If last year was the "Year of the Nettle" (Urtica dioica) for me then this year has to have been the "Year of the Black Cap Raspberry" (Rubus leucodermis) But don't worry, It's all connected.

We moved up Island since last summer, from around Shawnigan Lake to Nanaimo.  From rural life to urban living.  As a result, I had to rethink my patches and picking.  After last year's experiments with the berries, I was determined to have a bumper crop this year.

Unfortunately, It took a bit to get going.  I spent the start of the season commuting to my patches, which yielded impressive picks.  I eventually found the patches that live nearby and they are as impressive as what's down south.  Same thing:  Clearcut FULL of Black Cap shrubs.  Climbing over fallen stumps and trenches.  It's exciting picking! 

Also can be painfull.  Little barbs getting into the crevices of the hands and becoming infected after they get missed in the post-pick wash up.

Another plus is that the season was a little behind up here and so I got a little extra in terms of picking time... Though there's part of me that feels I didn't get enough done.

All in All, I've got about six Litres of juice which will be made into Candy and then We have a freezer full of berries.  So much so that we need more room.  My goal setting out this year was to gather enough berries to make 100lbs of candy.  I came about 90 lbs shy of that, not having been organized enough.  Now that I know where to go around me, and assuming a certain amount of stability into next year, I can get down and do a production run that will make enough candy for the masses.

Baby Steps.  I'm so excited to get this out there.  I can't believe how patient I am.  There may be a little bit for sale then this year (contact me if you want some... It's not cheap but it's soooooooo good) but mostly this year again was a research year.  A little bit on the marketing side but a LOT on the production side.  I'm figuring it all out.

And I will Keep you posted.

I'm really curious whether any research has been done about how adrenaline can be related to human development.

This comes up for me as I'm hanging out with Osha this evening after a particularly scary fall out of the bathtub.  He's allright, I caught him as he landed but he flipped over and I imagine was rewarded with an incredible dose of adrenaline.

Now, he's being in the world, as I can perceive at least, in a different way than before.  He's more confident of his moves, he's trying more things and seems to move around just a little more at ease.  It's peculiar.  He's even talking in a different way... a different set of sounds.  It's all very subtle but evident.

I'm reminded of when sOMa fell off the bathroom counter as a babe.  After every fall (it happened three times) we noticed a significant jump in development, in the same kind of way I'm witnessing right now.  My initial explanation was that the organism, in its drive to procreation, felt threatened and thus needed to accelerate development in order to reach its goal.  But now i'm wondering if it's anything to do with the adrenaline?  Hmmmm.

Adrenaline is a neurotransmitter the body makes as part of its suvival toolkit.  It's a potent chemical wherun minute quantities have marked effects.  I think we all can relate to the rush of its effects on our bodies.  Anyone remember how it manifests in a 10month-old baby? 

I haven't done my research yet, do children even produce adrenaline?

Anyway, he's coming down now, and sOMa's done his bath and it's time for bed.  Just a little something this parent thinks about while parenting on a Thursday night.

I've been a father for four and a half years and a father of two for almost a week. On this journey that I am creating, fatherhood is by far the most challenging part.  Even more challenging than engaging in a relationship.  Or a partnership.  If you think about it, all engagements involve a relationshipm including (especially) raising a child.  Communing with the world involves relating to it through the context of the experience of ourselfs.  And through this trip of fatherhood, I'm learning so much about myself.  It hasn't always been pretty.

I've fathered two boys.  Both times we expected girls and were surprised by a penis and scrotum.   I was almost scared when the first was born, so insecure was I with my manhood that i had no clue how I was going to show this little boy how to be a man.  I've come to realise that the more challenging part is to wade through all my shit to show him how to be a person.  A kind and compassionate member of society.

He's gonna figure out how to be a man all right.  I've come to learn that the world is a pretty lucky place to have me as this child's manly role-model.  I'm a pretty sensitive and caring man.  I've come to take it as an honor to be his role model as he's grown into the boy he is today.

Now that i've co-created a second boy, it feels like i've been given a second chance.  I can't take away all of the shit I've dumped on the first.  But I can certainly see how it happened and avoid a lot of the turmoil that I already see Him struggling with.  It's an incredible learning experience, as I said.  And as it's happening, I'm growing so much myself.  There is a reason why most of us are wired to procreate and I think it's for much the same reason that a lot of us go to church or are seeking that divine presence.

I have a friend named Beaver, who tends to a pear orchard.  A few years ago, in a package of some Hemp goods that we bought from him,  he included a little baggie of some dried pears.    Pears have  always been my favorite tree fruit.  Their sweetness, regardless of which variety I've tried, is such a passionate kiss in every bite.  Trying them dried was like an AHA! moment for me.  It not only affirmed  my Love for this mystical fruit, but it  took that Love to another level.

On my journey to Pear Heaven, I need to let you know that Duncan is a dumpster-diver's paradise... So after getting the dehydrator, I've had a pretty steady supply of dried pears.  On a couple of occasions we've gone dumpstering and have come up with a volume of Pears.

It's amazing what grocery stores will throw away!  Think about it for a second.  We visit 2 stores in Duncan, BC and get a lot of the produce we need.  There is most always more than we can take.... There are thousands of grocers in British Columbia (then extrapolate this to nationally) who, similarly I'm sure,  throw away volumes of (varying degrees of) fresh produce.

Then if one includes foodservice scraps from restaurants, hotels, clubs etc....  Is it any wonder that food costs so much?  And then secondly... How come there are people starving?

While visiting with Sarah on the evening after our massive Pear score, she shared a recipe for Pear butter.  Of course! (i could feel an AHA! moment coming on...).  Her recipe involved a lot of spices and such but we opted for straight Pear.  We washed and cored them, then put them through the Champion juicer into a pot.  They spent the day reducing and when I smelled them this evening (only moments ago, really) it was sniffing bliss!  I could smell the sugars beginning to caramelize.  I can't believe I waited almost an hour from that first sniff until having a taste just now and

O.M.F.G!!!!!!

or whatever other kind of uber-expressive net-emo symbol that would indicate something approaching Nirvana or....

That spoonful of brown mush has got to be the most perfect sweetness that has ever graced this tongue. 

Heaven??? 
if there is such a place,
exists in the taste
of a spoonfull of Pear
reduced over medium-to-low heat
for most of the day....

after all that, i'm reducing it some more.  it's in the oven at about 300.  Can the bliss get better than this?  we'll see.

When we make Love,
I feel...

It's like the Universe is speaking
Through our Spirit United.
It feels like home,
Loke a dark pathway lighted.

...Like there's a choir somewhere
Inside our soul
That bursts out into passionate song.

When we make Love there is no wrong,
Anywhere in the world, it seems.
Everywhere is at peace
And growing moreso every moment.

When we make Love...
I feel like i'm being awakened to something new,
And that the world that I knew
won't ever be the same:

Like when I learned to ride a bike
or to tie my shoes or read
...Like every time I pray.

When we make Love
and join in these passionate moments
of intimate play,
this forever, so real,
I feel...

oh! how I feel.

I am home. Having arrived on the island shortly after noon today. 

It's feeling really great to be back in the familiar new space of home.  As we're building our life here on the coast, there's really no place I'm interested in being other than here.  "Back home" in Ontario, I felt very alien as I whisked through a flurry of connections with friends and family over six days (my sister is now married, a good friend is about to give birth!!! Grandma's dog was put down and my dad is looking really old...we're all going through so many changes and it's all so amazing...AniccA) on our way to a brief four day holiday at the cottage in Sauble Beach on Lake Huron-Michigan. 

Then it was on the road again.  The bus left Toronto on Saturday evening at five and arrived this morning in Vancouver.  OOF!  The trip across the country on a Greyhound bus is challenging at the best of times but even moreso whilst almost eight months pregnant.  laura's discomfort was apparent (why she didn't try cannabis...it transformed the challenging into trippy for me).  I'm amazed at her resiliance and her beauty.  We were both amazed at how incredible was sOMa's  demeanor for the journey.  He was frustrated with anticipation a couple of times and crearly bored a couple of others but slept pretty soundly and quite a bit. 

I was tripping out on no sleep... that and the cannabis!  I'm heading off to bed pretty soon and am really excited about sleeping more than two hours in a stretch.  It does something to general perception to be awake for long periods.  Dream world and waking life meld into something pretty interesting and worthy of further study.  I'm not finished with bustrips across the country for this reason alone, though i've got absolutely NO desire to leave the island in the immediate.

Perhaps a bustrip to the north coast....

This morning,
you roll from your sleep-space, reach out with your busy, delicate hand and touch me softly on the shoulder, then the face and I'm certain that I smiled. I awaken happy and filled with the sound of your laughter--your hearty giggles. Stirring, still smiling and watch as the covers fly away and WE'RE NAKED!, it's morning and a whole day ahead. WE'RE NAKED! and I jump up running to win the race to the toilet but you're faster--you've been awake longer--and i'm sssstill dreaming on my way to the table by the sink where there's a joint, some water and a tapedeck, a lighter and a candle, so I play while waiting for the facilities.

"don't you dare light that joint 'till i'm done peeing."
"Are you almost done peeing?"
"Yeah."
"I'm lighting it. First toke my turn today Love" ...click...fssschhh

"Good morning! Good morning!" It's the Beatles, they're making noise as the chillin' cannabis flower smoke drifts softly into the air. I hand off the spliff as you leap from the peespace, grab it with grace and i take my place on the potty with pleasure; release with pleasure the stored liquid of a night full of dreaming. Yeah.

"Yeah... I had a wild dream just now."
"Prophetic?"
"No, I don't think so, I don't know, maybe."
"Tell me."
"Let me get off the can first. Can i get a toke?"
"Here, do you want to take a shower?"
"No. Um, I want to sit by the window."

I hop from the toilet and grab the blanket from the bed on my way to the sliding-doors window,

"What are you doing?"
"Do we have any really dusty powder?"
"...There's the dust in the bag in the vac in the closet. I'll get it"

,place the blanket on the heater by the door, turn around and YOU'RE NAKED!, I'M NAKED!, WE'RE NAKED! and i pass you the joint and you hand me the dust and i open the door to the third floor balcony and this sunny Saturday summer morning.

"It's certainly not the weather of my dream...Shit! where's the fan"

The fan's in the closet, I run over to get it then stop where you're standing to kiss you a kissy-kiss; you kissy-kiss me right back, put the joint in my mouth then turn it on high.........

"Yeah."
"I'm quite cooked. Nice bud!"
"You want this, last tokes?"
"Yeah"

Your strong, strong fingers clasp at the tip of euphoria, I stand by the window, the dust in my hands, you point the fan at me smiling, the dust starts-a-flying! all around all around, outside and in, it covers the Lovers and the room that WE'RE NAKED! in.

"Do you see the way it's swirling around?"
"Yes."
"Imagine it to be a cloudy day and there was this swirling around and we didn't have these walls, only thin air around us, and dust, like this, swirling all about. come, sit on the heater"
"It's really dusty"
"It's quite an effective effect."
"Sure"
"This was the end of the dream; what i just woke from. clouds of swirling dust with myself and everyone with whom i'd ever connected--although i couldn't see them for all the dust--we were all in this dust, being quite comfortably so, on the warm space all around us. It was very peacefull.

"Before that we were all at a huge party being thrown in Central Park in New York City celebrating the day of the Apocalypse. Everyone in the park with bands playing on a big stage. I guy came on between sets saying things like 'Great to be here all together isn't it?' and 'Okay folks we've got forty nine minutes to be alive like this', etc..

"We partied and partied like it was the end of the world, not a care in the world, just reverence, REJOICE!! (WE'RE NAKED! and it's GREAT!!) And the MC came on and told us 'two minutes to go', we all quietly counted down noticing smoke trails of missiles over the city.... then, masses of swirling dust carried us all and everything else away.

In a totally
pleasant
fashion

we all still hung out and relayed and expressed that 'wow this is a pretty wierd or interesting sensation' and 'Not at all what i expected." with lots of 'Grooovy!' and 'Ohhh yeahhhh.......':

(...sigh)

You turn off the fan, light up a smoke and sit back silently on the pseudo-sofa as the dust settles subtly all around us and WE'RE NAKED and in Love in a filthy room. You've got tears on your face but you're so happy it feels.

"That must have been beautifull"
"Yeah, quite something. Feels a little melancholy now. Perhaps it's that i'm having cravings for the feeling already. Beautifull is almost vague. I don't know Love. Yeah."
"Good dreaming." You hand me your smoke.
"Good waking up with you."

You smile, spring from the heater onto the bed, into your robe then right out the door with a thumbs up, no words just a giggle and I'M NAKED and alone with your cigarette, a mess in the pad, with a hot beverage and the whole day with you on the way.

3cups (or to desired thickness) Nettle Decoction (see recipe)
3Tbsp butter (or other fat or oil)
3Tbsp Kamut flour
2tsp Miso

(you can try a mirepoix too but it's not especially necessary... there's LOTS of flavour already)

lightly toast kamut flour
melt butter in saucepan over medium heat
add lightly toasted flour to create the roux
mix in the miso and allow to simmer gently for a minute or two

slowly add Nettle reduction, a third-cup at a time. mixing it in and allowing it to boil before adding another cup. continue this process untill the gravy achieves your desired thickness. for last night's dinner, i think it was about three cups.

The flavour of this gravy will vary depending on the miso and the strength of the Nettle infusion.

Last night's gravy was remarkably robust and also deliciously subtle.

I've been harvesting a quantity of Nettles and drying the leaves to "cut and sift" and sell for tea.  It's quite a venture and it feels so amazing to be on this journey.  I'm feeling guided by Sister Urtica and all of the ideas that we are generating on this quest.

When the Nettles were small, I just dried them, stems and all in the dehydrator.  Now that they are big and I'm harvesting more than I can process in a day, I'm using a screen and baseboard heater system. 

And I've found something extraordinary to do with the stems.

RECIPE
3-4 Lbs Nettle Stems (I wear rubber gloves when I'm handling mass quantities)
7 Litres H2O

Boil the Nettle stems in the water for several hours.  The more the merrier!  If you have the patience for overnight.....

Strain out the spent stems and then lightly simmer or even subtly steam reduce the decoction.  This can be done "to taste".  The first time I did it, I reduced it incredibly.  Subsequent decoctions much less so; by about half. 

The ensuing liquid is pretty versatile.  I've used it as stocks for soups with amazing results.  laura uses it as part of her smoothie every day.  It is such an iron-rich brew.