jeromemartin.ca

Grow Your Own Food

It's been a rather strange summer: first, cool and dry, then very hot. Our garden has been quite productive in spite of the unusual weather, but it has needed regular watering.

The term garden to me has always meant a vegetable garden. Flowers and shrubs are very attractive, but one cannot make salads from them. I enjoy the flowers that we have, but gardening to me implies food – potatoes, tomatoes, corn, peas, raspberries, rhubarb, beans, basil and more.

We have a large garden and our summer meals (and many of our meals in other seasons) consist primarily of our produce.

Vegetables which have been picked in another country days or weeks before they reach local stores cannot compete with vegetables which have been picked or dug minutes before cooking.

Not everyone has the opportunity of owning and managing a large garden. But many people have opportunities to grow tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables in pots on balconies or back steps. Most of us can also buy local produce at farmers' markets or directly from producers.

Our preoccupation with growing grass in our yards came, I believe, from our ancestors who copied those who lived in large homes and on large estates in Europe. They had and probably still have acres of grass and flowers, all cared for by hired help. We have continued to emulate those people: but lush lawns require water and fertilizer and most people cut them with mowers powered by two-cycle engines, the most inefficient engines available.

Consider growing some of your own food in your yard or on your deck. Become an urban organic farmer. You'll produce food which is delicious, nutritious, and virtually free.

In the meantime drop by some afternoon in the next week or two. The raspberries are going strong, there's lots of spinach and fresh chard: and I'd be happy to offer you a fresh tomato.

Visual Arts Alberta's Open Photo 2009

I had the privilege this week of being the juror for Open Photo 2009, a competition and exhibition presented by Visual Arts Alberta at the Kaasa Gallery in the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. Photographers, their friends and photo enthusiasts from across the Province enjoyed an evening of viewing, discussing and celebrating photography.

The show runs to September 30, 2009. If you are from Edmonton or are visiting Edmonton this summer visit the Kaasa Gallery and enjoy photographs by some of Alberta's finest photographers.

Appreciating Kodachrome

Kodak has announced that it will no longer manufacture Kodachrome film. This is not a surprise, but it is a disappointment. It's the finest transparency ('colour slide') film ever made. Richard B. Woodward's excellent article in the Wall Street Journal traces the history of Kodachrome.

I have not been able to buy Kodachrome in Canada for the last two years, but I do have a couple of exposed films which I must send to the USA for processing.

While I use mostly black and white film I've used Kodachrome for the last four decades for colour work. While I can no longer buy unexposed Kodachrome I can continue to scan and work with the thousands of transparencies I've made since the mid-1960s. I'm pleased that I worked with the best colour film available and that I used a lot of it.

Collections of Kodachrome transparencies or other positives or negatives may be very valuable to families and to archivists. Don't let your father, your grandfather or your Aunt Maude discard them just because everybody is using digital photographs and '...well, we don't know who some of these people are.' These photographs are part of our photographic heritage.