Featured guests for Green Drinks: Local Food DIY

Love food? Love eating food you’ve grown? (Spoiler alert: there’s nothing like it.) Come by Yellowhead Brewery on Wednesday, March 4, from 7 – 10 pm and learn from some pros just how to grow your garden. Advanced tickets are available here for $10 and, if there are still tickets available, $15 at the door.

We are excited to announce that Joey Hundert  will be introducing the evening.

Joey, the founder of Sustainival, is an Edmonton-based entrepreneur who has been working on local food for about a decade. In 2006, Joey launched Innovaculture to assist First Nations in developing local food production.  In 2011, he took 12 First Nation elders to South Korea to study organic agriculture with the goal of setting up similar small farms on traditional lands in Alberta.  In 2012, Joey founded Sustainitech Inc. to build fully insulated, shipping-container-based vertical farms for growing leafy greens in cold climates. Sustainitech has built three 40-foot Aquaponic shipping containers for the City of Fort McMurray as well as an Aeroponic 20-foot container which is parked behind Range Road, here in Edmonton, pumping out baby arugula. 

Seedy Sunday
Pam McKinnon-Coco & Suzanne Cook

The first Seedy Saturday was held in Vancouver in 1990. Now, Seedy Saturdays and Sundays are held all across Canada  and in many countries around the world. There are always seed exchanges, displays about gardening, composting, and vermiculture, and a children’s table to encourage the youngest gardeners. Growers sell open-pollinated, non-GMO flower, herb and vegetable seeds. Seedy Sunday (held in Edmonton at the Alberta Avenue Community Centre on March 22) brings together everything to do with gardening — home and community gardeners, seed savers, native plant collectors and agriculture conservation groups as well as local seed companies that sell open ­pollinated varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers, grains and herbs. The seed exchange is  a great way for gardeners to exchange their local seeds. By bringing gardeners together, they can share knowledge and stories, and learn about seed selection/saving and storage. If you have a few extra packets of seeds lying around this is the place to bring them! You can donate seeds or swap them with seeds on the table. No seeds to swap? Not to worry — a small donation would be appreciated, but is not required.

Sustain SU Garden 
Kerstyn Lane

Sustain SU is a service of the Students’ Union (SU) at the University of Alberta that provides peer-to-peer learning and support for all undergraduate students to incorporate sustainability into every aspect of their university experience. This includes providing sustainability-based services to the entire campus community, as well as opportunities to facilitate change on a larger scale.

The Sustain SU’s Community Garden is an organic, shared-plot garden uses as many sustainable agricultural practices as possible in order to showcase environmentally friendly gardening techniques. This garden is always looking for volunteers to come play in the dirt. The garden is operational from May through September; however, there are often planning meetings and greenhouse planting sessions that occur off-season

Master Compost Recyclers
Mark Stumpf-Allen, Sarah Snider & Rodney Al

What do Master Composters do?
They promote the four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover.

Edmonton’s Master Composter Recyclers (MCRs) are passionate about garbage. They are volunteers who encourage less waste and better ways to use our waste. Topics include reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, and grasscycle.

The Master Composter Recycler program started in 1991 in Edmonton. Volunteers helped show friends, family, neighbours and co-workers how to handle waste. Ultimately, MCRs helped prolong the life of the Clover Bar landfill.

Wild Green Garden Consulting
Claudia Bolli

Claudia designs natural, edible landscapes and offers organic gardening and permaculture-inspired workshops. She also works with schools to create naturescapes, food gardens and indoor gardens. Claudia was immersed in natural cycles while growing up on a small mixed farm in Switzerland. Her passion for living in harmony with nature has led her to explore and share permaculture and organic gardening. 

River City Chickens
Laura & Joss

River City Chickens Collective is an informal group of citizens who would like to see Edmontonians join the ranks of hundreds of people in cities around the world who enjoy having chickens right in their own backyards

 

 

 

Con Boland Garden
Con & Rose Boland

This small piece of paradise is a very special place. The garden provides many different photographic backgrounds, floral subjects, and considerable enjoyment for the thousands of people who visit it every year. The garden is located in the peaceful surroundings of the lush Edmonton river valley. This website is devoted to all those who’ve stopped to appreciate the floral beauty and serenity this garden offer. The garden attracts a variety of interest groups from horticultural societies to schools. Con and Rose are a wealth of gardening information and are happy to share their learnings and tips to help grow your garden.

 

Don’t miss your chance to mix and mingle with Edmonton’s best and ask your questions to these fantastic local food folks to learning how to DIY this spring and summer. Get your tickets today!