(Photo via Shepherd’s Notebook)

Les amis, you’re all invited to come and plant garlic with the FoodCycles crew Sat Nov 7, starting 10 am to 2 pm – directions are http://bit.ly/1GYyWQ. Please RSVP by Doodle (http://doodle.com/5a9hztg32tmptgdc) or email foodcycles@gmail.com.

Check out the full post with a list of 10 useful and informative garlic resources here at FoodCycles.org.

Vince McDermott did a short video on what FoodCycles does! Wow, he got a whole tour down to the “T” – haha, I couldn’t even pull that off.

Get the full video at FoodCycles.org.

There’s a city farming/urban agriculture conference called “Opportunities for Action: An Urban Agriculture Symposium” taking place in Guelph, Ontario on Friday, November 20, 2009. The event aims to inspire and find ways to move city farming forward. You can register at Backyard Bounty or contact Shannon Lee Stirling.

See the full post at FoodCycles.org.

Sky Vegetables takes a slightly unique twist in rooftop gardening by covering all the administrative stuff, having others put in the equipment and make its money only from the sale of vegetables. What’s good is that it aims to use proven technologies like solar to help it take off. At the same time its pretty high up there on the technology needs and not very affordable for communities to implement without major government and business investment. That’s probably one of the big criticisms for vertical farming towers that Dickson Despommier envisions too.

Read the full post at FoodCycles.org.

Backyard farming – City of Toronto has 5000 ha (2500 acres) of rooftop space alone, Downsview Park has at least 500 acres – in Toronto there’s a huge amount of space to use – even using a bit would make TO a greener, more food secure place.

Read the full post and see the video link at FoodCycles.org

How can city and country farming be the key to fixing the economy? How can it give a real alternative to the way we eat, live and work? Dr. Wayne Roberts gives you the whole 9 yards.

Read the full post at FoodCycles.org.

Christen Shepherd, a gal who always wanted to be a farmer, runs a rescue farm. The farm is a safe haven for animals coming out of factory farms — this includes bald chickens, goats, hogs and pot-bellied pigs. What’s amazing is that these animals help extremely troubled kids feel happier.

For the full VIDEO and post see FoodCycles.org.

Looks like Toronto Chicken ain’t alone in fighting to raise chickens in a city. A Calgary gal and CLUCK are fighting the same fight on the West side of Canada. Even with more people going hungry, rising food bank use, increasing food waste and what not these brave souls are meeting stiff resistance from the powers that be. Apparently trying to be independent and sensible just ain’t allowed.

Read the full post at FoodCycles.org.

What’s fascinating is that we’ve grown the same 3 crops (corn, wheat and rice) over and over again for the last half century. Unfortunately we’ve forgotten to keep extra varieties just in case something goes wrong — like a bug that figures out how to eat corn for breakfast, dinner and lunch (and then leave you with nothing). Alas, people have forgotten that putting all your eggs in 1 basket is a bad idea. Guess that ties nicely to our current economic crisis doesn’t it? (Parallels anyone?)

Get the full VIDEOS and blog post at FoodCycles.org.

FoodCycles prepares coleslaw, kale salad, the veggies platters, roasted vegetables and pumpkin and cornbread for the Friday, Oct 2 launch party using vegetables grown right in Parc Downsview Park at FoodCycles city farm (http://foodcycles.org).

SEE THE VIDEO and the full post at FoodCycles.org.