I'm not a man and I'm not young, but I am heading west, and feeling younger for it...
Dave and I made our first stop in B.C. in Nelson, where Diane came and picked us up at the bus depot, swung by the organic food store, and then brought us over to her farm. Diane has been studying plants for over 30 years and has the most phenomenal knowledge of local and native plants. We learned about all sorts of new greens that we could put in our salads and grain dishes, including some that we had been weeding while we were in Winnipeg. We also helped Diane to scrape the bark of some Devil's Club, and then sheer off the inner bark, in order to prepare it for a recipe that she has that is good for a variety of uses, including balancing blood sugar. She plans to make a gift of it to the native people. While we were with Diane, we also met her family that live around her, one son just in the process of moving to the area, and the other firmly planted next door to her with his wife and four sons. An engaging young woman from Toronto named Marsha was also on hand, helping Diane out with everything and learning much about gardening and plants from her. After the week was out, we felt that our time there was over, but we were able to purchase some of Diane's fine Laird Creek Essentials products for the road, including a very effective remedy for itchy bug bites! I knew, from experience, that it would be very helpful to have.
