Rocket Science – An edible rooftop garden in Portland

Photo by Kym Pokorny from her blog “Dig in with Kym”.

 

“If you look around and see all the flat roofs, you can start to imagine a food-sustainable city,” says Marc Boucher-Colbert, one of the partners who contracts with Rocket restaurant to design and maintain the garden. “We’ve taken away all this space, but we can reclaim it.”

 

Click here to read the article at City Farmer News

 

 

FoodShare: sweet urban agriculture in Toronto

“Carrots!” says this young intern from FoodShare, a Toronto non profit urban agriculture program

IDRC Photo by Laura Berman

FoodShare is an organization that take a broad look at the entire food system – how food is produced, distributed and consumed.

How people get their food is also important. Food distribution systems that involve communities and help to create neighborhood leaders have a great potential to enhance individual and community empowerment, by leading people to feel that they have some control over this very basic part of their lives. Again, because of its material, cultural and social importance, food is special in its power to mobilize people to action. All our programs are based on this community building principle.

FoodShare tries to take a multifaceted, innovative and long-term approach to hunger and food issues. This means that we’re involved in diverse actions: grassroots program delivery, advocacy for social assistance reform, job creation and training, nutrition education, farmland preservation and campaigns for comprehensive food labelling are just a few examples of the areas we work in.

FoodShare was started in 1985 by the Mayor of Toronto and many citizens concerned about the growing hunger issues of the city. Since then, they have been actively involved in tons of projects all over the city, it is part of the school system, the farmers markets, and food banks of the city as well as host a hunger hotline, cooking classes, gardens and garden education, and healthy food choices classes. 

The Field to Table Urban Agriculture Project, founded by Annex Organics, has been home to a sprouting business, a rooftop greenhouse and garden, living machines, and a composting system. It now also includes honey bee hives and, off site, the Sunshine Garden, a 6000 sq ft market garden. Click here for a flier about the Sunshine Garden.

They also have a program called Good Food Boxes started in 1994, which runs similarly to a large buying club. The project distributes boxes of fresh (and often local) food throughout the city for either $12 or $32 depending of the version they choose.

Professional evaluation of The Good Food Box shows that participating in the program helps people access a more nutritious diet. It is now thought that up to 70% of deaths result from diseases that have a diet-related dimension, and there is mounting evidence that eating enough fruit and vegetables is key to preventing disease. Not only is it a matter of justice that everyone should have access to the food they need to keep them healthy- it also makes sense because of the enormous costs to the health care system that result from treating these diseases.

The Good Food Box makes top-quality, fresh food available in a way that does not stigmatize people, fosters community development and promotes healthy eating.

 

The Salad Bar program is a Farm to School program aimed at getting fresh vegetables to school children in Toronto.  Modeled after salad bar programs from the US, this program aims to get kids excited about fresh, local food.  Click here to see what kids said about the Salad Bar at their school.

 

Garden Girl, Patti Moreno, is the Martha Stewart of urban agriculture

Hi, she’s Patti Moreno.  She’s a wife, a mother, a daughter, and she’s as “city” as you can get…. says Patti, also known as Garden Girl.  She grew up in New York City and moved in Boston where she runs a small urban permaculture farm.

She’s all about sustainable urban living and she’s got a lot of videos to prove it.  As far as I can tell she produces her videos herself.  Most of the videos are how-to’s about gardening and taking care of animals in the city.  She even has stuff about recipes, how to shear a goat and how to knit a baby hat.

I applaud Patti for her efforts, I think its great that she has an amazing permaculture set up in Boston and she wants to share it with everyone.  She has made a living off of the urban agriculture that she does.  These video clips help to make urban agriculture more mainstream, more normal and accessible to the average city-dwelling American.  I often think that urban agriculture has taken on an alternative and artsy connotation- certainly not something that is bad, but it does limit its audience in some ways.

Sure, the music in the video clips is cheesy, her perfectly make-uped face seems out of place in the garden, and her dialog often makes her seem like Martha Stewart, but thats what makes it great.  These clips are something that can appeal to people who watch cheesy home improvement shows and worship Martha Stewart. 

Patti’s projects are not cheap- they do cost money and use supplies that are not accessible to everyone. But, like Martha Stewart, she is putting crafty ideas in the heads of the over-consumeristic middle class of America.  I have had many people ask me about projects or ways that could grow vegetables on their balconies, roofs or sunporches, these videos give people ideas. They are made for middle class city residents (and especially homemakers it seems) who probably will have the money to afford the supplies necessary for raised beds or an indoor garden.

Many of the organizations I have worked with and talked to use urban agriculture as a method to improve low-income communities both mentally and physically.  These videos try to appeal to a different crowd entirely.

Here’s just a couple of the videos (just sit through the couple seconds of annoying opening line music…)

 

Who is Patti Moreno?

 

 

What is Urban Sustainable Living?

 

Raised Beds in the City

 

Lawns to Edible Landscapes

 

Four Season Gardening

 

Hydroponic Aquaponic Indoor Grow System

 

Vertical Gardening one (there’s two more in this series)

 

Mini City Orchard

 

Simple Easy Compost Bin

 

Indoor Garden part one (several more in the series)

 

How to build a Chicken Tractor part one (lots more about chicken tractors)

 

Click here for more Garden Girl TV videos.

while you’re at it check out even more youtube videos about gardening

Dave’s Gardening Videos (including how to make newspaper pots)

Cooking Up A Story (I love these people…they do everything from hands on projects to farm bill talk to organization interviews)

City Farmer’s Videos