Garden Photos

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Urban Agriculture in Vancouver

City Farm Boy has been farming in Vancouver since 2006, starting with only two gardens, the urban farm quickly grew to 14+ gardens including a large rooftop garden in downtown Vancouver.

In 2007 all the veggies were sold thru the local farmers markets.
In 2008 the Community Supported Agriculture model was adopted and a few garden shares were offered. The Farmers Markets were also regularly attended. The year was a challenge with alot of cold, wet weather, but the spinach, and other salad greens loved it.
In 2009 the majority of the food grown was sold thru Garden Shares, with a few Farmers Markets shared with a fellow urban farmer, Kitsilano Farms, to sell any overflow and test market crops. This was an excellent year for pretty much everything. My tomatoes got blighted out again, but not before a good harvest had been pulled. The garlic was perfect. And the bugs were slow to start due to the cold winter.

2009 City Farm Boy Garden Share

Each year I get a little smarter, and this year definitely raised the bar for me, in regards to quality and quantity. I also became significantly more efficient. Combine this will awesome weather and it resulted in a bounty for the garden share owners and a profitable year for the farmer.

In all I grew around 40 different crops this year. The diversity hedges my bets in case of insect or disease (or cat/raccoon). It's also alot more interesting than growing a couple of different crops.

Harvesting Methods

The majority of the food harvested for the Garden Shares is harvested that day, or in some cases like herbs or peashoots, cut fresh when they pickup.

The veggies are not bundled and bagged, they come straight out of the garden. Each garden share owner selects the veggies they want, and they are responsible for all bags, boxes, etc.
The veggies are cut and handled like a cut flower, placed in water when appropriate, kept in the shade, stored in white bins, and put in the hands of the customer as soon as possible. No refrigeration.
There are no pre-packed bins. Each share owner decides what they want. The veggies are seasonal and local, so each week brings something new to the table.
I harvest the majority of the food the day before market to ensure maximum freshness. Many of the herbs are harvested immediately prior to a market. Many of the vegetables are harvest with the entire root system intact to enhance quality and freshness.

No pesticides are applied.
Organic methods are used, but we do not currently have organic certification.

The vegetables travel less than 5 km's to market.

2010 City Farm Boy Garden Shares

Early in the new year I will be posting the
2010 Olympic Garden Shares.(-:

I provide existing share owners the month of February to renew the share, and in March the remaining shares are offered to the public.
I will be offering some new shares in 2010, but they generally go fast, so apply early.

This raised bed grew several large buckets of crispy, beautiful spinach.

Tasty white and orange carrots. The first harvest.

The Ultimate in Freshness!