Year Two: Reflection, and Looking Forward

Happy belated birthday, my dearest blog. Looking back 2 years ago, when you were first born, it seems so long ago when I first started posting in my tiny west-end apartment. Back then, local food was on the come-up. The book, "The 100-Mile Diet", had been released for a year, and only a handful of the city folk I talked to understood the desire to know where their food comes from. I was already well into the ideologies of localism, but the thought of authoring a blog abhorred me for several reasons. 2008 was the year I broke down.

Fast forward to 2010. Locallyproducedfood is a household string of words, already adopted by the mainstream as a corporate social responsibility halo (see marketing campaigns for Hellman's mayonnaise, Lay's potato chips and Loblaws supermarkets). Nearly every neighborhood in downtown Toronto has a weekly farmer's market. I think it's a step in the right direction, though I warn that Motive is as important as Action.

But just when I thought I was the coolest local food kid on the block, I quickly discovered I still had a long way to go. So this year, I attended workshops on How To Start a Community Garden, and Mushroom Cultivation. My partner and I organized a CSA delivery group, tried to convince our community to set-up a garden at Joel Weeks park, flirted with guerrilla gardening and wild foraging, made and served veggie chili to hundreds of G20 protesters, and delved deeper into DIY craft through crochet, soaps and salves. We met dozens of people through Everdale, the G20 weekend, Plan B, Foodshare, Not Far From The Tree, and our daily travels, all of whom live and breathe activism, and continue to inspire and motivate my own life. And still, I feel this is only the beginning.

This year also brought about great strides in my balcony garden experiment, demonstrated by the appearance of fully grown, happy plants. I could not have done it without learning from Year One, proving that there is truth to those annoying "try, try again" quotes. The best advice I have coming out of Year Two is take care of your soil.

2011 will bring even more change. Starting in March, I'll be taking a year off to travel through Europe, Asia and Australia. It is with sadness that I announce that this blog will be on hold during that time. Though I'll no doubt be dying to share travel stories with you all, I can assure you it won't be through a travel blog or Facebook account. We'll figure something out.

Wishing you all a year of courage, change and action.

In solidarity,
Minda

Soil Mix-A-Lot

With the weather in Toronto staying unseasonably warm, I decided to start planting a little early this year.

Last year, I bought a pre-made potting mix, and added coir and mushroom compost. Throwing away the old soil this year seemed unnecessarily wasteful, so I amended about 2/3 old soil with:

• a bit of coir
• a sprinkle of kelp meal
• a good layer of worm castings
• a good layer of "sea soil"
• a good layer of 1/2 perlite, 1/2 vermiculite
• a very thick blanket of mushroom compost

The peas and the arugula were planted first, since they should be relatively cold hardy. One week later, the arugula sprouts were visible. The garlic I planted last fall still hasn't shown any signs of life. In the coming days/weeks, I'll start planting beets, lettuce, kale, chard, green onions and mustard greens. (yay!)

Wishing you all a great growing season!

Year One: What I Learned

My first year of balcony gardening was TOUGH. I feel like I invested a lot of time and energy into a garden that didn't give much in return. I feel much doubt on the suitability of my balcony and of my abilities to grow food. I feel like Apollo Creed after 1 round in the ring with The Russian. But I know I can't let one bad year kick my *ss just like that. Now that I'm armed with a year of knowledge and experience, this upcoming year is sure to be an improvement.

To help you avoid the same growing pains I went through, use these learnings and tips to get started on a healthy garden.

• Growing from seed and starting indoors is challenging, especially in low-light conditions. Start some of your plants from seedlings, and don't think of it as cheating.


• Be sure to FILL your containers with potting soil. Over time, the soil will pack down considerably.


• Container soil will run out of nutrients. Add nutrients every 2 weeks or so --- compost, manure, kelp powder and fertilizer teas are your friends.


• Be realistic, but experiment. Grow what is best suited for your conditions (e.g. sun, etc), but if there's a plant you really want to grow, give it a go.


• Talk to fellow gardeners, seed exchangers and farmers to collect tricks of the trade.
  
  
• Diversify! Choose plants that do well in different conditions, and plants that mature at different times in the season. That way, you'll always have food to eat.
  
  
• If the edible part of the plant is ready to eat, harvest it now. You could wait to see if it'll get bigger, but it'll probably also get more bitter and tougher.
  
  
• Don't get discouraged. Pests, weather and other destructive conditions are sure to arise and work against you, and get even the best gardeners.
  
  
• And most of all: Spend time enjoying your garden. Bring positive energy to your green space. We garden because we love.

How-To: Compost Food Scraps with Worms

A few months ago, my workplace purchased several vermicomposters. Pretty progressive move for a corporate head office. Yeah, it would have been a lot cooler if we got a big fluffy dog instead, but Rover can't turn food and paper scraps into nutrient-rich "soil" like worms can. Well.......... it's debatable, but let's just agree that I'm happy with the worms-in-office situation.

The worms were purchased and delivered from TheWormFactory.ca, a small local organic farm in Ontario. Through reading and working with the worms, I've quickly learned that vermicomposting....

- Doesn't stink (literally). Worm bins allow air circulation.
- Is a good way to use shredded paper scraps. Worms consume paper, and use it as bedding.
- Is a good way to use food scraps. Worms can consume their weight in food, each day! No onions, meat or fat/oil though. My worms seem to like apple scraps.
- Worms are very independent. They can survive days/weeks without having to give them food.

With some gentle persuasion from co-workers, I decided that I should start my own home vermicomposter. The castings would be used to fertilize my future crop plants. It was easy enough to start: take a handful from one of the existing bins (worms + castings), and mix it with a handful of shredded scrap paper in a tub (with air holes). Voila: my own wicked lil wormies.

I've also picked up some great vermicomposting tricks:

- When feeding, make a hole and fill with food scraps. Cover with shredded paper to create a smell-barrier.
- Trace feeding locations in a spiral pattern. That way, the worms will learn where to look for food, and the whole bin will be used equally.
- Always have 2 to 3" of shredded paper to cover the worm's environment.
- Add water if needed to ensure environment is moist.
- When the castings are ready for harvesting, feed worms applesauce (or other blended fruit/vegetable mix) on one side of the bin. Prop the bin up on the other side, and leave for 2 weeks. Almost all the worms will have migrated to the applesauce side, allowing you to scoop up worm-free castings from the other side of the bin. Easy as pie.

Please feel free to send me a message or email if you have any questions about vermicomposting!