An experiment in community and human-scale food production

 There is an apple orchard 20 minutes west of the farm that I am currently living on.   For the last couple of years, only a few select species of apples had been harvested.  The rest had been going to waste.  This year we organized our efforts and created an apple gleaning event that saw approximately 19,000 apples harvested and divided between a group of 45 friends and family members.  About half of the harvest was then processed into cider – making approximately 1000 litres.

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The purposes of the event were to understand the production process, create a fully cooperative event, enjoy food which would otherwise be going to waste and to have a good time.  And we did.  Friends and friends of friends all packed in cars came from London, Hamilton, Toronto, Guelph, Peterborough and Ottawa.  Most arrived Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. 

6 crates picked, 3 used for apple cider

While Friday night was spent relaxing and preparing, Saturday was production day.  Within 3 hours we had the majority of the apples picked and on their way back to the farm where they were later processed.  While some people bottled cider, some were boiling apples for apple sauce while others made dinner for everyone at the event.  All the while a few good glasses of cider and whiskey were joyfully passed around.

The production line included 4 stations:  People at Station 1 moved apples from the large crates into the 'pulper'.  Once a full bucket of apples was pulped (about 1 minute) others would move the bucket into the greenhouse where there were 3 different cider presses set up (station 2).  The person who brought the pulped bucket of apples from the pulper would hand off the bucket to those at the cider press and within 3 minutes the entire bucket would be pressed into a large pot.  Once the entire pot of cider was filled from those at Station 2, the pot would be poured into a large barrel (Station 3).  Here, as people from Station 2 were pouring their newly pressed cider into barrels, people at Station 3 would siphen the cider from the barrel into a small 1 - 2 litre jug.  Anyone at Station 4 would put a cap on the jug, and thus concluded our cooperative assembly line!  It was definitely the sweetest assembly line I've ever been apart of.

People left on Sunday with cars full of apples, cider and lists of drop off locations to those who couldn’t make it.  

Community Apple Cider Production Facility - Seaforth, Ontario

Niagara Grape Glean!

Have you ever considered how much locally produced fruit must go to waste every season? The landscaping company I’m currently working for has a client who owns a grape vineyard in Niagara. Due to major construction, the grapes weren’t being harvested this year.

What a perfect opportunity!

Although I was too busy with work to head down to the vineyard and see the glory for my own eyes (endless grapes) we processed the last of the grape supply into grape juice just last week.

From the amount of grapes in the picture we produced grape juice, grape jelly, grape jam, raisins, fruit leather, and had a bunch of grapes leftover.

If you’re in the Hamilton area let me know if you want concord jam.  I can hook you up.

In defence of Suburbia (well, kind of...)

                                                                               

Introducing > The Suburb of Ancaster

When we think of the phrases "walkable neighbourhood" or "active transportation" what often comes to mind is the revitalization of urban streets as opposed to suburban streets.  In Hamilton, like in many North American cities, walkable neighbourhoods are an urban issue - concerning the city core.  In our attempts to advocate for walkable neighbourhoods and active transportation we often exclude suburban neighbourhoods from the discussion. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm sure this is an issue in many larger North American cities: As living downtown becomes less of a pubic safety issue and more of a trendy convenience, it is suburbia that has to deal with the imbalance (i.e.: aging/inefficient/oppressive infrastructure).

I'm seeing this trend already in Hamilton.  Ancaster's situation relative to downtown Hamilton is a perfect fit for this scenario.  To most Hamiltonians, Ancaster is where the rich live.  They live in a sea of large stucco houses on either side of the 403.  They commute to work.  They live up on the Mountain, looking down on the rest of the city, a couple hundred feet below.  They are also probably arrogant, stuck-up, is what the going stereotype would suggest.

This passed Winter at the Hamilton Transportation Summit I met someone who works with the  Ancaster BIA and a newly formed group called Preserve Ancaster Village.  She told me all about the City's plans to widen one of the main roads which runs through Ancaster.  The City, she told me, plans to widen Wilson St. from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, cut down a bunch of trees which line the sidewalk, get rid of the grass barrier between the sidewalk and the road, and add roundabouts making pedestrian crossings almost impossible while making it easier for cars to speed through the suburb.

Knowing the amount of attention the once-neglected inner-city neighbourhoods of Hamilton have been getting in the past couple of years I assumed that not many Hamiltonian's were too concerned about suburban road-widening projects.

I was right - my new friend from Ancaster assured me that not many people were in opposition to the City's plan, nor did many people know of it.  Not only are suburban neighbourhoods not a fad (unlike rough inner-city neighbourhoods), but community engagement in suburbs is weak.

In the last couple of months I've been working with Preserve Ancaster Village.  Their current agendas include forming a group of citizens in Ancaster who will represent the City's opposition in the Wilson Street road-widening issue.  My involvement with Preserve Ancaster Village has been to help them efficiently organize and affectively communicate the groups' agendas.  This information will strengthen their argument when approaching City Hall. 

It's been pretty cool working with them, though the one thing that I have learned is this:

As North American's increasingly become city dwellers - moving from sparse suburbia into dense urbanicity - I feel as though suburban social issues will become neglected and overseen; just as issues in our inner-cities once did.

Whether a road is widened in a run-down neighbourhood in the inner-city or in an exploding suburb on the fringe makes some but little difference - it is a struggle either way, one where pedestrians and cyclists will have to deal with the consequences of being structurally oppressed.

So the question I am left with after all this is: do we punish suburbia or do we defend suburbia?

Waterfront Development, West Harbour and Rheem

Proposed developments just left of the rail yard

The Stadium debate of last Summer and Autumn left waterfront development plans stagnant and many buildings purchased by the city vacant.

 

Though many suggest it's situation relative to the Harbour is ideal for recreational use, the nieghbourhood surrounding the old Rheem factory is left not knowing what the future holds for it.

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The West Harbour has been on the radar of the City for many years.  As time has gone on (and as all the industry in the North End has closed down) the waterfront is beginning to seem much more appealing than it once did.

In the last decade the City and the Waterfront Trust have been investing in a handful of waterfront development projects - the most recent (and popular) being the developments at Pier 8 including the Williams Coffee Pub and the newly acquired Discovery Centre.

The City has purchased a number of houses and warehouses around the West Harbour, further west of Pier 8.

With the stadium not being built here it leaves this area without a plan.  My guess is that the buildings which the City had anticipated demolishing will sit for a few more years until the City opts for demolition, leaving the lots vacant for another decade or so before they decide to turn much of this area into parkland - extending the recreational use of the West Harbour further west.

For now, rows of houses are boarded up and warehouses empty until a decision is made.

Biking downtown in timelapse!!

Today I rode my bike down to the property management office.  This is what the bike ride looked like.

Listor Block Progress...

Almost done.  Last week they brought down the building to the left of Listor, 2 weeks ago traffic calming devices went in.

Glad that the City decided to go ahead and restore this giant building.  It was one of downtown's largest vacant buildings until not too long ago.  A little historical fact - this building was the first indoor mall in North America!

Before - February 2007

After - August 2011

On Leadership & Silliness: Derek Sivers @ Ted Talks 2010

Had to post this... found it on a friends blog.  Valuable lessons!

As a side note, this video has been edited since I uploaded it to the blog.  Today's date is Dec 11, 2011 and I am now, for the first time, seeing the advertisement in the last 2 minutes of this video.

                  "we have to move toward more sustainable fuels in the future.  It takes time. 

                  And in the meantime, we need to find the oil that we can to supply the earths 

                  needs."

This is greenwashing at its finest.  Whoever made the decision to attach this advertisement to the end of this Ted Talk is completely undermining the value of the videos' purpose.  Is this the kind of leadership - as Sivers would suggest - we should be validating?  I'll choose to follow a nut who has innovative ideas, rather than one who speaks about energy demands while obviously not understanding them.

Thanks for the lesson, Derek Sivers.