Near North Locavores

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ryerson University Offers Free Online Course About Urban Agriculture!

Thank you to City Farmer for originally posting about this on their blog!

Ryerson University and the RUAF are offering free distance course online about urban agriculture. Here is an outline of the programming:

Distance Learning on Urban Agriculture (UA)

Course 1 - Understanding UA

Module 1 - The Concept of Urban Agriculture

Module 2 - Building Blocks of Urban Agriculture

Module 3 - Types of urban agriculture

Module 4 - Direct and indirect stakeholders in UA

Module 5 - Dimensions of UA: Benefits and functions

Module 6 - Dimensions of UA: Problems and risks

Module 7 - Constraints and opportunities facing UA

Module 8 - History and trends I

Module 9 - History and trends II

Module 10 - Analyzing urban agriculture I

Module 11 - Analyzing urban agriculture II

Module 12 - Supporting urban agriculture I

Module 13 - Supporting urban agriculture II

Module 14 - Exam

Course 2 - Dimensions of UA

Module 1 - The Multiple Dimensions of UA

Module 2 - Food Security and Nutrition Dimensions

Module 3 - Management of Health Risks

Module 4 - Environmental Dimensions of UA - Part A

Module 5 - Environmental Dimensions of UA - Part B

Module 6 - Gender Dimensions of Urban Agriculture

Module 7 - Social inclusion, community building &..

Module 8 - Economic Dimensions of Urban Agriculture

Module 9 - Financing Urban Agriculture

Module 10 - Urban Agriculture for Resilient Cities

Module 11 - UA, (multifunctional) land use planning

Module 12 - Assessing the Multiple Dimensions of UA

Module 13 - Bringing all of the Dimensions together

Module 14 - Final Exam

This course is also available with a tutor for a fee. Info about this can be found here.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Strawberry Festival!

Strawberries by Adriaen Coorte {1696}

Due to the crops not being ready, the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market Strawberry Festival has been postponed again this year until Saturday July 11th.

Here is a blurb from the Market website:

Be sure to get to the Market early that day to buy your strawberries – all vendors were sold out before 11:00am last year. The Market Booth will have a limited number of flats of strawberries available for sale this year, but they go fast!

Everyone can look forward to many delicious strawberry treats made by the vendors – including Strawberry Shortcakes being sold at the Market Booth the day of the Strawberry Festival. Help support the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market as all proceeds go towards making the dream of a permanent home for North Bay’s Downtown Farmers’ Market come true.

Hope to see you all there!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Two Documentaries to Look Out For

For folks who are interested in the politics of food and agri-business, as well as homesteading, you will definitely want to check out these two documentaries!

First up is Food, Inc. (if you are familiar with the title, then you may have already read the book). Here is a small blurb about the movie from the website:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

You can view the trailer below.

Next is Homegrown Revolution, which is a documentary made by the folks at Path to Freedom. And here is a small blurb about the movie and an introductory disclaimer from the website:

In the midst of densely urban downtown Pasadena, radical change is taking root. For over twenty years, the Dervaes family has been transforming their home into an urban homestead. They harvest three tons of organic food annually from their 1/10 acre garden, while incorporating back-to-basics practices, solar energy and biodiesel.

The original version of Homegrown Revolution was made in three days for a lecture Jules Dervaes gave at the University of California Los Angeles in October 2007 on the topic of Slow Food. It received a wildly enthusiastic response from the students and, subsequently, attracted an avid following on YouTube, with over 135,000 views to date.
This is a simple film short that introduces the Dervaes Family Urban Homestead. Please note this is NOT feature-length. This short film might be best grouped with other films or part of a community event / gardening club / meetings, etc. RUNTIME: 15:44.

Below is the trailer:

Homegrown Revolution (Trailer) from Path to Freedom on Vimeo.

Friday, June 12, 2009

The Locavores Need Volunteers for the Farmers' Market!

Right now the Near North Locavores are looking for members in the community who would be interested in volunteering at our booth for the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market.

The Market runs every Saturday until October 10th, and the booth is opened from 8 am to 1 pm. If you would be interested in helping, please email us at nearnorthlocavores(at)hotmail.com along with the date(s) you would like to volunteer. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line as well.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Plant a Row/Grow a Row

Clipart from Garden Services.com

Plant a Row/Grow a Row is a Canada-wide campaign to encourage people to grow a bit of vegetables in their own gardens for their community food banks and soup kitchens.

There are organizations in the Near North Ontario region who have already put a call out for donated food from people's gardens, such as The Gathering Place in North Bay. If you are unsure if your local food bank or soup kitchen would like food, just approach them, and if possible, find out what type of vegetables they can really use.

Many folks are feeling the pinch right now with the economy the way it is, so by simply planting and growing one row of veggies in your garden can really make a difference!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Seed Preview!

A little preview of some of our seeds!

So the seeds have been gathered, as well as some plants. This is the list of what we will be growing in the Locavore Garden (food being donated to Amelia Rising):

Veggies

Laxton's Progress Peas
Norli Peas
Uchiki Kuri Squash
Buttercup Squash
Scarlet Runner Pole Beans
Tender Green Pole Beans
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
Contender Bush Beans
Provider Bush Beans
Coreless Nantes Carrots
Denvers Half-Long Carrots
Early Wonder Beets
French Breakfast Radishes
Cherry Belle Radishes
German Giant Radishes
Bright Lights (Rainbow) Swiss Chard
Bloomsdale Long-standing Spinach
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Red Oak Leaf Lettuce
Bunching Evergreen Onions

Herbs

Sweet Woodruff
Dill
Tall Climbing Nasturtiums
Dwarf Jewel Nasturtiums
Chives
Cilantro
Garden Sage
Catmint
Spearmint
Lemon Balm
Peppermint

Thanks to all who have either made donations of items and/or your time so far!