Agriculture – TWC Interactive

A Place Where Plants and Community Thrive

Adam Kramer September 30, 2021

The road to the Working Centre Market Garden is not through country fields of corn or soy, barley or hay, rather it runs though city streets and neighbourhoods. You can arrive on the Number 6 bus, or by bike or foot, if not by car. And when you arrive, you are met with sun shining through the fruit trees, or raindrops on puddled paths, and the call of a robin or a wren as the osprey circle overhead. You are met by gardeners, eager to tell you stories if you’d like to listen. Eager to have your help with some weeding, or eager to get in a harvest and share it with you.

A Productive Urban Garden

Joe Mancini September 30, 2021

The Working Centre’s Market Garden is now in its 10th year. It is an excellent example of converting 1.5 acres of privately owned vacant land in the heart of the city into a community-based market garden.

The Mystery of Soil

Isaiah Ritzmann March 31, 2021

Soils deserve our attention. This has been one of the most important lessons at the Working Centre’s Market Garden over the past decade. Every year at the Garden as our community plants, weeds, waters, and harvests we have seen how caring for the soil leads to stronger, heartier, more fruitful plants. We’ve learned and explored different methods for caring for the soil. Soil is capturing our imagination. As the power of soil to store carbon is seen as an important way to reduce our emissions.

A Good Season at Hacienda Sarria Market Garden

Adam Kramer September 1, 2020

The sun has been shining this September and the growers at Hacienda Market Garden have been making full use of it! In a challenging year, the garden has been incredibly productive and heading into fall we are very pleased with the growing season so far and are feeling confident and hopeful for the seasons to come!

Expanding Urban Agriculture

Joe Mancini June 1, 2018

In The Pleasure of Eating, Wendell Berry reminds us of the importance of being involved in the work of producing food. He urged readers to:

“participate in food production to the extent that you can. If you have a yard or even just a porch box or a pot in a sunny window, grow something to eat in it. Make a little compost of your kitchen scraps and use it for fertilizer. Only by growing some food for yourself can you become acquainted with the beautiful energy cycle that revolves from soil to seed to flower to fruit to food to offal to decay and around again.”

Why have we limited our imagination when it comes to questions about food? Berry challenges us to create new ways of working that will regenerate the landscapes around us.

Agricultural Craft at The Working Centre

Adam Kramer March 1, 2018

Striving to understand how these natural systems function and adopting practices that work with them, as opposed to against them, is important work for all growers. Even “expert” gardeners will tell you there is always more to learn!

The Cultivation Project

David Schumaker September 2, 2016

Over the last year, The Cultivation Project (TCP) operated within the Hacienda Sarria Market Garden (HSMG) and GROW Greenhouse to strengthen volunteer involvement. In particular, our goal was to reach out to people who face challenges to volunteering and employment. This is no small task. Garden staff and interns wear many hats. They are at once farmers, entrepreneurs, customer liaisons, problem-solvers, foodies, couriers, teachers and community builders. As a result, we are often limited by time, personnel and structure. This year’s project gave us the resources to expand all three.

Market Gardening: The First Year

Adam Kramer March 1, 2013

Over the winter months there is time to pause for reflection on the progress made in our first season at the Hacienda Sarria Market Garden. An ever expanding community of volunteers and contributors made this impressive garden possible. We look forward to continued growth of the garden and community in the years to come.

Youth Mentorship in Urban Agriculture

Margaret O’Shea Bonner June 1, 2005

Given a chance, any of us has the possibility of changing our lives. Tyler, one of twelve youth in the Youth Mentorship in Urban Agriculture program at The Working Centre, knows this first-hand. He has always loved cooking, but finding an opportunity to develop these skills has not been an easy task. “I started cooking when I was five, taking things out of my mom’s cupboard and making stuff, I loved doing that, but when I looked for work all I could find was a dishwashing job”

May Place Garden Establishing Roots in the Community

Karin Kliewer September 1, 2003

Since the early spring, the formerly vacant lot on May Place has been filled with the steady hum of garden activity. Whether sod was being turned, raised bed boxes were being built, compost was being shoveled, or seeds were being planted, the once forgotten Kitchener lot has seen few days when someone was not busy digging into the midst of this downtown community project.

Tag: Agriculture