GROW! (and other awesome looking food films)

[vimeo https://www.vimeo.com/27050341 w=600&h=339]

Ten days from now, Nova Scotia will be hosting the Slow Motion Food Film Festival. Too bad for me that Novia Scotia is at the complete opposite end of the country from where we live, but luckily for me, the films showing at the festival are listed on their website. 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but since my own personal interest in food and the farming industry began 12 years ago, I’ve loved watching public interest in ‘food and where it comes from’ increase. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that topics like urban farming, organic gardening, growing your own, eating local and permaculture weren’t nearly as widespread (and still spreading!) 12 years ago as they are today. It seems that everywhere I look, there are new films, photo essays, editorials, blogs, academic classes and tourist destinations popping up to discuss, discover, study and explore the topic of food. THANK GOODNESS.

I thought it might be helpful to promote the Slow Motion Film Festival on this blog to give readers a good looking list of food-related films to consider putting on their ‘must watch’ film list. Of course, this festival film list is hardly exhaustive – there are oodles of great foodie films circulating on the internet and in theatres right now, but if you need a starting place, this is a good one.

Some films from the list that are going on my ‘must watch’ list:

GROW! (trailer included at the top of this blog post) A documentary film that captures the energy, passion and independence of a fresh crop of young farmers.

Dive! Dumpster diving to salvage thousands of dollars of good, edible food.

Land Awakening Exploring our relationship with the land.

Voices of Transition (trailer below) On farmers and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change and peak oil. 

PLANEAT A look at how our animal-based diets are the cause of our most challenging health and environmental problems. (trailer here)

[vimeo https://www.vimeo.com/29977725 w=600&h=339]

The Richmond Sharing Farm & Bokashi

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The Richmond Sharing Farm (also known as the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Project) is a very cool food sharing project that occupies over three acres in the Terra Nova Rural Park in Richmond, B.C. The main purpose of the farm is to grow food to share with loca food banks and other outlets that help get the food to people who need it. In addition to this, the farm hosts community garden plots, university level research areas and permaculture educational experiments.

On the second Sunday of each month, the farm hosts a free permaculture meetup. My friend Chris and I have attended the last two and plan to attend more. The photos above are from the October meetup. It was a gorgeous, fall day and Chris and I had a chance to participate in a bokashi-making workshop as well as tag along on a guided permaculture tour of the property. 

Bokashi is a form of composting that is ideal for small, indoor spaces because it produces compost without creating bad o
dours. At the workshop, we were taught how to make our own bokashi mixture that is added to composted food to help break it down. The concept was totally new to me and since I didn’t take notes or video footage, I’m having to rely on wikipedia now for reminders about the details, but in short, bokashi is created by combining a mother bacteria with a starter mix (we used bran), then left to sit in a warm space for at least 3-4 weeks to allow the bacteria to start spreading through the mix. When it ready to use, you add a layer of mix over your compost scraps as you accumulate them. You keep it all in an airtight container so that the bacteria can do what it does best – ferment and break the food down. You can stack one container inside another and add a spout to the bottom one to catch and use the compost tea (liquid) that is created as the food breaks down. Compost tea is great for spraying on gardens and into soil. If you’re interested in learning more, this website looks really helpful and has some good visuals. We each got to take a bag of the bokashi mix home (fun!). Mine is currently sitting on a shelf above my fridge (the warmest spot in the trailer), awaiting it’s time to be used for my compostable food scraps.

As you’ll see from the photos above, our tour of the property included the community garden plots, examples of owl houses, swales in a wet areas, hugelkulture beds in process, the greenhouse, bee houses and a beautiful outdoor cob oven (which just got a new roof). 

The farm property is GORGEOUS and truly an inspiring place to spend an afternoon. It’s open to the public for visits so if you live in the area, I highly recommend it. And if you’re interested in attending some of the permaculture meetups, sign up to the Vancouver Permaculture Meetup Group for ongoing info. 

October farm to-do-list

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This blog post is a little late now that there’s only one week left before November begins, but the group of us met earlier in the month to discuss our goals for October. We haven’t been very good at meeting regularly to discuss farm matters, create goals and divvy up the managing of projects, so our October meeting was intented to kick-start regular monthly meetings and to inspire us to make lists and get stuff done.

October projects:

  • plant spring bulbs (around the property, including the guilds)
  • plant perennial seeds (if we want some?)
  • plant garlic, radishes, broad beans and spinach
  • cut back raspberry canes
  • transplant new trees & shrubs ($150 allocated to new food trees)
  • dig up an offered cherry tree waiting in a friend’s yard & relocate it to our farm
  • do dump & recycling runs with trash on the property
  • set up rain barrels
  • create a ‘potting’ table
  • complete duck paddock
  • get hay (for animal bedding & for mulching)
  • research free compost & bread (for chickens) options
  • build rabbit tractor

Longer-term goals discussed:

  • expand fencing 
  • expand guilds into a food forest 
  • fix house roof 
  • expand chicken run & produce more eggs 
  • be more intentional about harvesting 
  • prepare to join farmers market 
  • expand food growing areas 
  • create food storage systems – cold storage & greenhouse 

Looking at this list now, it’s clear that we have a busy week ahead of us to get everything done that we wanted to complete in October. It’s good to make lists, but even better to review them. Time to get cracking!