cukes & zukes
Cukes, zukes, dragon-tongue beans and carrots. Oh and tamaters, lots and lots of tamaters.
Today was the first trip of eight to La Ferme du Zéphyr, an organic vegetable farm in the west island of Montreal. That's right, an ORGANIC farm right here on our island. Pretty awesome.
I have created an exchange program. Or at least that's what I'm calling it, "the Eco-Karma Exchange" (kind of cheesy I know, but it came to me on a whim and just sort of stuck). Once a week, I will be taking a group of 3 or 4 high school students (15+) to work on the farm. Later on in the year, those same groups will work at Moisson Montreal, the hub of food banks in the city. And then in April, they'll be volunteering at Santropol Roulant, where they will help make meals for their meals-on-wheels program. I'm pretty stoked about the project. Super stoked in fact. They'll get more out of their volunteerism by being involved in and seeing the process through from the Earth to the plate. And if today was any indication, they're going to learn a lot about people and themselves too. It's the gift that keeps giving.
We arrived at the farm at 9 am this morning and went straight to work picking orange cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. The vines were tall, and the tomatoes, sweet and juicy. Delicious. Later we got a tour from our friendly farmer guide, Alex. He showed us the various fields where they grow herbs, potatoes, beans and lettuce. I never knew kale smelled so good. Like familiar good. It was great. We were hooked.
Their greenhouses also produce spinach, raspberries, peppers, massive 5-foot zucchinis and cucumbers too. Cucumber and zucchini leaves are fuzzy and almost crunchy. Who knew.
The fields had weeds all over them, but working through it, that's exactly what's expected from nature. I'd love to visit a pesti-farm just to compare. The work must be so much easier, but those chemicals must be super heavy-duty if they prevent what I saw today. Makes me want to eat more organic.
We took a break for lunch where we got to know the other guys working there, Sam and Eric. Eric is building a new barn and he was being cheeky and only told me his name minutes before we left. An older fellow, with a good sense of humour. Sam and Alex are both younger, both working there full-time, both passionate about farming. Alex was in the movie business beforehand, and Sam moved here from BC. Not sure why.
On the way back to the city I had the kids document their experience in a journal, with colorful markers, an idea inspired by "The Book" my aunt created for our road-trip to Winnipeg. A seriously awesome keepsake, that will keep the kids busy on the 40 minute drive and they'll be able to read other kids' experiences along the way too. So stoked!
Well this has been a long one, and I could write a lot more, but I'll leave you with a little wisdom I gained today:
We are all made different, on purpose. Different shapes, sizes, lengths, colors, and that's exactly how it's meant to be. Embrace what you have, and give the best of you to those in your life. A carrot doesn't get to decide not to be nutritious one day. It just is. And so are you.
Bad ambient café music mixed with chatter,
Katie
Today was the first trip of eight to La Ferme du Zéphyr, an organic vegetable farm in the west island of Montreal. That's right, an ORGANIC farm right here on our island. Pretty awesome.
I have created an exchange program. Or at least that's what I'm calling it, "the Eco-Karma Exchange" (kind of cheesy I know, but it came to me on a whim and just sort of stuck). Once a week, I will be taking a group of 3 or 4 high school students (15+) to work on the farm. Later on in the year, those same groups will work at Moisson Montreal, the hub of food banks in the city. And then in April, they'll be volunteering at Santropol Roulant, where they will help make meals for their meals-on-wheels program. I'm pretty stoked about the project. Super stoked in fact. They'll get more out of their volunteerism by being involved in and seeing the process through from the Earth to the plate. And if today was any indication, they're going to learn a lot about people and themselves too. It's the gift that keeps giving.
We arrived at the farm at 9 am this morning and went straight to work picking orange cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. The vines were tall, and the tomatoes, sweet and juicy. Delicious. Later we got a tour from our friendly farmer guide, Alex. He showed us the various fields where they grow herbs, potatoes, beans and lettuce. I never knew kale smelled so good. Like familiar good. It was great. We were hooked.
Their greenhouses also produce spinach, raspberries, peppers, massive 5-foot zucchinis and cucumbers too. Cucumber and zucchini leaves are fuzzy and almost crunchy. Who knew.
The fields had weeds all over them, but working through it, that's exactly what's expected from nature. I'd love to visit a pesti-farm just to compare. The work must be so much easier, but those chemicals must be super heavy-duty if they prevent what I saw today. Makes me want to eat more organic.
We took a break for lunch where we got to know the other guys working there, Sam and Eric. Eric is building a new barn and he was being cheeky and only told me his name minutes before we left. An older fellow, with a good sense of humour. Sam and Alex are both younger, both working there full-time, both passionate about farming. Alex was in the movie business beforehand, and Sam moved here from BC. Not sure why.
On the way back to the city I had the kids document their experience in a journal, with colorful markers, an idea inspired by "The Book" my aunt created for our road-trip to Winnipeg. A seriously awesome keepsake, that will keep the kids busy on the 40 minute drive and they'll be able to read other kids' experiences along the way too. So stoked!
Well this has been a long one, and I could write a lot more, but I'll leave you with a little wisdom I gained today:
We are all made different, on purpose. Different shapes, sizes, lengths, colors, and that's exactly how it's meant to be. Embrace what you have, and give the best of you to those in your life. A carrot doesn't get to decide not to be nutritious one day. It just is. And so are you.
Bad ambient café music mixed with chatter,
Katie
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