It was back in September 2018, when I decided to host a Farmer's Market at Laurentian University. I had no idea how to go about getting Farmer's to come to campus, but managed to have two local veggie growers agree to give this first time market a chance. One was a young female named Leah who was super excited and also happened to be a student at Laurentian. I met Leah and instantly was amazed with what she was doing. She is an urban farmer who grows out of her small little apartment in the Donovan and has a yard sharing program as well as participates in all of the local farmers markets. She started her own business and has become quite the well-known farmer in the Sudbury community. After the market ended, I started following her on social media and learned she also runs workshops. At my workplace we decided to bring her in for a mental health week initiative called DIY succulent event. A big success and a lot of fun, I then started following her journey and realized I wanted to learn from her and get to know this industry a bit more.
For my genius hour project, I designed my own internship, to learn from Leah and get to know my cities' garden and farming community. Here is the process for what I have done so far and what I have to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. As she is a farmer and a student, working around her busy schedule definitely slowed down the process.
Research:
Some questions I wanted to know before meeting with Leah
- What goes on in my community with regard to farming and gardening?
- How much time can I dedicate to this initiative?
- how long is the farming season in the summer? Market season etc?
Meetings and Scheduling:
March 23rd - Meeting with Leah to discuss potential role and understand what all she is involved in ie workshops, community groups, planting, markets etc.
March 30th- Meeting with Leah to finalize some dates for April and May as intern
Internship Activities:
April 17th- Attend as guest for the spring meeting for the Sudbury Community Garden Network. 5:00pm
April 27th- Shadow Leah at the Southridge Mall Spring Farmer's Market ( 9:30am-2pm)
April 28th- Half day with Leah to see her plots at home, visit the Flower Mill Community garden, visit one of her yard share plots.
April 29th- Assisting at workshop " Gardens Open for Schools" for educators to learn how to grow seeds in their classroom and connect with community gardens. 6:00pm
May4th- May 25th-Saturdays from 9:30am to 2:00pm working the Farmers Market booth for Leah's Backyard.
June- TBD but a few session of visiting yard shares and doing some planting. This is weather dependent.
I am definitely looking forward to learning from Leah and getting more involved in the garden and farming community. I have already learned so much that goes on in Sudbury that I didn't know before including many active community groups and committees contributing to local food production. They are listed below.
Sudbury Community Garden Network - https://www.liveablesudbury.org/sudbury_community_garden_network
Food Shed Project- https://foodshedproject.ca/about-us/
Cultivate Your Neighbourhood Program-
https://foodshedproject.ca/cultivate-your-neighbourhood/
Flower Mill Community Farm- https://www.facebook.com/FlourMillCommunityFarm/
Social Planning Council of Sudbury- http://spcsudbury.ca/
Roots to Harvest-http://www.rootstoharvest.org/
For more details on Leah and her work visit https://www.facebook.com/pg/leahsbackyard/about/?ref=page_internal