Over the years, we've made some attempts to be more environmentally conscious, eco-conscious, socially conscious... with varying degrees of success. It's challenging to live in an urban, time-clock-punching, online-scheduling world and make "slow food" at every meal after bicycling all over the county to pick up the groceries from local farmers. In an effort to stay a bit healthier, I drive to the gym. I have to rush to get to yoga class while leaving conference calls on hold. I feel distinctly polarized about how my life goes, most days.
Some things I've really wanted to get into haven't worked that well. CSAs, for one. Great IDEA, to have a locally-grown farm food box - but buying a "share", even shared with two other couples, turned out to be very wasteful, as we got weekly crateloads of whatever was harvested that week - which tended to be low on variety, high on quantity and required a lot of preparation to become useful food. Sometimes we had a ton of wholesome stuff we outright didn't eat, like beets by the dozen. It did lead us to discover what a kohlrabi was, and how to prepare garlic scapes, so that might not have been a total write-off.
Slightly more successfull was the Pfenning's Organic venture - they deliver weekly boxes, large or small choice, and you can order or not every week based on whether you like what's in them, and make one or two substitutions. Still though - likely to get something not appealing to everyone, and the delivery actually was a bit awkward for a household where all members are out at an office during delivery hours.
I've now found something I'm hoping will pan out a bit better - I've been introduced to the idea of a Local Food Buying Club. Bailey's Local Foods is a small business run by two Waterloo Women (supported by staff of family and friends) which operates just down the corner from me in a church. A $20 annual membership gets you access to their online ordering system, from which you can build your own grocery box every week. Incredibly flexible - order, or don't, exactly what you want and how much you want. Options include locally made baked goods, meats, minimally processed prepared foods, if not completely grown within 100 kms then at least largely produced that close. Much is organic, and when not, it's clearly labelled as to if or how it's treated or raised.
So far it's going very well. Tonight's dinner was Pumpkin Ravioli over which we spooned African Peanut Stew instead of sauce. And I've trained myself to eat tomatoes, something I've never liked that much, when they're fresh vine-ripened and layered with fresh basil, local bocconcini, some cucumbers and balsamic vinaigrette. I accidentally over-ordered asparagus, so that will be on this week's menu. The next treat coming up are the Ontario strawberries, which I suspect this operation will be completely cleaned out of every week.
To this whole venture, I'm adding even-closer-to-home food. Check out my patio:
Those are my hackabout, home-made version of "Earth Boxes". As an aside, now that I know how to build them and HAVE built them, I will be happy to buy the equivalent, but these will do. In the one on the left are two tomato plants (Black Krim and Black Cherry, both heirloom varieties), two basil sprigs and some lettuce seeds. On the right, one cucumber, one cantelope, one eggplant, one Chocolate Sweet Pepper, and a smattering of pea plants sprouting at the front.
I got the tomatoes and the pepper from a seedling sale at Little City Farm in Kitchener, another local family business. Unfortunately, the sale was so popular, I got there the minute it was announced to be opening and it was half sold out! It was also so crowded I couldn't get to half of it. So, the cukes, melon, and eggplant came from Home Depot's nursery centre, and the peas from Ontario Seed Co. seeds.
The idea with these boxes is they are self-watering, from a reservoir below the soil bin, and with good potting mix and fertilizer, you can grow a high density of plants in relatively little space. We shall see. But things are starting already:
Those there are the first buds on the Black Cherry tomato. And below:
That wee flower bud is supposed to grow up to be a cantelope!
I'm not quite certain how this whole venture will play out, but am encouraged so far by the fact that the tomatoes are 18 inches high after a couple of weeks, and the cucumber is already climbing both tomato cages in its bin, and there are flowers out at the beginning of June. I did manage to keep a conventionally potted cherry tomato alive and producing a couple of summers ago, so here's hoping. If these work out, I may try a few more bins next year. While it may not be possible to run an off-the-grid urban farmstead in an uptown condo, at least I can grow myself a salad, and by making other local choices, contribute to the success of some local businesses that are working to see sustainable food happen neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
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