TreeEater Farm and Nursery
2011 North Central Rd V0R 1T0 Denman Island, BC, Canada

hello all you plant tenders: December 14th will be the last day of shipping for 2020. I will resume again in mid-january 2021 . Sales will only be available by appointed in-person nursery visits during this break. Thanks for the great year! I'll be doing a summary/reflection post soon. Peter

Anybody tried these? Just received a load of intermas climatic tree tubes. They are much more low-profile than the big green tubex tubes. Obviously they wont offer the same greenhouse affect but they are cheaper because they ship much easier....trial time.

What's been going on lately at the farm you ask? With all the sunny weather i (Magdalene) have gotten the garden pretty cleaned up and ready for next spring. Main garden has been planted to fall rye, and it's growing in thickly to provide a solid blanket for the soil to dream under all winter. In the nursery, Peter and our helper Katrina have started digging up the apricots, peaches, quince and apples to fill the long anticipated orders from customers for these must-have fr...Continue reading

In addition to the last post i made: i think its an important time to mention another thought process that i don't often share with customers: For some reason people are much more attracted to "fruit" trees as opposed to nut trees. Maybe its the sugar? Maybe its the quicker return on investment? The problem is that this desire for sweetness and fastness is really another symptom of our failing culture. And quick sweetness is only part of life. We also need the proteins and f...ats and minerals that require real long term investment and patience. These heavier nutrients and the practice of cultivating them are what we need for a longer term existence and a more stable culture. For example: (Conflict of interest duly acknowledged) I challenge the right person to plant 5 acres of pinenuts that they may never taste and don't have the machinery to process. It doesn't matter. Or, more moderately, even one acre of hazels. It will take 5 five to ten years to get a decent return on the hazels. But, its an investment in the future, our collective future. A family, any family, maybe not yours, could literally survive on that acre of nuts for an entire year. You just can't do that with apples or plums or the mindset of quick returns. We have to get away from the industrial wheat and corn and soy that we and our animals are currently dependent on. The film "kiss the soil" quotes that there are only 60 years of topsoil left. When woody rephrased this as: "there are only 60 harvests left" it really hit home for me personally. See more

Some notes from the back-end... Statement of the obvious: its been a strange year in the nursery. Record interest and sales. Thanks, you all, for thinking about our collective future and planting food trees in your yards. Trees are created in long cycles: generally 2 to 3 years from conception to sales transaction. So the trees that i'm planning on having for sale in the spring of 2021 were generally created started last year (2019). *Fortunately/Unfortunately* many of these... 2021 destined trees are selling out right now and will not be available in 2021. So my stock lists will be marked with a lot of "NA" - Not Available. And, despite my disappointment at not being able to supply everybody with everything that they want, i will call this a success, for us all. We are collectively realising that we need more direct access to food. That we need more local food and more control over our food. And that perennial food is not only easier on the world but also easier for a personal to produce, year after year. Trees give growing dividends. They are an ancient investment in a positive future and they don't hurt the world in the process of growing themselves. They actually improve it. Imagine that. So thank you all and i'm sorry i only have so many to offer. Further more: i think its an important time to mention another thought process that i don't often share with customers: For some reason people are much more attracted to "fruit" trees as opposed to nut trees. Maybe its the sugar? Maybe its the quicker return on investment? The problem is that this desire for sweetness and fastness is really another symptom of our failing culture. And quick sweetness is only part of life. We also need the proteins and fats and minerals that require real long term investment and patience. These heavier nutrients and the practice of cultivating them are what we need for a longer term existence and a more stable culture. For example: (Conflict of interest duly acknowledged) I challenge the right person to plant 5 acres of pinenuts that they may never taste and don't have the machinery to process. It doesn't matter. Or, more moderately, even one acre of hazels. It will take 5 five to ten years to get a decent return on the hazels. But, its an investment in the future, our collective future. A family, any family, maybe not yours, could literally survive on that acre of nuts for an entire year. You just can't do that with apples or plums or the mindset of quick returns. We have to get away from the industrial wheat and corn and soy that we and our animals are currently dependent on. The film "kiss the soil" quotes that there are only 60 years of topsoil left. When woody rephrased this as: "there are only 60 harvests left" it really hit home for me personally.

Now its time to get around to pulling out some of the old cabbage plants in my garden. Some are going to head up over the later autumn. The best cabbage types sprout those mini cabbage heads after the first big heads have been cut. Best type for that is "Convoy". What's your favorite variety for second crop cabbages? I'm perennially excited about growing and eating the amazing brassica called Perenial Nine Star. It's a white broccoli, makes bountiful florets in March. Imagin...e a small bush of broccoli which produces bountifully year after year, getting bigger every year, and then ask yourself why no one seems to know about it! Reminds me of a dream i had years ago of a broccoli vine growing outside my front door covered in dainty florests. So do yourself a favour friends, and order perenial broccoli from Dan Jason of Saltspring Seed! Get a pack for your neighbors too! Photo by Sydney Woodward

Wow, how the seasons are flying by! It seems like garlic scape harvest was but a few weeks ago. I'm getting organized to plant our garlic next week. Sadly this year half the garlic crop was lost to white fungus. These wet June's we have been receiving, while amazing for the garden in many ways, have been encouraging the fungas situation to flourish in garlic that's supposed to be drying down and finishing. Has this been happening to anyone elts garlic crop?