The Magic of Foraging in the Wild...

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Louise :  During the end of this summer/beginning of fall, I am very busy foraging the countryside to find all sorts of good things to harvest freely, since these are abandonned ressources.

Here's my Horn of Plenty for this autumn:

- Many litres of Giant Puffballs mushrooms from my own yard (Here's the article on the subject).

- A dozen jars of stewed apples and almost as much that I put first into ziplock bags and then in the freezer (slighlty cooked, the idea here is to keep apple chunks, therefore to prevent the apples from turning into puree, this way I can make pies out of it).

- About forty very sweet yellow pears that often are a bit bruised from their fall, but make delicious fruit ketchup or desserts.



On the border of this cycle path, a dozen abandonned apple trees
of different varieties still produce abundantly.
I've been observing them for about 10 seasons and
I never saw anyone harvest this abundance,
everything just rots on the ground.

- Exactly 3 pounds (1,36kg) of elderberries, my patience was rewarded with 7 beautiful jars of absolutely divine jam (it takes hours to pluck the berries without leaving any stem, a detail that would have been unimportant in a jelly recipe, but I definitely prefer jam).

- A dozen big jars of grape jelly (yes, yes, it's possible to find abandonned grape vines in the countryside and, just like the apples, the grapes manage the "wilderness" very well and even prosper on their own, without relying on human assistance to grow).

- A jar of cherry sauce that is so sublime, coated on a ball of icecream, that it has become my favorite dessert (O.K. I'll admit that I didn't have to search far for these cherries : the cherry tree in question is on my property and is a gift from mother nature).

- Seeds of greater plantain, they can be ground to make a rich flour or used whole in multigrain breads or muffins, but you need a lot of patience to harvest the stacks of mature seeds and shell them (althought this last step is quite enjoyable, apparently the opposite of this operation of shelling mustard seeds that Helene went through a couple of weeks ago). I will make flour with this harvest but will only be able to produce about 1 cup.

i- Some straw, the kind made by these tall invading grasses that grow in ditches everywhere, sometimes they are as high as 1,5 meters (I forgot the name - Ho ! It came back to me : European Reed - Phragmites Australis spp Australis). This wild straw, once the seed spikes are cut from the stalk, will find its home in many corners of my garden, as free and natural mulch, without pesticides or toxic elements (if we choose well where to harvest them). The beauty of this invading plant is that it grows where there are excesses of phosphorus and therefore it accumulates it in its tissues. When used as mulch it enriches the garden with that element.

- Bags of dead leaves, placed on the border of the streets for city services to carry away; they are way easier to "harvest" then straw, but can get more readily blown away by the wind. A key element, in a rich and well-balanced garden, is the fertilizing role of mulch, so this harvest is certainly as important as any fruit or vegetable harvest. Fallen leaves won't give you much nitrogen, but they will give away a lot of organic matter and are the perfect source to build up fluffy and rich soil, just the right texture. Before picking up a bag however, I first check if the lawn on which it was gathered is  adorned with at least a few weeds, a good gage to assess if pesticides were of use. I do steer clear of "golf lawns", which, most of the time have also been fed chemical fertilizers.


A well spread abundance people are starting to notice...

Almost any corner of Quebec province hides these green treasures that can find their way into our kitchens or gardens. For example, my sister remembers finding in the countryside the site of a long  gone homestead, where the orchard was still producing peaches, pears and apricots, plus the usual apples.

In my village, at a 5 minutes walk from home, there's an old orchard across the school, close to the railway. Hydro-Québec owns this piece of land and the company judged unnecessary to cut the dozen of venerable apple trees, which are still thriving. Among them, grows a rarity : a pear tree. I'm perfectly happy collecting the fallen fruits only and apparently, my only competition is the deer that pay the old orchard a daily visit, leaving their tracks and half-eaten fruits behind. The abundance is such that they can't eat everything. I didn't have to ask permission to harvest there since the land is semi-public, crossed by a path villagers often use, either on foot or bicycle.

If you ever notice a fruit tree nobody takes care of but which is situated on private property, you could go ahead and ask permission to harvest it. You can always offer the owner half of the harvest or thank him with a couple of jars of jam. Chances are he'll be happy to have someone else take care of this chores, especially if it only cost him the harvest or part of it.

Actually, there are some cities in Canada that have this kind of arrangement in their community, where the owners of fruit trees invite interested citizens for the harvest. This harvest is then divided between owner, harvester, and a charity or community organization.

Imperfect fruit maybe, but still absolutely delicious!

I got used to eat untreated apples at home. Indeed, when we arrived here 25 years ago, we became the owners of three very old apple trees that produced a few years more before dying. Since we didn't want to spray them with fongicides or other chemical cocktails, I learned how to use spotted and bruised apples. I realised what our grandmothers already knew: it's quite possible to make divinely delicious desserts, compotes, jellies and jams with these. And even if losses were more important than when using the entirety on a perfect fruit one can find at the grocery store, 3 old apple trees yielding not even half of their former productivity were still exceeding the needs of my family.

So no, neither the occasional small worm found near a core nor the black spot on the skin made me shiver with disgust. Neither did the half-bruised apple. While consuming an untreated apple, I feel I can go back in time, to a place where the use of pesticides and fongicides were unknown practices.  I'm convinced it's a lot better for our health.

What can you expect from this kind of harvest?

When we forage apples that have received zero treatment, more so apples that fell on the ground, we can divide our harvest in 3 categories. Firstly, let's look for the most bruised apples, and those that are half eaten by wasps and other creatures, but are not rotted, yet. In general, these apples will make up the two thirds of the yield found on the ground. They can be used to make juice or cider. This year, I provided a good quantity of these fruits to a collegue who was, along with family members, the proud owner of a cider-press. She thanked me with a delicious gift of brown apple juice, that I froze for later use. Of course, I intend to propose to my own family to acquire our own cider-press. I love the idea of a new occasion for a yearly family gathering ! But let's go back to our subject.

After harvesting (or ignoring) all those apples destined to your brand new cider-press, you come across the apples that are nice enough for jams, ketchups, pies and other cooked delicacies. Their skin may be spotted and they may be deformed.They may be quite bruised or cut, and partly eaten by bugs also, but they are big enough to give an adequate quantity of intact flesh. They will form a bit less than a third of the yield.

Finally there is your perfect fruit. Not bruised, not split, nor invaded by even the tiniest worm, its form is mostly regular, its big enough, perfectly ripe and its skin have little to no default. These apples represent 2 to 5% of what's fallen on the ground. I noticed they are more present if the ground is soft or presents an even surface, as an area covered with long grass, for example.

This means that among the two thousands apples or so that I harvested this year (yes, this is not a typo), I put aside maybe fifty to bite in directly.

I have access to many varieties of apples, red or yellow, early or late season, varying in size and in taste. My favorite was a big apple of a soft yellow, often a little bit bruised but exceptionnaly sweet tasting, the kind of sweetness that even the store's varieties have trouble matching. But the majority of apple trees I visited give fruits that have a more acidic taste, comparable maybe to a MacIntosh. I also found another yellow variety tasting just like a Granny Smith! The last apples I harvested just yesterday are so acidic that I wouldn't dare to eat them raw, but according to my experience, they should do find in a jam... if I'm a little bit more generous on sugar.

And the pears, yellow, big and juicy, delight my husband, because it's is favorite fruit of all, althought they are more problematic to use, since their tender flesh is so easily bruised. Those ones that were too damaged to eat fresh found their way into my fruit and tomato ketchup.Of course, I could have made a dessert or a jam out of them also.

All in all I got a big box full of these grapes,
harvested with help since I needed a stepladder
at the end, to get to the more beautiful bunches.

My most astounding harvest is, without a doubt, the tart grapes, maybe from a wine making variety, which ended up as jelly. The vines climb abandonned apple trees next to a public parking lot and a cycling path (see photo). When you get close enough, if you just look up, you can see the top of the trees interlaced with beautiful blue to violet bunches. I started harvesting what I could reach. This was at the beginning of September. The juice, which tasted as bad as the fruits, still made a good jelly, but gave an orangey color, since the fruits just weren't ripe enough.

Thesee vines stock  seems like its
assaulting this abandonned tree, boring
high in its branches.

The abundance was such that I couldn't resist, so for my second visit, I enlisted the help of my sister and we came back with a stepladder.

And for my third and final visit in mid-October, this time helped by my husband, the bunches were so ripe that we obtained a juice as dark as what you can find at the store. This last batch of jelly is exquisite.

Therefore, in three foraging sessions of 30 to 45 minutes each, we harvested about 3 square foot of grape bunches, which gave us about 8 liters of grape jelly. And we left behind us about the same amount, unharvested. 

Of course all of this foraging activity consumes time and effort, both outside and in the kitchen, but at least, I didn't invest a minute of my time to cultivate these treasures. I only had to extend an arm (O.K., a ladder too) and grab. Furthermore, I didn't have to dedicate any space in my yard to cultivate any of that.

These are just a part of the bunches we left behind us,
the harvest being too abundant for our needs and a bit too high for our stepladders.

What about you? Would you risk harvesting and eating wild food like that? Or maybe you already do your own foraging ?

Would you be hesitant to help yourself with all this abandonned goodness? Hélène is a bit uneasy about it, especially if she knows a passerby could see her. However, those who see me while harvesting and have the curiosity to talk to me have a very positive attitude about it. My husband is always a bit scared of transgressing any unknown and obscure law while foraging in public spaces. Of course, I would never ransack these spaces to obtain wild plants, nor would I trespass on private property without explicit permission from the owner, but here, I'm talking about fruit abandonned on the ground, on trees or vines that once belonged to well tended gardens, and that still give their abundance generously in places that lost their private title.

I would like to close this article by pointing out that, regarding wild plants in general, the important rule to remember is not to destroy any environment. Some plants are protected by government laws, like wild garlic. But many species are so widely spread that you won't endanger them by foraging them. But do be respectful. If you harvest whole plants (like when I collect burdock roots), you have to leave some specimens behind so the natural balance will stay in check and the plant will not risk eradication from any given site. It is the way to keep a sustainable environment.

 What do you think about it?

The mustard that made me cry

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2011 seeds harvest, shelled.



Hélène : There's this proverb in french, "la moutarde qui me monte au nez", which is to say "that thing that made me see red". Well this mustard didn't do that, it just made me cry. When I was the proud owner of a lot in a community garden in Montreal, a neighbor gardener gave me some mustard seeds to plant, telling me how wonderful the plant was. True, the leaves are delicious in salads or sandwiches. The seeds can be harvested and used just as they are or maybe to create the condiment of the same name. The only trouble (and the reason for this article's title) is the shelling of the seeds, a long and boring task if you are not well equipped... Like me.

Here's one bearing stalk... I had about forty
to shell like this!

 For 45g of seeds, I worked 8 hours. The method used this year is simple enough : Put the seed pods in a sieve, crush the pods to shell the seeds and collect the seeds in a bowl placed underneath. What's making this more difficult then one would expect is the fact that the process is not that perfect ; Many pods just won't break properly so finishing the task by hand was required. There's also the problem that a lot of remains from the shells and a lot of dust ended up in the seeds anyway. At least, that part wasn't complicated to take care of : swirling the seeds in a metal bowl made all the remains come out on top in a neat pile. Softly blowing on it, the seeds would remain, the detritus and dust would fly off. Do this step outside though, you've been warned! Another method that I haven't tried yet is to crush the pods on an inclined board. The seeds will roll in a bowl at the bottom and the remains of the pods will stick to the board.

But why did I go through all this trouble this year for mustard seeds I could have perfectly well bought at the store for a minimal price? Well, I wanted to make my own condiment from the beginning, from the plant that perplexed me all those years ago at the community garden. All in all, my lesson here is that shelling the seeds, unless you're equipped to do so is not worth it. But making mustard - the condiment - deserves to be tried at least once! The first reason would be because you can perfume it the way you want : honey, sugar, ginger, lemon, dattes, grapes... why not maple syrup?

First off, my mustard was made from red wine vinegar and honey. The process is simple, you soak the seeds (or the seed powder) in either water, liquor or vinegar. From what I read on the web, mustard in water will have a shorter expiration date then in liquor or vinegar, a feature that directed my choice. Some sources say to leave the seeds to soak for 2 hours, others claimed an entire night was better. Since I wanted my mustard as soon as possible, I opted for the 2 hours and maybe in retrospect this is why my mustard was hard to grind. I'll admit that with a mortar and pestle it's long. About at the third of what it would have taken me to grind it well, I decided to transfer it to a hand blender, but a real blender or a grinder would possibly have made a better job. I added honey and voilà ! Mustard, the condiment. Again, some sources said to let it sit for a day so it would develop flavors, others swear the taste really comes into it's own after a couple of weeks.

We had a meal the next day that required the mustard so we tasted it at that moment and it was delicious! It is definitely something I want to try to make again and next time, I'm flavoring the mustard with... mead. One last thing. The first time you open that new, beautiful homemade jar of mustard, remember your science classes : With a wave of the hand, bring the smell to your nostrils. Don't plunge your nose in that jar or you will end up like one of those people choking in videos on Youtube ! After all, you just created something very powerful!

Of a mushroom that pretended to be a ball

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Louise : Today, I won't spin you a fable from La Fontaine, but I do wish to present you a very special character, a weird thing that could have inspired the famous french poet.

How can one not be surprised by this sight!

The first time I saw from a distance this weird white ball on my lawn, my assumption was that there was a kid, somewhere in the village, who might be really sad to have lost its toy. But I did not get close to investigate; no time, I had to go to work. And I forgot about it, my mind busy with this new workday and its thousand details. Then the next morning, the white ball was still there, exactly at the same place but it looked bigger than I remembered. Strange. I got closer and found, a couple of meters from the first one, a baseball of the same whiteness in the grass!

It took me a good minute to realize that these were in fact mushrooms of a variety I knew nothing about. That autumn, I watched closely and suspiciously their evolution, their cycle of life. I didn't inquire for their names : wild mushrooms are dangerous, everybody knows that, and my general principle was to let them live their life without interference. However when their skin turned brown and split, revealing a dusty, sickly brown-green interior, I got worried that this cloud of spores might be toxic.

A couple of years passed and the sightings of these balls kept occurring in August and September. A friend of my daughter finally gave me information on these mushrooms : my backyard's underground was apparently a perfect site for Giant Puffballs (Vesses-de-Loup Géantes, in french) and not only, according to her, were they not toxic, but they were perfectly edible and even delicious! Why a colony of Calvatia Gigantea decided to establish themselves here is still a mystery. I never saw them anywhere else in the neighborhood or farther away.

My daughter's friend had some trouble convincing me of this monster's edibility, but after she took a specimen to a chef of her acquaintance for counter-verification, I couldn't doubt anymore. The only thing left was to taste it. We peeled, sliced, fried the thing in butter and sat down at the dinner table : It was definitely hard on the liver, since the mushroom absorbed an insane amount of butter while cooking! I learned later on that when giant puffballs mature, their pores become bigger, transforming them in a kind of sponge, rendering this cooking method inappropriate. I went back to researching this free food source and learned of a few other interesting ways to make a meal out of them.

Note that the giant puffball doesn't have any form of
stalk. A mushroom is actually the aerial part of the
organism that lives underground. It's a bit like a flower,
in the sense that it' a transitory part that plays a role
in the reproduction of the plant in producing spores
(kind of seeds).

Ready for the harvest.. but taking care to not poison myself !

Even if this mushroom comes back reliably each year around mid-august, for me, it is a matter of health and good sense to check again that it is the real deal. Therefore, I always reread the description before harvesting the white ball to make sure I don't take in something that looks alike and could make me really sick. You see, when the giant puffball is still small (10 cm in diameter or less), it can be confused with an amanita muscaria at an early stage of growth, just before the amanita produces a white stalk and a cap (then it is clear which one is which). And here, we are talking about a deadly mushroom. But there is no worries when we wait to see the giant puffball grow, because according to the experts, there is no other poisonous mushroom of this form and size that has a pure white flesh, with no discernable inside pattern.



Here we see the filaments that bridge the mushroom to its underground parts.
It looks like roots. I learned later on that it's preferable to not tear off any species of mushrooms,
 but to cut them close to the ground. This way, the mycelium (the underground part) can survive.
Now I take a knife at the base of the puffball to detach it.



At this size, the risk of wrong identification is non existent.
However, it is still small enough to have a strong and thick flesh, easy to cook
and tasty.

For extra precaution, cut the puffball in two. The flesh must be pure white and completely uniform
 in its coloring and texture and it must not present any sign of patterns.
If it has started changing color, it means it started developping spores and is no longer edible.
If you decide to harvest giant puffballs, make sure you have asked a mycologist in your region or checked it in a serious reference book to make sure you know a foolproof method to identify  the toxic mushrooms that look like a young giant puffball.
Remember : some mushrooms are deadly and their toxicity is sometimes so important that
even a doctor will be powerless to save the imprudent who have tasted it.
Don't forget that also, as with any other type of food, some people could simply be just allergic.
It is then wise and prudent to only ingest a small quantity the first time to see how you react to it.

We can easily clean, cut, peel
and cook such a monster in less then 30 minutes.
The flesh is delicate and neutral,
but with a definite forest flair.

In the kitchen...

Giant puffballs are easy to prepare. Wash the exterior without soaking the mushroom, else it will absorb the water. Next cut it in slices, and peel it delicately. The skin is easier to peel when the mushroom is in slices than whole. After, you can cut it in dice or thinner slices depending on what you want.

So far I tried 3 ways of preparing this mushroom.

- Just by frying some slices in a little butter. Very good when the quantity of butter is limited...

I cooked mushroom dice in this small steamer
made of silicone (a Starfrit product).
I filled the steamer and placed it in the microwave
at medium intensity for 2 minutes.
I let the cubes cool on a big plate afterwards,
and finally, I transfered them in a plastic container for
freezing.

- Make a pancake batter, soak the slices of puffballs in it and fry in a skillet with a dab of butter or oil, as you would cook french toasts. It's our favorite recipe (so far).

- Cut the flesh in small dice and steam cook, let them cool, and then freeze for later use, in a soup, sauté, stew, or spaghetti sauce. But I noticed that after several weeks in the freezer, the cubes develop an unpleasant smell. Therefore, I think it's better to cook them soon after the freezing process.

There's still many recipes I need to test. For example, I read that we can roast the slices in the oven, or hollow the mushroom, and stuff it. This mushroom is a bit like tofu ; it takes the taste of the other ingredients it's been cooked with.

Speaking of which, some sources state that it can replace tofu or eggplant.

I named this monster the piglet. It matured, split and opened up,
maybe because of the bountiful rain we had this summer.
Its more than 30 cm in height and almost 60 cm wide!

Here's one of its friends, measuring approximately 40 cm in diameter.
Its colors already mark him as unappetizing and it isn't yet at the
greenish cloud of spores stage. If I let it in place, this mushroom will
be there next spring, still releasing spores !

Of groundcherries, these sweet munchies

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Or how you can prolong the berry harvest with groundcherries!

Louise :   Are you acquainted with this flower? It's a tiny jewel that we generally don't notice at first glance. This flower will soon transform into a cute paper lantern look-alike, one that will shelter a beautiful and sweet-tasting pearl...



Here, the sweetest fruit is the one in the translucent envelope.
   The green envelope contains a fruit still too
green to be eaten.

You may know this small round fruit, firm et shiny, the size of a marble, gold or orange, depending on the variety, and that grows inside an envelope closed with 5 sepals, enwith that tiny paper lantern look.

Their unique taste combines that of the cherry tomato, citrus and pineapple. If some don't like it, the others tend to love it!
Personally, I'm always wrestling with the desire to eat them there, right away, Or to put some aside to make an exquisite jam, althought it's not thick enough to suit everybody's taste. When it comes to those shiny golden globes, my husband and grandson are as gaga as me, complicating the situation even more!



That big tuft of greenery by the sidewalk, is actually a multitude of ground cherry plants. I think it's not ugly at all and it stays pretty until the first frosts.  The flowers you see around attract pollinators, thus helping the ground cherries produce a very good harvest.

I planted groundcherries for the first time three summers ago, and frankly I'm wondering why I didn't do it sooner, since they have so many perks :

* The plants produce a great quantity of very nutritious berries, which are  excellent for your health. It doesn't take a lot of space, and they fruit for an extended period : from the middle of summer till the first light frosts. Here, I gave them 24 square feet (2 square meters, if you prefer) in full sun. But they can be grown in containers - As long as they are in a sunny spot and they have enough water.

* They're not really ornemental plants, but they do keep a good appearance throughout the season - which is not the case for every food plant. That's why I am not ashamed to put this plant in the front yard, where everyone can see it.

The berries really don't show that much.
You have to get close and lift the leaves to see them...

* Another big bonus, the plants don't need any staking since their stalks are strong and only grow as high as 50 to 90 cm. They do tend to grow in width so be careful.

The berries on the ground are ready to harvest.
We can also take them inside on a sunny window
to let them mature, a bit like tomatoes.

* The plants are annual here, but they do manage quite well on their own to reseed themselves (you just need to forget a couple of berries on the ground). They are also easy to produce in Québec and can fruit as soon as two months after plantation.

* They make a good amount of shadow on the ground so weeds are not generally a problem. However a good mulch under them will keep the berries that fall down clean and dry.

And since these plants prefer dry soil, no need to water them unless they're in containers or unless you have a severe drought.

As soon as August arrives, my plants give me 2 ou 3 cups
of berries, about every  2 to 4 days.
It's a bit of magic to be able to collect fruits like this
in september and even sometimes in october.

* It's easy to know when to harvest your berries : When they're mature, they drop on the ground all by themselves. All that's left to do is for you to pick them up, but you do have to be careful to not bruise the plants while harvesting.

The berries keep also very well : 4 à 6 weeks at room temperature in a dry spot, if their envelop is intact and dry.

* The berries behave like tomatoes : a fruit that started to mature but fell from the plant (a shade of green closer to yellow) will generally be able to complete it's maturation inside your home. The really green berries however won't.

I wiped the frost with my thumb here,
to make a small window for you to see
those beautiful pearls full of flavor.

What to do with all this abondance?

. We can eat them just like that, of course, maybe dipped in chocolate or caramel, used to decorate pancakes, or in fruit salads, chocolate fondues, or even as a garnish on a plate of cake or a bowl of ice cream, like some restaurants do.

. A purée, a jelly (add pectin), or a delicious jam (again add pectin if you prefer thicker jam). Pies can also be made out of them, or just dry them so they can replace raisins. Finally, there is also the possibility of just freezing them, without the need to cook them beforehand. Personnally, I wash them, wipe them up and then I put them in a clean glass jar (an old jam jar for example).


Watch out, however, not to eat the green berries, since they can give you serious belly aches and diarrhea, since these contain solanine, you know that same thing we are warned about regarding green potatoes.

Short list of information for those who want to know more... 

There is about a hundred species of groundcherries, (Physalis, in latin), annuals or long-lived, and many of them produce edible fruits. We find them on many continents. They are known under the names groundcherries, goldenberries or cape gooseberries, but in french they share these names : coquerets, amours en cage (love in a cage) or groseilles du Cap (Cape gooseberries, as previously mentionned).

The prominent species in Québec is Physalis Pruinosa, an annual. At the grocery store, in winter, it's also possible to buy Physalis Peruviana, the fruit of that one is bigger, orange instead of gold and it's wrap is sturdier and more opaque and dark. Personally, I don't really like this variety, because it has a light bitterness.

You may also know Physalis Alkekengi, also called Chinese Lantern which is used as an ornemental in Québec. It's a long-lived plant that can become very invasive, but its berries have a beautiful orange wrap. They are supposed to be edible, but I've never taste any. Opinions on this? Because I wouldn't have it here, considering its reputation as an aggressive and invasive plant, and since it's also been told that once you have some, it's very hard to get rid of it.

Well, that's all for now folks, have a great harvest!

Cat squad, safe berries

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Freya is an accomplished gardener; she unearthed
a good number of the leek seedlings
that I took so much time to transplant.

Hélène : 

Despite the comment under this photo of my Freya, cats can represent a real asset in the garden. Their presence is even contributing to a typical permaculture synergy in both my garden and Louise's. So, here are our gardening cats' stories.

Louise : Among the delightful succession of berries and fruit crops, blueberries are ripe at the beginning of July (at least the northern type, short variety in my backyard). It's just in time for the end of strawberries and well before the first raspberries.

Alas, the gardener is not alone to look greedily at the promise of this blue gem : birds will swallow them to the last one as soon as they discover where they are !

Imagine a net over these blueberries... It wouldn't be as poetic, would it ?

Hence the necessity to protect our crop. Some gardeners will tend nets over their plants, others will go as far as caging them. To make the challenge even more interesting, the highest the varieties are, the more likely they will be spotted by every neighbouring bird. And perched on a high bush, they will feel a lot more secure than on shorter, ground hugging varieties.
  

Specimen of catmint, not yet
trampled by the "lionesses"
of the house.

In my garden, this burglary problem never occured, mainly due to a coincidental association between my blueberry patch and... catnip, aka catmint (herbe à chats or cataire in French, Nepeta cataria in Latin). Many species of felines react to this aromatic plant emiting a peculiar odor reminiscent of mint. This smell has an effect on their brain, and they react weirdely (take a look on YouTube, just for the fun of it).

This year, I harvested 6,5 litres of blueberries, over a
period of a month. My patch is only 25 square feet
large (a little more than 2 square metres).

This vegetal "family" attained balance just south of a huge Norwegian spruce tree that produces acidic soil (which is perfect for the blueberries).
From the left, Virginia Raspberry (Rubus Odoratus), a bush tree producing pink flowers followed by red berries, capable of adapting to difficult, acidic, poor and dry conditions. Catnip, also a tough perennial, is in the center, in full bloom with its blue spikes. At its right, you see about half of the blueberry patch. At the back are standing the smallest blueberry plants (30cm - 1 foot high). They're small because of their proximity to the huge Norwegian Spruce that is limiting their growth. The other bueberries, standing further away from the spruce (look at the bottom right in the photo),
are taller and more productive. The biggest ones are 75cm (2,5 foot) high. We don't see them on this photo.

The relationship between catnip and kitties :

Your most aristocratic cat, providing the necessary genetic proclivity, will lose its dignity at once as soon as it will smell it. It will experience a dramatic change in mood, generally becoming good humored and easy going, sensual and all of a sudden, very demonstrative, a kind of behavior you would rather expect from a dog. The essential oils produced by the plant are responsible for this reaction. The cat will rub against it, taste it, roll over it, and purr passionately. Some will even start to drool. After a while, Kitty will start to feel sleepy. Best of all : your cat will want to visit this aphrodisiac plant very frequently and stay close for long moments. This is where th lazy gardener can really bank on the cat's presence.

Here, we see the cats' favorite spot to take a nap,
comfortably lined with dried leaves, right under the
blueberries and very close to one of the two
catmints. And the first cat to come is the
lucky one !

I have the chance to own four female cats that, luckily, are all susceptible to catmint's charms.

Therefore, they incidentally took to themselves to guard the blueberry patch, since two big catmint plants are also planted right at the edge of the patch. The fact that my bluberry plants are of a short variety doesn't do any arm either. As a result, birds are avoiding carefully this small area of the garden and I never lost even a single blueberry to them !

Pinotte and Calimero just arrive to inspect the catnip
 after a big rainfall. The plants' perfume has been
revived by all this water, but they are really
much too wet to sprawl over them.
On the other paw, it doesn't  hurt to taste a little bit
of those fresh, juicy, fragrant leaves...

Catmint has a natural tendancy to flop over. But it withstands the abuse done by the cats and won't mind a cutback, once in a while. I saw my huge tomcat continually taking a nap right over the plants when they were still only young seedlings. They would simply disappear under him. And despite all my expectations, not only did they survive an entire summer of this treatment, but they thrived to become the big healthy things they are today.

If you can't stand the idea of a cat walking on your property, catmint is not for you. But if you think of their eventual visits in a benevolent set of mind, you will have 80% chances to lure them wherever you want them to stand guard for you.

By the way, herborists use catmint leaves. You can make herbal tea, and also dry them up for your own cat, to stuff one of its toys, for instance.

Hélène :

Floraison de l'amélanchier

The idea, here, is to use various relationships between plants and animals and to put them to everybody's profit. You see, according to Permaculture principles, gardeners are looking for ways to multiply relationships as much as possible, making the mini ecosystem of a garden much stronger because of its greater complexity.

This same principle is also applied in my garden, but with my Juneberry (Amelanchier Canadensis, also known as saskatoon or serviceberry). It's a bush or a tree - depending on the cultivar - part of the  Rosaceaes, like roses, evidently, but also like apples and peaches, among others.

It's an amazing tree : very nice small white flowers covering it in springtime, beautiful red berries ressembling blueberries, only a bit bigger in June, and at fall, a fiery red-orange foliage.

But it's a birds' favorite and since mine is a tree (and not a bush), even with a catmint plant  at its foot, the bird would come and feast on it without any hesitation. It's understandable : juneberries are the most delicious little gems you can imagine, like a cross between cranberries and blueberries, but much sweeter.

A net would have done the job, but I'm much too lazy for that. Therefore, I decided to use a little ingenuity to convince birds to go somewhere else.

So, I too, enrolled my cats, but my plan didn't include the association of a couple of different plants and the cats, like in Louise's garden. How did I do it, since it's a tree (a little difficult to guard efficiently, even for a cat) ? Well, a big portion of my small backyard is occupied by a big, elevated deck. Wisely, I positioned my Juneberry tree very close to it, near a corner. That way, the lowest branches touch the deck's railing and my three cats love to rest nearby. No bird dare to come close, even if the cats don't represent a real danger to them. It seems that my cats' greedy looks at them is neatly cutting their appetites for my delicious berries!

Naturally, my cats' presence in my small backyard deter most birds, which is a little sad, but when my tree will grow to be large enough, I bet that the birds will come back and then, everybody will share the adondance. I won't mind letting them harvest the highest branches. This arrangement will be even better, from a Permaculture point of vue, since every party (birds, cats, tree and humans) will find its profit. But until that day, the berries are mine !

Be weary of  Buttercup, the ferocious kitty!