SpongeG
Aug 14, 2007, 2:34 AM
Concrete jungle may give way to an urban vegetable patch
Ward Teulon is growing more than just vegetables in four east Vancouver backyards between Fraser and Victoria.
He's growing an idea.
Teulon, a 43-year-old agricultural scientist who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, is planting what he hopes will be the seeds of a new way of living in the city.
As founder of CityFarmBoy, a network of organic backyard farms where he grows vegetables to sell on the commercial food market, he's promoting a way of life that not only takes advantage of the nutrient-rich soil the Lower Mainland is built on, but also provides a locally grown alternative to modern and usually distant agribusiness.
It's very simple really. He wants to turn your lawn, or at least 500 square feet of it, into a vegetable patch.
"My mission is to get urban agriculture happening because there are more than enough mouths to feed here," Teulon says of newly-christened Metro Vancouver. "And the more the merrier."
He got the idea from studying urban agriculture in Cuba where up to half that country's food supply comes from small city holdings like the ones he works on.
This year, his first in business, with only about 2,200 square feet in production -- including 600 square feet of his own -- he figures he might make $5,000 selling produce at local farmers' markets.
That's why for now, he and his three-year-old son, Samuel, rely on his wife, Jennifer Griffith, and her salary as a lawyer to keep a roof over their heads. But he has already started to cultivate another 1,200-square-foot backyard patch that will add to the haul, and is negotiating with the owner of a fifth backyard about bringing that into production as well.
His aim is to get 15 to 20 backyards -- or at least portions thereof -- producing food under the CityFarmBoy banner. That way he reckons he would have a successful business on his hands that also would provide homeowners throughout the Lower Mainland with a living, growing example of just how productive sustainable city farming can be. Because with a growing season in southwestern B.C. that lasts up to nine months -- from March to November -- the potential is limitless.
"My mission statement is to promote this way of farming as an environmentally positive way to grow food," he says.
The backyards Teulon uses to grow, well, you name it -- carrots, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, scallions, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, basil, thyme, chives, broccoli, pole beans, butternut squash, red cabbage, red peppers, kale, radishes, Swiss chard, fennel, parsley, mint, broad beans, pumpkins, strawberries, corn, sugar peas, runner beans, Durham wheat and an Asian cucumber-like vegetable he can't remember the name of -- all belong to neighbours who either know him personally or contacted him after receiving a leaflet about CityFarmBoy in the mail.
How he compensates them depends on the property owner. One family is so pleased with the idea they don't want anything from him. They even pay him for his produce. Another neighbour, happy to see a portion of his garden once given over to weeds now given over to vegetables, lets it go for as much salad as he can eat. Which, Teulon says, is not much.
"Why not?" says Rene Crosato, whose mother used to grow things in the family backyard before Teulon. "The garden was going to weeds, and you can't eat weeds."
For the most part, Teulon says, people like Crosato who've allocated property to CityFarmBoy recognize the value of what he's trying to do and are doing what they can to support it. It also saves them a lot of money in lawn care -- something about which Teulon knows a great deal.
Before beginning CityFarmBoy, he worked as a specialist in turf-grass management for a large horticulture and lawn-care company.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20070813/75243-23899.jpg
Ward Teulon is bringing the country to the city with CityFarmBoy.
Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
"I was travelling anywhere from 100 to 150 days of the year on behalf of corporate America," Teulon says. "I was living in airports and hotels, and it sucked, especially when we had our son."
So CityFarmBoy is as much a lifestyle change for him as it is an invitation to the rest of us to change the way we look at urban living. It's just that in his eyes, the two happen to meld nicely.
One thing, though. Ask him if he needs a business licence to do what he's doing, and he replies, laughing: "I don't know. The city's on strike. I guess I'll have to find out when they go back to work. But it would look pretty bad if they tried to shut me down, wouldn't it?"
- - -
THIS IS HOW YOUR GARDEN GROWS
Ward Teulon is looking for 10 to 15 more properties on which to grow vegetables for CityFarmBoy.
If you're interested in letting him use part of your property, you have to live in Vancouver -- preferably east of Granville Street -- and have at least 500 square feet of ground available for him to cultivate. If you have more than 500 square feet available, he may be willing to travel farther. How he compensates you will depend on you and him.
He also is willing to help anyone interested in beginning something similar to CityFarmBoy in other parts of the Lower Mainland.
His contact number is 604-812-7848.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f4b4334c-b114-401c-bf9d-4f0ed5228dd1&k=93672
Ward Teulon is growing more than just vegetables in four east Vancouver backyards between Fraser and Victoria.
He's growing an idea.
Teulon, a 43-year-old agricultural scientist who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, is planting what he hopes will be the seeds of a new way of living in the city.
As founder of CityFarmBoy, a network of organic backyard farms where he grows vegetables to sell on the commercial food market, he's promoting a way of life that not only takes advantage of the nutrient-rich soil the Lower Mainland is built on, but also provides a locally grown alternative to modern and usually distant agribusiness.
It's very simple really. He wants to turn your lawn, or at least 500 square feet of it, into a vegetable patch.
"My mission is to get urban agriculture happening because there are more than enough mouths to feed here," Teulon says of newly-christened Metro Vancouver. "And the more the merrier."
He got the idea from studying urban agriculture in Cuba where up to half that country's food supply comes from small city holdings like the ones he works on.
This year, his first in business, with only about 2,200 square feet in production -- including 600 square feet of his own -- he figures he might make $5,000 selling produce at local farmers' markets.
That's why for now, he and his three-year-old son, Samuel, rely on his wife, Jennifer Griffith, and her salary as a lawyer to keep a roof over their heads. But he has already started to cultivate another 1,200-square-foot backyard patch that will add to the haul, and is negotiating with the owner of a fifth backyard about bringing that into production as well.
His aim is to get 15 to 20 backyards -- or at least portions thereof -- producing food under the CityFarmBoy banner. That way he reckons he would have a successful business on his hands that also would provide homeowners throughout the Lower Mainland with a living, growing example of just how productive sustainable city farming can be. Because with a growing season in southwestern B.C. that lasts up to nine months -- from March to November -- the potential is limitless.
"My mission statement is to promote this way of farming as an environmentally positive way to grow food," he says.
The backyards Teulon uses to grow, well, you name it -- carrots, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, scallions, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, basil, thyme, chives, broccoli, pole beans, butternut squash, red cabbage, red peppers, kale, radishes, Swiss chard, fennel, parsley, mint, broad beans, pumpkins, strawberries, corn, sugar peas, runner beans, Durham wheat and an Asian cucumber-like vegetable he can't remember the name of -- all belong to neighbours who either know him personally or contacted him after receiving a leaflet about CityFarmBoy in the mail.
How he compensates them depends on the property owner. One family is so pleased with the idea they don't want anything from him. They even pay him for his produce. Another neighbour, happy to see a portion of his garden once given over to weeds now given over to vegetables, lets it go for as much salad as he can eat. Which, Teulon says, is not much.
"Why not?" says Rene Crosato, whose mother used to grow things in the family backyard before Teulon. "The garden was going to weeds, and you can't eat weeds."
For the most part, Teulon says, people like Crosato who've allocated property to CityFarmBoy recognize the value of what he's trying to do and are doing what they can to support it. It also saves them a lot of money in lawn care -- something about which Teulon knows a great deal.
Before beginning CityFarmBoy, he worked as a specialist in turf-grass management for a large horticulture and lawn-care company.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20070813/75243-23899.jpg
Ward Teulon is bringing the country to the city with CityFarmBoy.
Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
"I was travelling anywhere from 100 to 150 days of the year on behalf of corporate America," Teulon says. "I was living in airports and hotels, and it sucked, especially when we had our son."
So CityFarmBoy is as much a lifestyle change for him as it is an invitation to the rest of us to change the way we look at urban living. It's just that in his eyes, the two happen to meld nicely.
One thing, though. Ask him if he needs a business licence to do what he's doing, and he replies, laughing: "I don't know. The city's on strike. I guess I'll have to find out when they go back to work. But it would look pretty bad if they tried to shut me down, wouldn't it?"
- - -
THIS IS HOW YOUR GARDEN GROWS
Ward Teulon is looking for 10 to 15 more properties on which to grow vegetables for CityFarmBoy.
If you're interested in letting him use part of your property, you have to live in Vancouver -- preferably east of Granville Street -- and have at least 500 square feet of ground available for him to cultivate. If you have more than 500 square feet available, he may be willing to travel farther. How he compensates you will depend on you and him.
He also is willing to help anyone interested in beginning something similar to CityFarmBoy in other parts of the Lower Mainland.
His contact number is 604-812-7848.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f4b4334c-b114-401c-bf9d-4f0ed5228dd1&k=93672