Maximum Yield Cannabis Canada 2017 November/December | Page 18

max facts
Vacant Toronto Properties Turned
into Mobile Urban Farms
Toronto’s Bowery Project, co-founded by friends Rachel
Kimel and Deena DelZotto, takes vacant downtown lots and
turns them into mobile urban farms. The produce is grown
in repurposed milk crates so they can be easily moved when
the property is sold or developed. “It’s like a pop-up mobile
farm,” says Kimel. “There’s something called square-foot
gardening and so whatever you can occupy in a crate, we
do. Herbs, veggies, edible flowers, lots
of greens.” There are currently
three sites growing produce,
which is then donated to several
community groups.
- globalnews.ca
Cree Community Return to Roots with Gardening Programs
Chisasibi is home to several greenhouse projects that aim to help the Northern Quebec Cree
community get back in touch with its farming tradition, as well as improve access to healthy
and affordable food. The James Bay Eeyou School currently has a greenhouse and the
Chisasibi Business Service Centre has plans to open a year-round commercial greenhouse.
Gabriel Snowboy, the Greenhouse Coordinator at the service centre, says the commercial
greenhouse will connect the community to its little-known agricultural past. From the
1950s through the 1970s, there was a farm on Fort George Island, the original site of the
community. “What we want to know, when people talk about Fort
George farm and how they had the vegetables and had cows
and chickens,” says Snowboy. “That history is not really found
anywhere. That’s why we hope to achieve, to have some history
from that era when farming was done in Fort George.”
- cbc.ca
Montreal IGA Grows
Veggies on Roof
Montreal’s IGA Extra Famille
Duchemin claims to be the first
grocery store in Canada to sell
produce grown on its roof. “People are very interested in
buying local,” says Richard Duchemin, the store’s co-owner.
“There’s nothing more local than this.” It all started
when the shop was required to install a green roof. Now, the 25,000-square-foot
space is home to 30 different kinds of LEED Gold certified organic produce,
including tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, radish, kale, and herbs. The veggies
cost about the same as other organic produce sold in the store. The garden
is irrigated with water from the store’s dehumidification system. “Why
don’t supermarkets plant vegetables on their roofs? Some restaurants
have little boxes where they grow herbs,” he said. “We pushed it further
because we know we’re able to sell what we produce here.”
- montrealgazette.com
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