The Garden of Eating — Niagara Blog
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Slowly she goes
I can't help but smile at the picture above.
Beauty just has that effect on me. Those tomatoes came to the Garden of Eating compliments of a senior in north St. Catharines who found herself flooded with fruit and visits from family at the same time, making it tough to preserve these puppies like she usually does.
The jewel-toned gems were delivered to the YWCA shelter, along with a few pounds of cucumbers. In all, it was a short load of 10 pounds of fresh food but it was hugely appreciated.
This season has been a slow one for the Garden of Eating. Only mulberries, herbs and tomatoes have been harvested so far. Opportunities to pick out at the Vineland Research Station have eluded me because it's been a short crop year. A wet spring meant a rough go for bees trying to pollinate. So the peaches I had harvested at this time last year have been a no-show, the majority of the crop needed for research with little to spare.
And I see all the pear trees I picked last year becoming evermore weighed down with fruit, which means I will busy soon but I'd love to be able to offer up some more diversity to local social organizations that otherwise deal in canned and frozen food.
Pears, as versatile as they are, are unfortunately not a fan favourite. I try to convert people every fall, though, and will continue on my pear crusade in a few weeks.
In the meantime, if you have a fruit tree ripe for the picking now, let me know. Will work for veggies, too.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 10:03 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 14 August 2011 10:23 PM EDT
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Where it begins
My hands look like a cheap ballpoint pen exploded in them.
My skin is stained an inky purple-blue. But it's not from an accident at the office.
They're that colour from The Garden of Eating's first harvest of the year — mulberries. And so begins the second full season for residential fruit picking and sharing the harvest of those with too much with those in need.
A mulberry harvest kicked off last season for me, too. Tonight, thanks to the generosity of Erin King and her family again, I have seven pounds of the juicy berries to deliver to a local soup kitchen tomorrow.
The berries were waiting to be scooped up; piles of them laid on sheets the Kings had spread out to catch the delicate dears as they dropped. I scooped and graded with the help of the Kings' young daughter Sarah.
And there's so many more where that came from. The tree, which is actually in the yard of the Kings' neighbour, must be at least 50 feet tall, its limbs spreading over four yards that get showered with mulberries.
My ears would perk up with every dull thud as another berry landed and was offered up to me.
It is a generous tree, prolific in its production of the purple fruit.
I will be back Monday for more, once my hands have returned to their scrubbed-skin pink state and are ready to get dirty again.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 10:10 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 7 July 2011 10:12 PM EDT
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Urban agriculture takes root
YOU'RE INVITED!
The Niagara Community Gardens Network is a 3 year project of Climate Action Niagara to facilitate new community gardens within the poorest areas of Niagara including workshops for gardening and food preservation, plus facilitate long term stewardship.
Climate Action Niagara has been assisting community gardens and developing the regional network of existing and newer gardens while piloting the Centennial Community Garden in St Catharines. Most recently, the Trillium Foundation of Ontario has approved funding to support this Urban Agriculture Program.
We look forward to assisting the communities of Niagara to greater capacity and to enable fully inclusive networking for information sharing and building food security capacity in practical ways.
Please join us for the formal announcement, which takes place October 2nd, 2010 at 11am, at the Centennial Community Gardens in St. Catharines, on Oakdale Avenue.
Please RSVP by September 26th, as we look forward to seeing you there. Arrive early as the current community garden has been so successful bringing people back to the park, that neighbours have planned a Harvest Festival for this date.
Together, we CAN make a difference.
For further information, contact:
Jane Hanlon, Executive Director
Climate Action Niagara / GreenSaver
205-247 East Main, Welland, ON L3B 3X1
289-820-6440
can.info@cogeco.net
The NCGN appreciates the input of all who are interested in urban agriculture, food security, poverty issues, health related initiatives plus those in food education or agriculture to complete this (very short) survey. Thank you! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F8PC2VS
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 10:35 PM EDT
Friday, 24 September 2010
The giving tree
Every once in a while, I find myself in the children's section of my favourite bookstore, thumbing through the pages that captured my imagination growing up.
On of my go-to transporters back to my childhood is The Giving Tree by children's poet Shel Silverstein. Its timeless bright green cover with a boy standing under the generous limbs of a tree has remained unchanged since I can remember first cracking the spine of this beautiful story when my age was still in the single digits.
Reading that book now is one of the few occasions where I become engulfed in the moment and pulled into another world by the simple words telling the tale of a tall, strong selfless soul of a tree and its friendship with a boy.
The tree gives the boy its branches to swing upon, its bark to carve his initials in and its trunk to build a boat when the boy grows up. It gives and it gives and gives even when it seems it should have nothing left to offer.
I've met the real life incarnation of the giving tree.
It grows a block away from me and greets me with outstretched limbs loaded with hundreds of bright green treasures called Keefer pears.
We were introduced after I dropped a note in its owner's mailbox, asking if I could pick its fruit to donate to charity.
Like the pushy, albeit hospitable, relative who stands over you with a pot plying you with a ladle full of the latest family meal, my giving tree never seems to run out of pears to offer me.
Last week, while on holiday, I plucked 250 pounds of firm, fresh fruit from its branches and could hardly tell I picked anything at all.
Pick more, it offered, even though my baskets, bound for a shelter or soup kitchen were overflowing.
We worked in harmony. I climbed my ladder. The tree revealed more of its harvest for me - a harvest that for years had gone unused. Wasted. Rotted. Converted back into the gems that perhaps the following year would convince someone they were worthy of eating.
I got lost in the majesty of my company as I delicately maintained the fine balance of my 110-pound but spastic frame on my ladder's uppermost rungs, all the while hanging on to a basket and reaching as far as my 5-foot-three frame would allow.
Cars drove past at the busy intersection nearby but all I heard was the melody of rustling leaves conducted by the wind while the pears who ripened before I could find them fell to the ground, keeping time with their dull, staccato thuds.
For several days last week, I visited with my new friend, even when time barely allowed. A looming appointment, only an hour to spare, it couldn't keep me away. Getting lost in its branches was the best getaway.
This week, as I've plugged away at the office, no time for any more escapes, I've longed for those moments. I miss the company and generosity of this stunning beauty that has too long been ignored.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 9:20 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 24 September 2010 9:28 PM EDT
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Sharing the abundance
It has been a fantastic few weeks.
Though the home pages says more than 320 pounds of fruit picked and delivered to local social agencies, this week, that number will be catapulted well above 1,000 pounds. If only I had an exact count though...
Some of the successes started two weeks ago when I harvested pears in the front yard of a home on Linwell Road. I have gotten the OK from four of five homeowners whose mailboxes I stuffed with Garden of Eating literature asking if I could pick the pears weighing down the branches of trees in their yard.
Being on vacation next week, I will have plenty of time to do plenty of picking.
This is a real coup for the program since its focus is residential fruit tree harvests. It's really happening now.
We scored about 60 pounds of pears on Sunday, Aug. 29. As we picked, a man approached us. He looked angry. I thought he was going to question what we were doing. Were we allowed to pick? What were we doing with those pears?
Instead, he heaped praise upon us. He was just happy to finally see the fruit be used instead of going to waste as it has for so many years. The fruit was delivered to the Southridge Shelter later that day.
A few days earlier, I was able to do a pick at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre with scientist extraordinaire Jay Subramanian. We got about 80 pounds of some of the most beautiful peaches in half an hour. They made the cook at the YWCA shelter very happy when I dropped them off.
On Friday after work, with visions of holiday time dancing in my head, I got do another pick with Jay. This time, we harvested about 60 pounds of nectarines at Vineland. They were delivered to Southridge that night, along with a small box of pears from a co-worker charged with caring for his grandfather's fruitful pear tree while he's in hospital. My co-worker told me had he known about what I was doing sooner, I would be delivering bushels. For now, he has many family members gorging (or getting sick of) some mammoth, gorgeous pears.
Tuesday, as I headed north for a break in Sault Ste. Marie, Niagara-on-the-Lake farmer John Fedorkow called me. He had 30 crates of clingstone peaches and pears to donate -- the first of many hundreds of pounds of fresh fruit he could give this fall.
As my husband drove, I worked the phone. The peaches are bound for Start Me Up Niagara while the pears will go to Project Share in Niagara Falls. Project Share was so grateful for the fresh fruit. John, good soul that he is, is delivering the goods this week.
After a slow start to the year, it's wonderful to see the generosity — the willingness of people to share beautiful fruit that otherwise would go to waste. While it gives a person pause that there is such need for food — fresh food at that — it's obvious that the donations are welcomed and hugely appreciated.
Here's to more harvests in the coming days.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 6:26 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 9 September 2010 11:50 AM EDT
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush
It was a child's song that until Thursday held little meaning for me.
As a kid, I remember singing "Here we go 'round the mulberry bush, all day long" and picturing a group of happy children holding hands and dancing around a twiggy bush.
But I didn't give much thought to what a mulberry was or lend much imagination to that part of the anthemic tune of my youth. And until Thursday, in all my 33 years, I had never eaten one, either.
Thursday evening, the Garden of Eating - Niagara kicked off its second season of residential fruit picking with a harvest of mulberries at home near downtown St. Catharines.
When I got the email last fall about a mulberry tree providing a harvest too much for one family to eat, I imagined an small, ornamental tree or bush loaded down with berries.
When I arrived at the home with my husband and our most loyal volunteer Lois, I was in awe of the towering tree, whose limbs could barely be reached, showering not just one yard with beautiful dark, juicy mulberries, but dropping scads of the delicate fruit over four lucky backyards.
Armed with a tarp to catch the tender berries — mulberries can't be picked, so much as shaken from the tree to avoid damaging the fruit that looks like a micro-grape bunch — we managed to net about three and a half litres of vitamin K-rich black berries with precious, vibrant green stems attached. Their destination: the kitchen at Southridge Community Church Shelter.
We left with hands hennaed by sticky, purple juice.
But the old, generous trees is carrying the weight of the world on its limbs. There are thousands upon thousands of berries trying to bask in every moment of golden sunlight to morph from their pale beginnings to dark and delicious, ripened gems.
We will be back.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 10:05 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 19 June 2010 10:07 AM EDT
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Buy Local or Bye Local
Welland – The City of Welland is encouraging residents, and anyone involved in the food industry, to attend the second annual “A Greener Spring” being held Saturday, May 1 from 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. at Market Square, 50 Market Lane, in downtown Welland.
“A Greener Spring” is an initiative to introduce local restaurant owners, catering organizations, and grocers to local producers of baked goods, deli items, and produce. The local food industry is encouraged to attend this event, which is conveniently hosted during the Saturday Welland Farmers’ Market. Local businesses can meet and discuss potential partnerships with local producers, organizations which support a Buy Local philosophy, and enjoy some refreshments.
Lynn Ogryzlo Founder of Niagara Culinary Trail is attending the event and bringing an impressive group of local chefs with her. Restaurants August, Smokin’ Buddha, and Ravine will feature local foods from the Niagara Festival’s Mobile Culinary Theatre. "It's all about local food and where better to show it off than at the Welland Farmers Market during A Greener Spring, said Ogryzlo.
The City of Welland encourages residents and the local food industry to attend “A Greener Spring” to better educate themselves on the benefits of Buying Local as well as the effects the community’s purchases have on the environment.
“The Welland Farmers’ Market has been a celebrated tradition every Saturday at Market Square for over 100 years where residents have enjoyed socializing and purchasing local food”, said Market Square Coordinator, Bernice Booth. “A Greener Spring” is being held once again at the Welland Farmers’ Market on the 1st of May, and will give the local food industry an opportunity to meet local farmers and engage in local business.
“A Greener Spring” will also provide educational and promotional information about the following organizations and services: Niagara Buy Local, Niagara Region Recycling, Niagara Region Smart Gardening, Niagara Region Local Food Plan, Niagara Culinary Trail, The Garden of Eating – Niagara and Niagara’s Good Food Box program.
For more information regarding “A Greener Spring” please contact Bernice Booth, Market Square Coordinator, at (905) 735-1700 ext. 2334.
For more information on the attending organizations please view websites, http://www.niagaraculinarytrail.com http://www.niagararegion.ca http://www.buylocalniagara.ca http://www.thegardenofeating-niagara.com http://www.welland.ca/Hottopics/GoodFoodBox.asp
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 9:38 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 27 April 2010 9:56 PM EDT
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Start Me Up starting more things up at Vineland
I had the pleasure of attending Start Me Up Niagara's Christmas party for volunteers tonight.
In addition to saying thanks to those who have helped the social agency over the course of the year, an announcement was made that Start Me Up will be farming a quarter-acre plot out at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, where they are now picking surplus fruit.
Congrats to the good folks and Vineland and Start Me Up for this venture, which grew out of a simple connection made between the two with the help of The Garden of Eating — Niagara.
It was about a week after I launched the website that I got a call from Dave R. at Start Me Up about working together on harvesting residential fruit for the agency to use in its meal programs. As luck would have it, I had inquired with a researcher and friend of mine at Vineland to find out how to gain access to the orchards and fruit for The Garden of Eating. In the process, I connected Dave and crew with Vineland as well, and their fruit procurement program took off, with weekly picks and now this.
I'm so happy for Start Me Up that the relationship has cultivated even more opportunities for them — opportunities that will only strengthen Start Me Up, the people it serves and the community. Congratulations!
Like I said in an earlier post, it's that connection between Start Me Up and Vineland — the success getting food into the hands of people who want and need it — and The Garden of Eating's fleeting involvement that have made this entire endeavour worthwhile for me.
Check out the story on what's ahead for Start Me Up and stay tuned for news on The Garden of Eating — Niagara as it continues to grow.
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 9:39 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 22 December 2009 9:41 PM EST
Monday, 12 October 2009
Lots to be thankful for
The pick in Port Dalhousie finally happened. Thanks to Mother Nature for letting the sun shine on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, enabling me, my husband Steve, and volunteers Lois and Monique to be able to pick Bosc pears. And thanks to Rick for lending us his ladder.
After Wednesday's false start, we managed to harvest about 100-pounds of Bosc pears from an old orchard turned front yard in Port. The pears were crispy and juicy (I had to eat one, especially after I accidentally pulled the stem off when trying to pick it from the tree).
There is something a propos about spending a part of Thanksgiving weekend harvesting fruit and getting it to people who need it and appreciate it.
The bounty was dropped off later that day at Southridge Community Church's shelter. Here's a snippet from an e-mail I received the next day:
"We serve around 22,000 meals per year to people who find themselves homeless so donations have a significant impact on our ability to deliver healthy, nutritious meals on an on-going basis.
We are putting the pears to good use not only as fruit to snack on but also in our bagged lunches and tonight's dessert is going to be pear crumble."
That's the best thank-you and I can only hope it will serve as incentive for people with fruit trees to register them with The Garden of Eating — Niagara to be harvested in the coming weeks or even next year.
We also picked some apples that, I think, once peeled and cored, will be the makings of some fine sauce or dessert. I will drop those off at Start Me Up Niagara Tuesday. Check out Start Me Up Niagara's open house in their new digs at 17 Gale Cr. from 2-6 Wednesday afternoon. You can even taste some of the bounty SMUN and volunteers have been harvesting during their weekly picks at Vineland.
And finally, the 1,000 pounds of pears, compliments of farmer John F. in Niagara-on-the-Lake, were delivered this week. John dropped them off at Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold, where they're seeing as many as 150 people a day. Community Care has more than 2,000 clients who are only allowed to get groceries at the food bank once every two months. That tells you how great the need is. John's pears were hugely appreciated.
John has offered up some red delicious apples growing in his family's yard to The Garden of Eating — Niagara, to pick for the food bank, and has pledged to talk to other packing houses about getting their seconds — the fruit too small for grocery store buyers' liking — to people who need it. Meanwhile, The Garden of Eating — Niagara looks forward to scavenging in his orchard again next year.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 8:09 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 12 October 2009 8:13 PM EDT
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Picking in Port
Big surprise, the weatherman lied.
After planning a pick in Port Dalhousie Wednesday and being nearly blown away on my lunch hour by wind gusts, I decided early Wednesday afternoon to check the forecast and be prepared to cancel something until which I'd been counting down the days.
And sure enough, with more wind gusts and rain in the forecast, I made the call. The pears in Port would have to wait. Sure enough, it cleared up. The sun even came out on my drive home after work.
Sigh. Boo to you, Weather Network.
Fortunately, Saturday we will try again and the forecast is looking great (fingers crossed). If you're able to help for a couple hours early Saturday afternoon, drop me a line and I'll give you the details.
I also hope to head out to Vineland Tuesday so if you're free in the morning and want to spend time in one of the nicest orchards in Niagara, let me know that, too.
Happy picking!
Posted by thegardenofeating-niagara
at 11:39 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 8 October 2009 11:45 PM EDT
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