Edible Tulip

Tasting Fair

This Sunday, rain or shine.

World Food Day 2006

Come join me and other food enthusiasts to discuss issues on food policy, food security, local governments, volunteer opportunities, and nibble on some local food snacks at the same time!

Register by calling: 416-338-1604

Event details:

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Members' Lounge

Plant A Row, Grow A Row

I've lived on my block for 4 years and I have been, until now, blind to the grass roots activism that is going on within 50 metres from my apartment. I'm sort of ashamed of myself since I've gone both across town and out of town in search of innovative expressions of compassion and creativity to do with food but I am also happy to have discovered what is happening right in my neighbourhood. I am guilty of finding rural living and landscapes a better template to extract inspiration from than an urban landscape. Many of the community gardens I see in Toronto including the tiny plot at Northumberland tend to not be well kept; they are also forlorn looking and more than not littered with Styrofoam coffee cups. People in the city, and I do not mean those working hard at creating these tiny oases of greenery and edibles, the vast majority of urban dwellers, do not seem to crave or even contemplate the idea of space, open space, land use, the sanctity of growing food, of growing things, anything, the profound beauty of simplicity, moss taking over rock face, a spring deviating off course and creating a rivet of miniscule veins full of water, the thrush of colour that spreads like fire over the tops of trees in the fall. It’s a different temperament that chooses urban life over rural life. But not everybody has that choice. Some people work downtown and can’t afford a small plot of land in the country so they make do – grape vines cascading over backyard fences, squash blossoms dangling like Chinese lanterns on front yard trellises, the wonderfully chaotic plots of consignment gardens at High Park, honeybees and bumblebees doing the air tango.

I would like to unite the masses of urban bound country folk with a call to arms to take over the alleyways and abandoned parking lots of the city with shovels of earth, heirloom seeds, chicken wire fence and rubber boots. I suppose I have 8 months until the thaw of spring occurs to orchestrate a take back the land event. Or at least plant a poppy through guerrilla gardening by sprinkling seeds on the tiny lines of dirt in the pavement.

Plant a Row, Grow a Row is an organization located in my neighbourhood that asks people to grow an extra row of veggies in their gardens and donate the harvest from that row to a local food bank. It’s such a simple yet ingenious concept. The people already have the gardens, seed packets are dirt cheap but the outcome is enormous in value, it’s a much more grassroots level to donate and participate in your community and it doesn’t cost a bunch therefore the philanthropic angle is actually possible for anyone who can garden as opposed to anyone who can hire a gardener.

Communities across Canada have participated in this movement. So get involved. Start a movement in your own neighbourhood. Or find a way to donate a row of tomatoes or beans or beets or potatoes to someone in need. The website has all the contact information you need.