Edible Plants for the Prairies

Urban Farmer has posted a useful list of “Edible Plants for the Prairies”. This includes various berries, fruit trees & vines, perennial vegetables, herbs, tea plants, edible ground covers, and even edible flowers.

Doing it in the City: Growing Urban Agriculture

Hi Everyone!
We're happy to announce our  Farmers' Market on Feb 6th 4-7pm, and Local 301 @7pm.
at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association.

Local 301 presents
Doing it in the City: Growing Urban Agriculture

A roundtable discussion moderated by Kris Vester, President of Slow Food Calgary and local biodynamic farmer


Where: Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association, 1320 5th Avenue N.W. Calgary
When: February 6, 2013 @ 7p.m.
For more information, visit www.farmersmarket.hillhurstsunnyside.org


Does urban agriculture enhance access to healthy, sustainably grown food? What role does urban agriculture play in creating just and sustainable food systems?
What other benefits arise from backyard gardens, community gardens, & spin farming? What are the trade-offs of urban agriculture versus the current systems of production?
How can governments, communities and individual citizens support these initiatives?

These questions and more will be discussed by our panel:

Steph Gagnon: the City of Calgary Office of Sustainability and Calgary Food Committee
Dr. David Swann: MLA for Calgary Mountainview
Chad Kile: Calgary Urban Farmer and co-owner of Leaf and Lyre Urban Farm

How to Re-Pot a Plant that is Root Bound

Great tips from Jeralyn, available on her blog, here. 

How to Start a Family Garden When You Live in the City

This is a great article, with some nice new ideas on how to tackle the challenge of gardening in the city:

"Gardening as a family cannot only help you reduce your carbon footprint, pass along the ideals of sustainable living to your children, and save money at the grocery store, it can also help you forge even stronger bonds with your family through your shared goals. When you live in an urban setting, however, starting a family garden requires a bit more creativity than it would in a rural area."

Read more

An interesting idea

The Guerrilla Grafters are a group of botanical dissidents who are covertly grafting branches of fruit trees onto ornamental trees in SF.

"There’s a group of gardeners in San Francisco that are spreading organic graffiti across the city. How? By grafting branches from fruit trees onto ornamental trees that have been planted along sidewalks and in parks.

They are using a very simple tongue in groove splice that’s held together with annotated electrical tape. Good luck to them."

Info from BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/25/guerrilla-grafters-covertly-ad.html

Western Canada Permaculture Convergence

Western Canada Permaculture Convergence, 2012 is billed as “A three day (August 24,25,26) coming together of permaculture enthusiasts, to share information, inspiration and learn a few new skills.”

In May, they're also hosting a week of workshops, May 16-20, at the Woodland West retreat centre in Millarville, Alberta.

The New Farmer School

The New Farmer School is a local educational resource for non-industrial farming.

Seedy Saturday, this Saturday

The annual Seedy Saturday event is this Saturday, March 17, 2012, from 10am-3pm, at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association. Admission is $2 (Calgary Dollars accepted), children under 12 get in free.

An excellent way to connect with local-focused agriculture enthusiasts and practitioners.

Occupy Vacant Lots

Activists Are Reclaiming Vacant Lots For Gardens -- But Will There Be Legal Challenges?. “Occupy Vacant Lots is being welcomed by many neighborhoods in Philly, but could legal challenges upend its work?”

Our Dwindling Food Variety

A very telling graphic about crop and seed diversity, from National Geographic:

It’s like growing potatoes in a barrel…

4 Simple Steps to Grow a Hundred Pounds of Potatoes in a Barrel.

Edible Education 101

Edible Education 101 is a complete course in modern food production. Video lectures at UC Berkley are available for free online, featuring the likes of Michael Pollan himself. It's required viewing. Check it out here.

'Straight From the Farmers Mouth'

Kris Vester is a farmer from the Calgary area. He was kind enough to sit down with me and share his perspectives on the current state of food in our region. Please keep in mind that this is only 5 minutes of a 45 minute interview. I should have the unedited version available soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_50ieC3qJU

Volunteer Call

A note from Jodi at the Garden Path:

Hello everyone---

I may have talked to some of you this past weekend, but we are looking for volunteers for our annual fundraising opportunity this summer. During the Stampede (July 7-17th this year..), our volunteers take shifts selling raffle tickets on behalf of the Kinsmen. Other than the Sneak-a-Peek Thursday, there are three shifts a day -- morning, afternoon and evening. Its an easy, fun way for us to fundraise, and admission to the Park is taken care of.

The Kinsmen pay us per shift worked, so if you are interested, please volunteer as many times as you can!!

A big thanks to those that have already volunteered; I will be in touch with further details a little closer to the date. Happy gardening!

All the best,

Jodi Lucas

Funds and Granting Director

Garden Path Society

You can email Jodi for more details and shift times at jodijets65@hotmail.com

Permablitzes

“Permablitzes change urban landscape, one garden at a time” is a report from Adrienne Beattie about permablitzes — “a day in which a group of people converge on an urban space to install a permaculture design.”

On farmers markets in Calgary

Calgary Herald writer, Jeremy Klaszus, has written an article “City Hall can help markets grow” about the farmers' markets situation in Calgary.

Down Season

Hey everyone, Just a quick hi-and-hello in the off-season for CUA. I wanted to point out a great resource for all of you urban ag minded folks: Salt Spring Seeds.

Not only can you buy your heritage and heirloom organic seeds via this Canadian company, their website also offers plenty of articles and instructions related to gardening. It may still be pretty dismal outside, but I know that I'm not the only one dreaming of warmer days ahead.

Getting downtown office towers to grow food

The CBC has an article today about a building downtown that is converting its planters to food production: “Vegetables sprout in Plus 15 planters”.

A farmers’ market in downtown Calgary?

A post by Paula Arab on her blog at the Calgary Herald asks: “Would you walk to an Urban Farmers’ Market in the heart of Calgary? It could be closer than you think.”

Community Garden Benefit Concert

Hello Gardeners! Community Crop is sponsoring a concert of fabulous live music--local musicians of renown--and it is taking place right here in our own community, at the hall. The great thing is, all proceeds benefit our Currie Booster Garden. Please see the poster below or check out out facebook event page.

Saturday April 3rd - 7 pm

South Calgary Community Hall (3130 16th St. SW)

Featuring live performances by: Ellen McIlwaine , Clea Roddick , Clinton St. John , Thighs , and Wheat & Water .

There will also be a silent auction featuring amazing art pieces from local artists.

$10 at the door.

Event is licensed.

All ages welcome.

Co-hosted by South Calgary Community Association

and made possible by a generous grant from The Calgary Foundation.

If you are interested in volunteering for this event contact us at info@communitycrop.org