SPEC AGM and Holiday Party

SPEC recently hosted its 2008 annual general meeting and its holiday party. We had a great time meeting with our members, enjoying local food made by board members and celebrating our volunteers.

Here is Vicky Baker who won our 'volunteer of the year' award.
Thanks for all your hard work and dedication Vicky!
Teomi and Betsy Mae enjoying the party.

Joanna, Saskia, Dan, Jay and Betsy Mae eating food and watching the slide show.

AGM meeting

Karen and Gerry getting down to business.

A full house.

The board members were responsible for bringing the food and beverages. Our goal was to make our spread as local (within BC) as possible. It was a great success.

I enjoyed the challenge and made Spelt-Stuffed Sweet Peppers. The peppers were grown at the UBC greenhouse and the spelt, mushrooms and onions were all BC grown. The only ingredient that was not local was the olive oil. Although, I felt it was allowed because I purchased it in Italy from the grower and physically carried it with me home.


Sweet pepper plants growing at the UBC greenhouse.

Spelt-Stuffed Sweet Peppers

Here in Vancouver this morning we awoke to our first snow fall. Its a winter wonderland!
We may just have a white holiday season after all.
Happy Holidays,
Tara

Veggie containers under snow.

coming together

After a couple hiccups with equipment and weather, we now have eight of our ten beds assembled. This is an example of our mini lasagna beds: Step 1: level the bed and soil

Step 2: add a thick layer of newspaper (cardboard works too). This is to prevent weeds and other nasties from coming up

Step 3: fill with leaves (and other organic material as you can get your hands on)

For this one we have also installed a floating cover, which we hope to plant overwintering crops in. Nice view!

One setback, which we'll have to see how serious is next season, is this root disease that we found on both our tomatoes and beans. Any suggestions for prevention or treatment welcome!

a view from above! That's us, by the benches, the green field is city square, and Cambie Street is behind it although the garden is NOT visible from the street

a view from the south

We have disbanded our regular Sunday meetings, but there will still be chances to get involved! Write to SPEC or to bakervicky@shaw.ca to find out how!

City Square happenings

Well, it's been a long time and we've been busy in the garden. We've harvested green beans, tomatoes (mostly cherry), a few tomatillos, a few beets, a cabbage, a couple (small) carrots, squash, and more lettuce. We also planted strawberries, and are wathing to see if some of our other late plantings will produce anything.

zorka and the mighty cabbage
beautiful squash
yes, they (whoever they are) finally painted the benches! (although I think we could have done better....)
teomi and a perfect tomatillo, which has filled it's papery covering
mmmm, cabbage. notice how the one on the right split - irregular watering?
cam and the clippers, making more light for the garden!
corn, which never got fertilized, but gives us hope that it may actually work!
liz and the fruits of our labours - THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!
our garden grows more than food.....

SAVE THIS DATE!! NEXT SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, at 10am, we will be meeting to close down the garden and install raised beds in preparation for next season. Come join the fun and become part of our community of gardeners!

Sorrento in September

Nancy, Laura and I spent three great days in Sorrento, BC participating in the BC Food Systems Network. The theme for this years conference was Food without Fossil Fuels: Re-establishing Local Cooperation and Interdependence. Laura and I presented our work from the demonstration gardens and the pesticides safe disposal project. There were many interesting and inspiring talks that examined food issues and amazing food projects from a local and global perspective. It seems there is much work to do to improve our food system and it was wonderful to meet people who devote their lives to this cause.

The gathering's youngest participant.

In addition to attending some great talks, there was also time to enjoy the beauty and land of the Secwepemc territory. The nearby Neskonlith reserve was home to Grand Chief George Manuel who was a leader in bringing aboriginal rights into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The site and staff at the Sorrento Centre were very welcoming.

Laura enjoying a swim in the lake.

Nancy getting her apple supply for apple pie.

Laura picking apples.

The gathering was a wonderful way to refuel the soul and to get geared for fall.
Thanks to SPEC for the opportunity to attend.
Cheers,
Tara

Turning in the tomatoes for roof reno's

Its time to clear the roof in preparation for some roof renovations. We are getting ready to put in a new deck - so exciting! It means we have to close the shop down early for the season.

Volunteers are needed for Wednesday September 10 at 10am on the roof to help prepare. Please join us.

Carole picking the last of the tomatoes. Even though the poor plants were sickly with what we think is a potato blight they did manage to produce some lovely fruits.

Carrots did great growing in a container. We planted the seeds in mid July and harvested some lovely carrots in early September.

Members of the food committee enjoying fresh carrots.

Laura, our summer intern, has returned back to university for the fall. We celebrated all her hard work with a 'Laura Lunch'. We enjoyed the most delicious Indian food.

Ladies dining for Laura Lunch.

Our rainbow lunch at Akbar's Own. It was fabulous.

Its amazing that September is already here. We will keep you posted on how the rooftop renovations go.

Happy Harvesting!
Tara

let the rains begin

goodbye, summer...it has certainly been a busy one...

Karen, a SPEC director, and volunteers at Burnaby Discovery Day Festival in July

participants from the Sustainable Food Youth Dialogue, hosted by SPEC and the Fraser Basin Council

Our new brochure on the Safe Disposal of Pesticides is now available for free in over 20 garden centers around Vancouver! Find out about Vancouver's pesticide by-law and what this means for you, as well as how to dispose of unused pesticides and empty pesticide containers. Plus, find useful tips on enhancing your lawn and garden eco-system.

Safe Disposal of Pesticides Brochure Display

And finally, more on the rooftop garden.
The wet weather combined with a heavier watering schedule has led to a few more harvests.

The tomatoes seem to have recovered slightly,
but the cabbages have gone to the critters. We might need to look into some critter-proofing methods for the fall.

Time to kick back and enjoy the last of summer-I've had a great time at SPEC, it's been a blast. Have a great long weekend everyone!

-Laura, SPEC summer student

Hot fun in the summer time...

August is turning out to be a scorcher! I love it.....but it sure does make things here in Vancouver pretty dry,

Our carrots are doing well in their containers.

Laura, our summer intern and Christina from the Fraser Basin Council did a great job of moderating a Sustainable Food Youth Dialogue on Thursday night.

People dialoguing at Thusday's meeting.

This weeks cru of rooftop volunteers.

The view of Maple Street Community Gardens from our roof.

A critter in our cabbage? A little something (perhaps a mouse) has been nibbling on our cabbage and some other things.

Its amazing that we are more than half way through August. How can that be?
Over and out,
Tara

What's growing on the roof

On our roof the flowers are in bloom; plenty of chrysanthemums and alyssum to keep beneficial insects coming back again and again!





Echinacea

The peppers are doing quite nicely,


and so are the cucumbers...


...the eggplant is trying its best to keep up!


Let's hope we get many more harvests like this one!
basil, nasturtiums, tomatoes, lettuce, parsley

There have been some recent signs of critters munching on our veggies, for now we will just watch and wait to see if they keep coming back.

Watering the plants continues to be an issue since it can get very hot on the roof and dry out quickly. We are going to try giving them more water at a time to make sure the water reaches all the way down to the deepest roots (and doesn't just evaporate from the top of the soil). I'll let you know how this goes!

-Laura, SPEC Summer Student Intern