Edmonton's Green and Gold Garden growing more than veggies
A small plot, an orchard and a berry patch are making a difference half a world away
Maureen Metz and her 3½-year-old son Angus are on the hunt for raspberries at the Green and Gold Community Garden.
"He loves it. Being outside burns off energy, and he definitely knows more right now than probably I did in my teens about where food comes from," says Metz, a nurse and the garden's volunteer co-ordinator.
This one-hectare plot, on the south end of the University of Alberta's farm on Edmonton's south side, is where local volunteers grow 60 types of vegetables, herbs and flowers for sale to the public.
"Right now it's harvesting, getting the potatoes out of the ground and carrots and beets," Metz says.
Metz says there's a family feel here — "open and accepting." The place will "take anybody who's passionate about being outside and getting their hands dirty."
WATCH | Take a tour of the garden:
You can see more from the University of Alberta Green and Gold Community Garden on Our Edmonton on Saturday at 10 a.m., Sunday at noon and 11 a.m. Monday on CBC TV and CBC Gem.
Ian Fischer, chair of the community garden, says the space is about thinking globally and acting locally.
Proceeds from the garden's twice-weekly farm stand support a project in Rwanda called the Tubahumurize Assocation.
Sales from the garden have generated close to $500,000 over the past 14 years for the not-for-profit organization. It supports socially and economically marginalized women through counselling, vocational training and micro-credit loans.
In 2008, gardeners Sarah Bowen, a professor in the U of A's School of Public Health, and her husband Eduardo Parada, secured the space for the garden from the university.
"They had made a close connection with an international student whose father had been killed in the [Rwandan] genocide," says Fischer.
He says the garden has recently added a berry patch, an orchard and a hoop house — a temporary greenhouse — to the operation, increasing the amount of produce being offered to customers until mid-October.
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Pat Wong, a volunteer, proudly gives visitors tours of the garden.
"It's lovely, I feel very good," Wong says. "I think we all need help at sometime in our lives and this is a little bit of a contribution."
She enjoys seeing Edmontonians line up at the garden to purchase the bounty.
"I talked to one of the customers on Saturday, she's buying leeks for the third week in a row. She says the leek here is really tasty."
Over her seven years of volunteering, Wong has also picked up some gardening tricks of her own.
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