By Lynda Shadbolt

Published Aug. 6 2019

I love good food. It is important to me on every trip and adventure that I go on. It is important to me in my everyday living. Life is just too short to eat bad food or drink bad coffee.
There is nothing like sitting with a group of friends and eating good food together. It starts every day off perfectly. Whenever I go camping or to folk festivals or on any kind of trip I always take my own granola. It’s the perfect breakfast and on those mornings that we eat breakfast out it makes a great midday snack. It goes beautifully with fresh fruit yogurt and or milk. It is easy to make and easy to pack. You can carry it on a bike in a canoe in a hiking pack in the cooler or in a kayak! And you can enjoy it in the beauty of your own home! This recipe was passed on from a friend years ago so I don’t have the source. Here it is …

Best ever granola

Dry Mix
6 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup wheat germ (optional if gluten free)
.5 cup wheat bran (optional)
.5 unsweetened large shredded coconut
.5 cup white untoasted sesame seeds
.5 cup pumpkin seeds

Wet Mix
1 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Dash of salt
1 tbsp vanilla

Extras (optional and be creative)
2 cups raisins
2 cups dried currants
2 cups chopped and roasted almonds
Anything else you like!

Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Combine and bake at 375 for 15 – 20 minutes… turning ingredients every seven or eight minutes. Cook to a nice golden brown.
Once you eat this you’ll never go back to store-bought granola and your friends will thank you. And you will have a delicious start for the day!
I have just finished my bowl of granola as I sit here writing this article. Jim and I are heading out into the garden to clean the last of our garlic crop.
We’ve been like the Shoemaker and the Elves this year. We pull our garlic (usually after dinner) and we put it on our table under our garlic shelter and let it sit for a few days. We usually clean our garlic in the mornings. This entire week a little garlic fairy has come and cleaned it for us. We wake up each morning and the work is done.

The fairy is new to garlic gardening and is discovering how beautiful the bulbs are. She is loving the joy of the quiet work of gardening. The pleasure of the process of cleaning but at the same time preserving the integrity of the layers of the skin around the clove.
This friend is currently working 100 per cent on a project that she loves and is passionate about. And takes a lot of her energy. She is using the garlic cleaning as her morning meditation before she goes out into the world and makes everyone laugh.
Thanks Tate. You are a gem.