Jaimie Franchi is a Montreal-based writer, editor, maker, gardener, and mother of three. Her writing has appeared in in Kitchen Table Magazine, Farmerish, The Athens Free Press, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, and Mi Craft Beer Culture Magazine.

Her urban nature tale series All Kinds of Neighbours was created in collaboration with artist David La France, and was supported by a grant from Canada Council for the Arts and CBC RadioCanada.

Her picture book text Melt was shortlisted for the 2022 CANSCAIP Writing for Children Competition. For those of you outside of the wonderful world of Canadian Kid lit, that’s a really big deal! I can’t wait for Melt to find the perfect publishing home and make its way out into the world!

Jaimie also authors a beautiful newsletter, where she explores the magic of nature,
the environment, and writing for both children and adults. It’s such a treat when a new edition lands in my inbox!

In addition to writing and editing, Jaimie also runs, Récolte, a small business specializing in botanical accessories made from gathered and pressed flowers and leaves.

Together with artist Francois Vigneault, Jaimie has created a gorgeous downloadable calendar for 2023. While the calendar is available for free, there is also an option to pay what you can, with all proceeds going to benefit The Nature Conservancy of Canada.

I have so enjoyed connecting with Jaimie over the past few years, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to the 7 Wonders of her beautiful world!

ICED COFFEE

I live for iced coffee. On all but the coldest days of the year, I drink coffee from a large mason jar full of ice, and this jar is as much a part of my daily work ritual as my laptop. I can’t really get started on anything until my coffee is in hand, and I nurse it all day long. At 46, I can only drink one a day or, in times of desperation, two; anything beyond that and I won’t sleep at night. This means my iced coffee gets watered down, which seems gross, I know. I always think of Pam in the Dundees episode of The Office: “No, no, cause the ice melts, and then it’s like ‘second drink.’” I love my coffee water second drink.

2. Pet Cats

I have this animal friend who lives in my house and goes out the door every morning to have little adventures, and she comes back every night OF HER OWN ACCORD. I think about this constantly and can’t believe we as a society do not give this at least as much attention as we give, say, Donald Trump. It’s scandalous.

3. Agastache (Anise Hyssop)

Agastache, also known as anise hyssop, is a flowering plant native to North America and a bit culturally neglected. We grow it at home and at my husband’s studio, and I packaged and sold it as tea this year because we grew so much. Agastache smells and tastes like anise, which is to say, like black licorice. I know lots of people don’t love black licorice flavour, but I promise you, it’s like a good version of it, lighter and less harsh. We drink it as tea, and I’m completely convinced that it staves off colds. We also eat it. We’ve used it in shortbread cookies, and last summer we made agastache ice cream, which is one of the most divine things I’ve tasted in years. It also has a cute purple flower, self-seeds and grows easily, and is a massive attractor of pollinators. What’s not to love? Nothing. I don’t understand why everyone isn’t growing it.

4. Seed Saving

Do you want to know what’s almost as magical as an animal friend that goes for a walk and comes home on her own? Plants that make little hard, dry seeds and then give them to you so you can collect them and make new plants from seemingly nothing the next year.

5. My E-Reader

Because I’m often a luddite, I didn’t expect to embrace the idea of an E-reader. But I have, and it’s changed my life. I still read a ton on paper, and I’ll always be obsessed with the physicality of books. The E-reader hasn’t taken away from any of that; instead, it’s given me more opportunities to read. I often wake in the night with insomnia, and staring at my small black rectangle of blue light that jumps from worldly horror to worldly horror at lightning speed was, shockingly, not helping me get back to sleep. Because I share a room with my husband and our small child, I can’t turn the light on to read myself back to sleep. But I can turn on the e-reader. Since getting it a few years ago, I’ve read more contemporary novels and essay collections than I had in the entire previous fifteen years.

6. Lilacs

Lilacs are one of the first smells I remember from my childhood. Our back fence was lined with lilac bushes, something I took for granted as normal but which I would now give my left leg for. The smell of lilacs is absolutely intoxicating, in competition only with peonies, followed by hyacinths. Having had no clear access to lilacs for many years, I now use this amazing map of the trees of Montreal to locate them and then sneak over in May and clip a few bunches. Why aren’t there more perfumes and lotions scented with lilacs? Do I love lilac more for precisely that reason? Lilac is seasonal more than many other flowers, I suppose, since they bloom for such a short period and aren’t used for as many commercial products as some other floral scents are. I’d love to one day make a lilac enfleurage. That sounds like a project for after my kids are grown.

7. The Canada Council for The Arts

The Canada Council for the Arts: There is a public organization that will give you cash money to make art! I’m an American expat, and I moved here well into my adult years, so I was very unaccustomed to such a concept. I’ve now received two grants and applied for several more, and I’m still in shock that the government wants to pay for me to do research, to write a book, to hire a writing consultant. It’s the most fantastic thing in the world, and I hope it never goes away.