Little Urban Farm on the Prairie

"I'm so glad you are doing this, somebody should be."

That's what Pat said when she heard of Lettuce Connect's Inaugural (Food Warrior) HarvestTrek2012.  She, along with her co-gardener Dennis, is pictured below in the picture I took at the South Zone Community Garden.

Pat & Dennis taking a break from tending their community garden plot in Regina.

There I was, barreling through the Bread Basket of Canada, and not expecting to see much other than wheat and cattle (and other large cash crops like canola).  Bread Basket is the name I learned in grade school for this region of Canada. The prairie provinces of Alberta/Sasketchewan/Manitoba grow wheat and other grains/pulses that are exported around the world,  This adds a huge amount of export dollars to the Canadian economy and I could safely state that this vast resource is one of the pillars that helped to construct this country and continues to form the economic foundation of two of these provinces. (Alberta now has an economy centred on oil).

I was heading through the capital of Sasketchewan, Regina, and contemplating the fact that the soil in this region could grow all sorts of crops but economically it makes a lot of sense for these farmers to concentrate on solid cash crops like wheat.  I was approaching an exit marked for the University of Regina when all of a sudden my food warrior whiskers started twitching. Out of the corner of my eye I had spied a rather large urban park that had stakes and vines and all sorts of interesting looking growing activity.  I missed that exit but set about winding my way back to what I suspected was a University testing farm since it was so large and was adjacent to the University.

I parked my car across from the largest urban community garden I've ever seen in person. I took this short panoramic video of the garden to try and capture the size of it:

Contest worthy pumpkin:  over 300 pounds!

I could not see any signage but I could see quite a few people working their plots so I set off towards the fruit trees at the corner and then started following ripe produce which made it like a hopscotch game...jumping from one impressively ripened vegetable to another until I happened upon an enormous pumpkin (pictured).  I marvelled over the enormity of it and the complexity of the growing system supporting it (complete with solar panels, irrigation system and a frost blanket that gets put on nightly).  Nearby, I spied Pat and Dennis independently working on their own plots and asked Dennis if he minded if I asked him a few questions.  Pat was brought into our conversation when Dennis hollered over to ask her to help clarify one of my questions.  Because I had more than a few questions once I found out that this enormous community garden was not, as I had thought, a demonstration garden that was part of the university.


Dennis told me that the South Zone Community Garden site was maintained by the city in the department of Community Services.  There was approximately 320 plots available for a $35-50/annual fee (depending on size of plot) and yes, there was a waiting list.  The fee included access to water that was easily reachable by the many hoses and water taps placed throughout the site and in the fall the fields were plowed so that each plot was ready to go for the spring.  There was some concern expressed by Dennis about the permanence of these plots since the university owned land was supported by the Wascana Centre Authority and the city but what with this large parcel of land adjacent to the university, there was pressure to use the land for housing or expansion purposes.

It has been my experience that people that grow their own food tend to be very food aware and Pat and Dennis were no exceptions.  They both shared stories of the personal impact these garden plots had on their lives. Dennis also maintained another plot in a different area of the city so his retirement springs and summers were spent happily planting, weeding and harvesting.  The bucket around his neck in the picture was to hold the 'September' raspberries he was growing. He had obtained this raspberry plant years ago from the University who had thought it might be a great variety to grow in the prairies due to the late fruit but Dennis said they gave up on it due to the 'problems' including double budding fruits and wastage at the end of the very short growing season available in the prairies.  Pat told me that her grandchildren really enjoyed coming with her to the plot and yes, they enjoyed the pumpkins that she was growing but that monitoring the progress of the large contest worthy pumpkin was the main attraction by far.

The talk of food security took a sombre twist when Dennis asked Pat if she had heard about the largest Saskatchewan pork producer filing for bankruptcy that very day (September 13th, 2012).  He told us that the meat producers were on the front line for feeling the effects of the American mid-west drought of 2012.  The price of animal feed had skyrocketed.  Dennis' own farmer brother was a beneficiary of this very same drought since he was getting over $8 a bushel for the wheat he grew. This year other feed like oats and barley have seen similar increases and this is the stuff that feeds the animals in our food chain. We all contemplated this and I pointed out that this is why having large urban community gardens was important. Every urban dweller should have the chance to grow at least a small amount of food because that gives an individual or a family some small measure of food security. I also mentioned that allowing urban hens gives people a similar opportunity and as our food systems become controlled by just a few corporations, small actions like urban farming will become increasingly important to the continuity of our collective knowledge base about how to feed ourselves at the most fundamental level.

As we talked the sun took a noticeable dip in the horizon and I was reminded that I had interrupted their work with my questions. I thanked them both for their time and as they hurried back to their harvesting and digging tasks I informed them that I would try and get their story up soon. Pat was especially excited at the opportunity to have her moment of 'fame' on my fledgling blog even though I assured her that the readership was currently in the dozens rather than hundreds (or thousands).

But I totally get her enthusiasm.  Us food warriors, we use weapons of mass instruction to disseminate and educate. And hopefully, after reading this, she will carrot a modicum of pride at the plot of land she maintains on the Little Urban Farm on the Prairie.  She and her grandkids.  And their kids.  And so on.

Playing with Food

In the late 1990s, at the launch of this food warrior's quest for good food, a favourite meal for my toddler daughter was one that included beets. I would let her paint her skin with the beet juice and that just delighted the two of us, each and every time.

So imagine my own fond recollections when I went to a recent Songwriters United Blitz (organized by the talented Russell Leon) this past weekend at the Free Times Cafe here in Toronto and heard the rather sexy song "Beets in the Cellar" performed by Maria Kasstan. I recorded it with my new fancy smart phone (quality is not too bad, reduce volume a bit) and I post it here for you to get a taste of this fantastic songwriter/performer if you haven't already been so lucky.  That night I recorded her two other food themed songs too:  Why do the Bees Buzz? and An Act of Love.  And then a surprising water themed song was performed by musician/water activist Peter J Slack (water makes up to 96% of food content so it is important to connect food to water issues).

Many people in the Toronto food justice scene will recognize Maria.  I have gotten to know her over the last few years and felt a review was in order.  Creating radishly different things is part of our mission here at Lettuce Connect and Ms. Kasstan's work definitely falls into that category.

Ms. Kasstan is a professional busker.  She has been a lifelong musician but only returned to a professional calling to it in the last decade - having raised four children and after being tragically widowed in 2004.  She is also the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to bees or seeds.  She is a founding member of the Toronto Beekeepers Co-ooperative, a long time volunteer with Seeds of Diversity and the Toronto Raging Grannies and she knows a thing or two about mushroom foraging too.  To say I feel privileged to know her would be an understatement. In fact, I went to a Toronto Yonge Street Speaker Series session last November and Josh McManus, a social innovator based out of Chatanooga, Tennessee, mentioned that in this current world we have neglected the importance of elders and he suggested that each of us needs to build our own clan of elders around us.  Maria was the first person that came to mind when I heard that suggestion.

Her best busking nights are Saturday nights so when I asked her if she could perform at an upcoming (very low budget ie no performance fee) second anniversary party for Food Forward (a Toronto food advocacy organization that Lettuce Connect supports) she was a bit disappointed to hear it was on a Saturday night.  When I told her not to worry, that we would find someone else because we here at Lettuce Connect understand that although Food Justice events are fun and important for the greater good, they don't, in and of themselves, put food on the table on a regular basis.

But 'resistence is fertile' so they say and Ms. Kasstan said:  "No, no no...send me the details and I'll let you know."  So with fingers crossed, this food warrior awaits confirmation that yes, you too can hear her perform live and experience the magic that is Maria :)

And by the way, in the interest of supporting food artists, you can download Maria Kasstan's album that contains 11 original pieces for less than $10 CDN at  http://www.division68.com/home/store.html  [scroll down a bit].  They are not all food themed but there is enough on this album to fill you up...you won't walk away hungry after listening.

Foodutainment arrives in Hogtown's Liberty Village.

What happens when you get a group of people that love good sustainable food and they decide to do something constructive about it while smashing the current restaurant business model at the same time?   Maizal Quesedilla Café in Toronto is what can happen, that's what.


When you think of yet another latin american infused restaurant opening in Toronto you might feel the urge to stifle a yawn.  This Food Warrior (FW) did too, until enough tweets about them from fellow FWs in Toronto made our own FW whiskers "twiver".  In fact, we were intrigued enough on their opening day to detour to their Liberty Village location to grab some food to try on our way to another food warrior event that evening.


Upon walking into the gorgeously laid out restaurant - complete with a retro styled stamped tin ceiling - you immediately forget that you've walked into a strip mall.  And when we saw who was running the place we knew immediately that things were radishly different.  The owners of the restaurant (Gabriela and Ivan) are really shaking up the good food scene with this endeavour. Like their peers at Chocosol, they view food as an opportunity for community nourishment and they are taking things to a whole new level with this restaurant.


Ivan met our FW at an organizational meeting for the Toronto Urban Agricultural Summit happening this summer.  And, subsequent to that initial meetup,  at a Toronto Food Policy council meeting where he and his fellow team of farmers presented information about their efforts at starting a near urban agriculture co-operative farm in Brampton.  This farm is growing some of the food that will be eventually used by this restaurant.  And what is not grown here is grown on small sustainable farms in Mexico that they have a direct relationship with.  The Brampton farm in itself is an innovative model since it is the first co-operative near urban sustainable and ecological farm for the greater Toronto area - and this is why they were presenting at the Toronto Food Policy Council.  The fact that this farm is behind the delicious food on offer at Maizal is a subtle but key enhancement to the traditional supply chain management model that most (nearly all) restaurants in Toronto participate in.  Lettuce Connect hopes to soon take a day trip out to the farm and investigate things further on that front.


The second component to Maizal's rock solid food warrior status is their use of the traditional method of preparing the corn.  The restaurant has a volcanic stone rock on display that they use to grind the corn.  Lettuce Connect hopes that some local schools discover this ready-made afternoon trip that will provide kids with a short excursion into the history and tastiness of traditional mexican food.  Ivan and Gabriela commissioned an artist to draw the story of corn on their wall so that will provide children (and parents and teachers) a ready made learning/discussion opportunity as they enjoy their meals.  


In short, the food, ambiance and background story is simply a-maize-ing and Lettuce Connect hopes to see many more social enterprise based restaurant models like this sprout up.  It is time to give a fork and grow in soil-idarity to replenish the earth and our bodies.  Kudos to Maizal Quesadilla Café for joining the food warrior army that is sprouting up by folks that want to push food forward in Toronto and beyond!

Foodutainment:  Food Education Entertainment.
The history of corn is illustrated along one of the walls in the main seating area.

Really scrumptious chicken fried quesadilla made with
volcanic stone ground corn, the traditional way.
The volcanic stone grinder is on display.

The deets:
Food Warrior Name:  Maizal Quesadilla Café: twitter/facebook
Food Warrior Location: 133 Jefferson Ave, Liberty Village, Toronto: map
Food Warrior Weapons:  Vegetarian, Local, Sustainable, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Legume Free, Vegan offerings 
Food Warrior Accessibility:  No (but there are plans to change this)
Food Warrior Value:  All meals are pledged to remain under $10.  Above (did I mention it was delicious?) meal was $7.50 + taxes.  Traditional Mexican drinks are served.  All non-alcoholic at the moment - they are awaiting their license.