Preliminary Findings from GTA Ethno-Cultural Foods Study

Demand for ethno-cultural foods in the GTA highlights exciting local market opportunities for farmers!

A collaborative market research study is currently underway to assess the preferences for ethno-cultural foods in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The study is being conducted by the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, the GTA Agricultural Action Committee, the Toronto Food Policy Council and FarmStart.

Resarch has included 750 one-on-one interviews at ethnic grocery stores and supermarkets in various locations throughout the GTA. The ethnic communities selected for the study were Chinese, South Asian and Afro-Caribbean. The study, which focuses on the consumer, is a first for the province. Preliminary findings include:

Demand (amount spent on vegetables/month by different communities):

Chinese ($21million/month)

Afro-Caribbean ($7 million/month)

South Asian ($33 million/month)

Total demand by the three major ethnic communities in the GTA is $61 million/month.

Top ranked vegetables consumed by these communities:

Chinese Vegetables

1. Bok Choy ( Brassica rapa sub-specie : chinensis)

2. Chinese Brocoli – Gailon (Brassica oleracea : Alboglabra Group)

3. Eggplant (Solanum melongena) – Chinese variety

Afro-Caribbean Vegetables

1. Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)

2. African Eggplant – Garden Eggs (Solanum aethiopicum, Solanum gilo, Solanum olivaire, Solanum pierreanum)

3. Smooth Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.)

South Asian Vegetables

1. Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)

2. Eggplant (Solanum melongena)

3. Bitter melon (Momordica charantia)

Group aims to fire up farmers of the future

Farm Start, a Guelph, Ont.-based organization, helps people from non-farming backgrounds get into the industry.

JON TATTRIE,  METRO CANADA,  FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Planting at McVean

For the month of February, Metro’s Workology section will be focusing on some delicious food-related careers. Check back every Wednesday for a new feature.

Canadian farming is heading for a disaster as fewer and fewer farming children continue the family business.

“In the next ten years, about 80 per cent of the agricultural assets in the country are going to be transferred,” says Christie Young, director of Ontario’s Farm Start. “We’re going to have a massive crisis in the agricultural sector because we don’t have the infrastructure set up to get people into farming.”

Conversely, that means it’s a great time to get into farming. Farm Start, a Guelph, Ont.-based organization, helps people from non-farming backgrounds get into the industry. Some come with university degrees in agriculture and others are second-career farmers.

Farm Start begins with a four-day explorer course. “It’s a time for people to think really critically about whether this is the right career for them and what it means to be a farmer,” Young says.

Continue reading “Group aims to fire…”

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Organic Farm Field Manager

Application deadline: Friday, February 26th, 2010.

Contract Length: May 1 – Oct 31, 2010
Location: Brampton (FarmStart’s McVean Incubator Farm), Toronto & GTA (markets)

Organizational Mission: “Cultivating Personal, Social, Environmental, and Economic Health through Organic Agriculture.”

Field Manager Job Description

Primary Goal: Cultivation of 3 acres of land to produce mixed produce for Community Supported Agriculture Programs and Farmers Markets

Primary Activities:

1.      Coordinate Interns and Volunteers to carry out necessary farm tasks

2.      Supervise Interns in their learning process, including regular one-on-one check-ins

3.      Volunteer Recruitment and weekly scheduling

4.      Facilitate CSA distribution once weekly

5.      Other General Tasks:  Ongoing Communication with Program Director, Washing Harvest bins, Vehicle Support, Supply pick-ups and other errands, etc

Weekly Schedule in Summary (40 hrs total):

• 24 hours on Farm: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday mornings
• 6 hours at CSA distribution site (one afternoon per week)
• 10 hours admin (eg.farm scheduling, volunteer recruitment) and errands

Compensation:

• $1600-2000/month from May – October, depending on experience
• Two weeks paid vacation
• Abundance of Produce

Qualifications:

• Phenomenal social-skills and experience managing & coordinating people
• Experience farming mixed produce
• Commitment to balance and wellness in one’s own life
• Drivers Licence and access to vehicle

To apply:

• Please submit resume with cover letter by Feb. 26^th to Daniel Hoffmann atdaniel@thecuttingveg.com
• For more information about The Cutting Veg, visithttp://www.thecuttingveg.com

Shelburne Farm is a world leader in Farm Education!

Shelburne Farms

The ABC’S of Farm Education

If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of making school groups part of your farm plan, you should consider coming to this workshop.

DATES: April 3rd and 4th

PLACE: Everdale Farm: Hillsburgh, Ontario

To register contact: karen@everdale.org or 519-855-4859 x105

Join Shelburne Farms and Everdale Farm educators for two days of fun farm education! We will share exciting, hands-on ways to develop education programs for school groups and guests on your farm with easy-to-use activities from Project SEASONS.

Take these lessons, songs, exhibit ideas, and more back home and see how fun your farm can be for visitors. Whatever your farming background and whatever your farm, this workshop is for you! Discussion topics include marketing your farm program to schools and the community, creating a safe farm environment for the public, and meeting teachers’ needs.

Project SEASONS is a collection of seasonal, interdisciplinary activities and teaching ideas developed by teachers for the pre-K and elementary school classroom. Investigation and hands-on activities help students discover the agricultural and ecological world around them.

Project Seasons

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FarmStart is very happy to announce a brand new learning opportunity for future farmers: Exploring the New Farm Dream, a course for people who are thinking about starting a farm.

Developed by the New England Small Farm Institute, the Explorer course helps aspiring farmers learn what it would take to start and mange their own agricultural enterprises, and decide whether this the right path for them.

The Explorer course takes a learner-centred approach to exploring agriculture as a career.  Participants in the course will be guided through an in depth self-assessment process, focusing on the specific aptitudes, interests, skills and resources that they can bring to their new farm businesses.  They will receive support through the process of researching opportunities in agriculture.  And they will have the chance to meet other serious gardeners, farm enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs who are also asking themselves, “is farming right for me?”

The course will take place over four Thursday night sessions at the Multicultural Inter-Agency Group of Peel (MIAG), in Mississauga.  It will also include two Saturday daytrips to innovative local farms.

If you dream of starting a farm but are not sure where to start,  Exploring the New Farm Dream is the ideal learning and networking opportunity for you!  Register quickly, as we expect the course to fill up soon.

- Follow organic production rules and certify your farm organic as rapidly as possible.

- Pursue rental or barter agreements for land but protect yourself with legal leases or contracts.

- Find a way to live on the farm or very close by.

- Get to know your neighbours; they can rapidly become strong supporters and powerful allies.

- Keep lots and lots of records during the growing season, aka learning from your successes and mistakes.

- Aim for exceptional quality and freshness in all your products.

- Learn to live simply, thus avoiding need for off-farm income in establishment years.

- If you’re building a greenhouse or walk-in fridge (cold room) build as large as you can afford at the time – you’ll grow into it.

DON’T:

- Target markets at great distance or offer home delivery – farm tasks can’t get done if you’re stuck in traffic.

- Take the first land opportunity you find unless you know it’s ideal. Shop around and learn about soils, communities, resources, etc. before committing to put down roots.

- Enter into binding working partnerships with people you’ve never worked with before.

- Work 80-plus hours per week unless that is what you really want.

- Let weeds get ahead of you or produce seed.

- Spend a whole lot of money on a tractor, new or used, until you know what you really need.

- Take on debt or an off-farm job to service debt.

- Undercut other farmers’ prices at market.

Local beets hard to beat

July 23 2008
Pamela Cuthbert
special to the star

Clutching bunches of just-picked heritage beets at her Sorauren Park stall on a sunny afternoon, Matchbox Garden & Seed Co. founder Hanna Jacobs, a trained chef, explains the prime motive behind her start as an urban farmer. In 2006, as a new mother, Jacobs set up a retail herb garden in the heart of hip Queen St. W. Customers were invited to stroll through the small backyard patch and order a bunch of chives, mint, basil – whatever took their fancy. Then Jacobs, the daughter of a horse farmer in Maple, Ont., would pull out the snips. Talk about fresh.

Today she has two business partners, one acre of cultivated land in Brampton, five urban plots and “more beets than I know what to do with.”

Continue reading….

Canada’s World, the Evergreen Foundation, Engineers Without Border and the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation invite you to a

Food for Talk

OUR ROLE IN THE INTERNATIONAL FOOD CHAIN

The price of rice has risen by as much as 70% over the last year.

Why? And what does that mean for Canada and the rest of the world?

Rising populations, trade and climate change have sent food prices

soaring across the globe. These factors have recently prompted the

United Nations to declare a world food “crisis”. Join us for a public

dialogue bringing together youth, senior and local community members

with representatives from business, government and NGOs. Hear from

expert guest speakers and have your say.

TUESDAY JULY 29, 2008

Great Hall, University of Toronto

7 Hart House Circle, Toronto

9:00 am – 4:30 pm

(Registration begins at 9:00)

Lunch will be provided

This dialogue is free, but registration is required.  Register by emailing jameshaga@ewb.ca.  Include your full name, phone number and dietary restrictions.  Or call 416-642-9145 ext.237 to leave a message.

For more information Canada’s World, visit www.canadasworld.ca

Click on the front page (below) to download the entire newsletter.

The New York Times follows its March profile of young, hipster farmers with an article on second-career farmers abandoning high profile careers for a future in sustainable agriculture.

“In recent years, as the local food movement has grown and farmers’ markets have proliferated, a new breed of back-to-the-landers has emerged. Some, like their predecessors in the 1960s and ’70s, are earnest, college-educated young people, turning their backs on professional career paths in favor of a life of hardscrabble idealism. But many others, homesteaders in their 40s and 50s, have already enjoyed the perks of professional life, and may even have made a fortune, or at least a comfortable nest egg.”

Continue reading…

FOOD in the CITY

hosted by
NEXT GENERATION

DATE: Tuesday, May 20
TIME: 7 – 9pm
PLACE: Ralph Thornton Centre
765 Queen Street E.

2 blocks east of Broadview on south
side of Queen St. Room location will be
posted at the elevator.

FARMING FOR PROFIT and URBAN AGRICULTURE

presenters include:

CANADIAN ORGANIC GROWERS
Tanmayo Krupanski
http://www.cog.ca/index.htm

THE STOP COMMUNITY FOOD CENTRE
Rhonda Teitel-Payne
http://www.thestop.org

MATCH BOX GARDEN
http://matchboxgarden.ca

PLUS: A short documentary film on cities producing food locally.

nextgeneration06@gmail.com

http://the-next-generation.org/

If you’re curious about Community Supported Agriculture, you won’t want to miss Rachel and Carolyn’s talk at Toronto’s Pape Public Library this week. The Beet Street team will be discussing CSA’s and their contributions to healthy rural economies. They’ll also be accepting new members for their own CSA. Beet Street’s shares are sure to sell out soon, so Toronto residents would be well advised to drop by the library on Wednesday night, meet the farmers, and sign up for a season of gorgeous, fresh veggies!
.

Wednesday, May 14

6:30 – 8:00 pm

Presented by: Canadian Organic Growers (COG)

With: Rachel Climenhaga and Carolyn Bailey, BeetStreet CSA,

and Phil Anderson,COG member and farmer in Stouffville

Location: Pape Public Library, 701 Pape Ave (Danforth and Pape)

Cost: COG members free; non-members $5

In cities across the country urban farmers are growing communities, greening the landscape and revolutionizing food politics.

By Phoebe Connelly and Chelsea Ross

At 9 a.m. on a cool, bright Saturday in mid-June, Robert Burns and Diana Baldelomar set up a farm stand outside the YMCA in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. The stand is simple: a tent to keep out the sun, two folding tables set in an L-shape and a handful of zinc washtubs filled with two inches of water. In the tubs stand heads of green and red lettuce, greens, broccoli, and bunches of mint and basil.

When two women approach and ask the price of the greens, Baldelomar tells them that the turnip, mustard and collard greens are a dollar a bunch. “Honey,” the woman says, “in this neighborhood, if someone asks you for greens, they are only talking about the collards.” Her companion asks, “Did you ship it in from the country?”

“No ma’am. These are from right around the corner, West Cottage and Brook. We went out and harvested them this morning. You should stop by sometime.”

Burns and Baldelomar work with the Food Project, a community-based urban agriculture program founded in 1991 to get Boston’s youth involved in food production. Their West Cottage plot is one of four farms on vacant lots in the Dorchester neighborhood.

The Food Project is part of a growing urban agriculture movement to improve access to quality food in cities by creating local sources of fresh produce. The movement is showing that sustainable, local food systems are not only a way to ensure food security but also a means of addressing social justice issues

Click here to read more