Food Forest Gardening

Last weekend I was lucky to attend a workshop hosted by The New Westminster Community Gardening Society about Food Forest Gardening.

The term Food Forest may be new to some people. Being a novice gardener myself I only heard about it last year. Although the term and knowledge may be unfamiliar the concept is ancient.

During the workshop we watched a number of short videos including this one about a 300 year old food forest in Vietnam.

As well an ancient food forest over 2000 years old in Morocco.

During the workshop we were given lots of resources as well as some hands on practice as we were at one of the community gardens for the day.

Some ideas we talked about were the concepts of Permaculture, Graywater, and Peak Moment T.V. on youtube.

Regular people growing food is becoming more common, but the way we grow food is changing. GMO's, the green revolution and organic gardening have hit the mainstream. Backyard gardening, community gardens and CSA (community supported agriculture) are growing like wild fires.

Taking an interest in where your food comes from, shopping locally, supporting farmers markets and growing your own back yard (front yard) garden has become common place.

By sharing resources and getting back to the earth each of us are able to take control of our own food destiny.

Lemon Balm -

This summer we grew an herb garden!
We planted a number of herbs, including mint, oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley, dill, chives, and three types of sage. To our delight, five wild Lemon Balm plants grew on their own!
Lemon balm is a native plant in the mint family.

Lemon balm can be used in tea, in cooking and baking, medicinally it can be used for skin care and it even repels insects.



I dried the plants for quite a while, first outside on the back porch but eventually moved them into our games room in the basement.
Finally today I harvested the plants and now I have four 500 ml jars full!

Such abundance and free! Gifts from the universe :)

diggin in

We are famous! Well I never post pictures of myself or children online, even facebook. Recently things have changed! We are on the cover of the local paper! Here!

I have been volunteering with the local community garden society. I strongly believe in their mandate. To bring people together in the community around growing food!

The community gardening society has been successful in securing our first plot for a garden and it is just steps away from my house! There are a number of initiatives under way in the city of New Westminster. Including the community gardens, farmers market, community kitchens, an environmental partners organisation, and a food security group.

Knowing where our food comes from and how to grow food is becoming more important to many people.
To be sustainable we need our food source to be local and to take personal responsibility for food choices.

Every thing you can grow yourself bring you one step closer to nature and you will reap more then a few herbs and vegetables. Growing food is more satisfying then you can imagine! Why not try something new this year and grow your own?

We need a Food Revolution

I just watched this great talk by world renowned chef Jamie Oliver. In this twenty minute video he talks about our food culture, and a need for real tangible change.
We are on the verge of a global health catastrophe and we need a revolution!