What to do before the weather dips below zero degrees and damages the still-green tomatoes dangling from your plants?

What to do when you want to help farmers and gardeners grow beautiful heirloom pumpkins next year?

Well let me tell you!

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting volunteers from ING Direct Canada  for the day. And boy, did we need them with a full-day of harvest activities at both Winchester and Sprucecourt!

Tasha, Alycia, Jen and Dwayne were wonderful volunteers and I know the children really appreciated their company.

In the morning we brought these beautiful Kakai Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) that we procured from our pals at Chocosol to a grade 3 & 4 class at Winchester P.S.. Kakai pumpkins are a Japanese or Austrian variety (depending on who you ask) with gorgeous green and orange stripes, easy to carve skin that are perfect for children’s little hands, and hull-less dark green seeds that are coveted for pumpkin oil production and very tasty to eat!

The students got their hands dirty removing the pulp and sorting the seeds out in order to engage in the age old activity of seed saving. These seeds are going to be dried and given to Chocosol farmers and gardeners so that that they may grow these pumpkins out on a grander scale. Apparently these seeds go quite well with cocoa. Mmmmmmm.

It was fun to also design the carvings.

One of the students even found a kakai pumpkin sprout growing inside!

Scar face kakai pumpkin!

At the end of the pumpkin session I got the students to estimate how many more pumpkins we could potentially grow. If you start out with 5 pumpkins, and end up with approximately, oh let’s say, 1500 seeds, how many pumpkin plants will you end up with? And if each plant produced 5 pumpkins each, how many pumpkins will you end up with in total?!!?!? I like to incorporate mathematics when I can. (GO MULTIPLICATION!)

In the afternoon, the ING team and I were able to work in the Sprucecourt staff kitchen with a group of grade 1 & 2 ESL students making tomato apple chutney, using green tomatoes from the school’s garden.  We also planted some plum trees of the Prunus domestica variety, a gorgeous dark purple or yellow specimen. So fun! Even when the onions’ fumes made a bunch of us cry, we still toughened up and kept going.

How to use knives 101.

Prepping the tomatoes, apples, onions and garlic!

Green tomatoes from the Sprucecourt school garden!

Adding onions and garlic!

Adding brown sugar!

Mixing some spices in!

Ready to cook down!

A good day’s work I say and all around good times!
Shout out to: Tasha, Dwayne, Alycia and Jenn from ING Direct Canada; Ivan and Michael from Chocosol; and Lauren, Mable, David, Cassie, and Liz.

The children at Sprucecourt ate the chutney on crackers the next day! Yum!

And we got this lovely e-mail from one of the Sprucecourt teachers that I have to share:

Hey Sunday,

I just wanted to thank you and Xuan-Yen for the “Chutney” workshop with the kids on Wednesday at Sprucecourt.  They had a wonderful time with the experience and we got some great writing (and tasting) opportunities out it.  My students loved it and were talking about it for the next two days.  Xuan-Yen, it was wonderful working with you.  I would love copies of those pictures when you get a chance to put up on our bulletin board.  I took some more of them writing the steps and ingredients out and tasting it.  If you are interested I can send them your way. 

Also, we would be open to any other workshops before the big freeze ends the season.  If not, definitely in the spring.

All the best,

                   David Cunningham

Do you feel that?

It’s the cool fall breeze rustling your hair.

Do you hear that?

That’s the sound of children’s voices gleefully picking vegetables from their school garden carrying over: eating beans, tomatoes, sorrel, chives and what have you straight out of the garden.

Last week at Winchester, Gabrielle Roy and Sprucecourt children picked a large bounty of vegetables that went into the schools’ lunch and morning snack programs, as well the fresh and immediate consumption! Tomatoes for everyone! Globular and pear shaped, small and big, stripey, red, orange, yellow, peachy toned tomatoes.

We also transplanted lettuce seedlings with one class, which the teacher turned into a procedural writing activity for grade 3 students in the classroom (uh oh, Jan Wong, literacy in the garden? What?).

Other highlights:

Girl’s hair gets tangled in sorrel plant while picking tomatoes. Said student called me over wanting me to see. The perils of gardening. “Dangerous”. We were equally amused.

Joyce at Sprucecourt is a very keen student nutrition co-ordinator and was pleased to accept the garden bounty. Apparently she made potato salad and incorporated the mint (the potatoes at that particular garden are not quite ready for harvesting). She is open to using vegetables she’s never tried before and is looking to make something with the amaranth (aka callaloo, red spinach, lal shaag!), a popular green in many cuisines, the world over!

Transplanting lettuce babies at Sprucecourt.

I also caught some “keen” (read sneaky) students picking beans after school.

And all this time I thought it was squirrels!

snails kissing for the camera, Winchester School Garden

Jan Wong’s silly article “The Horticultural Revolution” ( or as it says on the cover of the magazine “The Stupidity of School Gardens”) in the October edition of Toronto Life just begs for a rebuttal. In advance of the article being posted digitally, I am posting my response here.

Thanks to Jan Wong, I now know that teaching children not to kill snails is communist propaganda. I am not sure how the snails organized into trade unions, but apparently they have done so under the cover of school garden programs offered by my organization, Green Thumbs Growing Kids. Likely they’ve become so clever, and hired me as their covert operator, munching on children’s textbooks left behind in the garden, as the garden commands so much of the children’s attention that academic subjects suffer. Surely the kids don’t need to know where food comes from, or get dirty, in pursuit of the academic success that awaits if they wouldn’t spend so much time caring for snails or lettuces.

Wong missed the point that hungry children don’t learn, and the school gardens feed children real food, high in nutrients that growing minds and bodies require.

Wong’s use of the terms “stupid” and “mucking around”, comparing gardening to fixing toilets, plays on elitist images of working people as dirty and ignorant. The only value she admits is when the youth enter the marketplace and sell produce, which begs the question of how exactly the produce would get to the market if nobody raised it. Agronomists, crop and environmental scientists as well as the entire agri-food industry (1 in 6 Ontario jobs) depend on some knowledge of soil – dirt, if you will. As far as low test scores cited by Ms. Wong, there’s never been any research at Winchester School, so no link has ever been established. School garden research elsewhere in fact suggests the opposite, finding that gardening improves academic test scores, improves nutrition knowledge and uptake of healthy foods. (Toilet-fixing might be improved as well; there’s a research project there I’m sure.) Anyway, it’s not as if students miss class time to garden – garden programs are curriculum-linked and are a hands-on opportunity that deepens classroom learning by engaging children through their senses. Horribly communist, I know. We even make it possible for low-income families to share the produce in summertime – proof of our leftist plot!

Seriously, although there are numerous connections to the Ontario K-12 curriculum, many teachers do not access the garden because of the challenge of teaching outdoors. Notably, Ms. Wong cited no teachers opposed to the use of gardens for instruction or recreation. Back to the standardized testing that forms the backbone (snail shell?) of her slim(y) argument, it is probable that low test scores are related to teaching methods in the classroom or behaviour issues, and it should not be forgotten that many children are functioning in their second or third language when they write the tests at Grade 3 and 6. The EQAO itself is under scrutiny as questions have arisen about its ability to provide an adequate measure of evaluation. At Upper Canada College, students have gardening programs woven into their curriculum, and I have never heard that the sons of high-powered corporate parents are achieving under their abilities or joining the Communist Party because of the beautiful food gardens at the school. But maybe my snails haven’t gotten up the hill yet. Beware.

Sunday Harrison

Executive Director

Green Thumbs Growing Kids

On September 24th, we are hosting our Tenth Anniversary Garden Party! We will be featuring the work of local artists in an exhibit that will be display at the party and we are looking for contributions. We would love for you to submit photographs, paintings, sketches, installations, sculptures – anything! – to us as long as it pertains to the themes of the St James Town and Cabbagetown communities, gardens, nature, environment, and/or food.

If you’re interested or for more information, please e-mail Meghan at greenthumbsparty@gmail.com, subject “art submission”. We need your submissions by Friday, September 16th.

We are proud and elated to announce that it is the 10th year anniversary of Winchester P.S. Community Garden! Come celebrate with us on Saturday, September 24th from 1pm to 4 pm.

Details  (and more to follow!) listed on the poster.

Collecting herbs and berries for herbal lemonade in the garden.

Pre-school aged girl enjoying the aroma of thai basil flowers.

Day camp kids participating in water relay race game

Fresh produce picked by one of our long time garden participants.

Nathalie proudly cradling a freshly picked zucchini, with Sail looking on at Bendale.

Garden program at Sprucecourt led by the youth staff.

Children eating the last of the peas before they have a chance of being taken home and cooked.

Solar oven pizza topped with herbs and a side of sliced mouse melons.

Bees pollinating cup plants.

Growing up as a kid I had to be cautious around food due to my sensitivities and allergies.  It didn’t help that my mom would make sure I didn’t eat foods I haven’t eaten before which can be a potential allergen.  As I hit my teenage years I started to explore other foods with the support of my sister who motivated me to try new foods and to not limit myself.  With the benefits of exploring new foods there was consequences that came with it and it ended up in me lying in a stretcher while paramedics hoisted me up into their ambulance van.

During my senior years in high school I experienced a wake up call at the dentists office where I received 6 fillings in my top front row.  This is where I chose to cut out most of the foods I was eating like chocolate, candy, chips and soda.

Over a period of two and a half years, I’ve made a huge transformation in the foods I eat to assist my healthy lifestyle.  All I wanted 2 years ago was to feel better about myself, improve my asthma and find alternatives to my allergies so I didn’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.  With these goals, I’ve come a long way with doing my own research and purchasing whole foods and snacks without preservatives and additives.  The only problem I have now is the fact that I am limited on finding healthy food that is safe for me and is sustainable.

Also the opportunity last year to work with Green Thumbs and Youth Voices helped me be more aware of food security issues in St. James Town and fresh local food at farmers markets.  Now I enjoy walking into health food stores and organic markets because I feel like I am not only doing a favor for my body with high quality food but I’m also doing a favor for the environment.  Another thing people don’t realize is that by investing in high quality food now, we can limit the medical expenses in the future.

In the present, I have made a huge impact on what my parents purchase and bring home.  With my knowledge I have been able to educate them about certain nutrient dense foods and proper food preparation.  Now I find my mom buying organic carrots and organic spinach and cooking with nothing but extra virgin coconut oil.  Even though my parents don’t agree with everything I tell them I’m glad they support me in my future endeavors.  With all this previous experience, I’m excited to attend Ryerson University for Nutrition and Food in the fall to really learn in depth.  I’ve always had a stomach for good food and a thirst for knowledge.

Okay, okay – I won’t get into that.  I would like instead to impart with you the thrill of being in a buzzing room of passionate Torontonians.  Over 100 people presented deputations to the Parks and Environment Committee championing organizations and services that are currently on the chopping block – the Toronto Environment Office, urban agriculture, Riverdale Farm, and other city parks, just to name a few.  The meeting didn’t end until a quarter to midnight and was concluded by a recommendation to pass these issues to the Executive Committee meeting next Thursday.  Mayor Ford is inviting the entire city to come to the meeting and make a deputation – “even if [he] has to stay three or four days.”  So here’s where I make a little plea for this beautiful city that we call home: if you feel strongly about any of the services whose loss we are facing, I strongly urge you to go out and show your support.

Want an idea of what to write?  Here’s the deputation I presented yesterday:

My name is Meghan Poultney and I am a Master’s student at Ryerson studying Nutrition Communication.  For the past three months, I have been a placement student at a St James Town-based not-for-profit organization called Green Thumbs Growing Kids.  The mission of this group is to teach children the vital skill of growing food while providing education about urban agriculture, nutrition, and environmental sustainability.  They do this by operating four school gardens in the St James Town, Cabbagetown, and Regent Park areas.  They also host programming at city-owned Riverdale Farm and Allan Gardens.

Green Thumbs has been a beneficiary of several grants from the municipal level including the Live Green Toronto Community Investment Program, the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry, and Recreation, as well as a Community Service Partnerships One-Time Grant.  These grants are absolutely imperative to the survival of Green Thumbs Growing Kids as well as many other community groups who promote environmental sustainability, urban agriculture, and greening of this city. This is why my colleagues and I are very concerned about the Core Service Review recommendations made by KPMG to the city, especially the termination of the Toronto Environment Office and the reduction of community services.

As many may be aware, the communities that Green Thumbs serve tend to have a high proportion of low-income and newly immigrated families.  This is a section of Toronto’s population that would be severely affected by the cuts that are being proposed by the Core Services Review.  A 2009 study on twelve low-income neighbourhoods in Toronto by Kirkpatrick and Tarasuk stated that two out of three low income families had, at least once, experienced food insecurity.  Considering that the areas that Green Thumbs serves have been identified by census information as primarily low or very low income, it is obvious that food security is an issue in these neighbourhoods.   Having hungry constituents is certainly not the way that the city may inspire economic productivity, a reduced crime rate, civic pride, or a high standard of living.  Many of the groups and services supported by the city including Green Thumbs, promote food security through education as well as food production.  The garden drop-in that we operate each Tuesday and Wednesday nights in our garden allows community members to participate in gardening and harvesting.  In return, they are able to bring some of the newly cultivated produce home with them.  May I also add that access to fresh fruits and vegetables is inadequate in these neighbourhoods, both in terms of the supply as well as economic feasibility.

Green Thumbs and similar groups are also incredibly important to develop relationships between members of the neighbourhoods that we serve.  For instance, the garden drop-in that we hold is not only valuable for the food that is distributed but also for the creation of a tight-knit community in areas where social exclusion is otherwise prevalent.  This is supported by a study by Wakefield, Yeudall,  Taron, Reynolds, and Skinner (2007) that focused on downtown Toronto community gardens.  This study found that these spaces are vital to promote social interaction and community pride.  Green Thumbs is also a valuable community asset for youth engagement through after-school programs that provide education and encourage leadership.  We are also able to provide summer jobs for neighbourhood youth during the summer months.

The KPMG report to the City of Toronto also states that urban agriculture is a service that could be eliminated in a bid to save money.  Urban agriculture, however, is a growing area of research that will become increasingly relevant to food production as the population of the city grows and available farmland outside the city diminishes.  Urban agriculture may also be advantageous for the city’s economy, especially through the creation of jobs.  As a student of Nutrition, I can’t help but mention the role that urban agriculture plays in human health.  Many urban children believe that their food comes from the grocery store, not from a garden or a farm.  This is not surprising considering that the average family doesn’t grow their own food in their backyard the way they did one hundred or even 50 years ago.  At greater risk of becoming detached from the environmental component of food are those that live in apartment buildings; St. James Town itself has 23 buildings that are home to 17,000 people.  If we want to decrease rates of chronic disease that are projected to cripple our healthcare system, the promotion of accessible fresh foods as a foundation of a healthy diet is necessary.  Urban agriculture is a very important way that we city-dwellers may be able to do that.

In conclusion, I will again urge the members of this committee to advocate for the invaluable merit of the Toronto Environment Office and the services that they provide to communities throughout Toronto.  The proposition that this work can be reduced or, worse, eliminated may make “cents” in the short-term but bodes extremely poorly for the future of the city and those that call Toronto home.  Thank you for your time.