Urban Cottage / Urban Farm

I grew up in small town southern Ontario. I spent most of my childhood outside, tearing up the streets, camping in the summer and later, spending time at my parent’s boat on Georgian Bay. I eventually went to art school and received a BFA with a major in photography, and now find myself with an MA working in a museum collection specializing in photographic objects.

I have always been interested in food though. I put myself through school tree planting - first as a planter for two years in northern Ontario, then as the camp cook for six. For a couple winter seasons I ran the small kitchen at the ski hill I grew up skiing on, and picked apples in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia for a few months one fall. I have been the food-truck girl on commercial and movie sets, and was also the baker of sourdough bread at an organic restaurant for a few years (I recently tried to grow my own sourdough but to no avail). I have always been interested in tradition in the form of recipes handed down from one generation to the next. In fact, before I found my legs as a bread baker I used my grandmother’s recipe which consisted of instructions like “a handful of this and a handful of that until it’s just right.” Difficult at first, but it definitely helped me get a feel for what I was doing. So now that I’m (finally) not a student, or running around from city to city and job to job (or in the woods), I’ve decided to do what I’ve wanted to for some time now. I’m ‘cleaning-up’ my food sources so to speak, and taking the time to engage a little more in where my food comes from, by making some small changes – buying my dairy from locally sourced organic farms – and taking on a few challenges – turning my 14 x 12 foot deck into a mini urban container farm (I did tomatoes last year and am excited to expand!).

So over the next year or so I’ll be exploring a variety of things related to food sustainability, and all things dirt-related (girls like dirt, right?) – heirloom seeds, dirt composition, and pest management (just look up raccoons in the city of Toronto and you’ll see what I’m up against). I’ll be thinking about the seasons and doing my best to abide by them, eating now, and preserving for later, integrating new skills and ways of living, into my city life. I welcome – indeed need – all advice, input and dialogue, so please let me know what did or didn’t work for you. Welcome to Urban Cottage / Urban Farm!