Journey with Janelle » Canada

JWJ Farm Video

Janelle K. Eagle — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:46:00 +0000

You’ve probably been reading a bunch about the adventures I had when I visited my family on Salt Spring Island in Canada. If you long for more than just words and pictures, check out the latest “Journey with Janelle” video:

Life on a Farm

Janelle K. Eagle — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:58:00 +0000

The great wall of Garlic on Bright Farm

My initial enthusiasm and blog post about arriving at Uncle Charlie’s garlic farm prevented me from providing an in depth explanation of what it feels like to actually live on Bright Farm. Constantly processing images that take my breath away also seemed to have presented me with the slightest bit of writer’s block. How do I describe the beauty and feeling surrounding a person lucky enough to be a guest?

Perhaps I’ll start with the obvious, a juxtaposition of my life in Los Angeles and Life on a Farm. The most obvious difference being SPACE. On the Eagle’s farm, there are 10 acres of beautiful land to walk about in. Instead of partying neighbors, there are llamas, roosters, and rabbits. The bunnies are not pets; they are pests.

A small paddle boat waits for a captain

Whereas I walk out into a busy street and can’t have dogs running leashless, at the farm the dogs roam and play freely. When it’s hot, going for a dip involves no chlorine, it involves a good ole’ lake.

More profoundly satisfying than any other aspect of the visit is the relationship you begin to appreciate with cuisine. If you fancy yourself a “foodie,” I highly recommend spending a week on an organic farm. There is something spectacular about being fully involved in all parts of creating, harvesting, and cooking the food that you put in your mouth every day. My favorite eye-opening knowledge that I’ve gained is just how little you need seasoning when the food itself has so much rich flavor because it is fresh and free of additives. And I mean SCARY good.

Cousin Bree in her field of organic corn

I’ve never felt amorous towards sweet corn before, but I briefly pondered an engagement after heading into the corn field with Bree to harvest and shuck this season’s first corn crop.

The last time I visited here, I was very young. This means that I had absolutely no concept of hard work or what all the adults were doing while I was running through the fields with chickens. As a fully functional adult, I got to participate. When it was time to get out into the bean field, I had my own row assignment. When it was time to process the garlic we’d just dug up from the field, I had to audition for my role in the production line.

It was hard work. It was glorious work. It was an honor to hang out with my family and the wonderful friends they keep up at Bright Farm. I am so happy to have the memories from the experience and so touched that I was included.

#14: Call me Farmer Janelle

Janelle K. Eagle — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:09:00 +0000

I knew I kept those overalls for a reason. They’ve been sitting in my “save for a random day” drawyer for at least four years. This trip to my Uncle’s farm in Canada was the perfect occasion to bring them out of hiding.

After arriving here in the evening last night, I had missed all the day’s farm work that had already taken place. I got to relax and visit with my family for a while and woke up ready to join in right on their busiest work day. Monday is spent preparing for Tuesday’s farmer’s market, so a little bit of everything grown on the farm gets picked (harvested).

Inevitably, I am here during one of the hottest days on record on Salt Spring Island. While their home thermometer read 111 degrees, we are thinking it was more like 90. It definitely FELT excruciating. I didn’t anticipate how sunburned I was getting and thus didn’t put sunscreen on my shoulders until the later morning. Alas, I have quite the burn on my shoulders.

The most rewarding part about coming to work on this farm is spending time with my loving family while they’re in their element. They understand food, commerce, health, and business from a completely different perspective than I do. When they want to prepare lunch or dinner, they decide what they’re hungry for and then GO GET IT. Right from their land! It’s all organic and delicious and healthy and amazing.

There was a DEER that broke onto the property today. A HUGE deer just bounded right by us as we picked cherry tomatoes. Not to mention the wild bunnies that remind me of times back at UC Irvine where they too had a hare problem.

There are three dogs (including the puppy Ruby, pitured), two cats, a ton of chickens, and three llamas. There are vegetables galore that are the most colorful and beautiful I’ve seen. However, the REAL reason I am here (beyond seeing my beautiful family), is to harvest GARLIC.

Bright Farm Garlic is renowned. Each year there is a produce competition, and the other growers don’t stand a chance. When I was 10 (and had a very infamous episode where I was attacked by moths), I came to the farm during garlic harvest and never forgot it. Sitting with a group, listening to the blues, and peeling garlic. For years I talked about making it up here to participate again, but it just never fit in.

Bright Farm's fresh and organic tomato varieties

The beauty of my Life To Do List, as I’ve stated on multiple occasions, is that the Virgo in me can’t stand to see a goal that is written down and un-accomplished. I long to cross an item off. It bugs me to stare at a list and not tackle item by item. I knew that if I put down a goal of getting up here, that I’d make it happen. And it was SO worth it.

There is photography and video gold up here. There will definitely be a Journey with Janelle Episode about this one. I am eating some of the healthiest and delicious-est food I’ll ever have. I am facing my moth fear. I’m playing with puppies and kittens. It’s ridiculous in the best way.

I feel so lucky to be at Bright Farm and to cross #14 off the Life To Do list.

#71: Ferry’s Anatomy

Janelle K. Eagle — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:20:00 +0000

Me on a ferryboat en route to Salt Spring Island

I was hoping to cross off #71 on the Life To Do List by taking a cruise somewhere exotic. I didn’t expect that Travel somewhere on a boat would mean riding on not one, but TWO ferries in Beautiful British Columbia.

To get to my Uncle’s Farm on Salt Spring Island (which helps me cross off #14 on the list), you have to enjoy the splendor that is the BC Ferry system. It’s a hassle, but provides some of the most gorgeous scenery possible if you get great weather. Luckily, my day full of ferry-ing was on such a glorious and clear day.

Checkout some of the pictures:

My Canadian Training Day

Janelle K. Eagle — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:39:00 +0000

The long line to get on the Ferry

While living in Los Angeles, I rarely drive more than 10 miles a day. But visiting my parents in Northern California, my aunt in Seattle, and my Uncle on his garlic farm in Canada was too many flights (and dollars) to muster.

Driving 1600 miles in a week is not (nor should it be) normal. It’s hot outside, there are kamikaze-style bugs flying at the window, and cruise control only works if there are no drivers on the road.

If any of these “complaints” were actually worth NOT traveling, I obviously wouldn’t have hopped in my dodge Neon and filled up the tank so many times. I would have made a U-Turn a LONG time ago.

Instead, I’ve enjoyed my little journey up the West Coast of North America. You read correctly, this is, in fact, an international road trip. Venturing far and wide, I have added CANADA into the traveling mix.

My experience in Canada has been frustrating to say the least. Mind you, I’ve only been here two hours. Alas, getting across that border as a single, white, female with no agenda and no DUI record proved NOT to be advantageous in charming border patrol.

A view of the water and islands near Vancouver

My car was strip-searched before I even got to the gate.- by FOUR male border patrol guards. I figured it was attributed to my California license plates, so I just smiled and answered all of his questions. NO I don’t have any drugs. NO I don’t have any weapons. YES I have a specific destination. YES I’ll be returning the U.S.

I thanked them for the intimate exchange and drove forward towards the border gate. I switched on my video camera that was positioned on my passenger seat to secretly capture the moment. But apparently I didn’t get good reviews after the strip search. My one on one interview lasted 10 minutes instead of 2 minutes. She was very interested in whom my employer is (myself) and when I was expected back to work (this IS my work!). She repeated her question regarding whether I was carrying any weapons a number of times… maybe my cargo shorts through her off a bit?

When the interview seemingly wrapped up and she handed me back my passport, I prepared to take a sigh of relief. However, before I could exhale, Canada threw ANOTHER road block in the way. I wasn’t done proving I was welcome in Beautiful British Columbia. It was time for my PRIVATE search.

No, not those privates, the kind where I have to leave my car with them and wait inside in a holding room while they open all my bags and car contents while I am not present. It felt icky. My company in the holding room were your average non-English speaking visitors, a couple of guys on a harley with spikes on their leathers (do those count as weapons?), and then ME.

After finally getting my clearance, I called my mother to tell her the story. All you can do is laugh, really. I told her I felt like Claire Danes in BROKEDOWN PALACE, or like Ganga Queen, the Australian woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison when she was carrying marijuana illegally into Bali. The problem is, I’ve been to Bali… and it was easier to get into than Canada. CANADA?!?!

One of the large ferries coming in to port near Vancouver

On top of that, after finally driving forward into this lovely free-health-care-giving, maple-tree and hockey loving country… I had to contend with ferries. Not tinkerbell… the big boats that McDreamy is obsessed with in Grey’s Anatomy. You see I’ve been to Vacouver before as an adolescent, so I too carried a romanticized affinity for the mini-cruise across open water. Apparently the feelings only lingered because I never had to actually drive onto one.

I had arrived at the wrong port. There was no way to get back to the correct port and get the Ferry that would have taken me directly to my destination. Really Canada? REALLY??

I finally exhaled that pseudo-sigh and decided it was time to change my attitude. Carpe Diem!

I channeled “Amazing Race;” It was now a competition to get to my destination. I had been steered off course by a devious contestant (in my case the GPS device Tom Tom), and had to cleverly find an alternate route to get to the magical envelope with my next challenge task waiting for me. The good news is: I found the alternate course. It’s going to take me longer to get there, but in the big Amazing Race, it’s just one destination of many.

I made it.

My good buddy Parry and I have oft-discussed trying out for that show. And though I would have expected to find my inspiration in the jungles of Borneo or even a country where they don’t speak English, Canada stepped up as my trainer. Good ole’ Canada.

You know what I say? BRING IT ON!