Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
A sense of community, a sense of security
Community gardens offer food security and a focal point where neighbours can connect
By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun April 22, 2010
George Pinch has been hoeing and weeding his plot in the East Boulevard community garden for 25 years, and you could say he learned his craft at the feet of the master.
Pinch took as his mentor University of B.C.-trained botanist Donald Flather, who founded the garden in 1942 to support the war effort. Flather was well-known during his lifetime as an artist and a high school teacher, receiving his doctorate in education and raising three sons who all became medical doctors.
Though victory gardens were common during the First World War, Flather was a bit of a visionary when conflict enveloped the world a second time.
Canadians were slow to embrace victory gardens during the Second World War. They were mainly planted by activists and “empty lot” leagues in Vancouver and Victoria. Indeed, the federal government was loath to risk seed, fertilizer and equipment on dilettante gardeners who might either fail to produce or fail to follow through on their pledge to produce food, and at first discouraged attempts to mount a national campaign to encourage victory gardens.
But a potato blight and carrot fly outbreak combined with agricultural labour shortages to cause serious want and federal agriculture minister James Gardiner finally got behind the plan in 1943. Read More
Raw potential.
What are the chances, in a city as expensive as Vancouver, that a full two-block square of city owned land would just be left vacant for decades? And what would be the appropriate community response to such a space if its only use was as dumping site by those who don’t want to pay landfill fees?
This photo is of one such spot tucked away in a corner of East Van. The lawn is mown twice a year by the city, and the dumped refuse is carted away on some type of schedule for these abandoned spaces… but otherwise this spot is little more than a cut-through between streets, a sloped and muddy bog that doesn’t lend itself to picnic-ground or playing field without a lot of work.
What about an urban farm instead? Not a community garden with individual plots, but a demonstration of co-operative food growing involving interested neighbours and food security activists. Perhaps some chickens and bees? An edibly landscaped labyrinth in the center with benches and space for visiting? A portion of the farm dedicated entirely to the care of local highschool students? A harvest shared amongst those who work the farm or are in need in the surrounding homes?
Sustainable of course, organic, using as much native food crop as possible. What could be done with a space like this? Are you interested? Please message me at eliza.m.adam@gmail.com if you are local and feel like putting some work behind a project like this.
Fundraising for the YWCA
This is all new to me!
Some of you know that I’ve recently begun running for the first time in my life – it’s not something I have a natural affinity for, but I’ve discovered some pleasure in jogging and so I’ve decided this is the summer to push the outdoor fitness – running and biking as the weather allows – rather than spending all my time in the gym.
Ironic then isn’t it, that I should choose to do a fundraiser for my gym’s youth programs? Oh yes – I’ve signed up for my very first 5 km run to support youth programs at the YWCA. For those of you unfamiliar with the YWCA in Vancouver, it is progressive voice for women’s equality in Vancouver in addition to a gorgeous fitness facility with great staff. Not only do I go there several times a week, I have promoted the YWCA in other fundraising venues in the past because I believe so much in the work they do. If you want to learn more about the YWCA and its mandate, I encourage you to check them out here: http://www.ywcavan.org/
In any case, I’ve decided that one way to bolster my commitment to keep running (and possibly improve on my very very slow speed) is to get involved in a fundraising run in support of the YWCA. To that end I’m participating in the 2010 Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon & 5k.
You can help support me by making a secure online donation using your credit card. Click on the link below. You can also sponsor me in person – cash or cheque if you so prefer:
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2581373
For more information on how YOU can participate in the 2010 Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon & 5k, please visit us at http://www.canadarunningseries.com/svhm/index.htm.
Thanks so much for supporting me and the YWCA!
On this and that state of being.
Having said that, I’m not *in* a depressive funk just yet…. and I’m pretty sure I know how to forestall one at this stage in my life (ah – the wisdom of age). It truly is about reading the signs and responding to them appropriately. For me that means a combination of doing good things for my body, spending time with people who nurture, and giving myself lots of time for rest and reading. It also means working on gratitude, appreciating myself and the people around me. Fortunately, I have a lot to be grateful for so all I have to do is bring my attention down to what really matters.
Last night, we had a wonderful dinner (two salads, three homemade pizzas, and fondue for dessert) at Sam and Caelie’s house. Not only was the food awesome, but the conversation was interesting and enjoyable too. I’ve got a couple blog post ideas related to those who profited from japanese internment, and separation through specialized language bouncing around in my head as a result. This is precisely why it’s so important to get out and hang with different folks…. it’s a whole show of different ideas all the time! Equally, I am looking forward to a dinner party on Friday at our house involving a whole different crew of writers and activists. These are some of the things (inspiring, interesting people) I am really very glad to have in my life.
I’m also really excited about the city’s proposed 10-year cycling master plan going to council for discussion tomorrow. Not only are they advancing trials on more separated bike lanes, but completing greenways started as far back as 1995 which will allow for more off-road cycling from the city way out to the burbs. It looks like at least one of the proposals will allow me to ride from home to work on either a bikeway or in a separated (hopefully buffered) lane. The report to council is available for reading online, and I plan to write a letter to at least one of the local newspapers in support of this proposal. It’s only a matter of time before the drivers start whining “what about me?” as though we don’t already invest millions of tax dollars into road infrastructure for drivers! Juding from some of the comments on the Vancouver Sun story last weekend, some people out there seem to be labouring under the delusion that their ICBC insurance payments and their driver’s licence fee somehow go to pay for roads in the city and elsewhere. Wrong, people. General revenue from taxation pays for those things, and cyclists and pedestrians pay the same taxers that drivers do. The only additional taxes paid by drivers is at the gas pump and that is a general-revenue tax that goes into the common pot. No fair? Well, if you think taxes on purchases are generally unfair I suppose you’ve got a point. But if you agree that cigarettes and alcohol be taxed at a higher rate because of their cost to society? Gasoline kinda fits that bill too. In any case, no amount of licensing cyclists, or having them buy insurance (which people seem to suggest everytime a new proposal for bike lanes is put down) is going to pay for cycling infrastructure. Those are programs which simply pay for themselves.
And for my third and final thing to get excited about – I think we might be putting together a guerilla gardening posse to tackle a fairly large site in Hastings-Sunrise – going tonight to scope out the site which is about twenty blocks from us but promises the potential to do an LA-Farm type thing in our general hood. I’m not sure about it yet, but it could present a wonderful opportunity to both engage with other people as well as gain some more growing space (and maybe even room for chickens in the future!). I’ll know after tonight if we’re going to start recruiting people to this crazy plan, and for sure I’ll post that here.
Dinner party experiments.
It’s another dinner party night tonight! This time at Sam and Caelie’s, last month at Jess and Trevor’s. Before that, we hosted. Not to mention the BBQ dinner-party experiment we hosted last weekend and the friends we are having over on Friday….. B & I are working on our social life through food gatherings with friends and near-strangers these days and it’s really taken over out social calendar!
I want to start writing about these little events as they happen – so this will suffice as the introductory post to our experiments which currently involve:
- A monthly east van dinner party collective involving four couples who rotate dinners between houses.
- A series of dinner parties at our house (monthly) where we invite a bunch of people who don’t know each other.
- Regular other gatherings involving friends we don’t see enough of otherwise. Or who we want to get to know better. And,
- Accepting invitations that we might normally turn down. As a result, we’re having lunch at the house of one of my former professors next weekend.
Food being the ultimate ice-breaker, we’re working the theme that community likes to eat together and eating together makes community….. not to mention, we’ve had some pretty interesting eating to date. Expect to see these meals documented from here on out as I expect tonight is grilled cheese sandwiches with fondue for dessert and I’m still working on the menu for Friday (turns out one of our guests is gluten and dairy-intolerant so I’m switching things around last minute). Lots of interesting eating, conversations and people promised!
Red Cedar 