[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by Slraep

There's a small farm with gorgeous luscious organic black raspberries(nope, not blackberries)that set up shop last year just 20 mins. from my place. Heaven!

Black raspberries? Wow! never heard of those! 'Thought white ones were as wild as you get...

I don't know if local farms could ever pump up as much as current demand levels, but that's just as well. It's so much harder to waste any product when you know the growers and appreciate the effort. I hope that this relation between food buyers works on your side and does not get broken here... It is not all good about it as it is now (allot of subsistence agriculture), but the 'industrial' alternative that produces cardboard tomatoes and salmon farmed in its own filth is not something to look forward to either. Crazy world.

[Pearl_dreams]

Black raspberries? Wow! never heard of those! 'Thought white ones were as wild as you get...

Black raspberries make the best homemade jam ever....

[Slraep]

This was sometime last June. I picked two giant cases during a lightening storm. Yes, dumb of me but I couldn't help it. Once at home I ate a dozen small basketfulls. I spent a couple of hours lying on the sofa "digesting" afterwards. Utter bliss.

[GemGeek]

Those photos put me right into Spring -- how wonderful!

[Kevin Canning]

This discussion is a form of 'social preasure'.

Absolutely it is and I have no problem with it. I'll continue to apply "social pressure" until either the fish farms are removed from my beloved corner of the pacific ocean or the Pacific salmon goes extinct.

If you've never experienced the "wild west coast", then I fear you may never understand my conviction - but I won't let that stop me.



on another note - those raspberries do look delicious!!

[pattye]

How nostalgic,

"Black caps" and fresh salmon! Gifts of nature!! Back in the late 60's and 70's lived in Bellingham and often fished in the San Juans, my specialty was jigging for herring (used for bait)-----the wild salmon population was declining even then.

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by Kevin Canning

... but I won't let that stop me.

I know what you mean. I think the day I will stop will be the day I am dead and buried. Even so, I still plan to use my tombstone as sounding board.

Nice corner of Canada you live in! One of my brothers lives out there. That fish is some beauty!

Slraep

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by Kevin Canning

If you've never experienced the "wild west coast", then I fear you may never understand my conviction ...

No, I have not. Unless you make that the west coast of Europe into the Atlantic... or the Black Sea. The next generation will never see some of the letter wild.

If you guys can both stop the dirty farming and not over-fish the wild, fingers crossed!

[smetzler]

Originally Posted by Kevin Canning

If you've never experienced the "wild west coast", then I fear you may never understand my conviction

Another 'wild west coaster' chiming in on cue…

Just returned today from an overnight to Washington's Upper Skagit River, a watercourse famous for its wild salmon run. The spawning salmon attract the largest flock of Bald Eagles this side of Alaska each December through February. Photos here are from Fall 07, on one of my favorite hikes, to the summit of nearby Mt. Sauk (self-portrait of my shadow with Mt. Baker on the left, North Cascades National Park vista on the right, river below). Lots of berries up there, too.

[Slraep]

Prince Edward Island, home of Anne of Green Gables.

Surfside Beach. An ocean inlet leading to my other home where it joins a river flowing back out into the ocean. The Piping Plover nests in the inlet. It is on the endangered species list. We try to protect its eggs, which are laid on the sand, by installing metal wire cages around them. The plover can get through the small openings and go in and sit on them, but predators(fox) and pesky dogs cannot get to them. Clams use to be very abundant in the inlet but have now been over harvested, like all wild bivalves around the island.
The tiny blob sitting on the left is me and my dog at 5:00 a.m.

Singing Sands Beach on the other side of the island. Snails nestled on a rock getting some vit. D. If the oceans continue to become more and more acidic, these and all shell bearing creatures will disappear. That is a day I dread. It will break my heart. Much of the island has red soil and rock. Lots of iron. Looks a bit like a Mars landscape to newcomers.

[GemGeek]

I feel like I went on a mini-vacation. I LOVE the photos!

[Slraep]

Oh, as if the problems with regular open-pen fish farming aren't enough! Here is some interesting news from Prince Edward Island.....lab-created genetically modified frankenfish that can escape commercial fish farms and roam into the wild, and there's not a darn thing anyone cares to do about it! Mmmmmm.....tasty frankenfish fillets, anyone? Soon to be at a supermarket near YOU!

"Research on genetically modified fish began in the early 1980s. Canada doesn't have its own commercial farms for genetically modified fish, but a U.S. company has had a Canadian subsidiary on Prince Edward Island since 1994.

The company asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006 to allow it to sell its fish as food.

Canadian government officials say it's reasonable to expect a similar request to sell the fish in Canada, the audit says."

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/310135

[Caitlin]

Dang! I was hoping the frankenfish were another of Z's fan-t-zees.

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

Dang! I was hoping the frankenfish were another of Z's fan-t-zees.

I think she was talking about the northern snakehead. Unfortunately it is REAL too. Just maybe not eating her transgrafted pearls in Heilongjian.

Slraep