Volunteer Kristine Zylstra-Moore with Fruit Share picks crab apples at the residence of Mike and Christine Smith in Winnipeg, July 27, 2011. The Winnipeg harvest organization launched last year with 10 volunteers and 20 picking locations in one neighbourhood; this year, 125 volunteers have already signed on, as have 50 locations. Photo by John Woods/The Globe and Mail.

An international movement to make use of urban-grown fruit that is normally left to rot has burst into full bloom.

By Jessica Leeder
Globe and Mail
Jul. 29, 2011

Excerpt:

In Toronto, nearly 20,000 pounds of fruit was harvested last year, each haul divided among volunteers, homeowners and community partners, including shelters and food banks. But figuring out what to do with the abundance, much of which accumulates during a couple of short months, is an ongoing preoccupation every harvest organizations faces.

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Part 1

Produced by Friends of the Earth Adelaide, Australia

Tracing the history of food gathering and production on the Adelaide Plains, from the Kaurna Aboriginal nation to present day backyard gardens, An Urban Orchard is a celebration of growing and sharing good food.

In the inner southern suburbs of the city of Adelaide, South Australia, local residents meet to share the bounty of their backyards.

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Author holding her book.

A memoir of a year feeding her family from her suburban garden

By Spring Warren
Seal Press
Published March 15, 2011
336 pages

Permaculture Media Blog says:
When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one year—and that she wanted to do it in their yard—they told her she was crazy. She did it anyway.

The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of deciding—despite all resistance—to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard.

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Jody Noble-Choder holds Attila-the-Hen outside her coop in Pittsburgh. Photo by Kris Maher/The Wall Street Journal

As Hobbyists Feather Own Nests, City Dwellers Flock to Tour Backyard Henhouses

By Kris Maher
Wall Street Journal
Aug 2, 2011

Excerpt:

“Some chicken people are coming out of the closet,” said Ms. Noble-Choder, a corporate lawyer who organized this summer’s first Chicks-in-the-Hood Pittsburgh Urban Chicken Coop Tour. She paid $1,200 for her coop, which has heated roosts and an automated door opener, but many coops are humble do-it-yourself affairs requiring little more than a few two-by-fours, some chicken wire and straw. Seven families displayed their coops, and adults paid $5 each to go on the self-guided tour. Between ticket and T-shirt sales, the fledgling group took in more than $1,800, which it donated to a food bank.

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