Home & Garden
The Good Life
The green of lettuce, the yellow of fresh egg yolks, and the red of the soil after processing livestock. Life in the North has long been about self-sufficiency and today young families continue to choose a lifestyle where everything that ends up on the dinner table comes from just out the back door. Sarah Artis dabbles and joins a pair of families trading the 9 to 5 for something a bit more hands on.
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Beginnings
Check out Northword's latest publication, a collection of northern stories and amazing images.
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Renovate, Innovate: A Crash Course on Surviving Renovations
One of my formative memories is driving down the Oregon coast with my dad. I was the proud new possessor of a learner driver’s licence and the feeling of cruising along the winding coastal roads, warm wind buffeting us through the open windows, a gas-station-purchased Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cassette blasting out of the crappy stereo, was blissful.
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The Path of the Herbalist
Imagine dried herbs, ground-up roots and powdered barks carefully labelled and arranged in neat wooden boxes, dried berries wrapped in a deer skin pouch or willow bark being boiled in a cast iron pot over an open campfire.
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Are We Losing Our Aspens?
It’s a beautiful day in May 2012 and the air is filled with millions of tiny, fluttering moths.
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Growing the Northern Tomato
If a northern gardener is going to be caught bragging, chances are good that it will be about their tomatoes.
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Peaveys, Pickaxes & other Perfect-for-the-Job Implements: Nostalgia for heritage gardening equipment
With amazing vigour, the rootstock for my Montmorency pie cherry sent suckers across the yard into the garden.
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The asparagus exSPEARiment: Once established, this tender perennial is a welcome addition
I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus!
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Sunny Slopes and Garden Growth: Approaching your crops from a new angle
On a moderate, southwest-facing slope near Terrace, the remnants of a 100-year-old orchard grow as ragged witness to the agricultural era in the lower Skeena Valley.
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Winter Cities: Designing communities for whatever way the wind blows
Whoever built my former house did not know or understand the direction of the prevailing wind or how drifts are formed.
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The straw playhouse: Winter habitat for busy children
“So what did your children do when it was minus forty?”
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Storing Fresh: How to keep tasty fruits and veggies for winter
In February, the spaghetti squash in my coldroom was still as crisp as the previous autumn. Even the five large zucchinis had not moulded or withered.
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Smokin’ Good Fish: Many ways to smoke a salmon
A slight breeze rustles the aspen leaves, and on it drifts the distinct scent of a northern summer. It could be a campfire or a Bar-B-Q, but when the days are long and when the salmon are running, the smell of smoke carries with it the flavour of curing fish and the promise of good eating throughout the winter.
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Grand Entrances: Northerners and the long drive home
“Map says it’s public right-of-way.”
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Backyard Bears
Our home, just outside of Telkwa, is nestled on the edge of 40 acres of rolling wilderness next to a provincial park. I see the first bears of the spring just as the aspens are leafing out.
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Up to Code: Could new regulations lead to building revolution?
As I walk through the entrance to Vicki and Ken Alton’s new home it’s hard to tell it apart from any other.
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Pistol butts and drunken trees: What plants can tell you about your land
A piece of property is like a good novel: full of opportunities and mysteries about its past.
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Medicinal flower power: More than just a pretty face
Flowers are widely viewed as something decorative to put in the front yard or to help improve pollination for squash by attracting bees.
READ MORE➦Measure Twice: Silent but deadly: new building code requirements aim to lower radon exposure
Radon gas is the vehicle that allows radioactivity to enter your home.
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Cold Frames and Hotbeds—Stretching the northern growing season
When frost-free days are counted like gold in a treasury, gardeners search for ways to get the greens a little sooner. Cold frames, hotbeds, row covers and cloches help bridge the almost season and give the anxious green thumb something to do—other than obsessively check the overnight temperatures.
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Dirt Secrets— Understanding northern soils is key to good gardening
“Most of the old timers certainly knew where to put their farms for the best soils.”
READ MORE➦Measure Twice—Hitting the Deck: Get your Favourite Summertime Hangout Ship-Shape
Ahhh… the pleasures of a deck: warm sun, family gatherings, barbeques and the personal satisfaction of constructing one yourself.
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Cohousing Communities A green alternative to the northern housing crunch
“We want to create a village, rather than just more housing.”
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Winterizing northern gardens: Pull ’em out, turn ’em over, tuck ’em in.
“Farmer’s Almanac says it’s going to be a cold winter.”
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Crop studies: Learning more about the food we grow
In the 1940s and ’50s, federally funded experimental farms in Smithers and Prince George were part of a network across Canada established to trial new crops and develop the nation’s agricultural prowess.
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Rainbow Carrots: New farmers bring promise to north coast agriculture
“So how did you become so enthusiastic about being a farmer?” I ask Anita Hein, owner of Anita Farm in Jackpine Flats outside Terrace.
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Bug Bonanza: Is climate change impacting northern spiders and insects?
A slight movement on my sleeve catches my attention: A spider—the size of a nickel. Yeow!
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Dandelions: An underrated northern delicacy
The dandelion is a plant that gives and gives...
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Super Spuds: Heritage potatoes return to the North
No one was eating the mashed potatoes.
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Seed-saving——a heritage tradition for the future
Before ordering seeds from a catalogue was common, seed-saving from the backyard and trading with neighbours was a tradition that generations of gardeners followed to keep harvests plentiful.
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Mean Manure & Killer Compost: Grazon after-effects in the Bulkley Valley
Cheryl and Les Harmati had been successfully gardening on their property outside Smithers for 25 years. But last year something strange was happening: plants in the garden and greenhouse were curling and wilting.
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Native pollinators: The key to garden abundance
Scream! Swoon! Swat! Squish! It’s the recognizable four-step “get that bee out of my hair” jive.
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Deer! Oh Dear! Gardening among large herbivores
They strike at dawn. Silently, with razor-sharp teeth, they leave a path of total devastation behind them.
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The House that Rick Built: back to the land along the Stikine
After spending the winter of 1972 in a tipi north of Terrace, Rick and Barb McCutcheon were looking for somewhere to set up a permanent homestead.
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Shelving Sunshine: the art of food dehydration
“What are you going to do with all those apples?”
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The Northern Garden Gamble: know when to hold ‘em, know when to sow ‘em
When the robins are back and the pussy-willows are in their prime, northern gardeners emerge from hibernation and start pacing around the piles of snow and sodden earth, trying their best to be patient until spring really arrives so the planting can begin.
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Sauna: A primer for the uninitiated
A hot sauna is the perfect place to recover from a hard day of physical labour, a stressful day at work, or to relax with friends and enjoy good conversation. Northerners crave heat during the long, cold winter, and having a sauna is an inexpensive alternative to hopping on a plane to a tropical isle.
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Long journey to a small space: Reflections on building a very tiny house
Finding the right housing situation to meet lifestyle choices, family needs and financial goals is a challenge that most people have struggled with at some point in their lives.
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Surprise Home-birth: Baby Carter arrives in a hurry
Amanda Lewis never intended to have a homebirth.
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Breaking Ground: Getting down and dirty with the Groundbreakers Collective
Organic farmer Joe Hug stands in the dirt on his small farm just a few kilometres out of Smithers.
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Backyard Chickens: Community Coop-keeping coming into its own?
For some, it’s a stride forward on the road to food security and sustainability. For others, it’s a step away from civilized, modern societies.
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Growing Community in Front-Yard Gardens
One of the best things Barak Obama ever did was turn over some of the White House lawn to plant some spuds.
READ MORE➦Winter 2018-19: Slow
Slow repairs, slow pace, slow recovery, and much more.
