MGOI Newsletters: October 2014

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

What's Growing On - Fall Newsletter

Master Gardeners of Ontario

Serving Ontario for Over 25 Years

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In this Issue....

Hooked on a Bean

Edythe Falconer, Ottawa-Carleton

Algonquin College and Lanark County Master Gardeners

Dale Odorizzi

Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County

Growing Dahlias

Lianne Krane, Guelph-Wellington

Here are highlights from Olly Chuchryk presentation on Dahlias at the OHA Conference in Cornwall, July 20, 2014. She is the owner of Charing House Gardens and has been selling dahlia tubers and cut flowers since 2004. Dahlias are Olly’s specialty and she grows them to perfection maximizing blossom size. All her dahlias are grown outdoors and without the help of greenhouses. Read more...

London Middlesex Master Gardeners Caring in Our Communities

Cheryl Losch, London-Middlesex

Junior Gardeners

Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners

Controlling Burdock (Arctium minus) Along a Walking Trail

Burdock Rosette

Louise Loree, Haliburton Master Gardeners

Integrated Weed Management (IWM) includes five main methods of weed control. They are: preventive, cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical. Read more...

Burdock Bread with Asiago

Kerry Hackett, Peterborough

Here is a recipe for a delicious bread that you can use your excess burdock for. Read more...

M and Ms (Monarchs and Milkweed)

Tom McCavour, Simcoe County

The Board Proposes Replacing our Bylaws at the Coordinators' Conference

The MGOI Coordinators will be meeting again this year at Landscape Ontario in Milton on Oct 18. Included at the meeting will be discussions on the role of the coordinator, difficult volunteers, volunteer motivation, and fundraising.

Our annual general meeting will also be held at the conference.

At the AGM the board will be proposing a major change by replacing the bylaws of MGOI. This will restructure the organization in fundamental ways. Among the many changes that the board proposes to the bylaws are the following:

The board proposes that zones will no longer exist and the board will be structured on a functional basis rather than geographically.

The board also proposes that while the Groups and Coordinators would continue informally, the individual volunteers would become voting members rather than the groups, represented through their coordinators at the AGM. The individual volunteers would apparently be paying dues and applying for membership directly to the board.

The proposed bylaws no longer mention “group” or “coordinator”.

These changes have major implications on how MGOI does its business, so the proposal should be read very carefully before the coordinators meet to discuss this and vote on it at the AGM. You can read the full text of the proposed bylaws by logging on the members side of www.mgoi.ca website and clicking on the AGM 2014 Voting Package tab. The bylaws (2008) as they now exist can be found there also under the Handbooks tab.

MGs in Action

London Middlesex – Like us on Facebook and Twitter - Thanks Julie Dorssers. We have a Super new website! Check it out www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com

Many thanks to Kim Pawley, Rhonda Persichilli, and Linda Armstrong.

Milestones

Muskoka Parry Sound MGs Sandra, Rosemarie, Linda and Shirley
receive their 10 and 20 year pins.

New MGiTs

Grey County – Roseanne Illman
Etobicoke – Dyann Sheppard
London Middlesex – Rosemarie Boyd, Jennifer Houston

Passed Certification Exam

Etobicoke – Paivi Evars
London Middlesex – Amy Turnbull

Completed MG Course Guelph

London Middlesex – Lee Anderson, Cheryl Losch

New MGs

Durham - Ingrid Janssen, Tracey Smyth
Haliburton – Marg Chambers, Milka Hider, Winnie Kasepchuk
Mississauga – Martha Kantorczyk, David Pavanel

5 Years

Durham – Karen Sciuk
Haliburton County – Heather Chambers, Sue Flinders-Adams, Janice Hardy
Mississauga – Mary Jean Kucerak

10 Years

Durham – Anita Vicente-Pereira, Gini Sage
Haliburton County – Liz Case, Winnie Kasepchuck
Lanark County – Kathleen Lang
Muskoka – Parry Sound – Sandra Hartill, Rosemarie Meyer, Shirley Neil

20 Years

Muskoka - Parry Sound – Linda Dronseika
Quinte-Tweed – Jeannine Berscheid

Transfers:

Etobicoke – Astrid Muschalla - Transferred to Rideau 1000 Islands
Etobicoke – Anja Lowrance – Transferred to Simcoe
London Middlesex welcomes transfer members – Chrystal Trojek, Anne McFee, Dean Hale

In Memorial

London Middlesex – Bill Shuter, MG 1989-2014

Events

October 18, 8:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

Harmony Centre, Owen Sound. About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees. Here is the poster for this event.

October 19, 2014 – 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

at Civic Garden Complex, 625 Springbank Drive, London ON. Technical Update entitled "Dirty Little Secrets and Plant Enemies" featuring 4 keynote speakers:

“Disease Issues of Horticulture Crops during the 2014 Season” - Michael Celetti, Plant Pathologist

“Determining Soil Type and Tailor Managing your Soil, Including: Physical Condition, Irrigation & Drainage, Soil Biology, and Nutrients” - Keith Reid, Soil Scientist

“Integrated Management of Insect and Disease Pests of Vegetable Crops in Ontario” - Cheryl Trueman, Professor Vegetable Pathology & Entomology

“Soil Amendments” – Ed Topp, Principal Research Scientist

Cost of $50 includes 2 snacks, lunch, 4 speakers and 6 CEU's.
Information lonmidmastergardeners@gmail.com
Registration www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com
Here is the flier for this event.

Monday, October 27, 2014 at 7:30 pm

Alice Casselman – founder of ACER presents Forests of the Future: Climate Change and Your Backyard Trees at St. Luke's Lutheran Church 3200 Bayview Avenue (Bayview and Finch)

March 7th 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

at Carling Heights Optimist Ctr, 656 Elizabeth St, London ON. London Middlesex Master Gardeners host their 8th Seedy Saturday offering "Seeds to Buy or Swap, Plants, Supplies, Exhibits, Free Advice, Speakers and Demonstrations".

Cost for entry will be $5 Adults, Children under 12 free.

Interested Vendors or non-profit Exhibitors may contact us for a registration package lonmidmastergardeners@gmail.com or watch for registration and other details at www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com

Tuesday, March 17 to May 5 OR Thursday, March 19 to May 7th 6:30 p.m. to – 9 p.m.

at Civic Garden Complex, 625 Springbank Drive, London ON. Seeds to Table 2015 - another round of the popular 8 week courses. Classroom instruction and hands on workshops cover everything from soil preparation and seed selection to planting, maintaining, harvesting and preserving. Focus is on gardens you can EAT as well as colourful and helpful companion plants.

Cost of $100 for 8 sessions will include some basic planting supplies plus consultation for one growing season.

Information lonmidmastergardeners@gmail.com Registration www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com

March 17, 24, and 31st, 7 p.m.

at Central Library, 251 Dundas St, London. ‘Gardening in the City’ Talks are free, fun and informative.

March 17th – Are you Ready for Spring? Rhonda Persichilli

March 24th – How to have the best Vegetable and Herb Garden Ever! Ron Rossini

March 31st – Taking the Mystery out of Garden Structures. Curtis Peterson

No pre-registration required. Information www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com

Hooked on a Bean

Edythe Falconer, Ottawa-Carleton

Did you grow a bean as part of a science project when you were in primary school? If so you may recall your wonderment at the magic of it all. Decades later do you still get shivers of satisfaction when something beautiful and/or edible pops up, spreads its leaves and energetically blooms?

Regardless of what activated our green thumbs Master Gardeners don’t want to enjoy the fruits of their labour in solitary splendour. We want to share. The modes of sharing are many and in our changing times we will need to invent or reinvent how we deliver horticultural education to present and future clients.

We have come to view ourselves as Ambassadors – each proud to expound upon what we do – proud to invite capable people to join our group and further augment our community potential. We commit to continuous learning through participation in comprehensive educational programs and we encourage the same attitude in our clients.

We bring our enthusiasm and know-how into senior residences, office complexes, schools, children’s gardens, community gardens and community development groups. At the same time we maintain classic modes of delivery enhanced with modern technology that has birthed an online helpline, Trowel Talk, What’s Growing On and The Edible Garden to mention but a few.

What frontiers are out there unexplored or partially imagined and waiting for us to provide perfect growing conditions as we expand our educational territory? Shall we accentuate the positive and continue to reach out to youth, retirees, hospitals, senior residences, condo dwellers, commercial workers, therapeutic institutions and combinations of seniors and youth in evermore creative ways? Shall we place additional emphasis on growing edibles and creating access to fresh food in parts of cities where access is difficult?

Nancy suggests that we be cognizant of how gardening can be used to positively affect the mental and physical health of individuals and communities and that we convey this wisdom to our clients.

http://www.aiph.org/site/index_en.cfm?act=download.aanbieden&dl=132

Judith advocates hands-on demonstrations and workshops in community gardens bringing in local families on a monthly basis. Participants would meet real pests and see demonstrations of composting and fertilizing first hand.

Interest in growing things, especially those that are edible, tends to wax and wane according to perceived need during difficult times. For example Victory Gardens during WWII provided 44%+ of U.S. fruit and vegetable needs. However once the war was over, home gardeners, rather than embracing Victory Gardens as a way of life, “relapsed” and returned to relying on commercial sources.

Shall Master Gardeners be Keepers of the Flame – or perhaps Knights of the Green Thumb? I leave the last words to Rebecca, one of our especially eloquent Ottawa MGs:

“As in many other areas of scientific endeavour, the most exciting developments in horticulture appear to be at the intersections of traditional areas of study and via linking disparate areas to create a larger picture. Perhaps the most critical intersection humanity faces today is that between climate change, population growth and the depletion of fossil fuels. Each of these issues alone is complex. So imagine the difficulty of communicating how these three forces are combining to dramatically change our lives. Master Gardeners typically get questions on small issues – why was my tomato harvest so late this year? What’s eating my squash, or leaving nasty dead spots on its leaves? Our future educational role may increasingly be to help our clients understand the links between the small phenomena they see in their gardens and the larger issues that face humanity. Doing so in a non-threatening, non-scary way in the brief amount of time that clients are willing to stand at our advice tables may be the biggest challenge we face as Master Gardeners. But doing so effectively may also help to save the world!”

Algonquin College and Lanark County Master Gardeners

Dale Odorizzi

Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County

For over 15 years, Lanark County Master Gardeners and the Perth Campus of Algonquin College have partnered to present Horticultural Seminars to our community. We have presented between 4 and 9 seminars each year for both the Fall and Winter semesters. Some years, we run a series of workshops that require students to attend the full set of sessions while other years we host independent sessions so the attendees can pick and choose individual seminars. The topics range from the technical (Science of Gardening) to the artistic (Creating Fall Containers using natural material) and everything in between. Algonquin College provides the facilities, including “smart classrooms”, the advertising and registration, photocopying. We develop and deliver the courses.

There are many advantages for our group to participate in this program. We receive free advertising for these seminars which gets our name well known even to people who do not attend the seminars. We do not have to find a location, advertise or handle registration so there are no upfront costs in conducting the sessions. Because we have had this long relationship with Algonquin, we try to be very responsive to their requests so that we can keep it going. We likely have been more consistent in the delivery of these seminars than if we did them on our own. Most of our group gets involved each semester in one way or another, even if they hate public speaking. In fact one of our members who refused to speak before a group decided to partner at one of the sessions, then went on to deliver her own and with the confidence gained has enrolled in law school! The down side is that if there is insufficient enrollment, Algonquin can cancel the seminar. The other down side is that we get paid the same amount if Algonquin has 4 registrants or 25.

The advantages for Algonquin College is financial as well as providing another element in their Continuing Education Program. The Perth Campus of Algonquin College main focus is on Heritage Construction and Masonry. Providing seminars in the Horticultural area is a complementary addition.

We are fortunate that the Perth Campus does not have a “for credit” Horticultural program so they are very happy to work with us. From time to time, especially when there has been a high enrollment or our session was cancelled, we discuss whether or not we could deliver our seminars on our own. It would mean a risk in terms of upfront costs, extra work handling registration and we always agree that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Check out our Fall 2014 offering http://lanarkmg.blogspot.ca/

Growing Dahlias

Lianne Krane, Guelph-Wellington

Plant rows North and South
Full sun and well-drained soil. pH level s/b slightly acid. Add sand or peat moss for heavier soil
Good ventilation
Never plant near Cedar hedge (water hog) and also the cedar oils are not good for dahlias
Never plant near apple or pear trees. Ripe fruit gives off methane gas that offends Dahlias in bloom
OK in containers – shorter but floriferous and the dahlia can be stored in the container.
Mix old compost or bagged steer manure with soil in hole and no other fertilizing needed at the time of planting
Lay tuber horizontally with eye of sprout facing up in a slightly bigger hole than tuber
Put stake in now so tubers are not pierced later on
Do not water tubers right after planting. This encourages rot. Wait until the sprouts break surface of soil

BUYING TUBERS:

Should be size of your thumb and with at least 1 sprout
Buy from local grower …they are winterized
Recommended growers…Fern Cliff Gardens in BC, Gardenimport in Thornhill and Mum/Dahlia annual sale after Mum Show in Hamilton.

FERTILIZER:

Dahlias benefit from low-nitrogen liquid fertilizer (similar for vegetables) such as a 5-10-10 or 10-20-20. Fertilize after sprouting and then every 3 to 4 weeks from mid-summer until early autumn. Do NOT over fertilize, especially with nitrogen…Risk small/no blooms, weak tubers, or rot.
If colour fades…Magnesium or Epson Salts
Set buds – high Phosphorous – August – alternate potassium and high phosphorous for good tubers…ONCE A WEEK

CARE:

Like many large-flower hybrid plants, the big dahlias may need extra attention before or after rain, open blooms tend to fill up with water or take a beating from the wind.
Bedding dahlias need no staking or disbudding; pinch out the growing point to encourage bushiness/deadhead as the flowers fade. Pinch the center shoot above third set of leaves.

EARLY PLANTING:

Choose well-drained spot
Put double layer of newspaper in with tuber
Cover with mulch or blanket for late frost

PESTS AND PESTICES:

Pest go for weakest plant
Pick blooms and bottom leaves to reduce earwigs

I hope these tips will help you grow beautiful and bountiful dahlias

London Middlesex Master Gardeners Caring in Our Communities

Gate Area

Cheryl Losch, London-Middlesex

What do London Middlesex Master Gardeners do when they’re not busy working on LMMG projects? They put their gardening knowledge and enthusiasm to good use and volunteer within their own communities, of course.

London-Middlesex has a number of members that not only spend numerous hours each year helping home gardeners and the general public at various events, but also find the time to contribute both their expertise and handiwork to a wide assortment of activities throughout the area.

Nancy Abra has spent the past four years working with the Growing Chefs Ontario classroom program, a non-profit organization designed to get kids excited about growing and eating healthy food. Volunteers visit kindergarten to grade 3 classes to talk about different seeds, discuss various vegetables and help the children plant a windowsill garden for their class. The students learn how to make salad dressing and when it’s harvest time, get to taste the fruits of their labour. This is a remarkable program, connecting children with good, local food while giving them a hands-on experience. (www.growingchefsontario.ca)

Palet Garden

Lee Anderson is involved in the Old East Village (OEV) Gardening project as part of a neighbourhood revitalization venture. One of the goals is to make OEV an arts and culture destination and an agri-food hub, and gardening was seen as one technique to help further that goal. According to Lee, “When I became involved, I thought about how we could tailor the Aeolian Hall double walled gardens so they had a music theme (much like the Stratford Festival has a Shakespearean garden) and had flowers aligned with the Victorian-Italianate architecture of the building”. Their four project sites include Aeolian Hall, Palace Theatre, Potters Guild and the Western Fair Farmer’s and Artisan’s Market. Upgrades included a raised bed kitchen garden (Aeolian) and plans for a living green wall (Palace Theatre), a sculpture garden (Potters Guild) and the planting of native fruit trees (Western Fair); hopefully the plans can be implemented in 2015. At Aeolian Hall, the team retained Roger Muma, a local artisan of Celtic harps, to make a prototype Aeolian Wind harp that was displayed at the Hall’s 10th anniversary this past July.

Stage Door Garden

Krys Anton and Tony Rudd worked on similar projects – both planting pollinator gardens at local churches. Funded by the Julia Hunter Fund, an endowed fund through the London Community Foundation that supports the creation of public gardens both Krys and Tony took up the task of planting native gardens to help encourage pollinators to visit. Tony explains, “Pollinators are attracted to flowers with the expectation of being able to feed on the flower’s pollen and nectar. In return, the pollen is spread to other needed plants. The purpose of this program is to make the public aware of the plight of pollinators in our environment.”

Donna Slater and Kim Pawley are involved with Middlesex Centre’s Growing Communities 'program. The purpose is to help beautify the natural areas, residential, business and town centres. Individuals, groups and businesses are invited to complete a special project by planting flowerbeds or container gardens, creating new gardens, planting trees or designing other outdoor features. A sign is provided to explain the project and the participants (groups or service clubs) are able to have their logo included.

Amy Turnbull, also a member of the Ingersoll Horticultural Society has created a teaching garden. Here, community members and those on food assistance programs are educated on how to grow their own vegetables. This year’s harvest included peas, beans, chard, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, popcorn, potatoes, squash and onions. The participants get to keep all their harvest too. According to Amy, “It's been great. The participants are bonding and enjoying the social aspect as much as the gardening that we do!”

LMMG members have found that working with like-minded community groups helps us understand our community better and also helps the community understand who we are, and what we do. A win-win situation.

Junior Gardeners

Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners

Since 1986, the Perth and District Horticultural Society has been conducting a Junior Gardeners program for Grade 3 students with local Elementary schools. At the beginning of the six week program, each student is given a workbook that contains the details of the program and a journal to record their plant growth each week. The program is so popular that it has expanded to 5 local schools and over 170 students have enrolled.

The six week program introduces proper growing techniques, nutrient needs, the ins and outs of good soil and composting methods as well as hands-on planting seeds and bulbs, container gardening and flower arranging. The children are responsible for the care of their own “hot house” containers containing marigold and tomato seeds that they have planted. They make seed tapes to use in their home gardens, plant seed potatoes in containers and one special week learn how to plant a small cactus container garden and care for it at home. The final event is making a small flower arrangement in a tuna can with greenery and cut flowers for Mother’s Day. In addition, each week each child selects a plant from the plant library to take care of and observe at home.

At the end of the program, each child is given a coupon for one free plant at the Plant Sale. The students are extremely selective when picking out their plant and more than one has told me he plans to become a Horticulturalist.

This program is completely the Horticultural Societies project. Lanark County Master Gardeners donates cash to help fund it, plants for the plant library and volunteers to help with the teaching. It is enriching and rewarding to take part in it and the instructors love it as much as the children do.

Controlling Burdock Along a Walking Trail

Rosette

Louise Loree, Haliburton Master Gardeners

Integrated Weed Management (IWM) includes five main methods of weed control. They are: preventive, cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical.

Preventive control minimizes the introduction of new weeds into an area by such measures as using weed-free seed and soils and removing flower heads before they have gone to seed.

Cultural control is made up of three parts: competition, which means that desired plants have the competitive advantage over weeds; rotation, which is the planting of different crops in the same field yearly; and smothering, wherein ground covers such as Pachysandra, are planted to help reduce weed growth in landscaped areas by smothering, which deprives weed seedlings from light, moisture, nutrients and space.

Mechanical control is comprised of: hand weeding, such as would be used in the home garden or new lawns; hoeing, which is most effective with shallow root systems of annual weeds; tillage which involves machinery, such as cultivators and rototillers and is best used to control weeds in row crops; mowing, which can reduce seed production and dispersal; smothering or mulching, as detailed earlier; and dredging or chaining, which is used in aquatic weed control by attaching chains and dragging them behind a boat, to pull out the weeds.

Biological control is comprised of three parts: classical control, which is the introduction of a control agent which naturally feeds on these weeds; inundative control which includes the introduction of natural enemies such as viruses and bacteria that would produce diseases in them; and herbivore management, which uses animals like sheep, goats, ducks or fish to graze selected areas.

Chemical controls are not available in Ontario for this plant.

Burdock (Arctium minus) is a biennial weed, meaning that the plant matures over a two year period. It germinates in the spring, produces mainly vegetative growth the first summer, overwinters as a rosette and the second summer it grows, flowers, sets seed and dies. “However, a study at Michigan State University found that Arctium minus generally takes four or more years to flower under field conditions with moderate to high densities of grasses and herbaceous dicots”. (Doll, J. & Dr. J.). Based on this study, a longer IWM program may need to be put in place.

Close-up of Leaf

A two year study in Ontario found that the common burdock averaged 11,700 to 13,400 seeds per plant. (Gross, 1980). On this basis, the highest priority of weed control along the walking path should be placed on “prevention” of further spread of the burred seed. The first step, should be the removal of all second year burdock stalks, either manually or with a mower before they have had a chance to flower and set seed. Next, any rosettes emerging should be hand-dug while they are still small, or if the path is long, a tiller could be used but might bring up more existing seeds from the soil.

Growing

Now, at this “postemergence” stage, a chemical control might be employed, such as a 2,4-D, MCPA, 2,4-DB, and dicamba, to eliminate new weeds germinating from last year’s seeds. A cultural control of planting a smother crop, such as Pachysandra might be used at this point, followed by heavy mulching between plants.Currently, there are no official forms of biological control for Common Burdock (Arctium minus). However, various provinces, in researching biological controls, have shown repeated interest. There are 13 insect species which attack common burdock, but only one of these insects, the Burdock Moth (Metzneria lappella), has been reported in North America. The moth’s larvae feed on the developing seeds of the burdock, thereby greatly reducing the number of seeds that are viable. (BudGuide). In BC, this is considered an “Adventive Biological Control”, which is one that has arrived by its own means, rather than being screened, approved and imported. (BC-Min.Forests et al).

To maintain the walking trail in future years, all burdock stalks arising from any missed rosettes the year before will need to be removed prior to their flowering and setting seed. Any emerging rosettes will also need to be hand dug, or individually chemically sprayed, taking care that overspray does not reach any of the smother crop. Finally, the addition of more mulch and additional smother crops should ensure air-borne seeds from other areas do not have a chance to find a suitable site on which to germinate and begin the process again.

Flowers

Burrs

Resources

Alberta Invasive Plants Council – Common Burdock
Taken from: http://www.invasive plants.ab.ca British Columbia, Ministry of Forests,

Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Biocontrol Agent on Invasive Plant Matrix
Taken From: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hra/plants/biocontrol/Agent-plant_matrix.htm

BugGuide, Species Metzneria lappella - Burdock Seedhead Moth - Hodges#1685
Taken from: http://bugguide.net/node/view/90442

Doll, Julie & Dr. Jerry, University of Wisconsin Weed Science, Common Burdock
Taken from: http://fyi.uwex.edu/weedsci/1997/11/02/common-burdock/

Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Common Burdock (Arctium Minus)
Taken from: http://www.ofnc.ca/fletcher.php

National Forage & Grasslands Curriculum, Describe how weeds are categorized by life cycle and how this is correlated with specific control methods
Taken from: http://forages.oregonstate.edu/nfgc/eo/onlineforagecurriculum/instructormaterials/available

Penn State Extension, Weed Management in Organic Cropping Systems
Taken from: http://extension.psu.edu/pests/weeds/organic/weed-management-in-organic-cropping-system

Burdock Bread with Asiago

Kerry Hackett, Peterborough

¼ cup dried Burdock root (chopped)

1½ cups water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cornmeal

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup onion, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

1 cup asiago cheese, grated

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

3 cups spelt flour

2 to 2½ cups unbleached flour

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

Place the dried Burdock root in a pot with 1½ cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Let cool to lukewarm. Strain Burdock root and reserve water. If necessary add water to the Burdock water to make one cup liquid. Pour liquid in bowl and add milk and yeast. Let stand until yeast has dissolved, about five minutes. Add sugar, ¼ cup cornmeal, butter, onion, rosemary, cheese, salt, pepper and spelt flour. Mix together well. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead dough for three minutes, adding unbleached flour as necessary to make a workable dough. Let dough rest for 15 minutes. Knead for a further 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Lightly oil a large bowl and turn the dough in the bowl to cover the top surface with oil. Cover with a clean cotton cloth and let rise in a warm place for 1½ hours or until doubled in bulk. Punch down the dough and divide into two round loaves. Sprinkle remaining cornmeal on a baking sheet and place loaves on it, seam side down. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the loaves. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake bread for 45 minutes. Let cool. Makes two loaves. Especially good dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

M & Ms - (Monarchs and Milkweeds)

Tom McCavour, Simcoe County

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not writing about those colourful button shaped candies that many of us love, I’m writing about Monarchs and Milkweed. I want to explain how one of the most beautiful butterflies that have ever been created is threatened by the noxious weed label applied to common milkweed by various states and provinces in the United States and Canada.

Elimination of milkweed is not the only reason for the demise of the monarch. Illegal clear cutting of the old growth forests of the Sierra Nevada in central Mexico has robbed the monarch of its winter habitat. The monarchs also encounter deforestation, urbanization, herbicides, bad weather and genetically modified crops during their long 4800 kilometre migration from Canada to Mexico.

There is hope for the monarch’s survival. Early this year the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs removed common milkweed from its noxious plant list in the hope that the resurgence can bring back the plant and help the monarchs.

Why is milkweed classified as a noxious weed? Milkweed is named for its milky juice which contains latex and other components which are toxic. Animals such as sheep and cows will sicken or die if the plant is ingested in large quantities. Instances of animal deaths have been rare. The noxious weed label is obviously unnecessary.

Unrelated to monarch butterflies, milkweed has a multitude of uses. During World War 2 the cottony seed was collected as a substitute for kapok insulation and was unsuccessfully attempted as a substitute for natural rubber. For people with allergies it is used as a substitute for feathers in pillows. It can also be used as a fibre and is beneficial in repelling pests in nearby plants.

Monarch is a rather strange name for a butterfly but in fact it is very appropriate. The monarch was named after an English king by British immigrants who came to North America. William of Orange defeated James II in the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. William’s soldiers dressed in orange and carried orange banners and flags trimmed with black. They became known as Orangemen and their banners became a Protestant symbol.

The monarch’s wings take first place in nature’s sketchbook. The outer side of the leaf like symmetrical wings is a flaming bright orange embroidered with white flecked black trim, advertising to potential predators that the butterfly is toxic. A network of black veins radiate out from the body like floral petals. On the underside the bright orange colour turns to a paler yellow orange.