Hens, Hay, and How to Cook Cardoon

Signe Langford talks about her food garden in Port Hope, Ontario

Signe Langford talks about her food garden in Port Hope, Ontario

Food writer Signe Langford joins us from Port Hope, Ontario to talk about her passion for growing food, her food garden, cooking, and how her garden connects her with her community.

Hay

A fan of straw-bale gardening, Signe talks about how she experimented last year using bales of alfalfa hay instead of straw bales. Hay is normally NOT recommended for the straw-bale technique because all of the grass seeds within can make a bale look like a big chia pet. Signe tells us how that went. She was pleased with the results.

Hens

The author of the book Happy Hens and Fresh Eggs: Keeping Chickens in the Kitchen Garden, Signe considers chickens to be, “a symbiotic member of the garden.”

She talks about common myths such as noise and smell that she often hears.

Cooking

Signe talks about edible weeds and edible native plants—and her love of the dandelion.

Signe also helps Steven with cooking advice for cardoon, explaining how to make Cardoon Gratin.

Steven Biggs

Recognized by Garden Making Magazine as one of the "green gang" of Canadians making a difference in horticulture, Steven Biggs is a horticulturist, former college instructor, and award-winning broadcaster and author. His passion is helping home gardeners grow food in creative and attractive ways.


He’s the author of eight gardening books, including the Canadian bestseller No Guff Vegetable Gardening. His articles have appeared in Canada’s Local Gardener, Mother Earth News, Fine Gardening, Garden Making, Country Guide, Edible Toronto, and other magazines.


Along with over 30 years working in the horticultural sector and a horticultural-science major at the University of Guelph, Steven’s experience includes hands-on projects in his own garden including wicking beds, driveway strawbale gardens, and a rooftop tomato plantation—to the ongoing amusement of neighbours.


When not in the garden, you might catch him recording his award-winning Food Garden Life podcast or canoeing in Algonquin Park.

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