Family Eats – Summer Soups

Editor’s Note: Ah, Wednesday. Yummy day. Family chef Sarah Stromquist is here today offering up some tasty insight into Summer soups. delish.
Anytime of year soups are a wonderful way to enjoy a healthy and generally quick meal. Paired with a wrap, sandwich or some such delight they become a full meal.
But I usually think of [...]

Summer Crafts – Backyard Paint Party

Good morning. Just back from our brief, yet very go-go-go staycation in Victoria, we are all over the play-where-you-live theory on breaking now as we got deals all over the place, explored far-off worlds and ate at one or two of our favourite spots in the process.
I’ll be back later in the week with some [...]

Out and About – Does Sunscreen Equal Prevention?

Editor’s Note: Beat the heat today out at ASH Berry Farm as Don and Louisa McClellan host the final Farm Event of the Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge. This fun day is all about berries, pigs (brings your veggie scraps to feed them) and farm sprinklers.
It’s all from 10 a.m. to 2 [...]

Family Eats – Hot Summer-Time Treats to Keep Cool

It has been hectic around here with the winding down of school, sports and all this incredible weather. In the chaos and heat my ladies, like most kids I suspect, have been having trouble wanting to eat.
I don’t blame them really.
But I know that when my kids play outside all day, melting away in this [...]

Books Review – Fairy Folk & Spring Day Dreams

Long hot days this time of year make me want to find a big, giant maple tree to spread a blanket out under, unpack a lunch full of cool veggies and fruit and lay back to begin a few hours of uninterrupted day dreaming.
Since the likelihood of that happening is less than the odds of [...]

Kids In The Arts – Exploration Art Camp

Today I had a chat with my friend Heili Garcia. She’s got this fun, fantastic Summer art adventure going again this year and can’t wait to share her stories about art boot camp.
Exploration Art Camp began up on Mt. Washington in 1990 and the original facilitators were Heili, Lea Mann and Penny MacCullough (all of [...]

Summer Borscht

After a great Summer of wonderful guest foodies, sharing dishes that have now become household staples around here, I thought I should maybe, kind of, sort of, pitch in one of my own.
It is no secret to anyone who has ever dropped by our house on occasion that I have a thing for cabbage. I [...]

The Farm – Everyone Loves Apples

Last Sunday we had a house full of old friends from Vancouver. The combo of energetic kiddos and sleepy adults meant we b-lined for the backyard, only to discover something fantastic – the apples are ready.
That may not mean much to anyone else. But, we weren’t even sure there would be any apples in the [...]

Making Bookmarks to Track Our Tales

Our daughter loves stories.
From the second she pops her head up in the morning until she falls asleep to them at night, yarns about everything from how monsters make nutty butter to the vacations her collection of puppets are on float through the air non-stop.
She is ALWAYS making something up, building imaginary cities, talking with [...]

Summer NeighbourWood Walk No. 4 – Fanny Bay

Note to self: wine with the girlfriends after a long day on the trail is excellent fun at 9 p.m., not so excellent fun at 6 a.m.:)

A small group of super intrepid walkers made it out to our fourth NeighbourWood Walk yesterday, which took us to the far south end of the Valley and a [...]

Veggie Jelly Melons

Editor’s Note: As our Summer of Guest Foodies continues, I am beyond excited to bring you local mama Rosina Huber whose Nature Mama blog is packed full of nature learning, great crafting, homeschooling goodness and homestead cooking that looks and sounds so savory it’ll make you think comfort food for days afterward.
Rosina and her family [...]

The Farm – Rocking the Barnyard

When we popped in at the Hands-On Farm over at the Filberg on Sunday, Popsicle was giving us the evil eye.
Maybe it was the “Please save me from these crazy pigs” eye. Nonetheless, his new “buddies” Penelope and Veruca are scaring the spots off of him.
P & V may only be six weeks old. But, [...]

Paradise Meadows

With the wet, cold, L-O-N-G Winters we’ve had the last couple of years, we can only hope that Summer lingers a bit longer than usual.
Personally, I hope the sunshine puts in some overtime this year so we can spend some long days wandering the forest of Strathcona Provincial Park taking in the absolute magic that [...]

The Farm – Keep Cool, Pioneer Style

It is HOT on the Farm these days.
This week is blazing as the dog days of Summer set in the animals are feeling it too, bucking for shady spots and taking quick dips in the pool (they have one, ya know) to beat the heat.
Our Hands-On Farm Friend, Popsicle, was feeling a little sluggish in [...]

Summer NeighbourWood Walk No. 2 – Pt. Holmes Reef

There is a perfection to kids in nature.
Those times when they can soak themselves down, run around barefoot and discover unbelievable sorts of wonders – together – force us as adults to slow down a bit, let a few things go, and just let them be for a while.
We find ourselves standing back and reminiscing [...]

Summer Sun Safety

Editor’s Note: Patti Fletcher is taking a break this Summer, on sabbatical from her post as Comox Rec Program Director.
Mandy Johns has stepped in and graciously agreed to write Patti’s column while she’s on leave. Mandy is busy this Summer filling in for Patti all over the place and we are grateful that she took [...]

Summer NeighbourWood Walk No. 1 – MacDonald Wood

It’s about 8:45 a.m. as I sit down to write this post.
As a general rule, I write the night before. Mornings are nuts around here and throwing blogging into that mix is generally a stress of the unnecessary kind. But, today, it’s entirely beautiful.
That’s totally because I got out of bed about five minutes ago [...]

It’s (Sort of) Berry Season

Mother Nature has not been kind in the U-Pick universe this year.
The whole June-uary weather event means that berry ripening and picking is well behind schedule. But, the good news is that berry farms are starting to open and local fruity yumminess will be available for early risers for the next few months in one [...]

The Farm – Cow Lips

Happy Canada Day.
While you are soaking up all of the family good times in the Valley that is celebrating the nation’s birthday, we are busting out our maple leaves and saluting the cow in Canada – in honour of our Hands-On Farm Friend Popsicle.
First, a few facts:
- Popsicle is a Holstein, the breed of [...]

Summer Reading Together

Editor’s Note:
Mom and CV teacher Helen Oliphant has dropped by today to lend us a hand getting into the learning that happens away from the classroom this Summer.
She kicks it all off with tips on how to help your kiddos get reading, with a little help from mom and dad.

“Thurs. June 2, 1977.
I want to [...]

Announcing the Summer NeighbourWood Walk Series

It’s with some serious excitement that I announce our Summer NeighbourWood Walk series.
After such a fantastic response to our first series and some disappointment about our time choice, we knew we were going to have to plan for two walks this Summer.
So, here’s the scoop.
Our NeighbourWood Walk series will run for eight Wednesdays this Summer [...]

Natural First-Aid Kit

As we head into the middle of June with high expectations of warm summer days filled with fun adventures, I can’t help but feel a little hesitant.
While I’m excited for outdoor exploring time with my toddler, I’m also anticipating a few more bumps, cuts and tears as I watch him run faster than his little [...]

Summer Kanten

Editor’s note: Christa and I work tandem on the food column these days. She writes the stories and I take the photos.
I love Christa’s yummy un-jello Jello recipe this week. But, my family is totally not down with melon – of any kind. So, you’ll see that the photo doesn’t really look like an apple [...]

Shaker Salad Dressing

I don’t have to tell you that I’m a big proponent of getting kids involved in the kitchen.
Kneading dough, scrambling eggs, flipping pancakes- some of my best childhood memories are of learning basic kitchen skills from my parents.
It’s with a love for nostalgia and good food that I find myself encouraging my little person along [...]

The Weather & Garden Synch Up

It’s true.
Our Sprouts preschool garden experiment, well, died.
Being entirely new at making anything grow, I had no plan for dealing with the record-cold April and the reality that frost always wins over veggies when push comes to shove.
I’m a little embarrassed, mildly comforted by the fact that a whole whack of people I know [...]

When Preschool Gardening Gives Way to Absentmindedness

Bad news first: I have no brain.
It has been missing since about six months into pregnancy…and it is now becoming painfully apparent that its continued decline is starting to effect our day-to-day well being.
…at least when it comes to gardening.
After our unfortunate leaving-outside-overnight incident last week, I lovingly put the sprouts back on the front [...]

Safety First – Wasp and Bee Stings

Like just about any other parent of a 2-year-old, I totally freaked when our daughter was stung on her arm and back by a “buzzy” (as she calls them) at a backyard gathering a few weeks ago. A large swath of dark, red rash took over her lower arm, scaring me so badly that we [...]

Beating the Dog Days of Summer with Bubbles & Games

I was out having coffee with my pal Kathy recently when trading stories across the table turned to the topic of summer seemingly nearing its end.
The cloudy coolness of the last few days makes moms like us think maybe it’s time to start talking Halloween and Christmas instead of beaches and fun in the backyard.
We’re [...]

Blue Haven Farm U-Pick Blueberries

It’s the season I wait for all year.
Not summer.
No, it’s blueberry season.
And there is one lovely U-Pick blueberry farm in Comox that you can hit for the next six weeks or so and snack down on those tasty blue morsels – Blue Haven Farm on Anderton Road and Idiens Way.

First off, let’s get the important [...]

Hot Spots – The Comox Hands-On Farm

I have this thing about farms.
There’s a connection to the land and a healthy respect for where our food comes from that makes me jump at any chance to hit anything even remotely farm-like.
So, when the Hands-On Farm at The Filberg opened a few weeks ago, we wasted no time in hoofing it right over [...]