Posts tagged as:

alberta

Purpose and Product: the Beginning of a CSA Part III

August 10, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

Last weekend, a few of our CSA members headed out to Linden, Alberta for another visit to Oxyoke Farms. We’d been out a month or two before that and had a great time.
I took a few videos from this last trip, but Windows Vista didn’t seem to like them, so I’ve been struggling for the [...]

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Planting a Food Forest in Calgary #yyc events

Thumbnail image for Planting a Food Forest in Calgary #yyc events July 16, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

Rob Avis of Ravis Sustainable Consulting will be leading his Introduction to Permaculture class in transforming a Calgary lawn into a viable food forest. He already has enough help to do it, but anyone who would like to check out the progress is welcome to stop by.
“It is a pretty powerful message and great to [...]

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The First Delivery: the Beginning of a CSA Part II

Thumbnail image for The First Delivery: the Beginning of a CSA Part II July 13, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

The following is part 2 in an ongoing series documenting the inaugural year of the “Knox-yoke” CSA, a collaboration between Knox United Church and Oxyoke Farms. You can view photos of the visit to Oxyoke in mid June here.
The garden at Oxyoke is big, but not unusually so. Robby steps between the rows, grabbing his [...]

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Calgary Cowbell – New Independent Media

June 25, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

I’m sure many of our readers have come across David Wilson’s work by now. I’ve been a fan of his viewpoint articles in Fast Forward Weekly for the past few years. More recently, David launched a Blogspot blog called “Calgary Cowbell,” the goal of which was to “[ring] in a more sustainable, equitable, and democratic [...]

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Finding Oxyoke Farms: the Beginning of a CSA Part I

Thumbnail image for Finding Oxyoke Farms: the Beginning of a CSA Part I June 24, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

The decision to visit was somewhat spur-of-the-moment. A family friend, her two children, my wife and I piled into a Subaru station wagon one afternoon and took off toward Linden, Alberta, not knowing what exactly to expect. It’s about an hour drive from Calgary. We pass through Beiseker (past their statue of “Squirt” the skunk, [...]

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Gardening gets tough in Spring ‘09

June 15, 2009 by Theresa C.

In almost every way, this Spring is turning out to be a completely different gardening experience than last year.
In Spring ‘08, it seemed like the seeds I planted all sprouted nicely, grew steadily, fended off pests and even the odd hailstorm. Rain fell from the sky in reasonably-timed doses, and by early July I had [...]

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Calgary Farmers’ Market Goes Corporate?

Thumbnail image for Calgary Farmers’ Market Goes Corporate? May 14, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

The Calgary Farmers’ Market has become a fixture of the Calgary culinary and local food community. In fact, it was the place where I eventually discovered the joys (and pricey-ness) of local food fare. Some of my favourite farmers still sell there, like Valta Bison and the Innisfail Growers co-op.
However, the Farmers’ Market has always [...]

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Towards Sustainability: One Couple’s Working Model (Part II)

Thumbnail image for Towards Sustainability: One Couple’s Working Model (Part II) April 6, 2009 by Jonathan Wright

This is part 2 of a series of articles penned by Jonathan Wright, a Calgary area farmer and co-founder of one of the city’s first community supported agriculture programs. Jon operates a zero-emission farm called Thompson Small Farm near Carbon, Alberta with his partner Andrea.
Thompson Small Farm has different ideas about “sustainable” from those of [...]

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Introduction to Permaculture 12 Hour course – #YYC events

Thumbnail image for Introduction to Permaculture 12 Hour course – #YYC events March 31, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

From the website:
In a world of fluctuating food and energy costs, Permaculture design offers a positive sustainable way forward. This course will show you how to apply sustainable design to many situations from the patio to the pasture. Come and get a taste of what Permaculture has to offer.
Learn how to design and redesign all [...]

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Towards Sustainability: One Couple’s Working Model (Part I)

Thumbnail image for Towards Sustainability: One Couple’s Working Model (Part I) March 30, 2009 by Jonathan Wright

Over the next few weeks, the New Resilient will be featuring several articles penned by Jonathan Wright, a Calgary area farmer and co-founder of one of the city’s first community supported agriculture programs. Jon operates a zero-emission farm called Thompson Small Farm near Carbon, Alberta with his partner Andrea.
I used to be a conservationist. [...]

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The dilemma of year-round local food in Calgary

Thumbnail image for The dilemma of year-round local food in Calgary March 19, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

You hear it often, even from those dedicated to the cause. Sure, you can eat locally in Calgary—but not year-round. A friend of mine from church worked for Alberta Agriculture in the 1970’s, when there was a push for Albertans to eat more Alberta food products. One refrigerated storehouse for carrots, he argued, burned more [...]

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Local food production and the Alberta “advantage”

Thumbnail image for Local food production and the Alberta “advantage” February 20, 2009 by Ryan Slifka

As Mike detailed yesterday, the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently reported “impressive growth for local agricultural markets,” with annual spending on local food up to $449 in the last year in the average household.
However, the real question is whether or not this is thanks to the policies of the provincial government. Rather, [...]

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Alberta Spending on Local Agriculture Rises

Thumbnail image for Alberta Spending on Local Agriculture Rises February 19, 2009 by Mike Soron

Alberta’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced yesterday “impressive growth for local agricultural markets.”
In a study of 1,000 Alberta households, 90 percent reported purchasing local food in the last 12 months. Nearly one in 3 households say they will buy more local food next year.
Annual spending at farmers’ markets per household rose [...]

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