The Compost Diaries

I am an instructor for this SFU certificate program. My colleague Nina Winham and I developed and deliver the Applications Course – essentially a three day mobile workshop looking at real life cases and talking to experts along the way. The program is a joint offering from the Centre for Sustainable Community Development and City Program. In past classes, we have had “insider” tours of the 2010 Olympic Village as it was being built and an amazingly close up look at the Choi Building. Although some may call it an “outdated” green building, it continues to impress. There is nothing like taking a peek into the compost toilet “depository” in the dungeon with the person who oversaw its design and construction. The building, not the toilet. It was Freda Pagani, by the way, former director of the UBC Office of Sustainability. If you’ve been contemplating a sustainability course, I would encourage you to consider this one. It’s getting rave reviews!

Sustainable Community Development Certificate

For Mid-career professionals.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 30

“Policy makers, politicians and staff should be attending the Sustainable Community Development Program at SFU. It is a collection of teachings that are informative and timely for our changing landscapes, presenting best practices that are being utilized by large cities, small rural communities and business to address their role in a sustainable future.”

Al Hogarth, Councillor, District of Maple Ridge

Read more testimonials.

A flexible program comprised of eight 2- and 3-day intensive courses over 10-18 months. Apply by August 30. Cohorts complete six core courses:

1. Foundation in Sustainable Community Development
2. Applications in Sustainable Community Development
3. Sustainable Economics for the Real World
4. Making Change Happen: Building Commitment to Create Sustainability
5. Integrating Social Dimensions into Sustainability
6. Sustainable Community Development Studio

And two electives from this list:

1. Strategic Decision-Making for Sustainable Results
2. Communicating Sustainability for Awareness, Accountability, and Action
3. Urban Transportation: Planning and Designing for Sustainability
4. Leading Edge Solutions to House Everyone
5. Tackling Climate Change – Going Carbon Neutral and Beyond
6. Green Economy Frontiers and Opportunities

Program Details.

My Green Roofs and Living Walls tour this past Wed night turned out to be a real treat on a summer evening. Wanted to share some of the pictures.  Dr. Tara Moreau gave us a wonderful, brisk overview (I gave her 20 min!) of the SPEC roof top garden program.

We were able to peer over the edge to see the green roof atop the City Farmer cob garden shed as well.

Geneviève Noël of Mubi was up on a ladder when we arrived at Greens Organic & Natural Market, trimming up the living wall. She showed us that it is very possible to grow food vertically – she has coastal strawberries growing amid other native plants.

Randy Sharp had set up a stepladder too so we could get very close to the sedums and other coastal natives he has growing on his darling garage green roof. Oh and the backyard bunnies were quite a hit too.

Then we all piled into Assefa Kebede’s front yard for the best finish to a tour yet! Assefa had freshlymade homous and pita bread waiting for us. He owns the Nyala remember. And here’s the roof tie in, he has beehives on his! So yes, we had spoonfuls of honey fresh from the comb. We mopped up any remnants with the pita. And finally there was the honey wine. Fortunately it was a walking tour.

I belong to the Kits Neighbourhood House community garden. It is not a typical community garden, if there is such a thing. Atypical because it’s in a parking lot and because we don’t have individual plots. We garden communally. It made more sense to garden as a group because the space was so limited.

We have work parties once a week. These days it’s mostly harvesting and socializing – the best part of gardening. I hadn’t been for a couple weeks because the pocket markets happened at the same time. But yesterday afternoon I managed to get there. It was a gorgeous, sunny and harmonious day in the garden. We harvested beets and lettuce, some peas, carrots, kale and leeks and a few herbs. We discovered the garlic chives! The potatoes have come up! There was one very large zuke and there will no doubt be 100 more next week. The tomatoes and beans will soon be ready as well. There were eight of us there and we each took a share of the harvest. Kits House also gets a share for their weekly seniors drop in lunch.

We tidied things up, pulling the plants that had gone to seed like the arugula, some of the mustard greens, trimmed the parsley. We finally got rid of the tough old celery plant that had over-wintered. Yeah, another pot freed up! With limited space this always gets a cheer.

Lawrence, one of our members who is the head waterer (because he has his own moisture sensor!) came by and told us the only bed that needed watering was the center one and the surrounding pots. One of the beds is on a slope, so we also dug holes and buried some small pots and pop bottles with drainage holes into the ground so that when we water, the water will pool and go down deep to get to the plant roots.

I gave the compost bins a good mix, added some soil. I have been managing these bins for a year now and I must say they are not my best work. I used straw instead of leaves and it’s not breaking down well. Usually worms migrate in on their own when a bin is in the right balance, but haven’t found one yet. I’ve asked Mary, another member to bring some worms from her obviously superior compost bins to see if they can speed things up a little.

Kits House will be renovating next year, putting in some seniors housing and we will lose our parking lot garden. But we are promised a roof top garden. May want to install an exterior dumb waiter to lift all the soil and equipment up there. But at least we won’t have to negotiate with cars.

Wrote this one back in 2004 when I was doing the regular radio bit on CBC’s North by Northwest. The Green Streets program is still going strong – with more than 300 gardens now and a beautiful coffee table book highlighting some of the best. My friend Terry Dixon has retired to a life of gardening and sailing.

I was walking the streets in a neighbourhood once known for its street walkers; now gaining fame for its street gardeners. Mount Pleasant is one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods, yet is sadly lacking in trees and park space. But all that is changing with the Green Streets brigade of volunteers. I was with Terry Dixon, Vancouver’s Green Streets program coordinator.

“The program invites neighbours to adopt traffic circles and corner bulges,” said Terry.

“Bulges?” I asked.

“Yes, they’re located at the corner of intersections and help to shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians,” she said.

“There’s got to be a better name than bulges. It sounds so unsightly,” I said. Terry laughed and blamed the misnomer on city engineers.

The city landscapes the gardens initially with low-growing, drought-tolerant perennials and shrubs. Then the gardeners are welcome to plant their favourites too. There are now over 200 Green Streets gardens around the city; that’s 70% of the traffic circles now weeded and watered by residents.

The purpose of traffic circles and corner “bulges” as they are unfortunately called is to calm traffic and make the neighbourhood more pedestrian safe. But this creative street design initiative has more benefits than safety; it also beautifies the neighbourhood and adds green space, brings neighbours together, helps to cut down on littering, vandalism and graffiti and creates pleasant walkways and seating areas for residents.

And that brings me to a dynamic duo who has been working on greening their neighbourhood since the 1990’s. Sylvia Holland and Catherine Kerr commandeer seven Green Streets gardens and a dozen more guerilla garden patches around home turf at Sophia and 14^th.

According to Sylvia, guerilla gardening is a “spirited attack on barren urban spaces with seeds, plants and garden tools”. She sees it as a healthy response for neighbourhoods facing vandalism, drug dealing and garbage dumping challenges.

But a guerilla gardener is no average gardener – they have to be in fighting shape. Sometimes it’s a battle just to water their garden patch.

“This one garden we maintain is on the other side of a four foot wall – and of course the water tap isn’t on the garden side,” said silver-haired Catherine.

One day she was leaping back and forth over the wall to water the garden and refill the watering can. A group of young neighbourhood boys watched her spry acrobatics. Finally, one of the boys called out, “Hey lady, are you young?”

“Gardening and tool hauling really is a no cost fitness program,” Catherine laughs. No bulges on her!

In addition to secateurs, trowels and spades, the street gardener’s arsenal may also include a hacksaw and an ax.

“I have to chop up abandoned couches from time to time and put them in the dumpster,” says Catherine. She’s also made repairs to tumbledown fences and picked up garbage by the ton.

“One of the perils of street gardening is trying to actually get some gardening done because people want to talk to us when they see us digging in the dirt,” says Sylvia. “We get a lot of people thanking us as they walk by; some really want to engage us.”

“Hey, do you have any of those things that come up in November?” asked one man.

“Do you mean it blooms in November or comes out of the ground in November?” asked Sylvia, trying to narrow down the field.

“Comes out of the ground,” he replies.

“Where were you living when you saw these?” Sylvia astutely thinks to ask.

“In Manitoba,” he says.

My God you couldn’t get a pitchfork into the ground in November in Manitoba, she thinks to herself. But in the end it’s not really about the plant at all, it’s a story the man wants to tell; a sweet childhood memory of helping his mother lift plants out of the ground in the fall.

City employees and volunteers like Catherine and Sylvia have together created a wellness walkway in this neighbourhood too. This necklace of small gardens runs along a frequently used pedestrian route. The gardens and intersecting pathways include benches for resting, shade canopies and curb cuts for wheelchairs and walkers. The seating areas become outdoor living rooms and social gathering places for folks who live in tiny apartments or care facilities nearby.

So street gardening has its rewards, but what happens if a favourite plant gets stolen or worse, an entire traffic circle gets trashed?

“Well, it’s a lesson in detachment for sure,” says Sylvia. “Detachment and tolerance for differences in styles, customs and cultures. But we do lose it sometimes.”

One day Catherine came home and said to Sylvia, “Did you hear that crazy woman yelling out there?”

“No,” said Sylvia, “the windows were closed.”

“Well it was me,” confessed the soft-spoken woman.

For the second time, a certain neighbour had pruned the shrubs into rectangles in one of the larger gardens. In his home country, it is customary to have all paved edges showing. For five years, Sylvia had been working hard to soften the edges of that sidewalk.

But still the street gardeners soldier on, because even when they aren’t softening their sharp edges, they can still do battle with their bulges.

This tour was inspired by a chapter in my new book called A Little Left of Garden Centre. A kind of  ”alternative” gardens tour. So we won’t be doing VanDusen Botanical or Minter Gardens on this one.

Wed. July 21  – 6 to 8pm

On this walking tour we explore a number of unusually wonderful gardens. The SPEC rooftop vegetable garden was planted with the help of a nearby school; the veggies share the roof with solar panels, we’ll hear about them too. Next we’ll see the living wall at the new Greens Organic & Natural Market and talk to designer, Geneviève Noël of Mubi. Then landscape architect Randy Sharp will give us the low down on green roofs right from his own backyard. He has a green roof on his garage. Finally, we’ll visit with Assefa Kebede from the Nyala Restaurant in his spectacular front yard garden, full of fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and bee hives. The roof is just about the only place he’s not growing something! Part of the Exploring Food Systems Summer Series.

$35. Register at info@gardenheart.ca

You might expect to find a dairy farm in Lister, a sleepy hamlet in the pastoral Creston Valley. It seems fitting that Mountain Valley Dairy uses a centuries old method of cheese making that evokes “taste of place”. As with chocolate and good wine, you can almost taste the Kootenay mountain air, fresh pasture grasses and the fertile soil – a reflection of the landscape, life and culture – as their web site says. But what is unexpected, at least it was surprising to me, was to discover that these artisan cheesemakers use very advanced, sustainable technology to make their cheeses. But of course it all begins with the cows.

Nearly two decades ago, owners Denise and Wayne Harris took over the conventional dairy farm from Wayne’s parents and gradually converted it to organic. Now they lovingly tend their certified organic herd of about 80 dairy cows, mostly Holstein, the cheery black and white ones with a few Swedish Red, Guernsey and Normande (a good breed for French cheese). They used to have Holsteins exclusively, but their three kids were in 4-H Club and had an influence on their herd.

“Our youngest daughter wanted something different, something more colourful,” said Denise. So they bought her a golden white Guernsey. Thus began their foray into a more colourful herd – the diversity and cross-breeding ultimately make for better cheeses. There are seven Guernseys now. As for the daughter – she’s completing a degree in organic agriculture at the University of Guelph.

“From April to October, they’re intensely grazing,” said Wayne, “We move them to a fresh paddock every 12 hours.”

The lush summer grasses make for the sweetest, nutrient rich raw organic milk from which most of their cheese is made. It’s common to graze dairy cattle in New Zealand and Ireland according to Wayne, but not here. In winter, the cows are fed homegrown hay, silage and grain in a cozy barn. And these well tended cows are indeed healthy cows – their feet tell the story.

“When the hoof trimmer comes, he always comments on how healthy the cows hooves are,” says Wayne. “We have fewer health issues because the cows get exercise and they have healthier feet when they are on dirt and grass.”

The cows are milked twice a day by machine in a “double six parlour”. It takes about two hours to milk the entire herd. And here’s where the contrast with ancient and new methods comes in. The fresh milk is piped directly from the milking parlour into a cone-shaped, cheese-making vat by gravity feed, so no gas guzzling, greenhouse gas producing transportation there. A lot of hot water is used in the cheese making process, accounting for 90% of a cheese plant’s energy needs. The Mountain Valley fromagerie uses solar power to heat 70% of the water they use instead. Composted cow manure and cheese whey fertilizes the grain and other crops that they grow.

The actual cheese making begins within a few hours of milking. Denise and Wayne use the same recipes and labour intensive methods as traditional French and Italian cheese-makers. The fresh cheese is moved to specially designed, geo-thermal aging caves; the temperature is maintained by circulating well water that is later reused for irrigating the fields. During the 60 days of aging, the cheese develops its rich, complex flavours. The wheels are turned and rubbed so that a natural rind forms.

Their raw milk organic cheeses are marketed under the Kootenay Alpine Cheese Company brand and sold throughout BC and in fact across the country. The line includes Nostrala, a firm cheese with mild earthy notes (think Italian Fontina); Mountain Grana, a hard, extra-aged cheese with a dense grainy texture (think Parmigiano Reggiano); and Alpindon, their premium reserve cheese, firm and nutty (think Beaufort d’Alpage).

Mountain Valley Dairy Farm, about 450 acres in total, is certified with Pacific Agricultural Certification Society. They are also members of the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society whose mandate is to foster local, sustainable agriculture. Visitors are invited to meet the cows in the barns and sample the cheeses in the farm shop attached to the fromagerie. I plan to do all of the above the next time I’m in the Kootenays. In the meantime, I’m off to Les Amis du Fromages, my neighbourhood cheese shop. Rumour has it they carry Kootenay Alpine cheeses.

This article first appeared in the summer 2010 issue of BC Organic Grower.

In the spirit of summer finally beginning on the west coast, I dug this little kayaking piece out of my archives. Probably no surprise that I’m no longer with Adventure Boy.

The last time I’d been camping I was eight; that was 35 years ago in my best friend’s back yard. Yet last summer, when my new boyfriend Barry wanted to take me to his favourite kayaking spot, I jumped in with both feet. We were going to Goose Island, a remote grouping between the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the southern toe of the Queen Charlottes.

“How romantic!” I shivered with excitement.

When we arrived in Bella Bella, we met our guide Frank. My sunny outlook didn’t cloud for a moment when he said, “Look, there’s a storm coming in. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to go all the way out to Goose.”

But my boy scout was determined, “I’ve been there in heavy weather before. The campsite is well sheltered.”

“And we’ve got a new tent,” I cooed. “Our starter home.”

We climbed into the Love Tub, an open aluminum fishing boat with two kayaks and 15 tons of baggage. It was drizzling a bit, but we were snug and dry in our rain gear.

“There’s no such thing as bad weather,” Barry proclaimed, “just bad clothing.”

And we were off, bouncing merrily along, seated on the deck in white plastic lawn chairs, fully exposed to the elements. And then the engine started missing. Terrific, my first big adventure and we’re off to a bumpy start.

“Probably water in the fuel line,” Frank shouted. “I’ll flush it out.”

That worked, temporarily. But as soon as he pulled back full on the throttle, the engine cut out. We crept past a small island with a beautiful white sandy beach. Hmmm, great place for a shipwreck.

The clouds darkened and so did my mood. Frank continued to fiddle with the engine as we inched along at half throttle. The sea swelled and tossed us back and forth. I clung to the kayaks to keep myself from being bounced overboard in my stupid lawn chair. Great waves of anxiety crashed over me as the water rose up over the bow. I started to shiver uncontrollably. Oh yeah, this is romantic alright.

We were surrounded by water now, no sight of land. The sky was as dark and menacing as the sea. I’ve never felt so small. Still, we couldn’t really be in trouble, I rationalized. I turned stiffly to look at the guys; they were chatting up a storm at the stern. Ok, they don’t seem worried. Smack, a wave hit me head on, drowning out all rational thought. We’re dead. My eyes were frozen on the heaving water ahead, seeking land.

“There it is!” the guys cried cheerily, pointing out to sea. “Goose Island.”

All I saw was sea, waves, water. I couldn’t speak. I knew if I opened my mouth I would cry. Or worse, my stomach lurched as another wave hit. Even if we survive this trip, was our relationship sunk? I was no match for Adventure Boy.

“Got it! It’s an air lock in the fuel lines!” Frank shouted.

Ok, full juice, straight to Goose! No matter that the pleasant hour and a half crossing had turned into a grueling three hour tour, we were safe at last.

Unfortunately, the tide was out when we reached Goose. Frank threw us, along with our soggy baggage out on some rocks. Then he hightailed it out of there, racing the storm.

“Don’t leave me,” I called after him. “We’re going to die out here.”

Barry struggled with a bag. “Not of starvation mind you,” he quipped, “you packed enough food for a month.”

We were about 100 yards of slime, muck and water from the desolate beach. I was cold, weak and still shaking.

“The tides coming in, we’ve got to get this stuff above the tide line, fast,” Barry said. But I couldn’t walk, my spastic legs kept slipping on the rocks.

“Ahhhouch!” Barry slipped and whacked his tailbone.

“I’ll kill you if you die,” I sobbed. I wouldn’t last a day out here on my own.

“I’m ok,” he reassured me.

Laden with wet gear, we slogged on. Like a seasoned adventurer, I glanced over at the kayaks and wished I hadn’t. They were floating out to sea. I yelled to Barry but he was too far up the beach. Hypothermia ought to round the day out nicely.

And to think we have a whole week ahead of us, with gale force winds in the forecast. Oh yes, I’m sure that getting here was only half the fun. I jumped in with both feet.

We got some funding through United Way to do a series of pocket markets this season. It is an interesting juggling act trying to support local farmers and still make the food affordable to seniors on fixed incomes. We had our first market a week ago and bought way too much food, but the leftovers went to our very grateful west side social service agencies, who are strapped for resources and still manage to feed people. It is particularly satisfying to see the market happening in the South Granville area – a food desert. There used to be an assortment of green grocers, bakeries and butchers, now there is one, very high end gourmet grocer. When we did a price comparison, their conventional produce was higher than organic at Capers. Many seniors travel quite a distance to get to the nearest, more affordable store.

All are welcome at our markets, so come on out and support us!

Kitsilano Neighbourhood House and the South Granville Seniors Centre will host “pocket markets” from the end of June through mid-September this year. These small, temporary markets will help to bring fresh produce closer to where people live, and in particular seniors who may have trouble accessing nutritious food. The fruits and vegetables will be purchased from local farmers, but the markets themselves will be run by Kits House staff and volunteer members of the Westside Food Security Collaborative (WFSC). Pocket markets support local farmers, increase access to healthy food and strengthen the community food system. Vouchers will be available to low income seniors through west side social service agencies. The pocket markets are being offered with the support of the WFSC; funding is provided by United Way. More information and dates on the Kits House web site.

Can urban agriculture save the world? My friend David Tracey (Guerilla Gardening, A Manualfesto, New Society, 2007) and I did a series of podcasts that attempted to answer that question. All of our guests (there have only been three to date – a roof top farmer , an urban farmer, and a uniquely local corner store) answered no or probably not. They are probably right.

Michael Pilarski, founder and director of Friends of the Trees Society, has explored the role of home gardens in world food production. Pilarski makes the case that 50 percent of the world’s food supply could be grown on 10 percent of the arable land. He ventures a guess that currently gardens supply somewhere between 10 and 20 percent. Guess it depends how you define home garden. He hauls out the usual urban ag precedents, the World War II Victory Gardens and Cuba after the Russians pulled out.

So just how much land do you need to feed one person? There are a lot of differing facts and figures out there. John Jeavons (How to Grow More Vegetables, 10 Speed Press, 1974) from Ecology Action in Willits, CA came up with a pretty good estimate: 10 feet by 100 feet (1000 square feet) or 1/43 of an acre. Pilarski says he can feed himself on about a tenth of an acre and puts in about 8 hours a week. Worldwatch Institute says a third of an acre will feed three people. Those figures do not include livestock; an acre of leafy veggies can produce 15 times more protein than the same land devoted to meat production, according to Frances Moore Lappé).

In the city, sometimes the acreage can be spread out over several yards. Craig Heighway of Kitsilano Farms is a SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) farmer. His “farm” is in nine different backyards – none of them his own. One of them is the front yard of a mansion! Urban farmers like Craig sell their produce at local farmers’ markets or through Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) programs. One group of these urban farming daredevils in Vancouver set up a market of their own, guerilla style, right along a bike route so that cyclists could stop and pick up dinner on their way home.

Another urban ag innovator is Will Allen, a former pro basketball player turned farmer. He may not have saved the world, but it’s a safe bet that he’s saving lives through his organization, Growing Power. The group trains low income youth at their intense urban farming and greenhouse operations. They began in Milwaukee and Chicago, but their projects are now dotted around the world.

Many cities have warmed to the idea of carving out more gardening space for their citizens. We now have a permanent community garden on the lawn of Vancouver City Hall. Alice Waters, chef, author, and owner of Chez Panisse, talked the Mayor of San Francisco into letting her plant a large vegetable garden right in front of City Hall. It was the showpiece for a Slow Food festival; 85,000 people showed up! Waters called the garden “the ultimate symbolism” and encouragement for others to grow their own. The most famous symbol of all – Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden at the White House – a sight not seen since Eleanor Roosevelt’s WWII victory garden.

So urban agriculture is sexy right now. But is all the hype about growing food just spin? I remember when we started the worm composting program at City Farmer. Residents of Vancouver could sign up for the one hour “wormshop” and go home with a complete kit to set up on their balcony or patio. The program was funded by the City; it diverted a miniscule amount of waste and was expensive for them to run. But every time we advertised, our compost hotline calls would triple. Often the caller would be more suited to a backyard bin, but it was an educational opportunity. We’d invariably get a call from the media – worms are media darlings – then we could spread the word, thicker and wider. The City saw the value in it, they still fund the program. The wormshops always sell out. The phone still rings off the hook. Nevertheless, some would say the world is still going to hell in a hand basket.

Urban agriculture may not save the world either, but it’s sure building awareness about healthy food and more resilient food systems.

Wed. July 7, 6 to 8pm

Join me on this delicious walking tour of coffee and chocolate – my two favourite food groups. And thankfully, we have plenty of both on the west side of Vancouver.  We’ll visit Buen Café, a fair trade coffee shop and Capers/Whole Foods Market, to hear about the retail side of things. Then we’ll dive into Chocolate Arts where chocolatier Greg Hook will wow us with his wizardry and tell us about single origin chocolate. We’ll wind up at 49th Parallel Café for some coffee art. Along the way we’ll discuss the two delectable “beans” from the high end gourmet to organic and fair trade. Part of the Exploring Food Systems Summer Series. $35. Register at info@gardenheart.ca