A Passion for Slow Food Grows into a Rooftop Garden
Laura Luciano talks to us about food, the Slow Food movement, and her own rooftop garden.
We chat with Laura Luciano, a graphic designer from Long Island. She loves to find the stories behind locally produced food and the people who grow it.
Her passion for local food grew into her own blog, a column in Edible Long Island, and, eventually her involvement in the Slow Food movement.
Then it grew into an interest in growing her own food. So she created a rooftop garden.
Stories Behind Food
Luciano loves the stories behind the food she cooks.
“Food has a story and it’s supposed to be cherished and told.”
Along with the stories of food, she loves the seasonality of food—and enjoys cooking according to the what’s in season.
Slow Food
She talks about the Slow Food Ark of Taste, explaining that it’s, “A living catalogue of delicious and distinctive foods that are facing extinction.” A local example of a food that’s part of the Ark of Taste is the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin.
“It’s the opposite of fast food.”
Luciano is a Slow Food Governor for New York, and a board member for Slow Food USA.
A Rooftop Garden
“When I got started I did not have a green thumb at all.”
Luciano, who is new to gardening, is in her fifth year of growing. While her property is big enough for an in-ground garden, she is in a rural area with deer—so she decided to create a rooftop garden.
She says that she accepts failure, learns, and tries again.
Tips for other rooftop gardeners? She finds that the rooftop garden is extremely hot, so she creates shade by making plantings that include different plants with different heights.
“Every year I fail at something.”
Building Community with a Brewery Rooftop Garden and CSA
Danette Steele, Farm Manager at Avling Kitchen & Brewery
We chat with Max Meighen, owner of Avling Kitchen & Brewery, and Danette Steele, the Farm Manager for the rooftop garden.
Rooftop Garden
Steele grows a wide variety of crops on the roof., including greens, tomatoes, herbs, flowers for pollinators—and “flavour crops.”
She explains that the flavour crops are used in the brewing process. A recent example is pineapple sage, which was infused in a local honey. That infused honey was then used in brewing.
Steele, who previously farmed in a rural setting in Nova Scotia, say that she is drawn to urban farming.
“Farming is in my blood.”
She explains that there is a strong community connection with the garden.
“I think that’s why it’s a lot of the urban farming that I’ve done has been exciting, because it just engages community.”
Avling Farm Box
Meighen talks about the Avling Farm box, which includes meat and produce. Half of the produce for the boxes comes from the rooftop garden, half from new and small farms in Ontario.
He believes in connecting the community with food producers. Earlier this year he hosted a meet-the-farmer night where customers mingled with farmers supplying Avling Kitchen & Brewery.
1/4 of the Avling rooftop garden
Creating Change with Fruit Trees
Virginie Gysel talks about transforming the grounds of a local church into an edible garden and founding TreeMobile.
Neighbourhood Church Garden
Virginie Gysel joins us to talk about transforming the grounds of a neighbourhood church into an orchard and food garden.
It started when she approached the church about growing vegetables on the property in exchange for looking after the flower gardens. She didn’t have anywhere sunny to grow tomatoes in her own yard.
It led to an orchard on a south-facing hill and lots of community engagement.
She gives bags of produce to church members, donates the harvest to those in need, as well as sharing the harvest amongst volunteers.
“I didn’t have anywhere to grow tomatoes.”
TreeMobile
Gysel founded the volunteer-run project TreeMobile that supplies food-bearing trees and shrubs at a low cost to home gardeners.
“Everyone is talking about food security, but I think we need to start planting for it.”
Gysel says that this self-supporting program also gives grants to schools, church groups, and community groups.
Designing Landscapes
Gysel loves her work in landscape design. When clients are interested, she likes to integrate edible plants.
“I just realized this is the most amazing job in the world.”
She shares some of her top choices for home gardeners thinking about growing fruit. Currants top the list.
“If you have a boring old hedge, why not rip it out and plant a hedge of currants.”
Blending Art and Garden Activism...and Jersey Tomatoes
Jeff Quattrone talks about seed libraries, the Jersey tomato, and creative ways to share messages about food and gardening.
We chat with Jeff Quattrone about his work bringing seed libraries to New Jersey, plant propaganda (not propagation!), and the Jersey tomato.
Quattrone is an artist, lifelong gardener, and marketing professional.
He founded LIbrary Seed Bank in 2014.
Library Seed Bank
Quattrone talks about his journey into seed saving and helping to set up seed libraries.
“The whole idea that food can go extinct was something that shocked me because I didn’t understand diversity.”
Jersey Tomatoes
He is so passionate about Jersey tomatoes that he has a page devoted to them on his website.
“I think I’ve grown just about every one of them and I love them all!”
Quattrone explains that the traditional Jersey tomato was bred to be a 10-ounce, round, red tomato because of the canning industry in New Jersey.
“Jersey tomatoes, they’re part of our zeitgeist.”
Garden Propaganda
As a marketing professional, he finds that people often have a negative impression of the word propaganda. He looks at the fine line between propaganda and branding—and talks about why he thinks garden propaganda is important.
More on Tomatoes
Suburban Farm and Sunken Greenhouse Build Community
Annalisa Pedraza
Spring Creek Community Garden
Annalisa Pedraza joins us from Bozeman, Montana, where she manages the Spring Creek Community Garden.
“Right now we have 30 members and that feeds about 25 households.”
Spring Creek Community Garden was founded by Richard Weaver after he inherited 3 acres of land in the middle of a subdivision. He removed the grass to create an urban farm and a sunken greenhouse.
“We split it family style. Nobody has their own plot.”
The greenhouse is filled with fruit trees and bushes.
Unlike many community gardens, everything is shared. There are no individual plots; and members divvy up the harvest based on what they feel they have contributed.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see a video about Spring Creek Community Garden.
Growing New Gardeners
The gardeners hold a weekly potluck dinner, using garden produce. Pedraza finds that the social interaction is an important part of gardening.
While she’d love it if these get-togethers encourage people to become community-garden members, what she would really like is if they inspire people to make more community gardens.
“What we really hope is that they replicate that elsewhere.”
Annalisa’s approach to growing in based in permaculture. She has recently started her own business, Rising Crane Permaculture, to help other people grow food.
“I wasn’t inspired by the whole currant and gooseberry thing.”
Nourish Community and People with Gardens—and Soup!
Susan Antler talks about Plant·Grow·Share a Row and the Soupalicious festival
In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we start by chatting with Susan Antler, the Executive Director of the Compost Council of Canada.
Susan talks about using gardening and food to make change, the Plant·Grow·Share a Row program and the Soupalicious festival. “Gardening can change the world,“ she says.
In Emma’s Tomato Talk segment, she talks about blue tomato varieties, tomato training methods, and transplanting tips.
In the Biggs-on-Figs segment, Steven is joined by author Helena Moncrieff, who shares the story of a Toronto gardener whose fig tree became an integral part of the neighbourhood. Moncrieff is the author of the book The Fruitful City.
Growing People, Networks, and Food
Atlanta urban farmer and changemaker Maurice Small.
Atlanta urban farmer, food system thinker, educator, changemaker, and worm whisperer Maurice Small joins us to talk about growing people, growing community, and growing food.
Small talks about what got him into growing food, the urban agriculture scene in Atlanta, using gardening as a way to build community, and youth leadership.
“I had the desire to do what my father did with me, which was grow food, share food, propagate plants.“
Small also talks about helping customers understand what goes into food production.
“They know that something might crawl out because we don’t spray.”
Fruit in the Urban Foodscape
Helena Moncrieff, author of The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest
Helena Moncrieff, author of The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest, talks about the many types of fruit that can be found growing in cities.
Fruit plants often reflect the history of an area. Grape vines are common in neighbourhoods where a lot of residents have Mediterranean family roots; cherry trees are common in areas with large Ukrainian populations.
Beyond private yards, Toronto has the relatively new Ben Nobleman Community Orchard, while Victoria, British Columbia has a well established public orchard movement.
Moncrieff became interested in urban fruit—and the people and stories behind it—when her daughter joined Not Far From The Tree, a fruit picking and sharing project in Toronto.
Her favourite fruit to forage in Toronto is the serviceberry.
Connecting Food with Eaters
Dushan Batrovic, an avid backyard food gardener who created an app that connects excess harvest to a good home
Backyard food gardener Dushan Batrovic tells us about his journey into food gardening.
After growing up in a family that gardened, Dushan took a break from gardening. But when he started gardening again, the taste of fresh garden produce made him an advocate for backyard growing.
Dushan gardens in two raised beds, along with a garden on his shed roof. As he was making the shed, he thought, “Since I’m creating a roof here I might as well add a bit of real estate to my growing.”
“Since I’m creating a roof here I might as well add a bit of real estate to my growing.”
Dushan Batrovic’s backyard
Connecting Backyard Growers with Eaters
Working in the tech industry, and seeing how he and other neighbours could harvest more of their favourite crops than they could use, he wondered about ways to share around excess harvests.
Dushan created an app called SeedVoyage, which helps gardeners who have excess produce connect with eaters.
“I Saw the supply and demand mismatch.”
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Urban Farming, Liberating Lawns, Building Community
Cheyenne Sundance at her farm, Sundance Harvest
Cheyenne Sundance talks about how she started her urban farm, Sundance Harvest, when she didn’t see urban farms representing the diversity she felt they should.
A believer that independence is growing food, Cheyenne teaches and mentors youth, sharing her passion for growing food.
Liberating Lawns
An initiative that she started in the spring of 2020 is Liberating Lawns, a neighbourhood-centric, yard-sharing program she hopes will help people reconnect with land and food.
Grow Food Toronto Facebook Group
Cheyenne helps to run a new Facebook group called Grow Food Toronto, which focuses on growing food and food security.
Create a “Food Street” with Food Up Front
Kassie Miedema and Mark Stewart
Mark Stewart and Kassie Miedema join us to talk about a grassroots program encouraging people to grow food in front yards.
The idea is to produce more food locally—and to connect people around food.
Participants in the program can also put up a sign in the garden to raise awareness of the idea—and to stir up conversation.
What does success look like? A food street, with many neighbours growing up front.
Food Up Front is an initiative of Transition Toronto, a chapter of a global movement for change.
“The goal being to create a food street.”
Mark Stewart
Raising 70% on a Half Acre
Rob Croley at Sentimental Farm, in Niagara Canada.
Rob and Chris Croley at Sentimental Farm in Niagara, Ontario, Canada grow about 70 per cent of the food they need on their 1/2 acre urban homestead.
An interest in self-sufficiency that started with growing vegetables has grown to include chickens, bees, mushrooms, goats, preserving, and making soaps and cosmetics.
They know that their garden is more than some people will undertake, but they hope that people who visit their garden will see something that inspires them to produce food at home.
Saving Seeds and the Stories Behind Them
Seed saver, author, and educator Ben Cohen
Ben Cohen, the author of Saving Our Seeds, joins us to talk about seed-saving, seed libraries, and the importance of community seed-sharing programs.
An author, herbalist, gardener, and educator, Ben farms with his family in Michigan.
They started Small House Farm when they realized that they wanted to to slow down and live a more simple life.
Ben is the founder of the Michigan Seed Library, a seed sharing initiative that has helped set up 70 seed library programs.
A Mission to Turn Lawns into Food Gardens
Linda Borghi from Farm-A-Yard joins us to talk about how she got into growing food, her first farm, her move into SPIN-Farming (small-plot-intensive), and her current work in communications with her Farm-A-Yard project.
“I am a biodynamic, spin-farming, podcasting grandmother.” Linda Borghi
Her mission is to teach others how to grow so that they can turn lawns into food gardens. To achieve this, she connects people with skills and information to help them succeed growing. Coming from a business background outside of agriculture, Borhi has a strong interest in the business side of growing—and is keen to challenge accepted practices.
Farm the City, Garden with Grains
Farm the City: A Toolkit for Setting up a Successful Urban Farm, by Michael Abelman
Farm the City
Our first guest is farmer, author, and food system activist Micheal Abelman.
Michael is a visionary of the urban farming movement. In addition to his family farm on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, he’s the co-founder and director of Sole Food Street Farms in Vancouver, an urban agriculture business that provides employment to people managing poverty and addiction. The farm covers 4 acres of land, producing 25 tons of food annually.
The author of many books, his most recent book is Farm The City: A Toolkit for Setting up a Successful Urban Farm.
The book, a tool kit for food activists, shares ideas about setting up and operating an urban farm including finding land, choosing crops, marketing and fundraising, and community engagement.
Gardening with Grains
In the second half of the show, we chat with horticulturist and foodscaping expert Brie Arthur about her new book, Gardening with Grains.
Brie is an advocate of including food plants in the landscape, and a proponent of planting edibles within traditional ornamental landscapes.
Brie gives advice for growing grains from planting to harvest. Ever thought of growing barley? It gives a whole new meaning to the term “beer garden!”
Brie previously joined us on the show to talk about her book The Foodscape Revolution.
Garden Financial Literacy, Rooftop Edible Gardens, Tomatoes with Stories
Gardening and Financial Literacy
Our first guest is Ciara Byrne from Nevada. She tells us how the organization Green Our Planet is training a generation of student “farmpreneurs.” Students operate farmers markets at schools—and, twice a year—there is a giant market with students from many schools setting up in one location. The next market will have over 700 fifth-grade students selling fruit and veg from school gardens.
Ever thought that financial literary could be taught alongside gardening? Green Our Planet uses markets as an opportunity to teach more than gardening: they are an opportunity to discuss customer service, negotiating skills, and marketing.
Ciara is a documentary film maker who, in 2013, found herself working in Nevada. Green Our Planet was set up to use filmmaking as a crowdfunding platform for green projects. When Green our Planet successful funded a school garden project, Ciara saw the opportunity to help many more schools.
Green Our Planet has helped develop Nevada’s first STEM garden curriculum for schools (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Green Our Planet is now growing gardeners and entrepreneurs beyond Nevada. Ciara’s work was recently honoured by the Obama foundation.
“Making school fun is critical.”
Rooftop Food Gardens
In the second half of the show, we chat with Hilary Dahl from the Seattle Urban Farm Company. She combines a background in landscape architecture and urban planning with her passion for creating edible gardens.
Hilary has recently been involved in some inspiring rooftop garden projects in the Seattle area. One of these is the Amazon campus, where a collaboration with a not-for-profit organization means that food harvested from the rooftop garden is used for culinary training for community members.
Hilary explains that the building of many new multifamily dwellings in Seattle has given her the opportunity to be involved in a number of edible rooftop garden projects. She talks about rooftop challenges, and also considerations such as weight and irrigation.
Hilary shares another interest with us: broadcasting. She hosts a fantastic podcast about edible gardening called Encylopedia Botanica.
“Every design I did had some sort of food element.”
Visit the Seattle Urban Farm Company website for more information.
Tomato Talk Segment
In the Tomato-Talk segment, Emma chats with Colette Murphy from Urban Harvest seeds about tomato varieties with a story.
Urban Farming to Build Community
Zawadi Farm
Our in-studio guest is Jessey Njau, who left a corporate job to farm his Toronto backyard. Originally from Kenya, Jessey explains that the name of his farm, Zawadi, means “gift” in Swahili.
His motivation to change careers stemmed from a desire to refocus on family and community. He talks about the relationships he has grown and the generosity he has encountered. Jessey sees food production as a powerful opportunity for social change. “The regenerative context means a lot to me,” he says.
“I love it! My blood boils if I’m not in the land”
As Jessey enters his fourth year of growing, his operation has grown to include more yards, as neighbours see what he is doing and offer him their yards.
“I’m close to having about a quarter acre collectively of backyards”
But it hasn’t all been easy. When first selling at a local market, many people said, “I can find this produce cheaper.” Not sure how to handle the price objection, Jessey remembered the advice of a friend, who told him that to succeed in business, “you need to be crazy.” He decided to be crazy—to break the rules—and sent shoppers home with free vegetables, saying, “Talk to me when you come back next time.” When those shoppers came back, they didn’t talk about price any more. “Once they tasted it, they flew,” he says.
“He was rejuvenating a city by growing food”
Jessey Njau talking about inspiration he felt after Michael Abelman’s book, Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier
Tomato Talk Segment
In Emma’s Tomato-Talk segment, she describes some of her favourite tomato varieties that she has written about in her Harrowsmith Magazine blog.
”It looks like a brain…or a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes fused together.”
Broadfork Dance
Do you use the broadfork? Check out Jessey’s video below…maybe you can help with his project.
Hi, We’re Steve and Emma!
We help people grow food on balconies, in backyards, and beyond—whether it’s edible landscaping, a vegetable garden, container gardens, or a home orchard.
