Thursday, September 10, 2009

Future Directions...


Beets
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
So, I'm experiencing a calling to farm. Yup, you heard it. I caught wind (through work & some urban Ag. work I'm doing in Delta), of SPIN Farming, and it just felt "right" somehow.

It's not that I don't think my work is meaningful or fulfilling, but I think that I need to do something with tangible results, in tune with nature's rhythms. For a long time, I thought this meant leaving the city & landing somewhere rural, & trying to make a life there. This caused a lot of consternation, but I've come to realize that there is huge potential here, and I want to take steps to make this city the city that I want to be in. This includes right livelihood, community, and local food. So naturally, why wouldn't I farm other people's backyards?

I'm not the only one who's crazy. Ward Teulon, aka
City Farm Boy, has, for the past few years been farming his neighbour's backyards, and making a go of it. Granted, his wife is a lawyer so he is lucky that he needn't make a huge amount, but according to the SPIN folks, it is doable.

So, I haven't figured out how to make a full on SPIN operation work for me in terms of dollars just yet, but I visited with Ward today & while we harvested kale, basil, parsley, potatoes, and daikon, we discussed options. He suggested that starting really small, with a friends and family
CSA would be possible with not much borrowed land, and while keeping my current job to make a living. How exciting! I'll be taking Ward's crash course in urban farming in October.

So, my question to you is.... do you or someone you know:
a) live in my neighbourhood, or close to it (Grandview-Woodland, Hastings Sunrise, or Trout Lake areas)
b) have a piece of back or front yard you aren't using that you'd be willing to let me farm in exchange for veggies, a CSA share, or rent
c) Have said land that gets min. 6 hours of sunlight a day, access to a water tap, beyond the dripline of large trees, and available for at least all of next season (Feb. to November)?

OR

Would you be interested in buying a garden share for the 2010 season? I'm just throwing ideas around, so no ideas yet as to how many shares, what would be grown, or how much it would cost. All depends on the land and time available.

Names I've thrown around include:
"Kristi's Eastside Edibles"
"Kristi's URban VEggies (KURVE)"
"Backyard Local Organic Community (BLOC) Farms"
etc. etc. Hooray for busy minds late at night :-S

Am I crazy? It's ok to say so :-)

Would love to hear your thoughts and words of wisdom.

Happy gardening, and happy harvest season!

Stupice


Stupice
Originally uploaded by kristi_t

Like candy


Like candy
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
Yum! The cherry tomatoes were definitely the top producer this year. I used the "tumbler" variety in hanging baskets in the sun of the walkway near the garage, and they loved it! This photo is tonight's harvest. Granted, it's end of season so everything is ripening at once, but I got about this much every week or two. For a while it was the "gold nugget" plant that was going like crazy, but it's finished now. I froze these, and ate a lot raw! They're also great roasted with olive oil, garlic, and black pepper over rice.

Summer's bounty


Summer's bounty
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I'm not sure what it is that I like about canning so much.... Maybe it's the steam and heat and good smells, or the vibrant colours the produce turns when it's processed, or my shiny stainless canner from the hardware store down the street that stocks everything imaginable. I think most likely though, it's the satisfaction of seeing rows of beautiful jars at the end of a couple hours of work. Can't get that same feeling from surfing the web or reading a report, that's for sure!

Plums


Plums
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
We dehydrated about 20 lbs of these sweet yummy things this year, and made various cakes, plus ate an awful lot (too many) raw!

July Garden


July Garden
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I've got a lot of catching up to do! It has been an amazing season in the garden. All the hot weather we had, combined with some early rain made for great harvests. The new raised beds I built are phenomenally productive, and I'm amazed at the amount of biomass that has come out of the yard this year.

Recently, I've harvested tons of tomatoes, some beets, potatoes & carrots, and just planted the fall greens (mustards, brassicas, lettuces & such) a couple weeks ago.

See more photos of the bounty on my Flickr set.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Plant Sale


Plant Sale
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I had a plant sale to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, that a bunch of my friends are doing. We had many donations of plants and raised $450 for cancer research! Many thanks to all who attended and bought plants, or who donated to the sale!

Salad Greens


Salad Greens
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
Salad greens that I started in the window in February, before I planted them out a couple weeks ago.

This year, I grew from seed:
- 3 varieties of tomato, now in the coldframe waiting to get a bit more robust before planting into the garden
- salad greens as shown
- lettuce
- radicchio (at Ben's request)
- peppercress
- mache / lamb's lettuce
- spinnach
- radishes
- carrots
- beets
- parsnips
- peas
- kale
- potatoes from seed potatoes (first time trying this!)

I'll update again soon - the garden has really changed just since these pictures were taken a week or so ago.

Bee house


Bee house
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I bought a mason bee house & bees this year. That's it on the fence.

So far, 1 female of the 9 bees that emerged has stayed and filled two nest tubes with eggs & pollen for next year's offspring.

In another month or so, she'll die, leaving the eggs with their pollen supplies to develop in to larvae, which will then pupate & spin cocoons to hibernate in over the winter. At that point, I'll take them inside, clean them of pollen mites, and store them in the fridge (!) safe from predators over the winter. Next spring, they'll get put in the house again to hatch out & pollinate another crop of apples and plums!

The City of Vancouver and the Environmental Youth Alliance have put bee houses up in all the City's parks to make more habitat for these non-aggressive and beneficial pollinators.

New raised beds


New raised beds
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
The completed beds, in place in the yard. The plastic mulch helps soil heat up, while the polytunnels (here uncovered) act like little greenhouses.

Spring and New Beds

It's been so long since I last posted! Some catching up to do.

So, last year's experiment was fairly successful. I learned a lot, and had a great time growing a lot of our food. I even had a CBC Radio french TV spot, thanks to our friend, Benoit. You can see the clip here: http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/manitoba/Dossiers/detail.asp?Pk_Dossiers_regionaux=193&Pk_Dossiers_regionaux_page=251

Over the winter, I kept a few greens going in a coldframe. This spring is when the most work started though - I built raised beds, all by myself! (photo credit: Ben Johnson, Sockeyed Images)



I opted to use cedar so they wouldn't rot so fast, and screwed them together, loosely based on designs in a book I found second hand during a trip to Mayne Island. It's called the 60 minute garden (http://www.amazon.ca/Jeff-Balls-60-Minute-Vegetable-Garden/dp/0020303769)
The design includes anchors to allow the use of polytunnels made from flexible tubing and clear polyethelene sheeting. These can be switched out for a trellis for climbing plants.