UrbanWorkbench

From the category archives:

Rural

A Focus on Food

by Mike Thomas on March 11, 2010

in Business, Castlegar, Rural, Sustainability, Urban Farming

While Castlegar City Council makes an impassioned plea for residents to understand the tough times the City is facing, it seems that all the good work, energy and momentum that was generated during the Integrated Community Sustainability Planning (ICSP) sessions seems to have fallen to the wayside.
Council still has a focus on attracting new businesses to the [...]

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Over at the Castlegar Current, there is some venting over the unpaid property taxes owed the City by Mercer for the Celgar Pulp Mill site. Briefly, Celgar decided not to pay it’s property taxes and requisitions for other levels of government to the City of Castlegar by the deadline in August 2009. Now the battle is going to [...]

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Kootenay Grain CSA 2009

by Mike Thomas on December 1, 2009

in Community, Kootenays, Rural, Sustainability, Urban Farming

The Kootenay Grain Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project  is one of the greatest Kootenay-created initiatives for food and sustainability. This year’s harvest was great for some crops and around 50% of expected for Kamut and Spelt. We are yet to open any of our bags of grain or lentils, as we are still making our way through last year’s harvest.

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BC’s Agricultural Plan and Local Food

by Mike Thomas on October 1, 2009

in Kootenays, Rural, Urban Farming

Image via Wikipedia

Flipping through the British Columbia Agriculture Plan, which is a beautifully presented document by the way, I was struck by one paragraph and how little has been achieved on this front, either through policy, or other means…
We will also work with community and farm groups and local governments to help facilitation projects that [...]

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Earlier this year, I suggested that the City of Castlegar look into changing the zoning bylaw, which prohibits the growing of crops in residential areas. The feedback I got from a number of people was that I was overstating the law, or questioning whether the law would ever be enforced.

badseed.jpgI believe that a law not enforced is not worth having, or more appropriately, it should not be applied in a discretionary manner. Last week an article in the Kansas City Star caught my attention. This article describes the trials of an Urban Farm called “Bad Seed Farm” in Kansas City.

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While the Federal Governments in the US and Canada throw stimulus money to the wind, the Municipalities are on the front line of debt, foreclosures and real service cuts. Here’s a sample of my reading list from this week on this topic.

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Urban Grains CSA Harvest

by Mike Thomas on August 18, 2009

in Rural, Sustainability, Transitions, Urban Farming

The Lower Mainland’s Grain CSA called “Urban Grains” has begun the harvest thanks to warmer July weather and the threat of late August rains.

The Kootenay Grain CSA just posted news about the recent tour and should be readying for harvest soon. We’re heading out through Creston next week, maybe we’ll get some photos!
Projects like these [...]

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The following post was written by my wife Robyn, hopefully we’ll see more posts on her perspective of local food and sustainability.
Looking forward to the harvest…
As I gaze across my flourishing garden my mouth begins to water as I imagine the taste of buttery-baked buttercup squash on a cold winter evening.   I ponder the yield [...]

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