Food Action Group
The TC+ Food Action Group gathered for the first time in the spring of 2013. Our goal is to build food security by promoting the local food economy and home food growing. We organize and collaborate widely on a number of annual food-related events and projects, including and a winter Food Film, Seedy Saturday in March, and the Incredible Edible Plant Festival, our spring vegetable seedling giveaway and planting of community gardens. Biennially, we organize an Open Food Garden in August and a World Food Day in October, as well as offering occasional hands on workshops and demos.
Come meet the TC+ food action group at an event to meet your neighbours, have some fun, share and gain skills, learn more about local food, be involved in exciting projects, or contact us at: TransitionCornwallArea[at]gmail[dot]com
Upcoming Events 2019
March 16, 5th Annual Seedy Saturday, Saturday 10:00-3:00 pm, Benson Centre, 800 Seventh St. W. Showcasing regional seed vendors, community exhibitors, educational workshops, and children’s activities. Admission is free, however, donations are welcome. Donations help to support future events by Transition Cornwall+. A family friendly event!
May 25, Incredible Edible Plant Festival, Saturday 10:30 am – 2 pm, Lamoureux Park. This is an opportunity to help people discover the joy of growing their own food! We give away free pots of vegetable plants, offer gardening advice, plant community gardens and run children’s food and craft activities. A family friendly event!
August 18, Open Food Garden, Sunday 11 am – 3 pm, Carriere Homestead, South Stormont. This day in the country is packed with activities for the whole family in a beautiful setting, focusing on sustainable local food production. Admission is free, however, donations are welcome. Donations help to support future events by Transition Cornwall+.
TC+ Food Action Group in the News
Sampling the heirloom and heritage at Cornwall Transition+ Tasting Summer Tomatoes by Lois Ann Baker, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder. Transition Cornwall+ held its second annual Tasting Summer Tomatoes event on Thursday on the terrace at the Cornwall Public Library and one of the organizers Elaine Kennedy said they had seen a steady stream of people coming by to try different kinds of tomatoes.
Edible plant fest keeps growing by Alan S. Hale at the Standard-Freeholder. Experienced and aspiring green thumbs were at the promenade next to city hall on Saturday, to ask questions, learn, have fun, and even take home a plant to care for. It was the Incredible Edible Plants Festival, hosted by the food action group of Transition Cornwall+ with the support of the All Things Food food network. The event attracted a steady stream of a few hundred people to browse the booths and activities. MPP Jim Macdonell even arrived to present the organizers with a certificate for bringing the event back for a fifth year.
A green thumb’s up of thanks for Cornwall city council by Alan S. Hale at The Standard-Freeholder. The council chambers at city hall got a much-needed touch of green on Monday as representatives from the Food Action Group of Transition Cornwall+ brought planters full of edible greens to thank councillors for city’s support of the upcoming Incredible Edible Plant Festival set for May 27.
Past TC+ Food Action Group Events
February 10, Sunday 1 pm, ‘Plant This Movie,’ Cornwall Public Library, 45 Second St E. This film shows an exploration of the current state of urban farming around the world. It provides a great perspective for those who are already practicing or interested in urban agriculture or wanting to be involved in the future. Presenting this now is timely as Cornwall is launching its new Edible Cities initiative this year, with the first plantings of perennial edible bushes and trees in Lamoureux Park. Alain D’Aoust, leading this project, will be on hand after the film to discuss its messages and connect it with our own local experience. And to get visitors really feeling warm and cosy, the Food Group is serving hot soup and buns.
October 14, Sunday, 11 am – 3 pm, World Food Day Open Garden, Carriere Homestead, South Stormont. The free day is packed with activities for the whole family in this beautiful setting, focusing on sustainable food production, both locally and globally. People can take guided and self-guided tours of the property’s fruit and nut groves, winter greenhouse, young food forest as well as enjoy woodland ‘mirror’ walks.
There will be demo stations on different methods of food preservation, and hands-on harvesting of root vegetables, seed saving and children’s nature and food activities, along with music and refreshments using local ingredients.
May 26, Incredible Edible Plant Festival, 2018 10:30 am – 2 pm Justice Building Plaza This is an opportunity to help people discover the joy of growing their own food! We give away free pots of vegetable plants, offer gardening advice, plant community gardens and run children’s food and craft activities.
March 17, 4th Annual Seedy Saturday, 10:00-3:00 pm, Benson Centre, 800 Seventh St. W.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmlaFLg99Dk&w=560&h=315]
Showcasing regional seed vendors, community exhibitors, educational workshops, and children’s activities. Admission is free, however, donations are welcome. Donations help to support future events by Transition Cornwall+ Food Action Group and All Things Food. A family friendly event!
February 24, “Modified,” Film Screening & Dinner, Schnitzel’s European Flavours Restaurant, 158 Pitt St. In partnership with All Things Food, and Eco Farm Day. The just-released documentary, “Modified,” by award-winning food blogger and cooking show host, Aube Giroux, is about how our relationship to food is changing as genetic engineering becomes more prevalent in our food system (www.modifiedthefilm.com). Aube will be present at the screening and will lead a discussion about issues raised in the film.
January 21, 2018, 1 pm, ‘Gracie’s Backyard’, Cornwall Public Library, 45 Second St E. Free film screening and discussion.
“Gracie’s Backyard” is a documentary film about the “northernmost commercial permaculture farm on the planet”. Located at 59 degrees North near Sunne, Sweden, Ridgedale Permaculture is a 10-hectare farm the integrates pastured eggs, broiler chickens, market gardens, agro-forestry systems (and more!) into a enterprise that creates livelihoods while regenerating landscapes. Soup’s on at 1 pm. Free admission. All are welcome!
Articles and Resources
Home Food Growing
SDG Community Garden Network. Interested in joining the SDG Community Garden Network? Just fill out the quick registration form/survey to be added to the events and resource mailing list. Everyone is welcome. Look for updates and more information on the All Things Food website and Facebook page.
Easiest Vegetables to Grow, Mother Earth News. To guarantee the success of your first garden, stick with the easy vegetables listed HERE>> which grow well in minimally improved soil.
The Climate-Friendly Gardener – Union of Concerned Scientists – A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground Up, many tips!
How to Make Instant No-dig Garden Beds, Mother Earth News. HERE>> are several ways to create usable planting space with no digging.
What to Grow in a Small, Basic Garden. Or, general recommendations for the novice vegetable gardener at Seasonal Ontario Food.
Seeds for Beginners, Once you graduate past a few patio tomato plants (not that there is anything wrong with a few patio tomatoes, mind you) you’re going to have to deal with seeds. Here’s what you need to know about saving your purchased seed. More HERE>>
WHEN TO START SEED Need help remembering when it’s safe and smart to start your first spring sowings of vegetable, flower and herb seeds indoors and out? This tool helps calculate when. Begin by entering your final spring frost date, May 24, on the top right of the chart.
20 Crops that Keep and How to Store Them. Garden writer Barbara Pleasant provides detailed instructions for food storage, including curing and storing onions, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, apples, squash and other produce that will last all winter. Read more in Mother Earth News article by Barbara Pleasant.
6 Fast Growing Vegetables. While gardening tends to be a patient process that can’t be hurried, some vegetables reach harvest size more rapidly than others. Six crops if you have both the urge to garden and a need for speed. Read more at Organic Gardening.
A Crop-by-Crop Guide to Growing to Growing Organic Vegetables and Fruits from Mother Earth News. From NutritionFacts.org More HERE>>
When to Harvest Your Garden Produce -Knowing when to harvest will guarantee the most flavorful produce from your garden. Eliminate much of the guesswork with this guide — and never lament a crop picked under- or over-ripe again! More HERE>>
5 Tips for Planting Your Seed Saving Garden, from Seeds of Diversity Canada.
Specific Seed Saving Instructions for Common Vegetables: HERE>>
Prepping Bed, “My goal is to minimize disruption of the soil and to feed and nourish it from the top down, emulating Mother Nature. I’ve been using my system, with good results, for over 30 years.” – Lee Reich.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCRZvK2rJYI&w=560&h=315]
Self-Seeding Crops You’ll Never Need to Plant Again, One of the characteristics of a truly sustainable garden is that it produces at least some of its own seed. With most self-seeding vegetables, herbs and annual flowers, you’ll just need to learn to recognize the seedlings so you don’t hoe them down. More in Barbara Pleasant’s article in Mother Earth News HERE>>
Plant a Perennial Backbone for Your Vegetable Garden, A perennial “backbone” will not only increase the aesthetic qualities of your vegetable garden landscape, but it will also welcome all kinds of beneficial insects and animals to your garden. More in Tammi Hartung’s Mother Earth News article HERE>>
Create Small Fruit Trees with This Pruning Method. This revolutionary pruning method will give you more fruit growing options, because nearly any deciduous fruit variety can be trained to stay compact. Read more in this article in Mother Earth News HERE>>
Use Hog Panels for a Greenhouse: Heavy-duty wire fencing, also known as hog panels, can be arched over an existing garden bed to create a simple, cheap greenhouse frame in a jiffy. More HERE>> in Mother Earth News Magazine.
A Farmden (larger than a garden, smaller than a farm) with Lee Reich:
Permaculture:
Backyard Orchard Culture. This article is an introduction to the gardening technique of “Backyard Orchard Culture” – a system of high density planting of fruit trees which allows for a wide variety of fruit to be grown in a limited space, and harvested over a prolonged period of time. More HERE>>
Multi-functional Plants for the Permaculture Garden, by Phil Williams. If you have a choice of planting a tree, shrub, vine, herbaceous plant, or groundcover that only has one function or another species that fills that desired function and also provides three other benefits, why wouldn’t you plant the more functional specie. More HERE>>
Miracle Farms, one of Canada’s first commercial permaculture food forests, located in southern Quebec:
Diet:
Why You Should Ignore Canada’s Food Guide and Follow Brazil’s Instead. Brazil’s food guide got a radical overhaul last year that we should all pay attention to. The new guide categorizes foods based on how processed they are, rather than what they’re made of. By Genevieve Fullan at Alternatives Journal HERE>>
2015 Dirty Dozen List, The Most Pesticide-Laden Produce You’re Eating – Environmental Working Group releases an updated list of the dirtiest-and cleanest-produce on the market:
The not-so-simple reasons for going vegan. For years, we’ve been making dietary decisions based on the calories, fat, fibre or vitamins and minerals foods contain. But, with mounting concerns over freshwater supply, loss of biodiversity and climate change, it’s time to make the shift away from animal foods and toward a plant-based diet. By Leslie Beck, Globe and Mail. More HERE>>
Tips for making the switch to a plant-based diet. While not everyone is willing to go vegan, for those who are, it’s not something you do overnight or without guidance. HERE are some tips on making the transition by Leslie Beck, Globe and Mail.
I Want to Eat Less Meat. Which other Foods are Good Protein Sources? article by Leslie Beck, Registered Dietitian, Globe and Mail. More HERE>>
Try a Flexitarian Diet for Better Health and a Better Food Budget – Choosing to eat less meat — and eating grass-fed meat when you do — is key to a flexitarian diet, and it will help the environment as well as you and your family. Read more HERE>>
Food Systems
Food, Community and Our Place on Earth. If the trucks stopped rolling, how long could locally-produced food sustain your community? Vicki Robin asks “how do we rebuild our local food systems, so farmers can be prosperous, our soils can be in good shape, so that we don’t lose our capacity to feed ourselves?”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fDJbbAukd4&w=560&h=315]
How Urban Soil Farming Could Help Feed More People. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, much of our planet’s soil is under threat from human activities, including farming and urban sprawl. By Sarah Elton for CBCNews. More HERE>>
Fighting for a Sane Food System, with Joel Salatin. Pushing back against our broken food system by choosing heirloom vegetables, cooking from scratch and eating grass-finished beef don’t make you a food snob. They mean you’re conscientious. More HERE>>
Grocery Stores or Farmers’ Markets: Which Offer Safer Food? article by Globe and Mail reporter Jason Tetro. More HERE>>
Insecticides Devastating Hives –The Guardian (May 2014) Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds. New Harvard study shows neonicotionoids are devastating colonies by triggering colony collapse disorder.
How We Can Eat Our Landscapes, with Pam Warhurst:
I wish to join the food action group.
John, we look forward to meeting you at our film this Sunday at the Cornwall Library.
Karen