The Sharing Farm is celebrating successfully growing 500 lbs. of greens in the middle of the worst winter for years.
This is thanks to the generous support of Vancity, who funded the purchase of a brand new 70-foot greenhouse last year.
It was quite an amazing experience, when the snow lay thickly on the ground, to be able to come into the greenhouse and harvest fresh kale, arugula, ruby streaks and mustard greens.
A big part of the success was due to raising the beds by building up the soil inside by one to two feet. During the winter most of our land is completely saturated and greens couldn’t grow in such conditions, as their roots would drown.
Knowing this we built our beds high and the greens were safe and sound in their elevated position.
The cold was not a problem. The solar gain was enough to keep the inside temperature at a reasonable level without additional heating and although there was some wilting when the door was accidently left open during the first snowfall (rookie error from the new ED, ahem!) the greens resurged remarkably once the nasty breezes were cut out.
The cold also had the added benefit of killing off the aphid population!
The icy blast also made the kale sweeter; almost reminiscent of fresh peas. Some members of the cabbage family, particularly kale and brussels sprouts, produce sugars as a reaction to the frost, which we can confirm is absolutely delicious!
The greenhouse can now be used every year to grow winter greens and can also be used in the summer to grow tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplants and more.
We are so grateful to Vancity for giving us the opportunity to expand our production and donate even more to our neighbours in need.
We’d also like to thank Lafarge, who donated the concrete for the footings. It’s wonderful to see local companies come together to build something great for the whole community.
In the first volunteer session of the year we were able to harvest 300 lbs. of fresh, nutritious greens to donate to the Food Bank.
It was a great start to 2017 and we’re looking forward to plenty more donations to follow.
Sarah Drewery is the executive director of the Sharing Farm, a non-profit farm in Terra Nova Park, which grows food to donate to the food bank and community meal programs in Richmond
