The Dominion - Kristen Howe

The Seed in the Stone

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 23:19:27 +0000

Growing food in the concrete jungle

City backyards are good for more than swimming pools and lawn chairs. photo: Kristen Howe

I hate to say it, but the warm months of summer are coming to a close. The Ontario tomatoes, corn and peaches, which are currently replacing tasteless international imports, are helping me get over my end-of-season nostalgia. And despite the fact that I'm living in downtown Toronto, I'm finding that the fall harvest is happening closer to my kitchen than I expected.

This year, my housemates and I planted a small garden plot in our backyard with some of our favourite foods. Judging by the view from our back balcony, which looks down on the tidy and productive gardens tended by our neighbours, we are definitely not alone.

The view from my balcony is supported by polls conducted in 2002 by Ipsos-Reid that found that 40 per cent of people in Greater Toronto live in households that produce some of their own food; urban gardeners growing vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts or herbs in backyards, balconies, or community gardens.

Although the Ipsos-Reid poll sounds promising, only a fraction of the food Canadians eat is grown locally, let alone in a personal garden. The average tomato, for example, travels a gas-guzzling 1,500 miles from field to plate.

I first realized that it is possible to grow a substantial portion of an urban diet close to where it is consumed when I visited Cuba a few years ago. Over half of the fruit and vegetables consumed in Havana are grown organically in Havana. In the house where I stayed, my host Pastorita explained that after the fall of the Soviet Union, imports of food, pesticides, fertilizers and gasoline for farm machinery and transport were halted, resulting in a 30 per cent reduction in food consumption. She showed me the buckets, bathtub and trellis on the rooftop of her house that her family tended through the toughest years when every open space in Havana sprouted culinary plants. Larger intensive production gardens on vacant lots were also opened with the support of the government and they continue to grow produce to sell to the public, schools and hospitals through collaborations between the Ministries of Agriculture, Education and Health.

Canada still lags far behind the Cuban model of urban agriculture. Cubans were forced to grow food collectively to avoid starvation. Lacking that motivation, and structural support, Canadians that do garden tend to cultivate smaller plots, and for different reasons.

According to Foodshare, a Toronto-based organization that addresses urban hunger and food issues, there are 1,000 community gardens and over 2,500 allotment gardens in the city, in addition to yard and patio gardens. The motivations of gardeners, and the environmental, health, and social benefits of their gardens are numerous, and often overlap.

Foodshare supports a market garden at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health where residents participate in growing and selling produce. Another organization, the Stop Community Food Centre, grows food to supplement its food bank services and facilitate engagement and education in its multicultural community. A small garden at the Voces Latinos community centre is motivated by the idea of fostering closer connections between people and their environment. Seeds of Diversity Canada, a grassroots seed-saving organization, cultivates a heritage vegetable garden to preserve the genetic diversity of plants that are adapted to local growing conditions, and combat the corporatization of the food supply.

This spring, as I was digging up my backyard plot, my neighbour Frank poked his head over the fence and asked in his thick Italian accent if I had planted any tomatoes. When I told him I hadn't, he returned with a bucket full of cooking and slicing tomato seedlings.

Each spring, Frank nurtures hundreds of seedlings in a homemade greenhouse, which he delivers to extended family across the Greater Toronto Area once the weather is warm enough for planting. He grows tomatoes for the incredible taste, as a hobby, and to share an essential cultural food with his family. Each year, he also saves the seeds from his best tomatoes to plant the following spring; I have literally been eating the fruits of Frank's labour from the last decade.

How to eat a tomato like a meal
–Cut a fresh, ripe tomato into thick slices lengthwise on a plate.
–Cover generously with pepper and a dash of salt to taste.
–Garnish with cheese, basil, or balsamic vinegar for extra flavour.
–Get your napkin ready, and eat with a knife and fork.

Kristen Howe is growing her favourite foods in Toronto's concrete jungle.

Home Grown Dissent

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:33:19 +0000

Connecting the evening news and the evening meal

Why aren't Canadians eating food grown locally? John Bonnar

"April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain."
–T.S. Eliot, the Wasteland

On and off the fields, things have indeed been 'stirring' this spring. Thanks to the Easter weekend, grocery stores recorded some of the highest daily profits of the year. April also saw thousands of farmers literally drive their tractors into the political arena.

An estimated 10,000 farmers traveled to Parliament Hill in early April to protest their rising costs and falling incomes. They brought their tractors and the message that Canadian farmers cannot bear the burden of negative incomes produced by a dysfunctional food system.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) reports that realized net income for the average Canadian farm is between negative $10,000 and negative $20,000 per year. Meanwhile, agribusiness corporations supplying inputs such as chemicals and seeds are making record profits. Likewise, food processors, exporters and retailers are also enjoying high profits at farmers' expense, according to the NFU.

Around the same time that Canadians were spending record amounts on groceries over the Easter long weekend, tractors began blockading food terminals in Ontario. Farmers were protesting the small amount of profits they will see from grocery stores that are flooded with foreign products.

The blockades were called off at three Ottawa terminals on April 15 after discussions with federal officials led organizers to believe that the upcoming federal budget would provide help to Canadian farmers. A second victory came on April 18, when the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, which represents the heavyweights in the grocery industry, agreed to bolster the farmers' lobbying efforts and push for new regulations promoting Canadian produce on grocery store shelves.

Colleen Ross, the National Farmers' Union's Women's president and organic farmer, points out that recent farm protests in Canada are part of a larger international movement of farmers seeking social and economic justice. April 17 was the International Day of Farmers' Struggle, an event organized by La Via Campesina, a coalition of international farm organizations. Farm and food issues affect all people, says Ross: "The structure of the global food system is an issue that should concern everyone."

Although the farming crisis is a global one, Ross brings the issues back to the manageable level of the dinner table. Canadians can support farmers and local economies by eating locally grown food, says Ross who likes to "encourage…nay, hound!... people to boycott products that compete directly with Canadian grown and raised products." Even this can be tricky, however, as labeling laws in Canada "are so misleading, that even when people think they are buying Canadian, what they are often getting is some water and a container from Canada and the contents coming from China," says Ross. "For example, apple juice concentrates coming from China and reconstituted here [and] bottled and marked Canadian Number 1."

Over the long weekend in April, Ross cooked up a meal for her family at her home near Iroquois, Ontario. She used mainly local ingredients that can be frozen and canned from the garden, or bought at local grocery stores or directly from farmers markets. Although Ross does use some non-local ingredients, like olive oil and pepper, she says that many meals can be sourced locally. In Ontario, "you can find locally-grown apples, squash and even wines. Carrots and other vegetables grown and stored over winter can be found across the country. The list of high-quality Canadian foods that are available is endless," she says. "Unfortunately, it's not always easy to find Canadian-grown on the shelves," she adds. Ross suggests consumers ask specifically for Canadian-grown produce and Canadian-raised meat products.

In spring, when new crops are just beginning to stir in the fields, Ross recommends the following meal, which can be made with locally grown ingredients.

Colleen Ross' Spring Feast

"For the chicken we have free-range organic, which I raise here. First, season the chicken with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Brown the whole chicken all over in a big pan with some butter and some olive oil. Then put in a casserole dish that has a lid, but not too small to crowd the chicken. You then pour over the juice of two lemons and about two cups of milk, then about 10 cloves of garlic, crushed but not minced. Season again well. Add either tarragon leaves or basil, whatever you have, best fresh. (I freeze whole leaves that I take out and use like fresh in cooking. Better than drying everything.). This is very important. Take the lid off for the last 1/2 hour. Cook in total for about two hours, depending on size of chicken. The chicken should be nicely browned."

Ross accompanies the chicken with roasted Canadian parsnips, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes and carrots seasoned with sea salt and pepper, olive oil, herbs, and baked in a covered casserole dish in the oven with a few table spoons of water. For dessert, Ross recommends Kawartha Dairy 100% Canadian Ingredients ice cream.

In solidarity with farmers' protests in Ontario, Kristen Howe dishes up a spring feast made with local ingredients.