A Brief Discourse On Our Friend Urtica Diocia
    
   Last weekend on the farm a festival was held honouring the stinging nettle. Yes, that plant that grows in the wild which you may have been stung by at some point in your life. Here's a little refresher on what it looks like: 

     It is highly nutritious; healing for a variety of ailments such as colds, arthritis and enlarged prostate; can be used as a fibre for rope or what have you; and it's culinary incarnations are just as varied. At the festival, the cafe was serving up stinging nettle pizza, stinging nettle pesto with pasta, stinging nettle spanakopita and there was even a workshop on making it into wine. The best part about this nutritious healing plant is that grows freely for you! It's in season right now and if you feel inclined to try it out here are some tips: wear gloves when harvesting, snip off the top 2 inches of the plant since this is where the tastiest, freshest part of the plant is, and look for it in farm pastures at the edges and roadsides (use your own judgement here). If you're in Mission, there's a little patch growing beside the dyke along the Fraser going east about 5 minutes from the parking lot.
    The festival was a lot of fun. I gave tractor rides to kids in the neighbouring field. Those over 2 years old were slightly unimpressed with the 2 km/h speed I was going at, hopping on and off it and yelling at me to go faster the whole time. Here's a picture of what I probably looked like, driving in the field next door (the guy driving here is named Mike, we split driving duties, he is
also a very cool individual) :

    There's more I'd like to write about, but sleep beckons me, so I'll just post a picture. This one is of the bull and his lady friend the day after she gave birth to a beautiful black calf who's camouflaged by the grass: