ooops

So i realize that i can get a little obsessive...so when Jenny and Mark got really excited about ordering big quantities of organic fruit direct from Christine, one of the farmers at Sorauren Market, i got swept away thinking of all the amazing things that i could make for us for the winter.







So, last night i brought home a bushel basket of pears, a bushel basket of peaches, and a 3/4 bushel flat of italian prune plums - all for a ridiculous low price. It's insane - i KNOW how much work goes into making sure this gorgeous food grows well - i only hope that i can honour it by sharing it and making good things with it and eating it.

But, holey moley - how am i going to do this?!!?

So - tonight made peach cobbler and canned 11 quarts jars of whole plums in honey - got it from the blog called Food in Jars. Ridiculously good. Totally inspired by Novella's Ghost Town Farm and her sister Riana's Garlic Breath blogs too - RIGHT ON!

Had to forget about Geography homework, though. Whoops. Ahhhh, this is better anyway! Tomorrow i think i'll try making peach/plum/pear butter...ooooooooohh.

school SCHOOL school!

wahooo! It's started again! Thank goodness - even with gardening, i was starting to get dried up by doing too much all the time. School is back, and now i can rest somewhat, within it's schedule.
I love my classes, i'm real interested in everything we're talking about, i'm nerding out. Feels awesome!
Time to go learn more about how to help little things grow.



images found on the internet.

LOOKEE!!!

these are ours these are ours these are ours!!!!



sweet little yellow coyote cherries, i got 'em from Matchbox Garden waaaaaay back in May. And now look! They are one of the best flavours in the garden!

READ THIS BOOK!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!!

Holy amazingness.

Just finished a wonderful wonderful wonderful book - so inspiring. Farm City, by Novella Carpenter (my new hero), recounts her adventures as an urban farmer, living and growing food in a downtown Oakland ghetto. It is a fabulous page turner, hilarious and real and crazy!


This outrageous woman not only grew a big squat garden on an empty lot next to the house she rented with her boyfriend, but raised not only chickens, not only rabbits, not only turkeys and ducks and bees - but also PIGS, and now she's got GOATS.
Totally awesome, totally incredible.

READ IT. Go see her blog. Be inspired. She talks in profound and silly ways about tapping into and interrupting waste cycles (her pigs were raised entirely on dumpstered food from Oaklands Chinatown and fancy restaurants), gardening communally in low income and "at risk" neighbourhoods, urban subsistance - and so much more - all so poetically and in a real, warm, funny and friendly voice.

Hooray for folks like her. Check out Novella, Farm City and GhostTown Farm - you won't believe it.


This photo is of Rooftop Farms in NYC!
Check it out here - www.inhabitat.com/tag/urban-farming/

YES urban farms - YES YES YES!!!!!

CLEAN TRAINS PLEASE!

Sooooo....

Here in Toronto, a company called Metrolinx is proposing to build the largest diesel train corridor on the planet, about five mintues walk away from our house.

DIESEL!

It's a little bonkers to me to hear energy folks talking about diesel and coal as viable options for energy production. According to a posting from a neighbourhood organization that's trying to shift the proposal from 500 new diesel trains running through our communities a day to electric trains modeling the wave of the future, diesel fumes -

"produce a chemical soup of toxic air contaminants which have been implicated in a host of illnesses to which children are especially vulnerable, including cancer, respiratory problems, reproductive and developmental disorders. There are 76 schools and 96 daycare centres within a kilometre of the tracks.

The toxins in diesel fumes are carried on the wind for up to 200 miles from source. Hundreds of diesel trains running through the heart of west Toronto will add significantly to greenhouse gases and pollution in the entire GTA and beyond."

I wrote this letter. You could too, if you read this. Do it soon tho - they close the public poll tomorrow, i just found out!!



Dear folks at Metrolinx -

It is vitally important that you DO NOT USE DIESEL TRAINS in the proposed Union Station to Georgetown rail corridor. The quality of life of the people who live and work along the corridor, and the quality of life of downtown Toronto itself, will be severely impacted by the air pollution caused by diesel fumes and by the noise pollution caused by the 500 trains passing by.

We live in a wonderful city, filled to the brim with potential and dynamism. There is a challenge presented in this situation that I believe Metrolinx is more than able to meet. In this era of technology and innovation, there are very few reasons to contribute to local and global pollution. The challenge of developing a viable plan that considers long-term impact on the health and well-being of citizens and communities is well within the grasp of Metrolinx as a company, and our city as a whole. We live in an incredibly wealthy and privileged time and area of the world - with all the resources at our disposal, surely Metrolinx can come up with a cleaner, more innovative, safer solution to the transit crisis in our city than the damaging proposal it has presented.

Please shift the proposed plan away from using diesel trains on the Union Station to Georgetown rail corridor. Please take up the challenge, be innovative, take a crucially necessary long-view and rethink, reframe your solution to one that doesn't just attempt to alleviate a situation, but actually contributes in multifaceted ways to the well-being of our city, citizens and communities.

I believe that a switch to electric trains, while not a perfect solution, is a better idea than polluting our neighbourhoods with the toxic soup created by diesel fumes. As an early childhood educator, i am aware of the 76 schools and 96 day-cares that lay within only a kilometre of the tracks, all which would be affected by the dangerously impacted air quality caused by the fumes of the trains. As someone who lives five minutes walking distance away from the tracks myself, i know that the air my family and neighbours breathe would be dangerously impacted by the fumes of the trains.

I want our city to thrive, the children of Toronto to grow up healthy and intelligent, with true models of sustainability and innovative thinking contributing to their vibrant environment. With this in mind, I ask you to consider a long view, towards the future - be one of those models admired by the children I spend time with everyday - and move away from the polluting and unsustainable proposal for diesel trains and towards electric trains along the Union Station to Georgetown rail corridor.

Yours very sincerely - Noah Kenneally



To get more info, go to www.cleantrain.ca.

photos found on the internet.

Garbage strike ridiculousness

So - outdoor workers are on strike here in our city, trying to protect rights won by them ages ago, which means that garbage, recycling and compost pickups aren't happening.

And the people are freaking out.


We can do better.
This is a perfect opportunity for this city and people to just REDUCE their waste - instead, folks are dumping their trash on the streets and complaining about the stink. I hope and hope that people just smarten up and realize that we throw out so much, and this is an excellent way to challenge our selves to change our ways.


C'mon Toronto people - we can do this - buy less stuff, make more fresh food, WASTE LESS!!! We have so much, let's just celebrate it and cherish it, and make food for the worms instead of pollution for the garbage dump.

images found online

wheeew!

A year blows past and here i am in another spring - almost summer!

The year at school was absolutely amazing - so much more than i thought - a rich, satisfying experience that has got me thinking and composting my thoughts and ideas. OH EDUCATION! OH LEARNING! OH KIDS!

Pretty dang great.

And now the school year is over, exams are done, and i'm working full-time at the Early Learning Centre (which is the lab school at Ryerson), still learning - AND i'm in full garden mode. It's really all i want to think about these days. SO... I'll write more later, cuz i'm going up to buy some white clover seed to be a living mulch in the garden.