Seedlings have popped up!

Although we have taken on less gardens than anticipated they are growing and the project is still on!

Thank you to all of the homeowners who are taking on most of the work in their yards!

We should have some radishes and garlic scapes to share over the next few days - You will be able to find them at Your Local Market Co-op (129 Downie Street), just ask about SUFE's surplus.


The Slow Food Market has been the main  activity for us (which is strange as it is not really urban farming at all)

As we have been able to raise lots of funds for the project so I would like to use the surplus from the sales over the next few weeks to support the House of Blessing.

I have asked them about a few different options - but I will post more details as I have them.

I hope everyone is enjoying their gardens!
I hope to get a photo of each of the gardens soon!

Experiment Evaluation: Ideas for Improvment

So it has been a slow start to the season as I've mentioned in my most recent email

-the weather has not been very agreeable and it seems like many people excited to garden are busy with all the great things going on.

Although we have 15 gardens confirmed this is the count so far:

3.5 are ready for planting 

4.5 have been planted

1 garden = allotment has been planted

1 garden scheduling a dig this week

What happened?

- We have not been holding meetings (I felt that we could meet while we garden - less talk more action) It seems like meetings have better attendance than some of the garden events.

- Life getting in the way: although none of the gardens have cancelled I think many people have been otherwise occupied and unavailable

- I am waiting to hear about set up times/ help times from a few Garden Managers who are managing their own yard.

- In the planning of the method, we required Garden Managers taking responsibility for other people's  yards. This was to spread out administration of project to make it more effective and less reliant on one organizer.  I have had no G.M. until now - We have recently confirmed 1 new garden manager & working on a second.


- Limited volunteer support - some days we have 10 turn out, many days it is myself and one other.


- I have been busy working on The Co-op (a soon-to-be source of sustainable income) and have had limited availability. Because of this and the limited volunteer support I have been choosing times to garden based on my availability - may not be ideal for most volunteers.

Maybe next year....

New Video on YouTube!

Thanks to Madison for making this video about the project so far.

As for gardening, it seems like the weather is not on our side! 

Next blog will be a reflection and evaluation of the Experiment so far and brainstorming ways to improve for the rest of the season & next year.

Upcoming Events:

We have had some more great fund-raising at the Slow Food Market stall, and are about to make some progress in getting gardens started.
Now It's time to also start thinking about rain water collection... I am hoping to find a source to get a hold of several buckets so each garden won't require hose water for the gardens... please email if you have any ideas!

Here are our upcoming events- more to come - please email stratford.urban.farms@gmail.com for the addresses

 Saturday April 9th 11-2pm

Potluck & Garden Prep at Trevor's
- we will be digging up a small patch of grass and sharing some food
 

Sunday April 17 3-6pm
Potluck & Garden Prep at Bruce's
- we will be digging up a small patch of grass and sharing some food
 

Sunday April 23rd 3-6pm
Garden Prep at Andrea's
- we will be digging up a small patch of grass

Friday May 6th 4-7pm
Potluck & Garden Prep at Felicity's
- we will be digging up a small patch of grass / planting seeds and sharing some food
 

Sunday May 9th 3-6pm
Potluck & Garden Prep at Drea's
- we will be digging and checking out our work from the fall & planting seeds
 

Saturday May 14th 8:30 am- 12:30
Garden Prep at the YMCA
-digging & planting some seeds

S.U.F.E. & Our Community

 
Since August when we stated talking about Stratford Urban Farming Experiment, I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of support our community has shown.

I want to make a few shout-outs to some of the great recent connections we've made.

Festival City Rotary Club - has donated $100 towards seeds & supplies for the season

House of Blessing - currently building our relationship with them (hope to have some produce to donate in season!)

Slow Food Perth County - has let us rent a stall at the Sunday Market, allowing us to fund-raise by selling bread & talk to more people about our project

Revel Caffe - has let us use the space for meetings & baking Sunday mornings until we found a larger kitchen to use

Simple Fish & Chips (website)- the new kitchen space! Chris is now making the brioche for Simple's Lobster Slider in exchange for the kitchen space Sunday AM before Market

This Saturday March 12, Shawn has offered to donate $1 to SUFE for Seeds for every Lobster Slider sold! So if you are wanting to try it out, this would be a great day!

With access to this larger space we will be able to bake more bread & sell more at market, which will give us more funds for the project!

Get Involved - How you can help: (email for more info)
Come to our events & get to know everyone!
Garden Manager - keep an eye on garden & schedule weekly garden-prep times based on needs of garden
Market Stall - sell bread at the stall & talk to people about the project
- 9:45-12pm or 12-2pm on Sundays
- I would like to give as many people this opportunity as possible
Bread-Making Help- Learn how to bake bread with Chris, in exchange for your time & help early in the early-early morning on Sunday.
Pot-Luck Host- host a pot-luck, meeting or an event of your creating

Pot-Luck Sunday March 13th 2-4pm

This is a photo from the last pot-luck we had at Bruce's place.


We are about to have another one! After Market pot-luck this Sunday 2-4pm...

I hope we get to meet some new garden managers & new garden owners.

Please email for the address.

Slow Food Market Success!

Chris bakes bread & Madison minding the stall

Having a stall at the Sunday Slow Food Market has been a great success! We have sold out 4 out of 5 weeks. (we had 1 loaf and a couple buns left one week!)

The net profit in 2011 so far is $39.35*. This is great news because we are very shortly going to be buying seeds for the season. We predict that the market profits will cover seeds & supplies we purchase over the next couple of months by the end of April 2011. Just in time for planting!

*excludes supplies purchased in 2010, labour exchange for kitchen space (approx value $40/week!) & has relied on many volunteer hours baking & minding the stall


Thank you for everyone who has helped out so far & everyone enjoying the bread!

Yummy Bread for sale to cover the costs of the Urban Farming Experiment

Garden Managers & Landowners

Hello Urban Farmers!
I think we have come up with a good strategy. Next Saturday 29th at 3PM  we will have our next meeting.

Allan at Anything Grows has been generous enough to let us use their space in the basement (where the Slow Food Market is held on Sundays)

It is for anyone interested in finding out more about the project, landowners as well as those who are interested in being a 'Garden Manager' this growing season.  So please come if you can!

Allotments/Private Plots:

The majority of the project will be us working together on gardens to keep them going - but there is also scope for people who would just like to have a small allotment in someone's yard or have a small allotment for someone else to use. Currently one such plot is available.
Garden Managers:
No Experience is Required! Just time commitment of 2+hours/week and an email account.
A Garden Manager's Responsibility will be to monitor the needs of their plot and arrange appropriate times for work with the property owner. The needs will vary through the season but as Garden Manager you will commit to keeping that garden going.

You would be expected to notify stratford.urban.farms@gmail.com of the dates & times you will be at the garden and the task to be undertaken. This information would be added to a weekly schedule and sent out to the volunteers.
Volunteers will come out as and when they can, we have shown that this method can be very successful with our garden preps in the Fall of 2010.

You can act as Garden Manager for your own garden too! (This is a great way to have help getting started gardening and keeping your garden lively)

There is also the option of having a pair or team to share responsibilities of Garden Manager for one garden (in case of holidays etc). On the other hand you are free to take on more than one garden if you are able. This project is very flexible - we want to make it successful, so whatever works for you will work for us!
The more gardens we can take on, the more produce we can share!
Landowners:
If you have an area of garden you are interested in lending to the project, (and do not yet have a Garden Manager) Please write a brief outline of the amount of space to be used, the location and any information about shade/drainage/soil type that you think would be useful.
(email it to stratford.urban.farms@gmail.com or bring it to the next meeting!)

We will allow then potential Garden Managers to choose what locations work best for them. (after having a chance to meet you too!)
Our primary focus is 'walking distance' to downtown Stratford. This will be accessible for the most volunteers.

Youtube:

Some of our members have started a youtube channel (straturbanfarms), and are going to be putting up video of our experiments, events & interviews. The purpose of having a video channel is to reach out to more locals and possibly start a friendly competition with other communities. We have started recording, but have yet to edit and post.

Blog:

Our Blog is for any member who would like to contribute to put their perspective out there. It is a combination of information & stories about the project, events, and photos. As a collaborative blog it is open to all members' input! http://stratfordurbanfarms.blogspot.com

Currently:

8 Locations with Garden Managers
3 Locations without Garden Mangers


Thank you for your support - I'm excited to get growing!

Microgreens Day

All ages fun....

At least it looks like we knew what we were doing!

chickpeas, sunflower seeds and trays of to be microgreens

one of the microgreen trays to be in the window garden

let's try the sunflower seeds!

our window garden @ revel caffe looking refreshed!

Upcoming Events

This Sunday will be a busy day - come see us at the Sunday Farmers' Market at Anything Grows 10-2 We will be selling buns & bread made fresh that morning...

All Ages Microgreens Day
Also from this Sunday 12 - 2 pop into Revel Caffe to learn with us how to start some microgreens! Thank you to Anne for all the hard work in helping getting things ready for this event. It should be fun, you can go home with some seeds to sprout up and add to your salads.

If you can bring a small container that will allow drainage that would be a great help! We have seeds & soil.

Meet & Greet & Garden Planning Part 1
Thursday January 20th 8:30pm onwards at Revel Caffe,
(please note the time change)
50 Wellington Street

We can discuss varieties of plants we want to grow as well as gardening methods we would like to try. Maybe even get a chance to start the sketch book.

As always we can have an opportunity to discuss any ideas for other events we can have in the next couple of months.


Future Events (dates to be determined):

Canning Party Day
Rent out a commercial kitchen for the day somewhere in Stratford bring local produce & jars to preserve. Learn a few new recipes, or just enjoy showing your recipes to others. Some jars we will donate to food banks, some jars we will sell at market (to cover cost of kitchen rental etc), and some we can all take home!

Fresh Juice
This was a suggestion at the Brunch last week (thanks to Anne for bringing lovely freshly made juice!) We would bring some fruit & veg to make into juice and our own containers, then all go home with some Fresh Juice.

If you would like to help out in planning of these or any other events, please let me know at stratford.urban.farms@gmail.com or at any of the upcoming events!

About SUFE - Updated for sheets at the Farmer's Market

About:

A new-to-town initiative comprised of many passionate volunteers interested in learning together about how to make urban agriculture work here in Stratford. Our aims are all different,

some of us want to learn how to grow produce, some want their yards put to better use, some are striving to help create a more sustainable Stratford and others enjoy a good excuse to get out and meet new people.

We embrace collaborative, pro-active decision making and direct, ad-hoc democracy. Decisions are made as and when they need to be made, by whoever is participating at that moment. We strive to spend less time organizing the participants and more time participating. A 'facilitator' keeps us on track, up-to-date and works to keep up the momentum.

We feel this is an empowering structure for each of us as individuals and will allow everyone to take the project in whichever direction(s) they want to.

How to become a member:

Show up & participate.

Urban Produce:

The bulk of the project is based on growing vegetables in residential yards. We have confirmed about 9 gardens and plan on confirming a few more (depending on volunteer support) in the spring. With this initiative, you can provide some yard space, or your time to help prepare & maintain gardens and in return we all get vegetables.

Each garden is different, plots can be donated to be used by an individual gardener who would like an 'allotment' to take care of. Most of the gardens will be more collective projects. We strongly believe many hands make light work.

For each garden a 'garden manager' arranges time/day for work-parties (flash-mob-gardening with permission) depending on what is required for that garden each week and what suits the landowners. They will send the details to the facilitator who will send on details about all upcoming gardening activities. You can choose to come to which ever location/time/day suits you, and as frequently as you like.

Farmer's Market:

The purpose of having a stall at the Slow Food Market is to create more awareness, but also as means of fund-raising for the project. We aim to be a financially self-sufficient project as to not require membership-fees and donations to keep us going. It will also be a great outlet for surplus produce (in season) and canned items from preserves events.

Events:

Anyone can plan an event for the project. Here are some of the events:

Meet & Greet October 4^th 2010 – a chance to meet others interested and talk about ideas

Garden Prep-Party&Pot-Luck October 17^th 2010- share the work & some food

Ignite Stratford November 25^th 2010 - Heather spoke on a more sustainable Stratford

Meet & Greet December 14^th 2010 – meet new people interested and evolve the project

Drinks @ Fosters January 7^th 2011 – meet up and great conversation

Brunch @ Bruce's January 9^th 2011 – bring something to share or not, enjoy conversation

All Ages MICROGREEN Day January 16^th 2011– learn with us how to start up microgreens

All events are informal and inclusive - join the mailing list to be kept in the loop!

(Email stratford.urban.farms@gmail.com and ask to be added to the list!)

Recent Ignite Talk