Seed Saving Workshop

We are grateful to have so many knowledgeable gardeners and homesteaders in our midst.  Today's workshop, Seed Saving, led by Bob Wildfong of Seeds of Diversity, was back for the third time by popular demand.  Bob is a wealth of information on this subject, and we had nearly 30 eager people who came out, on a perfect fall day when the garden seeds were bursting in the late warm sun, who learned about saving seeds for next year's planting.  It seems like growing food is one of the most vital and basic skills we can have, and saving seeds goes hand-in-hand with growing.  We are so fortunate to keep meeting so many new people, including a whole group of organic farm interns from Ignatius Farm  (Guelph) today.  The interns are finishing up their season with the CRAFT program, Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training.

How to build a neighbourhood (or how to disappear) - a story...

We had a visit last weekend from two interns with the CRAFT program (Collaborative Regional Alliance Farmer Training), who are currently doing their placement for the spring-fall growing season at a CSA near Durham. CRAFT is an excellent example of a mentorship model that offers young would-be farmers the chance to live with and learn from experienced farmers - everything from draft-horse farming, to CSA's, to biodynamic dairy farms, environmental learning centres, and more. The interns help out with the entire season in the various aspects of farm life and many start farm-based ventures of their own after this intensive internship. The interns also meet as a group once a month for workshops and workbees, and set up tours like this visit to Little City Farm to learn about our urban homesteading approach. Last year we had visits from two other farm groups, coming to our permaculture workshop and to learn more about approaches to sustainable city living and small-scale niche farming practices.

We really appreciated talking with Allison and Adrian, and were impressed with their knowledge and vision. Adrian followed up the visit by sending us this link to a great little zine, that tells the story of how easily, step by step, a real neighbourhood community can form. The drawings are whimsical, the words flow freely and beautifully, and the story brings inspiration. It's written by a fellow who is involved with the Riverbank Neighbours, a community group that acts as stewards of their neighbourhood river in Chicago. It's worth taking the time to read! (click on link below, and to read the zine simply click on each page to move to the next page). This is how the story begins:

Live somewhere. A house or apartment. And say hello to your neighbors. and borrow things. Here's how the saying goes: Always a borrower and a lender be. Lending and borrowin' makes good neighbors. Go to your neighbor when you need sugar. The next time they need bread they will come to you. Borrow onions. Lend popcorn. Borrow a leaf rake. Lend a baby buggy. Borrow some shoes. Everybody needs to owe. Everybody needs to be owed to.

http://www.riverbankneighbors.org/howtodisappear/index.htm

Ignatius Farm Interns Tour

Last week we had a lovely visit at Little City Farm with six farming interns from Ignatius Farm. The farm is located on a 500 acre property, just outside of Guelph on Highway 6 north about half an hour from here. It's an amazing property, that includes not only the certified organic farm and CSA program, but also apple orchards with many heritage varieties, a forest restoration project in partnership with the Grand River Conservation Authority, access to the river, community gardens, demonstration gardens, incubator farmhouse, and the Jesuit retreat centre. We have been inspired when visiting and especially love to go during apple harvest season!

The interns who visited us are part of a 6-8 month intensive farmer training program called CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance Farmer Training) on more than a dozen farms that has been set up in southern Ontario. They live and work on these organic or biodynamic farms for these months, gathering skills to either set up their own farming venture or just build life experience. Several of the interns at Ignatius were interested in urban agriculture, and so the visit to Little City Farm and learning about the scale that we work on made sense. They also participated in a permaculture workshop again led by Tracie Seedhouse, our friend who runs Earthchild Designs.

Angie, who is operating her own CSA "Fertile Ground" on 2 rented acres outside of Waterloo this summer, also participated in the CRAFT program last year. Her placement was Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre, near Hillsburg. Fertile Ground CSA begins drop-offs tomorrow (!!) at our Little City Farm driveway. We are really excited about this venture, and the neighbourhood involvement by members who have purchased shares.

Here are websites for Ignatius and CRAFT:
http://www.ignatiusguelph.ca/farm.html
www.craftontario.ca/