City Harvest Co-op

Our market season is finished for the year and as we’re finishing up our mulching and moving into our winter planning season, we have a little more time to step back and look at the big picture. How are we contributing the food security in the city?

Well, we’ve produced enough to provide approximately 50 families with all their produce throughout the growing season. That’s a pretty good start. We’ve worked with lots of volunteers this summer who will take what they’ve learned to grow food on their own, maybe even start their own farms. We’ve talked with literally hundreds of people at our market about the importance of urban agriculture and local food and shared tips for growing vegetables in their own backyards. At our annual thank-you dinner for the wonderful folks who allow us to use their backyards and for our volunteers, we could sense that we are also helping to create a community centered around our ‘farm’, people who care about local food and sustainability.

So here we are – we the farmers, the people who get our hands dirty, the people who open our yards to food production, the people who buy local produce, the people who want to see an end to industrial monoculture and the 5000 mile diet…what else can we do? A few actions come to mind:

• Ask your municipal candidates where they stand on food security issues. If they get elected, or even if they don’t, what are they going to do to make sure municipal governments are supporting urban agriculture? How about creating a CRD agricultural extension officer so that local farmers have someone to turn to for support? Why not make vacant city land available for commercial food production as well as community gardening? What about working with the university to open up affordable options for local farmers to get their soils tested? Or how about making municipal composting facilities work with urban farmers to direct some of their compost into food production?
• Food security and agriculture is an economic issue. A local and ecologically-minded economy has to make local food production a top priority. Sign onto the Consensus Statement on Victoria’s Economic Development Strategy. Ask your municipal candidates if they’ll sign onto it as well and then make sure they understand what it means!
• Deer are a major problem for us. We’ve lost 100′s of lbs of produce this year from the deer. Call up your municipal leaders. Let them know deer in the city are a problem for food security. Ask them to do something about it.
• Find out about the Victoria Downtown Public Market Society and their efforts to get a permanent downtown farm market. Get involved in Transition Victoria’s Food Group or any of their groups that are working to get us off of our dependence on oil. Check out their upcoming events, see if you can get involved.
• Keep getting your hands dirty with us. Unless there’s snow on the ground, there’s always work to be done on our farm and we always love the company!

On Wednesday October 12th,  OPEN CINEMA is showing the film Urban Roots: When Everything Collapses Plant Your Field of Dreams, a documentary about Detroit’s remarkable innercity urban farming phenomenon. Urban Roots (2011) follows the remarkable urban farming phenomenon that is transforming post-industrial Detroit. Against all odds, seeds of change are taking root in the abandoned auto factory yards and derelict housing estates, where people are reclaiming their spirits by growing food. More information and a trailer at http://www.UrbanRootsAmerica.com

City Harvest will be participating in the panel discussion, along with Gabe Epstein (Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers), Kristina Bouris (City of Victoria Community Planner) and Philippe Lucas (Victoria Downtown Public Market Society). CBC Radio One’s national food columnist Khalil Akhtar will moderate the lively post-screening discussion.

“We can count food miles, measure sustainability, build green visioning plans and debate the strength of the impact, but at it’s core, urban farming produces better, more delicious food.” comments Akhtar. “That is inarguable. In my kitchen, that is the biggest reward of living in a city that encourages food production in urban spaces.”

WHAT: OPEN CINEMA Season Nine Launch: Urban Roots: When Everything Collapses Plant Your Field of Dreams
WHEN: 7pm Wednesday October 12th, 2011 (Doors 5:30pm)
WHERE: The Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad St (elevator access)
COST: $10-20 suggested donation
CONTACT: Mandy Leith
opencinema@shaw.ca
250.882.7441

I must say that I love my Garlic. Spring brings fresh green shoots that are tasty in salads, then in summer I savor the gourmet scapes dressed in butter and lightly fried, and in the fall we harvest the bounty of bulbs which will last over the whole winter  (that is if we don’t eat it all at once with a big oven roast potluck).

This year we planted over 1,400 cloves of garlic which means we have enough for ourselves and a bunch leftover to share with those other garlic lovers out there.  We will be taking orders via email (info@cityharvestcoop.com) until the end of October, or until we run out of stock.  If you are interested, just send an email stating the quantity you would like and we will arrange either a pickup or delivery depending on where you live.

Prices:
Small Garlic Braid (5 heads): $10
Large Garlic Braid (10 heads): $20
Single head – small: $1.50
Single head – medium: $2.00

Well folks this Sunday the 25th of September will be our last market for the season. And WoW what a season it has been.  Despite our crazy cold spring we managed to more than triple our production over last season, and provide quality produce to 20 CSA boxes, 12 home owners, restaurants and our loyal market customers. It has been great to see more and more familiar faces each week as people came back to replenish their stocks of  greens and veggies. If you have not made it out yet, you don’t want to miss your last chance to taste our famous salad mixes, or get one of our garlic braids to serve you into the winter season.

City Harvest is the topic of Rob Wipond’s article “A revolution you can eat at” in the September issue of Focus Magazine.

We’re pretty conspicuous when we pull up in a little silver hatchback covered with children’s paintings of carrots, flowers, and slogans like “be cool, grow veggies,” sporting a roof rack piled with enough hay bales to practically tip us over.

Nevertheless, it’s hard for me to shake the feeling we’re sneaking around like criminals. Surely we’re not supposed to be in other people’s backyards when they’re not home. Even if they said we could.

So it’s a new way of experiencing my city as we pull weeds, lay compost, roll a seeder, and harvest strawberries, nasturtiums and lettuce in yards in Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay. Read More…

Oh the season for Garlic has finally arrived, and this is your chance to get the first pick of the crop!!!

We will be selling garlic heads and braids on today – Thursday – 5pm at the Oaklands market. For directions and to find out more about the Oaklands market, just click on the following link.

Link: Oaklands Community Centre

Come see SPIN farming in action! We are opening our home farm location to the public to give people a chance to see how small pieces of land can be used to grow an abundance of food throughout the city. We’ll be giving tours of the farm, so wear footwear appropriate for a working farm.

Thursday, June 16th
4:30pm – 6:30pm
1834 Haultain Rd.

This is a free, family friendly event. Parking is limited, so if you can, please ride your bike, walk or take BC Transit (the #7, 8, 14, 22, 27, 28, 33 are all within a two block walking distance).

And if you’re looking for tomato and basil starts, come to our market on Sunday 11 – 4pm at Centennial Square.

Wondering what to do with radishes? Here’s one yummy recipe for Radish and Spinach salad.

City Harvest is now harvesting fresh greens and other produce for the first farmer’s markets of the season. We are also selling vegetable starts for you to plant in your own gardens.

This year we are selling at 2 different markets. Come find us:

Thursday at the Oaklands Community Market

Open: 1st Thursday of each month from May 5 to Sept 1
(stay tuned because City Harvest is planning to set up a weekly stand a little later in the season)
Time: 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: 2827 Belmont Ave, Victoria BC

Sundays in Centennial Square (check out the Sunday Market in the Square on Facebook)

Open: Every Sunday 11:00 – 4:30 until October
Location: Centennial Square (also known as People’s square and Spirit Square)

Here’s something for meat-eating locovores. Chickens are available soon from Black Tomato Farm, a small farm in North Cowichan, BC that raises meat birds that are fed certified organic feed and raised on the pasture on their farm.

Being outside on the pasture allows them to engage in natural foraging behaviour. The system we use is very low-stress for the birds, as they are provided with cover, while also gaining access to fresh pasture daily. A steady diet of pasture and certified organic feed means a delicious bird. The air-chilling used in processing also helps to retain the superb flavours.

Birds are scheduled to be available in both Victoria and the Cowichan this year on July 5, July 28, Sept 13, and October 13, with a few available Oct 25. Check out their website for more information.