Community residents distribute the fruit of their labour at the Firgrove Crescent public housing development. Photo by David Trattles.

“Our main focus was to make sure that food was accessible to our community at reasonable prices.”

By Clifton Joseph
with photography by David Trattles
Canadian Geographic
Oct 2011

Excerpt:

Jamaican-born single mother Janet Young and her teenage daughter Andrene are working opposite ends of their plot. Andrene has gloves on and is pulling out weeds from around the tomatoes, while Janet is disentangling big leafy green vines from some of the other plants. “Steups!” she hisses, kissing her teeth. “I gotta tell you, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never plant the zucchini next to the callaloo or the peppers, because it takes so much space that it overpowers anything else that’s too close to it. You’ve got to give the zucchini space!

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A chat with Karney Hatch, filmmaker

Karney briefly visited with me in Vancouver between flights. He is returning home to the USA for Thanksgiving after filming around the world for the past 5 months. He recounts his most memorable urban agriculture meeting in Ethiopia with a young urban farmer. (Mike)

Excerpt from his website:

“Waldemariam is a double orphan. His father was the second parent to pass away, a few years ago when he was a young teenager. About the same time, he became involved in the school garden. Many of the students who initially signed up for the program dropped out over time, but Waldemariam showed the patience and dedication required to succeed as an urban farmer. One of the first things he bought with the money he made selling vegetables was a flashlight and a supply of batteries, so that he could continue studying after dark; the family with whom he was staying were unable to afford electricity after dark, which in Addis is around 6:30 PM all year.

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re|CONNECT An Open Ideas Competition

re:CONNECT invites the citizens of Vancouver, to join with local and international designers to ignite discussion and dream new possibilities for the future of the Viaducts and the City’s broader Eastern Core.

Visualizing the Viaducts – Submission #23 (above)

The idea of the picnic is traditionally associated with celebrating food and play while bringing people together to create a rich experience. Situated on the border of several communities, Picnic Park encourages neighbourhoods to use the site as if it was their own backyard. The different spaces of the site, such as the orchard, waterfront or meadow offer a variety of spaces for a multitude of eating and picnicking experiences.

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Seed to Plate: A Cultivate Wine’s Competition from Jones Valley Urban Farm on Vimeo.

In the last 10 years, Jones Valley Urban Farm has successfully transformed over 3 acres of vacant downtown property into an organic teaching farm.

Jones Valley Urban Farm is partnering with Phillips Academy–a K-8 public school in downtown Birmingham, Alabama–to educate over 700 students through our Seed to Plate program. This powerful experience teaches kids the joy of planting and growing food, as well as how great fresh food taste and how fun they are to prepare. Little minds are engaged. Energies are spent productively outdoors. And young taste buds begin to crave “healthy.”

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