On Borrowed Ground is an Educational CSA
In this CSA, I can guarantee you great education opportunites. Like all CSAs, I can't guarantee the amount of vegetables. Please support the great farmers that depend on CSA for their living. www.csaalberta.com will help you find them.
Community Supported Agriculture in
Edmonton, Alberta, in the year 2013
"On Borrowed Ground" allows you to get your hands in the dirt to help our planet. By buying local and eating seasonally, you help to maintain your families health and well being while contributing a smaller carbon footprint and reducing damage to sensitive Eco-systems around the world.
Community Supported Agriculture is like a subscription to a magazine. You pay a nominal fee in the Spring, contribute a number of hours of manual labor each week, and receive produce weekly from local gardens - produce that is grown without chemicals.
You can't get any more 'local' than the garden just down the street. You can't get any 'fresher' than picked by you that morning. You can't get much cleaner than the no chemicals approach with which our gardens are grown.
We all grow ... healthy ... together
Community Supported Agriculture is like a subscription to a magazine. You pay a nominal fee in the Spring, contribute a number of hours of manual labor each week, and receive produce weekly from local gardens - produce that is grown without chemicals.
You can't get any more 'local' than the garden just down the street. You can't get any 'fresher' than picked by you that morning. You can't get much cleaner than the no chemicals approach with which our gardens are grown.
We all grow ... healthy ... together
Why here? Why now?
The reasons 'On Borrowed Ground' was created.
1. Approximately 50% of all food produced in the world is wasted.
2. North American lawns use more resources than agriculture worldwide, and if we continue to grow and golf the way we do, in 30 years we will be eating nothing but jellyfish from the oceans. There is also as much land tied up in lawns as there is in agriculture.Get rid of the lawns, and you can feed the planet.
3. Every year millions of acres of farmland are covered with asphalt and cement as urban centres sprawl across the country.
4. There is a direct link between the rising costs of health care and the increased use of herbicides and pesticides in food crops.
My purpose in starting On Borrowed Ground was to address these issues. As more people reduce their grass by installing edible landscaping and vegetable gardens, we will decrease the quantity of food imported, and the resources wasted on something that is only for show. You harvest when you are ready to eat, and garden refuse goes into an on-site compost bin for recycling back into the soil where it was grown.
We have a wealth of agricultural land right under our feet, and as you drive through the city, note the acres of arable land covered by Kentucky Blue Grass.
Food grown without the use of 'cides contributes to a healthier population, and members will be educated about the importance of eating clean. By using intensive, soil-building strategies, we will address the upcoming "Peak Top Soil" problem. By educating members in proper growing techniques, they develop the confidence necessary to build their own gardens.
Rather than sell my house, buy a farm, and set up a regular CSA, I have opted to stay in the city, where we can begin the process of reclaiming the agricultural lands that have been taken over by urban sprawl. Gardens are borrowed that would not otherwise be used. Yards are developed using Permaculture philosophies. The produce is distributed among members of the CSA.
As we grow, On Borrowed Ground will participate in establishing Community gardens where the CSA gardens are located to further our cause of "Eat Fresh, Eat Local, and Eat Clean!"
1. Approximately 50% of all food produced in the world is wasted.
2. North American lawns use more resources than agriculture worldwide, and if we continue to grow and golf the way we do, in 30 years we will be eating nothing but jellyfish from the oceans. There is also as much land tied up in lawns as there is in agriculture.Get rid of the lawns, and you can feed the planet.
3. Every year millions of acres of farmland are covered with asphalt and cement as urban centres sprawl across the country.
4. There is a direct link between the rising costs of health care and the increased use of herbicides and pesticides in food crops.
My purpose in starting On Borrowed Ground was to address these issues. As more people reduce their grass by installing edible landscaping and vegetable gardens, we will decrease the quantity of food imported, and the resources wasted on something that is only for show. You harvest when you are ready to eat, and garden refuse goes into an on-site compost bin for recycling back into the soil where it was grown.
We have a wealth of agricultural land right under our feet, and as you drive through the city, note the acres of arable land covered by Kentucky Blue Grass.
Food grown without the use of 'cides contributes to a healthier population, and members will be educated about the importance of eating clean. By using intensive, soil-building strategies, we will address the upcoming "Peak Top Soil" problem. By educating members in proper growing techniques, they develop the confidence necessary to build their own gardens.
Rather than sell my house, buy a farm, and set up a regular CSA, I have opted to stay in the city, where we can begin the process of reclaiming the agricultural lands that have been taken over by urban sprawl. Gardens are borrowed that would not otherwise be used. Yards are developed using Permaculture philosophies. The produce is distributed among members of the CSA.
As we grow, On Borrowed Ground will participate in establishing Community gardens where the CSA gardens are located to further our cause of "Eat Fresh, Eat Local, and Eat Clean!"
On Borrowed Ground is an Urban Community Supported Agriculture project
If you sell a man a squash, you feed him for a day. If you teach him to garden, you feed him for a lifetime. On Borrowed Ground is about education. We are here to provide food, but more importantly, we are here to provide education. While you fulfill your participation commitment, you learn valuable growing information.
We also offer consultation and installation of complete organic gardens.
Click here to view "The Farmer's Pledge" , my guide to sustainable growing.
We also offer consultation and installation of complete organic gardens.
Click here to view "The Farmer's Pledge" , my guide to sustainable growing.
Members buy shares to the produce
The produce will vary from week to week, with smaller portions in May being amply compensated for in August and September. Although there are no guarantees (baskets are filled with whatever is ready in the gardens that week), members receive considerably more produce than they would for the same cash at a farmer's market. This is a sampling of the food grown in our local gardens!
Where are the gardens? EVERYWHERE!!!
My front yard, with its perennial flowers, fruit, herbs, and vegetables
This year I have access to 10 gardens, scattered throughout the city. If we haven't got one near you, we will work on getting one.
Members of the current CSA include young families with small children, professionals, seniors, university students, and regular folk like me. People are taught organic growing techniques, and receive answers to their own gardening challenges.
The number and location of gardens I plant is directly related to the number of shares I sell and the home location of the shareholder. Shares are available as working (four hours work per month) and non-working.
Members of the current CSA include young families with small children, professionals, seniors, university students, and regular folk like me. People are taught organic growing techniques, and receive answers to their own gardening challenges.
The number and location of gardens I plant is directly related to the number of shares I sell and the home location of the shareholder. Shares are available as working (four hours work per month) and non-working.
Where is all this going?
Reclaiming urban agriculture land, and educating
people in food production are the main goals in On Borrowed Ground. The project was started in 2009 with four
gardens and two members. In 2010, we
have 10 gardens and eight members. My goal is to double the land base and the
member base each year, with no end to growth.
As it grows, this year's members will take on supervisory and
mentor-ship roles in the gardens nearest their homes, allowing me to
orchestrate the flow of labour and produce throughout the city, along with
garden development and project growth.
