Garden Blog

APRIL 23rd, 2012!!

THE 2012 SEASON IS UNDERWAY

I am pleased to announce that the 2012 growing season is underway. To be honest, more than a few dedicated volunteers have been working since February to help plan, order seeds, design projects, and help raise seedlings for the 2012 Season. But if you are like me, the season doesn’t “really” start until you come to work and notice the bits of dirt that you missed under your fingernails . . . . the true sign of spring in my books.

Last Saturday was our first work day out in the garden and we managed to prep all the beds, spread compost over a few, plant a few (kale, arugula, and spinach) as well as start the winter squash and cucumber seedlings. Not bad for about four hours of work! We are way ahead of the game this year, and if the weather cooperates we should be eating fresh greens and peas in the next couple of months . . . . which is nice because I am about sick of root veg . . . . for now at least . . . although I must admit I was drooling over some parsnip seeds yesterday . . . .

There are a few major changes to Cornucopia this year which I will detail in a later post (namely we will not be selling produce via the rec harvesting program for a number of reasons). We will however be continuing to donate our abundance to local charities/community groups.

As for the new/experimental crops this year, we are trying our hand at some grains (kamut, wheat, quinoa), lentils, lovage, and eggplant (in the greenhouse). The usual favourites will be present as always including multiple varieties of the following: carrots, beans (bush, pole, favas), beets, potatoes, lettuce, ground cherries, parsnips, cucumbers, winter squash, summer squash, and sunflowers. Oh and the tomatoes . .. can’t forget the tomatoes . . . again all heirloom varieties raised from seed (Black Krim, Stupice, Native Sun, Chocolate Cheery, Orange Heirloom, and Milka’s Red Bulgarian to name a few).

And remember, the more you help out, the more you get to eat . . . . not a bad system if you ask me.

JULY 21st, 2011

I AM A SELFISH MAN

One of the problems with planting such a diversity of crops is that, inevitably, there are a few prized items that are far too scarce to go around. It’s even worse when the item in question is highly seasonable. Worse still when said item is largely unavailable in the grocery store and/or farmers market.

So it is with much hesitation that I introduce the garlic scape to the readers of this blog. Garlic scape is not a vegetable/herb in and of itself, but rather the growing/flowering stem of the garlic plant. Before it actually blooms, the pig-tail shaped flower and stem are harvestable, edible, and extremely delicious. The added benefit to the garlic plant is that without a flowering end, all the energy concentrates in the bulb/root, resulting in larger garlic bulbs in the fall!

There are many different ways to use garlic scape in cooking. So far I am partial to using it as the main ingredient in a pesto (e.g. substitute garlic scape for basil and garlic in your favourite pesto recipe). I had it last night and it was Damn Good if I don’t mind saying so myself! There are a few more of these beauties left in Cornucopia, so you might want to get a few while they are still around! I have already harvested more than my fair share for the year, but am naively hopeful that no one reads this and I get a second helping. I am a selfish man after all!

Best regards

Ryan

JULY 7th, 2011

MY NEW FAVORITE GARDEN TOOL

I started gardening about 5-6 years ago. And at the time I remember thinking to myself “These gardening people are a little bit weird/quirky . . . . and maybe even downright crazy.” They all seemed to get excited by things that, at the time, seemed pretty ridiculous to me.

So last night, as I am walking to the garden with my electric toothbrush in hand (with no intention of brushing my teeth . . . but you will have to wait for just one minute on this one), I paused and had a moment of critical self-realization . . . . .

Crazy garden people . . . . I AM ONE OF YOU!

With that now officially out in the open, I proceeded to the greenhouse to try out my latest YouTube discovery. That is, “Pollinating tomatoes with the aforementioned electric toothbrush”.

It wasn’t until this year that I realized that tomatoes are self-pollinating. And while they still need “pollinators” to help set the fruit, it doesn’t happen via the method of “taking the pollen from one flower to the next” that I learned in grade school. I guess I always assumed that's how all fruit is set . . . . the bees gets pollen from one flower and impregnate the next.

But I now know, at least with tomatoes (and I imagine a few other plants as well), the fruit is set by the beating wings of the pollinators, which shakes the pollen loose, thereby setting the fruit in the individual flower . . . so it’s a completely self-contained unit! Pretty neat! I have also learned that there are various other ways that the pollen can be shaken loose (e.g. the wind).

Unfortunately, since we grow our tomatoes in the greenhouse, we are less likely to have an abundance of either wind or pollinators. Enter our new hero, “The Electric Toothbrush”. Placed strategically on the stem of tomatoes immediately adjacent to the flowers (not ON the flowers!), it vibrates the stem at just the right frequency to release the pollen . . . . and PRESTO . . . the fruit is set.

At first I didn’t think it was working, and then I looked closer at my toothbrush and realized that it was literally covered in pollen. Hopefully, in a month or so we will be inundated with tomatoes!

And just a reminder (or teaser) . . . all of our tomatoes were grown from seed, using seeds from Casey’s Heirloom Seeds in Airdrie. This year we are offering 8 varieties (Black Krim, Stupice, Azoychka, Mr. Stripy, Mountain Princess, Orange-1, Hayes, and JD’s Special). Stay Tuned . . but they are looking awesome so far!

Ryan

JUNE 28th, 2011

"I AM AN IDIOT!"

Before you read this post I would ask you to read my other post from a few weeks back titled “This Stuff Is Growing Like A Weed.”

Ok . . . read it? Now guess what “genius boy” planted in the garden this year. . . . . . you got it . . . . ORACH!

It’s not my fault really (or at least this is what I tell myself to make me feel better). . . . we had a big bag of seeds which we harvested from the garden last year mislabelled as “parsnips”. And if you are not familiar with seeds, Orach and Parsnips do look quite a bit alike in seed form.

Now imagine my horror when I saw a neatly planted row of Orach emerging from the ground! I guess I will just chalk this one up as a learning experiencing.

So if anyone wants a big ol’ bag of Orach seed, speak now or forever hold your peace. Otherwise I am burning the darn thing!

- Ryan

P.S. I just had an Orach salad the other night and it was wonderful. Really! This stuff is good, it’s just everywhere!

JUNE 20th, 2011

"A PEST IS A PEST . . . . IS A PEST . . . IS A PEST!"

I am not sure that I would classify myself as an “animal lover”, but I certainly take no pleasure in the death/suffering of another living being. Case in point . . . despite my love of vegetable gardening, I am not a vegetarian . . . . not by a long-shot. The pig is a wonderful and unbelievably tasty animal, and consequently pork, in all its incarnations, is worshiped in my culinary exploits above all other food products. I do however, go out of my way (financially, logistically, and otherwise) to ensure that all the meat I consume is raised ethically, locally, and sustainably. No sense in being “cruel” to another living thing while it has its time on this earth.

So, this last week, when it became clear that in order to preserve the integrity of our garden that we would have to take the life of another living thing, I did not “rejoice”. But I didn’t hesitate either. The infestation of Richardson’s Ground Squirrels in Cornucopia had caused, and was likely to continue to cause significant damage to our crops. Three plots of beets, two plots of cabbage, one plot of kale, all of the peas, and most of the melons were either completely obliterated or significantly damaged by these pests. At any given time you could see 8-10 of the little buggers running around in the garden. And while no-one seems to mind killing insects or slugs when they are attacking your plants, there is always a “pause” when the pest happens to be furry and admittedly kinda cute (I am actually staring at one outside my window as we speak . . . and they are cute). But when you slave all spring to get the garden up and running, and these “furry little friends” ruin months of work, they cease to be cute. My guess is that our ancestors who were not fortunate enough to rely on the industrial food system as back-up did not think twice about whether they were cute or not. Quite simply, these little pests affected their livelihood, and were consequently eliminated without any hesitation (they were probably even consumed, but I couldn’t find any recipes for ground squirrel on Epicurious, so they will have to be disposed of otherwise). .

And as I thought more about why I did not hesitate in eliminating our furry little pests, I came to realize that unconsciously, I have been supporting similar tactics or worse for years. I am sure that any veg I buy from the Prairies has been subjected to similar forms of pest control. And though I am not sure of the “ground squirrel control practices” used in large scale agricultural endeavours, I can assure you that our control methods do not use toxins/poisons of any kind (to preserve the integrity of the soil and prevent needless suffering) and are as humane as possible when taking the life of another animal (meaning it’s a quick kill).

And so I guess this exercise in pest management brings me another step “closer to the land” . . . . A step closer to how our ancestors use to do it . . . . . A step closer to my food and all the factors that have to be contended with to bring quality food to my door. It’s not always pleasant or easy, but growing your own food wouldn’t have any value if it was. - Ryan

P.S. Ground Squirrels appear to love almonds and organic peanut butter if you are ever looking for bait!

MAY 25th, 2011

"THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING"

Prolonged winters. Rainy Spring weekends. Late frosts (or snowfalls). As a gardener in Calgary, these are all factors which affect our ability to get the growing season started. And as I am coming to appreciated, these are all reasons to seriously consider planting edible perennials.

As you might be aware, last year we received a grant that was dedicated to “Native” Vegetation. I put the term “Native” in quotations, as I am not entirely positive that all that was planted is inherently “native” to Calgary or even Alberta for that matter (actually I am quite sure the kiwi-berry plant and valiant grapes are not indigenous to Alberta!). That being said, all that was planted is presumably tolerant of our 3A growing zone. So I guess that “native” will be accurate in a few years as the plants will be “native” to Cornucopia. The number of different plants is large, and includes rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, raspberries, saskatoon berries, black currents, grapes, kiwi-berries, hops, and an apple tree.

Needless to say, there are some major advantages to planting edible perennials if you are patient enough to let the plants mature. First, you don’t have to worry about Spring weather nearly as much. The plants are already rooted, and mother nature seems know better than myself when is the right time to emerge from the ground. Another added benefit is that these crops will almost always produce sooner than seeded or outplanted varieties. Finally, once you put in the initial effort, these plants pay off year after year with a whole lot less labor (I don’t want to fool you into thinking that this is easy however . . . Elizabeth, our native veg expert, slaved last year to get these plants rooted).

Our edible perennials are probably still a year or two away from harvesting. But in the mean time, they are fun to watch take hold in the garden, and I am positive that volunteers in years to come will be thankful for these early and very tasty treats in the garden.

Thanks for all your work Elizabeth!

Until next time

Ryan

MAY 17th, 2011

"THIS STUFF IS GROWING LIKE A WEED!"

A few posts ago I announced the arrival of our “volunteer spinach”. If you are as naïve to gardening terminology as I was a few years ago, “volunteer” is a term sometimes used for plants that have unexpectedly survived the winter and/or seeded themselves without any effort or intent of the gardener. I have no idea why some crops are given the rather pleasant qualifier of “volunteer” while other plants which arise on their own are termed “weeds”. My guess is that it has to due with their relative utility in the garden (e.g. whether they are edible or beneficial in some way to the garden as a whole).

If there is a theme to this week’s blog posting, it’s that there seems to be a very fine line between something being termed “volunteer” versus falling into the much dreaded category of “weed”.

Case in point: Orach!

The very first year our garden existed we planted really late, and consequently were looking for fast growing unique products to offer up to our volunteers. And so Orach was planted . . . and our garden may never be the same (I am being a bit dramatic here). If you are not familiar with Orach, it’s also known as “Mountain Spinach” and comes in both red and green varieties. It’s a wonderful tasting early “green” eaten in ways similar to spinach or lettuce. It has a very interesting taste profile in that it has the unique property of desalinating soil, so it often has a hint of saltiness to it (very Yummy when young!).

This all sounds good, until you factor in that Orach bolts fairly quickly and seeds itself prolifically. It’s actually quite a beautiful plant, but unfortunately its beauty lured us into letting it mature and seed itself. Now we have Orach everywhere . . . . and when we see those early tell-tale swaths of red in our garden, I can tell you that no one is calling it “Volunteer Orach” . . . . it has officially reached “weed” status around here. Again, I am in no way blaming Orach . . . . its “weed status” is totally our fault. But even very good things are annoying when you don’t want them (and while Orach is a very good thing indeed, it is also very annoying).

But an important lesson has been learned. “Be very careful what you let go to seed!” And from the looks of our herb spiral, I think that our beloved chives are about to “reteach” us that very same lesson.

MAY 10th, 2011

WE ARE OFF AND RUNNING

Last weekend was our first official work weekend of the year. Despite a relative small showing of people, we were able to accomplish quite a bit. Most of our efforts were spent turning over beds, adding compost, and planting some early season, cold tolerant veg (i.e. peas, fava beans, onion). At the end of the day, Barb Hazenveld (a permacultural specialist from up in Olds) stopped by with a bunch of her students to observe our garden and lend a quick hand. Her presence was particularly helpful in that she informed us that our winter rye had indeed been successful, and that NOW was the time to kill it and turn it under. Apparently the early stages of decomposition of the rye and vetch will rob the soil of nitrogen, thus disrupting the germination of seeds. After 3 weeks, the decomposition should be far enough along to plant safely, so that is the plan for now.

Every year we sort of toss around the idea of roto-tilling. I know there are many arguments both for and against roto-tilling. At this point, it looks like we are going to try to do without this year. But this decision has been fuelled, in part, by last year’s purchase of two extremely handy tools, namely a wheel-hoe and a broad fork. The broad fork is just what the name sounds like . . . . a really broad (2-3 ft wide), two handled fork which penetrates into the ground about a 12-16 inches. Just stick it in, rock it back and forth, and the ground is loosened considerably without ruining the soil structure.

The wheel-hoe (my personal favourite) is kinda-like a manual push roto-tiller. It does cause some disruption to soil structure, but it’s a miraculously effective and efficient way of turning the top 3-4 inches of soil. It also functions as a wonderful weeder once the seeds have been started. I will post some picks of both tools in the coming week.

This coming weekend we hope to do more bed prep and plant our lettuce, spinach, kale, and maybe even some potatoes. If you join us, you might even get a chance to try out the wheel hoe and broad fork for yourself!

Our plan right now is to have a work day every Saturday in May from 10-2. Hopefully, we can accomplish all the major tasks during these work days. Hope to see you there.

Ryan

APRIL 26TH, 2011

COVER CROPS UPDATED

Well . . . I’d say this blog entry is late . . . but really there hasn’t been much going on besides Chinook . . . . snow . . . . Chinook . . . . snow . . . and on and on etc.

Finally, this last week we had our first real melt, and what I hope to be our last significant snow fall, so out to the garden I went. I love this time of year in that we get to see what survived the winter and think of the year to come.

Of particular interest, if you’ve been following our learning experience here in Cornucopia, is “What ever happened to the Winter Wheat and Hairy Vetch?”

Well, I am pleased to say that it survived the winter quite well (see attached pictures). I know that it looks like a bunch of quack grass at this point, but trust me . . . this is Winter Wheat and Hairy Vetch. The real importance of this is that we now know, with a great deal of assurance, that there is a cover crop which will survive the harsh winters of our Microclimate here in Calgary. And if you haven’t been following this thread, this is important in that we now have an all natural green manure which will help offset the cost of compost. In about two weeks we will cut off the growth, till it in, wait two more weeks, and plant the bed. The extra organic matter that the cover crops provide will enrich the soil and help provide nutrients to this year’s crops. We didn’t plant many beds with the cover crops this year, in part because of planning, and also due to not wanting to waste seeds if this was a failure. Hopefully this coming fall we will be more aggressive with this method of soil supplementation.

Also, there are a few pics of some spinach and onion which have seeded themselves from last year. Not surprising really, as spinach is slowly overtaking parts of our garden . . . but I’m not complaining . . . . at least not until July!

-See ya soon . . . . and stay tuned for information about work days in the garden!

Ryan

MARCH 15th, 2011

SALE ON ORGANIC PRODUCE!!! $0.10/lb !!!!

I’ve wanted to write this article for the past couple of weeks, but I’ve been too busy raising and nurturing another lifeform besides vegetables (Jen and I welcomed our son to the world two weeks ago!)

For the past month there has been news articles every couple of days or so on the rising cost of food throughout North America. After hearing one of these reports on CBC radio, I entered my office to see my flat of onions and leeks thriving on my window sill, and thought to myself “I wonder how much each one of these onions will cost me?”.

The quick math was astonishing, albeit a bit misleading. While I can’t be sure due to the chaos of my onion flat . . . I estimate that approximate 150 onions have germinated from my one package of organic seed. The organic seed cost me $1.89 at the local garden centre. So best case scenario (which will never come true) each one of these onions will cost just over once cent a piece.

But let’s get realistic, there will be attrition . . . . so let's assume 100 onions survive. And let’s also factor in the cost of the potting soil (1/2 of a 10 litre bag of organic soil which cost me $6 . . . so lets say $3 dollars of soil total to raise these onions). If my math is correct that’s just under 5 cents per onion. And if my Ringmaster Onion reach even half of their 1lb predicted size at harvest, then we are raising onion for approximately 10 cents/lb!

This math is also consistent with the Cornucopia Garden as a whole. We just finished seed ordering for the year which ran us approximately $500. The past two years we have raised over 5000 lbs of produce . . . . . . so again its roughly 10 cents per pound of organic produce.

Of course if you buy these vegetables without raising them yourself you have to add in the cost of labor, distribution, and profit for the store . . . . which is substantial. But I hope this little rudimentary mathematical exercise has been eye-opening regarding how little fantastic produce can cost if you are willing to spent the time to do it yourself. And maybe, just maybe, this math exercise will motivate you to join our garden or, alternatively, dig up your back yard and replace the fairly useless grass with a vegetable garden . . . . .

That is it for now . . . I must get back to managing my new source of "constantly renewing compost"

Hopefully I will see you soon in the garden!

Ryan

FEBRUARY 15th, 2011,

During these wonderful Chinook filled weeks, it’s hard not to get excited about the gardening year to come. So much so, that I have started a whole flat of onions in my office. A few years back, I had a conversation with one of our senior (literally not figuratively) plot renters who grew an enviable plot of onions. After peppering him with questions about how he achieved such beautiful specimens, he said there were two critical factors: 1.) Buy good seed 2.) Start early . . . real early . . . . like February early.

I neglected this advice last year. To make matters worse, we seriously under-planted onion in Cornucopia. A tragedy really, because not only do onions taste awesome (I can think of very few dishes in my house which don’t contain either onion or shallots), but all of the allium family (onion, garlic, shallots, chives, leeks) also act as wonderful companions in rows of tomatoes, carrots, cabbage and other brassica family plants by serving as a natural deterrent to slugs, carrot fly, cabbage moth and the like. So this year there should be no shortage of onion within our garden if all goes well. Our preliminary plans are calling for onion (ringmaster, Spanish yellow, a red variety called Rosa de Milano, and Green bunching onion called Parade), the heirloom garlic patch we planted last fall (fireball, music, red russian), and leeks (Prizetaker variety which is also seeded in my office as we speak). They will likely be inter-planted throughout the garden to maximize the natural deterrent properties of the plants.

Again, if you are interested in helping us out with growing some of our bedding plants from seed, let me know. I now have a few extra grow-lite light bulbs that I can provide to anyone willing to help us out (along with the seeds of course).

Best regard

Ryan

JANUARY 25th, 2011

HELP WANTED . . . .

Hello all . . . . I know its not even February yet, but if history teaches us any lessons its that now is the time to start thinking about the garden for this coming year. Actually, February is one of my favourite times of the year as I get to spend hours looking through seed catalogues thinking of the growing year to come.

As always, we are looking for volunteers for the upcoming year. If you are new to cornucopia please spend some time exploring this site and learn about who we are and the mission/format/structure of cornucopia (e.i. volunteer run cooperative gardening experience). If you are still interested (as you should be!), then please feel free to contact our volunteer coordinator for further details. (cornucopia@calgarygardenpath.ca.)

We are also looking for volunteers willing to help us raise seedlings for this coming growing season. This will help us negate the cost of buying bedding plants from the local nurseries, as well as ensure the quality of our plants by using non-GMO seeds and controlling the use of fertilizers. Namely, we hope to raise all of our tomatoes, winter squash, and brassicas (e.g. broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, cabbage) as seedlings for outplanting or planting in our greenhouse. All you need is a home/apartment with a sunny window, some good planting soil (no artificial fertilizers please!), and regular watering. We will supply the seeds, and we probably have some planters to spare as well. No experience required, as we will help walk you through the process. We did some of this last year and it was particularly rewarding to see a tiny cabbage seed turn into a delicious 10lb monster!

Again, please contact us at cornucopia@calgarygardenpath.ca if you can help us raise seedlings.

Best regards

Ryan

P.S. If you’ve been a regular volunteer in the past and want to see a particular crop/variety planted for the 2011 growing season, let us know and we will do our best to incorporate it into our plans. Afterall, this is one of the perks to volunteering in the garden!

DECEMBER 30th, 2010

UPDATE ON PICKLED BEETS

My first foray into pickling beets was unabashedly inspired by Sugo. Sugo is a wonderful local restaurant here in Inglewood, and they have been extremely generous to our garden since its inception. Angelo, the chef, has been using our beets and carrots when in season for some time, and was kind enough to cater our donor appreciation dinner this year, which included finely diced pickled beets. They were delicious! Hints of cumin along with the sweetness and salty/briney goodness you would expect from pickled beets.

So how did mine turn out . . . well . . . I had my doubts . . . . the beets we have been storing were the largest in the garden and consequently took forever to cook. But after pickling them (I used a sweet brine with traditional pickling spices (e.g. mustard seed, coriander, black pepper) along with cumin seed, cinnomin stick, and star anise) the flavor and texture was bang on! Loved them, and they made a very nice addition to the cheese tray. My in-laws said they loved them too . . . but really, what else are they going to say? At the very least, they looked nice in the jar!

Ryan

DECEMBER 22nd, 2010

A few weeks ago one of our garden volunteers was kind enough to invite me to speak at the First Annual People's Assembly for Climate Justice about the Cornucopia project (Thanks Marian!). Unfortunately, I had no idea what the heck “Climate Justice” was . . . but I figured any publicity was good publicity . . . . and really its never all that difficult to get me to talk about Community Gardening. As I came to learn, the local Assembly was meant to co-occur with the United Nations Climate Summit transpiring in Cancun. I must admit, when I first learned this I thought “I would much rather be giving this talk in Cancun”, but somehow I knew this thought was antithetical to the local Assembly. Given the lack of progress on a global scale regarding environmental policy, the local assembly was poised to help Calgarians contemplate local solutions that effect Climate Justice. And since Food Security is at the top of many individuals’ lists of global environmental concerns, Community Gardening serves as one way to “act locally” in an effort to make a global impact.

If you’ve read my previous diary entries you will realize that I’m much more of a Foodie than I am an Environmentalist. But as I got to thinking about my life over the past 5-6 years, it occurred to me that this was one of the cool side effects of a passion for food. The more you care about it (Food that is), the more you HAVE to care about the environment. The environment has never been, and will likely never be, my primary reason for growing food. But my quest for a great tasting tomato has prompted my interest in gardening. My interest in gardening has caused me to be very conscious of the health of our soil. And you can’t be concerned about the health of soil unless you care about the environment on many levels. And so I have become a Environmentalist-by-proxy . . . . . which is far from the worst thing that I’ve been called.

See the link to the article on the People’s assembly as covered in the Calgary Herald: http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=3931749&sponsor=

NOVEMBER 16th, 2010

THE END OF THE SEASON

As I am staring out my window at the aftermath of our first snowfall here in Calgary, I can say with a great deal of certainty that the growing season is over! Surprising that it took until November 16th to be able to make such a proclamation. For those of you who are intimately familiar with our garden, you will know that in actuality we closed down shop over a month ago as the hard frost was killing almost everything except the kale and parsnips, and the shorter days made working in the garden “after work” almost impossible (I must admit that sometimes this year I got confused between my “work” and the work in the garden . . . . with the latter occupying almost as much time as the much more lucrative former.)

During my first couple of years gardening, the end of the season was quite literally the end. No more work! Sit on the couch after work, get the skis waxed up for the weekend, maybe even hit the gym (or maybe not). But as Cornucopia has come into prominence in my life, the end of the season brings about a whole new set of tasks . . . namely canning and preserving the harvest for the winter. Previously, our little community plot did not produce enough for us to worry about the whole issue of food preservation for the winter. We just simply put the excess veg in the fridge and that was that! But with more intensive gardening projects like Cornucopia, the surge of produce at the end of the season necessitates thoughts about preserving food. When I use to shop for veg at the grocery store I didn’t think much of throwing out veg that had gone bad. But when you slave all summer growing it yourself, that idea is sacrilege. And so, my journey into the world of food storage has begun.

Right now, we (Jen and I) are just trying to master the basics of freezing (peas), canning (tomatoes), drying (beans and herbs) and pickling (cukes, and hopefully by the end of this week some beets). Last week, I canned my last batch of tomatoes from the garden (I have over 25 litres of tomatoes in all different forms, from whole tomatoes to finished sauce) and Jen has diligently sorted, labelled, and froze the vast majority of our peas throughout the growing season.

Is preserving food a lot of work? Hell Yeah! Does it take time, effort, space, know how, extra equipment etc to pull it off? Hell Yeah! Would I rather be sitting on my big comfy couch watching hockey (or actually college basketball, but I live in Canada now, so hockey will do)? Hell Yeah! But after tasting our fresh/frozen Skyscraper Peas in the middle of February . . . . will it be worth all the effort? Well . . . we will have to wait and see . . . . but I am anticipating a big ole’ “Hell Yeah!”

Ryan

September 13th 2010

THE COST OF FOOD AND THE MISSION OF CORNUCOPIA

A few times this year our volunteers have been asked during a recreational harvesting night whether the price of our produce has increased compared to years past. In short, the answer is “Yes” (and though we may have failed to mention it, if you are asking the question, then we owe you our gratitude for your ongoing support of our garden!!)

Occasionally, I have also overheard people discussing “Why is this produce more expensive than the grocery stores?”

There is a very long-winded response to this question. Actually, I’ve written it, but have since thought better of posting it so as not to bore the reader. In essence that long winded response regurgitates what has already been stated more eloquently by other writers who are better versed on this subject than myself. If you are interested, I would urge you to start by reading “The Omnivores Dilemma” (Warning: It’s a very persuasive book . . . and if you are as moved by the thesis as I was, your grocery bill is bound to increase, or alternatively you might be chomping at the bit to help us in our garden!).

My short answer to the question regarding the cost of our vegetables is this: Organic locally grown vegetables are expensive . . . . (If you don’t believe me, then just check out the cost of veg at your local organic grocer or at Currie Barracks Farmer’s Market . . . note to reader, the vast majority of the veg at Crossroad’s Market is not organic, which is why it’s still affordable . . . . . I love that place and shop there every weekend because local is important to me . . . .. Just be mindful that most of it is not organic).

. . AND this cost is part of why we garden, and why this garden exists, to help those who volunteer here learn how to be more self sustaining, and ultimately grow their own organic vegetables more affordably then buying them in the market. Seed is relatively cheap, and even less expensive if you save seeds. The end product is not. It requires a lot of time, attention, toil and labour, and a little “know-how”. If you aren’t able to garden yourself, then it will cost money to pay for the labour of bringing a quality product to your table. If cost is more important than quality and/or you don’t have extra time to donate towards growing your own food, then the grocery store is always an option.

At the end of the day, recreational harvesting is not operated as a business model. Rather it developed out of our mission to cultivate plants, build community, and share our resources, as well as our vision, including being sustainable. It allows us to interface with the public and provide a self-sustaining (e.g. we are a non-profit organization so all our “profits” go back into the garden to cover the costs of seed, compost, tools, maintenance etc.), “value-added” community resource (i.e. education and opportunity to learn and practice organic gardening), which also supports local charities.

In years past, we priced our recreational harvesting much too low. Lower than the grocery stores. We were able to survive with this pricing for a couple of years because of grant money and some generous donation of seeds, but this model was not sustainable for us. Consequently we have priced ourselves differently this year, which will likely continue to be the case going forward. Again, our produce is local and organic, and we think fresher, healthier (e.g. no chemical by-products), and tastier then what you would find at a grocery store. If you feel the same, then we hope you continue to support our garden, either financially at recreational harvesting or through volunteering.

We also recognize that there are some folks who “do care” but simply don’t have the time, money, or ability to grow their own organic veg and/or support other local growers of organic veg. This is why we have been donating over a third of our produce to local charities and community groups to help fill this void.

If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please feel free to send us an email: cornucopia@calgarygardenpath.ca. We welcome ideas and suggestions on how to improve the ever-evolving gardening project known as Cornucopia.

Best regards and happy harvesting,

Ryan

August 20th 2010

WHY I LOVE THE CORNUCOPIA GARDEN . . . A FEW THOUGHTS ON VARIETY AND TASTE

If anyone should know how many different varieties of vegetables are planted in Cornucopia it should be myself . . . . after all . . . I was in charge of seed ordering and planting. But I have to admit, I’ve lost count . . . . I know its over 50 but that’s not including the tomatoes which probably amount to another 20 or so varieties. So conservatively we have over 70 varieties in this half acre of land. Which begs the question why? Certainly there are some varieties which are more loved than others. Certainly there are some varieties which are sweeter (Nantes carrots), creamier (German Butterball Potatoes), more crisp (Philosopher’s Mix Lettuce), larger (Dark Star Zucchini) or simply more beautiful (Chioggia beets) than others.

There is no one reason “why” we planted over 70 varieties. For some it’s simply fun to try to grow new types of veg. For others its about biodiversity. For me once again, as almost always, its about taste . . . . and to be honest I’m not always wanting the sweetest, creamiest, crispiest, largest, most beautiful veg out there. Why? Because I’m coming to appreciate that this mono-variety type of eating dulls my taste buds and ultimately robs me of one of my greatest pleasures in life . . . . eating food!

To give you a non-gardening example . . . Not long ago I supported (kinda) my wife Jen in her efforts to give up sugar for a month. I wasn’t as diligent as her, but I can tell you that my taste buds changed dramatically for the better as a result of this experiment (though I am not recommending the experiment itself for a variety of reasons I won’t detail . . . Everything in moderation . . . even moderation!). My palate for recognizing different tastes was sharpened, and I began to appreciate the complexity of “food taste” once you strip away all the sweeteners. Not only do I not miss the highly processed/sweetened peanut butters that I use to embrace, I now actually enjoy trying the different variety of the All Natural Peanut Butters that are on the market. Once you strip away all the sugar . . . . you can actually taste the quality of the peanut butter.

Same thing goes out it the garden . . . which I hope that you are discovering. Nantes might be the sweetest carrot we grow, but if you REALLY want to taste “carrot”, then try the Yellowstone. Not a lot of sweetness with the Yellowstone, but close your eyes and taste . . . . there will be no question that what you are eating is Carrot . . . and Carrot is GOOD! Hopefully as you work your way around the garden you will discover this on your own . . . the nuttiness of the cocozelle zucchinis, the slight smokiness in the purple Cherokee tomatoes, the buttery quality to the fava beans, the “mustardy” taste of the tsai tsin cabbage. And when you want really want the sweetest carrot out there (there is nothing wrong with that after all), then the other varieties of carrots that you’ve eaten will only enhance your experience even more . . . . and on that note I’m off to find some Skippy Peanut Butter (OK, maybe not!)

-Ryan

August 19th

Well, it’s been a while since my last update . . . . . which if I were to guess is probably not that unusual for gardening blogs during the summer months. My time (along with the time of our numerous and wonderful volunteers) has been spent between harvesting and weeding. By and large, Cornucopia has been doing extremely well this year due in part to our unusually wet weather (unfortunately our weeds have been doing equally as well, if not better, requiring more time and effort than usual). We probably came close to pulling out 300lbs of produce yesterday alone thanks to our zucchini’s, potatoes, and monster beets. Don’t fret if you haven’t been to our garden yet for recreational harvesting, there is plenty more where that came from with only 2 out of our 14 potato rows pulled, and yellow beets, cucumbers, and winter squash (e.g. pumpkins, spaghetti squash, Lakota, buttercrunch, buttercup and sweet dumpling) yet to arrive.

The beets have been particularly outstanding this year. Six varieties (Cylindrica, Detroit Red, Chioggia, Bulls Blood, Albina Verduna, and soon to come Golden Detroit), all of which seem to be producing beets up to 3lbs a piece without a hint of “woodiness”. Our first taste of the potato crop came this last week, and if you don’t mind me saying, they seem to be exceeding everyone’s expectations regarding flavour. Our late season potato crop should be ready to go by the end of the month, which will include German Butterball (yellow variety), Green Mountain (white), and French Fingerling. If they are half as good as the Norlands we harvested last week I think everyone will be smiling!

A few crops did not fair as well this year. It’s been too cold for our outdoor tomatoes, leaving us with lots of foliage and very few tomatoes set on the vine. The beans never really took . . . . not sure why exactly, but in our conversations with a local permaculturalist last night, the culprit is likely the near-by spruce tree which causes a rain/sun shadow. In addition, she informed us that the spruce is likely sending its roots out underneath the area where the beans were planted, draining the soil of moisture and nutrients. Her recommendation for next year is to plant some form of hardy acid loving perennial (e.g. strawberries, comfry) and just leave that area out of our normal crop rotation. She also let us know that the sudden “kill” of our two garlic patches was likely due to weeding. Apparently garlic does not tolerate any kind of ground disturbance near it . . . . . . next year we will know better and just let the dandelions grow!

Well, that’s about it for now. Please stop by when you get a chance . . . we have workdays every Tuesday Night from 6-dusk and Recreational Harvesting is Wed 6-dusk all the way through Sept (Alberta weather permitting, of course!)

- Ryan

July 13th, 2010

As if the the wind, cold nights, short growing season, and frost weren't enough to drive Calgary gardeners crazy, we also have to deal with HAIL! I HATE hail! Short lived, unpredictable, violent, and it always seems to come at critical times during the growing season (e.i. at the time you just start to have hope for a bountiful harvest). Calgary got nailed yesterday with a very nasty hailstorm (golf-ball sized in some parts of the city). Luckily, Inglewood is just west of the city, and is therefore within the city's heat-bubble, providing a little extra protection against hail storms.

So how did we fair . . . . well . . . . WE GOT LUCKY! Some minor leaf damage to some of our crops (squash, zuchs, beans) and a few of the Leaf Crops (e.g. lettuce, bok choy, chard) have seen better days . . . . but nothing catastrophic. Our heart felt condolences to other gardens/gardeners out there which weren't as lucky.

So come on out to recreational harvesting this week (Wed from 6:00 - 8:00 pm) and help us eat all of the leaf veg while they are still good (it might not be as pretty as last week, but trust me . . . its very tasty . . . especially the bok choy . . . best stir fry of my life last week!)

Ryan

June 18th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago the Garden Path Society screened “Dirt: The Movie” as part of our Learning At The Garden series. The turnout was quite respectable given it was screened in the middle of a lovely Sunday afternoon. I can’t speak for everyone who saw the movie, but personally I found it very moving and has led me to think hard about how we are treating one of, if not the most, important natural resources on earth . . . namely DIRT.

Having watched the movie, I believe that we as a garden would be remiss if we didn’t respond in kind. While our creation and mission is certainly in line with many aspects of the movie (e.g. growing food locally, converting vacant land back into productive land, involving the community in the garden), I believe that more can be done.

Which brings me to the topic of green manure and cover-cropping. Last year our garden coordinator Sharon introduced me to the topic. Admittedly, it didn’t spark my interest at the time, but as I have become more involved in the planting of Cornucopia and the economics involved in soil supplements (composting our ½ acre via external methods is quite expensive), every road kept leading back to this topic.

What is green manure and cover cropping? In short it’s the strategic use of plants and their organic matter with the specific purpose of bringing nutrients back to the soil for future crops. As you know, a few crops are considered “heavy feeders” and drain our wonderful soil of critical nutrients (e.g. tomatoes, cabbage, squash, cucumbers). In large agricultural endeavours, chemical fertilizers are used to compensate for this depletion. Natural alternatives to these chemical fertilizers are compost (please note the new large compost bins in Cornucopia!), animal manure, and organic matter or green manure.

Luckily, there are a variety of plants (e.g. rye, oats, sorghum, buckwheat, beans, peas and other legumes) that suck nutrients from the air and dump them back into the soil (note to the reader: I am a psychologist by trade not a biologist/botonist . . . so please excuse my overly simplistic explanation of what I am sure is a very complicated and detailed process). Some organic farmers rotate their crops and alternate a crop of green manure plants with the main crops every two to three years to revive the soil. Alternatively, there are some winter-hardy crops which can be grown after the harvesting of your main crop which grow back quickly in the following spring, and are subsequently plowed under the following spring before planting/seeding. It’s this latter method/technique that we intend on trying in the Cornucopia this year.

Sometime around mid-August, we will be seeding a number of our plots with a combination of winter rye and hairy vetch (these are the only crops which stand a chance of over-wintering in Calgary as far as I can gather). Our hope is that not only will their root structures bring nutrients back to our soil, but also serve as a primitive means of erosion protection from the formidable winds in Calgary. Next May, we will cut the winter rye and vetch back, and either plow the organic matter back into the soil, or leave the root structure in place, cut the tops off, and let the dead organic matter provide a natural form of mulch. If successful, the hope is that we won’t need to outsource so much manure/compost in the future.

Ryan

June 10th, 2010

A lot has transpired in our wonderful community garden since my last update, so I thought I would write a quick note.

It’s June 11th today, and at this point in time about 95% of the garden is planted/seeded with a fair bit of success. This is not to say that lessons weren’t learned. Due to a very warm and misleading April, we decided to get ambitious and start some Swiss Chard, Spinach and Lettuce . . . . . didn’t work. As is typical with Calgary, we subsequently got hit with a number of cold spells which seems to have interrupted the germination process (as we speak Calgary is the coldest city in Canada with the exception of Iquluit, which I am pretty sure is in the Artic Circle! Gotta love the altitude here!) . Luckily, this was nothing a quick reseeding couldn’t take care of, but an unfortunate waste of seed in the long run . . . I will try to remember this next year . . .but probably not . . . ambition usually gets the better of me.

On a more positive note, the potatoes, beets, peas, and carrots have taken nicely to a relatively early seeding and appear to be doing well. We purchased a really nice/fancy seeder this year and tried in out on the carrots. It looks like it has been a success so far, thereby making planting easier, reducing the need for thinning, and ultimately saving us seeds.

Both our greenhouses have been weather-proofed, and Paulie (our wonderful greenhouse manager) has planted them full of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, basil, and some cukes as well. It’s amazing to see what the extra bit of warmth does, as we already have blossoms on a number of our plants. The other tomatoes that we raised from seed have been outplanted as they were bought specifically for our short/cold growing season.

Elizabeth’s native vegetation project is also in full swing and almost complete. Saskatoon berries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, gooseberries, grapes, rhubarb, and an apple tree have all been planted. Most of these won’t be ready for a couple of years, but it’s nice to have a longer term vision with parts of our garden. The native vegetation was planted along the fence line which will hopefully provide a beautiful perimeter for our garden and also reduce the nasty westerly winds which are so prevalent around Calgary.

Finally, I wanted to give a big THANKS to all the volunteers who have helped so far with everything from planting to bed/path formation. You have been invaluable to our vision and we strive to continue to provide you with a fun/educational/tasty way to spend your free time.

In my next update I will address a few of our other projects including the compost bin workshop, drip irrigation system, and plans for fall/winter cover-cropping to provide ourselves with green manure for next spring!

Ryan

April 11th, 2010

Today was certainly a day worth noting. I continue to be amazed by the generosity of others and what can be accomplished when the community comes together to work towards a common goal.

This morning a group of volunteers from the Lantern Community Church arrived at our garden as part of their “Mobile Feet” initiative. What is Mobile Feet? The first Sunday of every month, instead of attending their normal church service, they gather at the church and then spread out across the community to complete various service projects. For the next 6 months, they have included Cornucopia as one of their projects and will be working along-side other gardeners to help in our goal of raising fresh organic produce for other community organizations. This morning approximately 12 people arrived and quickly got to turning over the beds. Two hours later, approximately 10 beds were turned and composted, four beds were planted (chard and spinach), and the green house was cleaned. Amazing work for only two hours . . . . . . and then . .

as the Lantern group was leaving the garden, I was approached by a man identifying himself as Pete. As I came to learn Pete owns a small property service business (e.g. snow removal, rototilling, etc) in Ramsey and has a passion for gardening as well. After a quick tour of the garden, Pete informed me that he just bought a new professional rototilling attachment, and was wondering if we would “mind” if he “tried it out” on our garden before he used it with paying customers. Needless to say, on our limited community garden budget, this is an offer that’s all but impossible to turn down. So I dropped my plans for the rest of the afternoon and helped Pete rototill the rest of the garden. Although I just said “dropped my plans for the rest of the afternoon”, in reality it only took Pete and his new machine 2 hours to turn the whole of Cornucopia. We are now looking at a garden with beds of loose soil 12+ inches deep! We can’t thank Pete enough, so if you are ever in need of “property services” I would highly recommend supporting Pete at Community Property Services (http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-services-skilled-trades-Rototilling-garden-plots-market-gardens-and-pre-sod-W0QQAdIdZ182421814).

Thanks again to both the Lantern Community Church Mobile Feet Group and Pete at Community Property Services. We are now way ahead of schedule and simply waiting for the weather to turn (its snowing as I write this entry!) and for our water to get turned on!

- Ryan

P.S. Just a reminder of the AGM this Thursday April 15th, at the Inglewood Community Centre. We will have more information at that time regarding upcoming volunteer opportunities!

April 1st 2010,

So what’s new in Cornucopia this year . . . . . well quite a bit actually. The most obvious changes are physical, meaning the cedar shed and two large greenhouses. Our hope with the greenhouses is to start most of our bedding plants from seed and transfer them out to our garden once the last frost passes. There is also talk about permanently housing some tomatoes and experimenting with late season kale/spinach as well (can we harvest greenhouse grown kale in December in Calgary . . . . stay tuned!) The cedar shed will likely serve many purposes, but will be used primary as storage for tools etc.

If you haven’t seen the garden since last fall, then you might also be surprised to see 8 very large plastic drums housed in an aluminium lattice-like structure. These are our new rain barrels (although this term doesn’t do them justice, as they hold about 1000 litres each . . . or maybe its gallons . . . regardless they are big!). One of our projects for this year is to devise a rain harvesting system from the green house roofs and soon to be installed eaves-troughs along the fence. This should drastically reduce our water consumption and hopefully decrease the demand on volunteers to water throughout the growing season.

Another new addition for years to come will be our native vegetation/perennial sections of the garden. Elizabeth will be organizing this venture, and plans are underway for planting an asparagus/strawberry patch, rhubarb, raspberries, Saskatoon berries, etc.

Finally, we are starting our push towards exclusively using non-genetically modified seeds in the Cornucopia. This can’t be done all at once (we have quite a “back-catalogue” of McKenzie seeds from years past which we would be remiss not to use), but our vision is to be exclusively using NGM seeds within a couple of years. This year I have purchased seeds from three different producers of open-pollinated NGM seeds (namely, Seeds of Change www.seedsofchange.com; Jim Ternier of Prairie Garden Seeds in Humboldt, SK www.prseeds.com, and Jeff Casey of Casey’s Heirloom Tomatoes in Airdrie AB, http://www.members.shaw.ca/jwlcasey/Caseys_Heirloom_Tomatoes/Home.html . . . . . you might know Jim and Jeff if you’ve ever been to Seedy Saturday). We are also sourcing our seed potatoes from an Alberta farm up in Bowden, AB (Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes www.seedpotatoes.ca) .

Hope this helps to inspire you to volunteer.

Best regards

Ryan

March 25th, 2010

Welcome back to another year in the ever-evolving gardening experience that is Cornucopia. My name is Ryan, and I consider myself lucky to be in charge of planting the Cornucopia this year (hopefully with your help) under the watchful eye of our new Cornucopia Director, Christian. If you haven’t had a chance to chat with Christian yet, I highly recommend it. He is a wealth of knowledge regarding all things sustainable and I am confident he will continue the short but storied tradition of our previous garden coordinators (namely, Jackie, Linda, and Sharon, and of course Jo . . . Jo wasn’t officially the garden coordinator, I know, but this garden wouldn’t exist without her untiring efforts). Without these people, most of what we plan on accomplishing this year would not be possible.

I thought I would take the chance to write a note before the season starts to detail my experience with the Garden Path, and Cornucopia in particular, over the past number of years. I feel blessed to have been a small part of Cornucopia from its inception, and am delighted to see the Community Gardening movement explode across Calgary over the past couple of years. I like to think that our Garden has been at least partially responsible for this resurgence of growing your own food. So without further ado . . .

About 5 years ago, my wife and I rented our first plot from the Garden Path. While I can’t speak for my wife, my primary motivation was then, and still is now, “tasty food”. Having grown up in the warmer environs of the US, I was longing for the taste of a fresh garden tomato and was miffed about my inability to find one. I naively thought that this desire would be easily remedied by growing my own, and consequently we packed our first plot in the Garden Path with 4 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, some carrots and a few peas, and a smattering of a few other vegetables. As I imagine most of the readers can appreciate, growing tomatoes in Calgary isn’t as easy as I remember in the warm flood plains of the Mississippi River . . . . . and peppers . . . . forget about it! In the end we ended up with about 100 of the nicest looking, rock hard, green tomatoes you have ever seen.

But despite our less than stellar first season in the garden (from a production standpoint that is), we were hooked, in large part due to the “community” aspect of “community gardening”. In that first year my wife and I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from other gardeners about gardening in general, and more specifically about gardening in the microclimate of Calgary (a special thanks to Piper!). We spent half our time in the garden picking other gardener’s brains about what they were doing and why . . . and to our delight they were happy to share their experiences. This exchange of information/knowledge/ideas hasn’t stopped over the past 5 years . . . and to my surprise someone actually approached me last year to pick my brain about gardening (quite a shock for this lifelong suburbanite). I now believe that it is this “Community” aspect of community gardening that is so valuable, almost as much as the “tasty food” (well . . . . maybe not . . . it’s really hard to compete with freshly shucked peas!).

Which finally brings me to Cornucopia. As you probably gathered already from the rest of the Website, Cornucopia is an extension/offshoot of the Garden Path Society (still under the same umbrella and Board of Directors’ oversight). Unlike the Shire part of the garden (in which individuals rent their own personal plot for the growing season), Cornucopia is run like a volunteer cooperative with a strong focus on charitable giving of the produce raised, with the rest of the produce available to the volunteers who work in the garden. In addition, we also open up the garden to the public for recreational harvesting on certain nights during the growing season with the hopes of educating the general public about gardening in general as well as other relevant topics like organic gardening, sustainability, different/interesting vegetable varieties, and recipes/cooking with the available produce. Our hope is to also be able to provide a number of structured learning opportunities in our garden this year to further educate and inspire others to grow their own produce.

This is the third year of Cornucopia and each year our yields have improved (4000+ lbs in 2010) and our hope is to continue this trend in years to come as we learn more about our specific microclimate in Inglewood and how to increase the yields of the different crops we plant. Given this relative abundance, I would encourage all of you reading this to come out and volunteer in our garden. Whether you are already renting a Shire plot in the Garden Path, belong to another garden, or just want a chance to volunteer, I believe that gardening/volunteering at the Cornucopia is a great way to spend some of your free time. Your hours of work will be rewarded later in the summer with fresh organic vegetables that you yourself helped to raise. In addition, I also hope that you will take away increased knowledge about gardening (or share your own knowledge), and last but not least, leave with an increased sense of community.

“How do I get involved?” you might be asking. For now shoot us an e-mail at volunteers@calgarygardenpath.ca detailing your interests in our garden. With your permission, we will put you on our fan-out mailing list which will inform you of our work days/schedule within the community garden (We hope to begin the soil prep and some early planting in April). Before you begin we will have you sign a waiver form and give you an orientation around our garden. Please keep in mind that there are many non-gardening tasks involved in community gardening (e.g. construction, IT support for this website, photography, marketing, event planning, etc.), so please don’t be shy about volunteering even if you don’t feel like, or can’t physically participate in the “gardening” of our garden. We will find a way to use your skill set.

Looking forward to meeting you all,

Regards

Ryan!!

September 8, 2009

When a work party spontaneously erupts from the get go of a family, I get excited.

It started Saturday morning around the harvest table, me arriving later than others to volunteer with the harvest. I noticed two satisfied customers, ladies with bags full of veggies, remarking what a wonderful time they had as they left. I said my hellos, and noticed a family of 5 who had already harvested and were looking for some way to help before leaving. The father Mike suggested that his family help to move the wood mulch at the back of the garden to pathways, a job that had been put off for many weeks due to the almost insurmountable task it seemed to be.

It is important to show people which parts of the garden are pathways and which parts are the beds, especially when vegetables have been removed from the beds and they are looking a little shabby (think ravaged potato beds). When we get people unfamiliar with the garden trampling over these indiscernible areas, we lose a lot of our garden’s gold, the soil that sustains our vegetables. Spreading mulch on the pathways would show people where to walk, keeping the soil fluffly and the weeds slightly diminished.

With a little gusto, dad went off with his 3 sons and wife Chee to start on the loading of mulch. I jumped off my butt to help, seeing the energy gathering to actually get this done, even if we only did one pathway. We quickly noticed both wheelbarrows had flats, but neighbourly Ryan hopped into action by running to his nearby home to grab a bike pump that would fix the tires.

At first the 3 little boys dug the mulch out of the heap in to the barrows, but soon adults took over this task, as mom and boys helped to spread it over the pathways. Another helper showed up, Christian, newly retuned from overseas. Meanwhile, the athletic Roger, who had also come back from overseas recently, stepped in, without taking one break in his work (he really puts us more social types to shame!). With Roger’s wife Pauline, and other volunteers, Jenny and Heather, manning the front harvest table, we were all able to pitch in with the mulch. Heather even had her newborn baby Rachel there for the entire 4 hours, and I noticed at one point Pauline walking up and down our new pathways, giving Rachel a little break from her carriage. It was a sweet picture to see what were once strangers in the morning, now helping each other like a true intergenerational family, tending babies, sweating over shovels, and making sure everyone felt included, even the ones who like to talk more than work (guilty as charged).

In the next two hours, some people had to leave, but Alvin and Sasha showed up just in time to keep the momentum going, as the mulch heap dwindled down to its last loads. Before parting, Roger came back to the garden with a dozen drinks for the rest of us, as though he had planned the whole thing ahead of time. Miraculously the drinks were even cold.

When Mary came by to pick up the harvest float, she noted that with the one heap gone, we now had the space to get another load in, this time compost, which could be spread on the beds to help build the beds higher before winter, replenishing lost matter from this season.

I have never been a part of such a spontaneous work party, and it gave me more energy and hope for community involvement than all the planned work days combined. It really did start with Mike and Chee’s honest question of “what can we do?”. Seeing his children pitching in made me value their sincere effort to get involved, and if this garden is to succeed, more people must come forward with this question of “how can I help?”

August 11, 2009

Last Saturday I arrived to Cornucopia at 9am to help with harvest. I came in from the back gate and went to the front to unlock the gate. To my surprise, Mary was coming in to bring the cash box and help out for a bit. We brought out the scale, the binders for recording harvest, and went about weeding around the entryway to Cornucopia. We talked about quilting, crafting, having children, grandchildren and what constitutes a weed these days. It was a clear morning with dew covering all the vegetables and just enough sun to keep the fingers from freezing as we grabbed for numerous weeds encroaching on our garden's beauty.

Soon enough others came by for Recreational Harvesting. Old faces from last year came, with reminders of why I like to be a part of the garden. New faces also showed up, eager and seemingly overwhelmed with our vast, overflowing abundance of produce at this time of year. I showed Mary how to properly weigh out the produce, while conversations about potatoes and their readiness still persisted after a month of uncertain harvesting (stealing) of potatoes! We discovered baseball bat sized zucchinis, almost imperceptible amongst the greenage of August. I realized that the squash in the back corner might turn out to be my favourite variety of squash, but I couldn't quite tell yet, and my memory was failing me as to what was planted there. I think I like to forget what was planted, so when it comes ready, I can delight in a surprise butternut squash or an heirloom tomato variety long forgotten since Spring.

A retired couple came by with reusable canvas bags, decorated lovingly by their grandchildren with abstract volcanoes, produce, and stick people. The couple heard of the garden through their work volunteering with Clean Calgary Association, another organization I'm proud to support. They were researching local intiatives in Calgary and our garden came up on the list so they thought they should drop by in person.

They didn't seem to mind that harvesting at our garden took a little longer than the farmer's market, and we hoped to impress upon them how much care we put into our garden. They took home carrots that I had pulled up, thinning the patch, with a few carrots contributing to an early morning snack of course. It was a sparkling morning, and leaving, as usual, left me with regret that I didn't come to the garden every morning to embrace the crispness of the air, the people, and of course, the greens.

August 1, 2009

There was an unfortunate incident of garden vandalism that occurred in the Shire a few days ago. I've written 5-part essay in my blog if you are interested in reading what I have to share on this topic. Please go to http://urbangardener-bert.blogspot.com/2009/08/part-1-garden-vandalism-whats-damage.html - Bert

June 24, 2009

On behalf of the Web Team and the GPS Board of Directors, I wish to encourage all Cornucopians to post your blog entries here. You can do so clicking on the lower left icon that will reveal the editing links. Click Edit Page and insert your posting at the top of the page. Remember to save it. Thanks.

June 16, 2009

More than twenty Cornucopians met tonight at Eau Claire Mall's community Hall. Sharon Dedio chaired the meeting and Jackie Puff recorded the minutes (which will be posted). There are many reasons why face-to-face meetings are necessary, and one of them is so that Cornucopians can share ideas, plans, and determine ways to implement them. Roles were clarified, tasks and procedures were defined, schedules were set, and people volunteered to work on assignments. Tonight, we learned more about our garden and about each other. Best of all, we learned how we can help share the responsibilities involved in being part of a wonderfully egalitarian community garden. That is what makes our garden a community garden. - Bert E.

June 14, 2009

It's been suggested that all Cornucopians share our garden diary entries. I've created this section in the public portion of the website so that Cornucopians, Shire gardeners, and visitors to the GPS website can read our garden stories. There are no formal editorial guidelines so common sense will be our guide. There is no editorial board although the Web Team will be responsible for looking after the entire website. In general, we want to encourage Cornucopians to share your garden experiences, observations, and reflections. Please feel free to log in in the internal website and post your diary entry. We ask that you include the date and (at least) your first name. - Bert E.

June 6, 2009

Twenty-two Cornucopians attended their first formal meeting at the Inglewood Community Centre. Sharon Dedio chaired the meeting. Jo Mulligan, Garden Path Society Chair, gave a brief history of the garden. Sharon gave an overview of Cornucopia's evolving vision followed by Marian, Lisa, and Bert, who shared what they imagined Cornucopia to be. Everyone chimed in with their own encouraging hopes and expectations. Lunch (pizza) was served and the discussion continued, convering such topics as funding, garden activities, team memberships, charitable organizations, the garden diary idea, communication system, and the new website design. - Bert E.