at the richness of my holiday table. I could not name all the faceless, nameless people that have worked to provide such a rich bounty. I found myself grateful for the spontaneous order of the market — that like magic — had brought this bounty to my home.

“The expression ‘the paradox of freedom’ means that whenever we exercise our freedom we limit ourselves, simple by choosing one alternative over another… The important point here is that to use our freedom is to limit our freedom in all sorts of ways.”

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A BIG thank you to all the faceless, nameless people that make up the spontaneous order of the market and provide my family will such a rich bounty.

I know not everyone would like pastured turkey for Thanksgiving. I then thanked the free market for providing moose, lamb, pork, goose, fish and tofurkey (tofu turkey) for those that would prefer these options. I found myself glad that people that preferred to eat Thanksgiving at McDonald’s could do so, while others would enjoy a five course offering at the Brownstone.

I found myself thankful for all the choices that the market brings to my community.

“The glory of our freedom is that by limiting it in one way, and not the other, we define ourselves by our actions. We live and feel our freedom by making positive decisions to say ‘no’ to specific alternatives. At bottom, freedom is the ability to say ‘no’.”

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I want to to thank organic farmers Ed and Daniela Basile of Sun River Organics for the fantastic squash that made a delicious pumpkin dessert. The recipes are below.

Happy Thanksgiving! May we continue to have food freedom. May we continue to have the personal liberty to celebrate the holiday as we see fit.

Holiday Dinner Menu
Onion Gravy
Crock Hot Peppers

Harvest Bounty: Seed Saving

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heirloom-squash

Here are some heirloom squash from Sun Rivers Organics. I will be saving seeds for next year's planting. Sun Rivers Organics grows many heirloom varieties good for seed saving.

Part of the harvest bounty is saving seeds for the next growing season. There are many reasons to save seeds. Heirloom seeds breed true and keep their traits through open pollination. A gardener can collect heirloom seeds and use them year after year. Heirloom seeds from the local area have the added benefit of being more adapted to the local climate, soil and resistant to regional pests. About 97% of Sun Rivers Organics plants are heirloom varieties so if you save seeds from their produce the seeds will breed true next growing season:

Sun Rivers Organics
Ed and Daniela Basile
3390 Shuswap Rd, Kamloops, BC, V2H 1T2
T: 250.573.2934
25km
certified organic STOPA farm no.165: organic heritage tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, artichokes, beans, beets, carrots, garlic, lettuce, squash, zucchini, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, melons, herbs

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Here are some seeds saved from yellow watermelon, orange watermelon, sugar baby squash and sweet pie pumpkin. The great thing about heirloom seeds from the local area is that the plants are adapted to the local climate, soil and resistant to regional pests.

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Remember to label your seeds with a "name", "year" and "place". I can't remember where this squash came from. I think these seeds came from Thistle Farms but I am not sure so I didn't label with a place. The napkin can be used to sprout the seeds in the spring, if desired.

If you would like to try seed saving, find out from your farmer which fruits are open pollinators or heirloom seeds. Hybrid fruit seeds are not worth saving because they will not breed true next growing season.

  1. Cut open the heirloom squash, pumpkin, watermelon, etc and scoop out the seeds. Enjoy eating the fruit of the plant.
  2. Remove all the fruit from the seeds and wash well. Carefully dry the seeds at a low temperature on a paper napkin. Label the napkin with the name of the seed. I usually dry my seeds on the top of my dehydrator where it is warm but out of direct sunlight.
  3. After the seeds have totally dried, roll up the paper napkin and place in a plastic or paper bag. Label the bag with the seed’s name, the year, and a place of origin.
  4. In the spring, the napkin can be dampened if you would like to sprout the seeds first before planting.
  5. Seed saving can be a way to increase the number of seeds you have. It is a common practice to get a small number of rare or unusual seeds and plant just to increase the number of seeds.
fodder-sugar-beets

This is another use of seed saving. This is a garbage bag full of sugar beet seeds, which is a traditional winter fodder for animals.

Buying large qualities of seed can be very expensive, especially if the seed is rare or unusual. If you are needing a large number of seeds, growing a crop and saving the seeds may be cost effective. Shaen planted a small number of sugar beet seeds for harvesting a large quality of seed. Sugar beets are biannual plants and it takes two years to grow seed. He now has a large amount of sugar beet seeds for planting next year. The beets will be used as fodder for the animals. Here are some examples of fodder crops.

If you are trying to save heirloom seeds for next year, here is Fiona Hamersley of Metchosin Farm explaining why you want to save heirloom seeds and the process for removing the gelatinous coating on tomato seeds.