Urban Farming in the St. Clair hood!
As April moves into May, we begin to anticipate the bounty of fresh produce soon showing up at the Wychwood Barns Farmers’ Market. (For a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Market, check out our interview with Cookie Roscoe) For some of us it is also time to start planting our own vegetable patch. Urban farming has a long history and is showing up in our neighbourhood in a number of surprising ways.
While backyard gardens with tomato plants and cucumber vines may be a familiar sight, you can now find chicken hutches popping up, like the one Michael’s family on Arlington have. It houses hens Brownie and Baby, who will soon be joined by two more. Michael admits that over the past three years his family has learned a lot about raising chickens.
St. Clair West resident Michael with his backyard chicken hatch
The large run, surrounding the hutch, had to modified by adding a chicken wire roof after a raccoon took one of the hens. The chickens are fed mash, table scraps and green compostable garbage, which meets the family’s ecological goals. During warm weather the hens usually produce one egg every day but fewer when it’s cooler. The hens lay their eggs in various places. Once, after looking for days, the family found 17 eggs in the basement window well.
Clipping their large wing feathers prevents flight so they can roam in the yard during the day. Michael tells about a hen that tapped on the dining room window one evening when they had forgotten to put them in the run for safety during the night. Maybe not as dumb as their reputation.
The family’s young children really enjoy Brownie and Baby, sometimes carrying them around the yard stroking their “soft” feathers. It is obvious that this family activity is fun and enriching for all.
And Michael isn’t the only one making use of the UrbanHensTO pilot, which allows Toronto residents to keep hens in specific areas until March 31, 2022. One local woman has been crossing the road to walk her neighbour’s chickens during lockdown, and was recently featured on BlogTo!
Her neighbour just so happens to be former city councillor Joe Mihevc. You can listen to our oral history interview with Joe here.
Another ‘farm’ project happens further west in Regal Heights where neighbours have banded together for the most Canadian of activities, maple tree tapping. Watch this video to hear the story of their maple syrup production.
Foraging may be the next form of farming to return to the hood. To understand how it can be done, listen to Michael Colle talk about his family’s adventures!
Michael Colle reminisces about watching neighbours collect asparagus, mushrooms and arugula from patches near the tracks at St. Clair and Keele
For more information on one of the first farm settlements in the area, check out this blog post about Irishman Bartholomew Bull’s farm, which he built in 1824 near Dufferin Street and St. Clair West.
How lucky are we. Whether purchased at the Farmers’ Market, or harvested from your backyard, our neighbourhood is overflowing with nature’s bounty. Enjoy, and Happy Spring!
- Rita Nelson and Diane Mohan