Harvest Photos from 2011, Galiano Island, BC.

It was a slow start to the growing season this year, but things eventually warmed up and the garden finally produced some excellent food.

Potatoes were the first things harvested in late August. I had a mix of white and red potatoes that were excellent along with fresh cod and beer. I made some potato patties with grated potato and onion mixed together and fried in butter for 6 minutes per side. Very good snack food.


The tomatoes suffered a deer attack early in June, so they did some recovering before finally producing some tasty fruit. The plants from the Saltspring Island market were fast growing and very hardy.

My melons didn't do so well. Those vigorous tomato plants shaded out my watermelons and my passport melons were overtaken by the MONSTER pumpkin plant. Oh well, next year I will give them more space.

As always, I suggest mulching early and mulching often. That means getting out there and tossing on layers of seaweed (kelp), and straw, and whatever else you can scavenge to toss onto your beds. This will protect your soil over the winter and allow nutrients to seep into the ground from your mulch, instead of leaching out and leaving you with barren ground.

Enjoy the Photos.

Hot peppers in oil from the greenhouse, with a pumpkin on my driftwood bench.

First apples from my yard tree and a pie.

Sunrise on my garden.

From the garden into the pot. From the pot into the pie!

Caught this cod from the kayak. The heads get buried deep in the garden. Yum!

special sideways apples

My friend and his daughter with a jack-o-lantern that we carved

chanterelle mushrooms, apples, cucumber, pumpkin, and squash

pumpkins, squash, onions, and sunflowers

shaggy manes and a fairy ring of mushrooms

Rib Recipe. Top secret, but you can use it.

This is a template to create your own personalized rib masterpiece.


Follow these guidelines and you will get amazing results every time. Of course, there is lots of room for experimentation, so you can find the best combination to suit your tastes. I like to do several racks at the same time, and then season with different sauces at the final stage to give some variety to the meal.

Here is the procedure:

Gather your ingredients and cooking utensils. You will need.

1. Pork ribs, 3-4 full racks, 4-5lbs uncooked total weight.
2. Salt (regular salt,celery salt, onion salt, garlic salt, or any combo of these) 1/4 cup total
3. Spices (a good base mix is 3 parts chili powder, 1 part paprika, 1 part mustard powder, 1 part thyme, and 1 part garlic powder) 1/4 cup total
4. sugar (half brown, half white) 1/4 cup total
5. Combine salt, sugar and spices together to make your customized spice rub. Keep the proportions about 1/3 salt, 1/3 sugars, 1/3 spices and herbs. This rub will be the flavour base of the ribs. The salt and sugar help create a barrier that will keep the ribs moist and tasty. 
6. 2 cups of the best apple juice you can find. Or get out the juicer and make your own.
7. half a cup of honey or maple syrup.
8. 1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce. You can also make your own. There are lots of recipes out there and I'm sure you can scrape out some jam jars and add some thai chili sauce, and some cloves of garlic and bring to a boil and simmer. Or go for the bullseye
9. 1 or two Pyrex baking dishes. 

Now that you have everything together, get your sleeves rolled up and get out the meat. You will want to remove the thin membrane that is on the ribs before coating them liberally with your spice rub. If you have a propane BBQ, turn only one side on and let it heat up on the lowest setting with the lid closed. You are aiming for around 225 Fahrenheit. Place the rubbed ribs on the grill that is not turned on. Leave them in this indirect heat for 2-3 hours, turning frequently and making sure the ribs are not getting too hot. This will help seal in all the flaours and make a nice exterior to the rib. Now is when we start cheating and save about 10 hours in cooking time.
Take the ribs off the bbq and place in the pyrex dishes. Add the honey to coat all the ribs then pour in the apple juice. Cover these dishes with tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes on 350-375Farenheit in the oven.
Take off the foil and savour the aroma! You are almost ready to eat. Just one more step....
Now you must crank up the BBQ to high and leave the lid open. Take the ribs out of the dishes and coat with BBQ sauce and grill for 5 min per side. Don't burn the BBQ sauce. You have put a lot of work into these ribs and you shouldn't burn them now!
Remove from heat and let them rest under a tinfoil tent while you get out the wine and put out the side dishes.

 Enjoy!