RACHEL SCAPILLATI

Staring out the window of your student house at your cramped yard, or drearily gazing out the window of your fourth floor apartment sans yard, you might notice there isn’t much room in your home to grow your own food. All the freshly grown lettuce, cucumbers or tomatoes you crave will have to be replaced by things you can buy in a grocery store in another words, a more accessible, yet less natural environment.

However, there are fresher solutions in local markets. Backyard Bounty, a social enterprise available to the community since 2008, is an organization dedicated to growing fresh vegetables right here in Guelph.

From mid June until the end of October, Backyard Bounty sells their vegetables at the Farmer’s Market and other local markets within walking distance to many Guelph residents.
In addition, Backyard Bounty offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which offers residents of Guelph a unique opportunity to purchase batches of vegetables to last them through a portion of time and saves them a trip to the market and grocery store.

“We do vegetable pick-ups for the CSA on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week [from] June to October,” said Julianna Van Adrichem, manager at Backyard Bounty. “People can also come to our location at 12 Waterloo St., to purchase their vegetables if they don’t want to be apart of the CSA program.”

The costs of the CSA program go back towards the growing of plants and maintaining the wages of the farmers.

“With urban farming there isn’t a huge margin of profit. There are so many costs to farming, wages and such. We strive to be a social enterprise, existing for the environmental and social benefits we can provide to the community,” she said.

Another program available through Backyard Bounty is the donation of your yards.

“The yards are donated from people in the community,” said Van Adrichem. “There are many benefits to donating your yard because we maintain the plot that has been given to us without you ever having to worry about it. We cultivate the veggies there and then either use them for the CSA program or for the local markets. We don’t have space ourselves, so this is very reliant on community sharing.”

Besides the obvious local economic benefits, you may be wondering what the benefits of purchasing your vegetables through a local market are versus a grocery store.

“The most basic aspect of fresh vegetables is that when you buy them from a grocery store, they were not ripe when they were originally picked,” said Van Adrichem. “They were ripened [using farming technology] so that many of the nutrients are lost once they are finally delivered to Ontario. When we harvest our vegetables, we pick them when they are fully ripe and sell them the day we pick them. They were ripened while sitting on the vine, naturally.”

The types of vegetables available for purchase from Backyard Bounty are lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, arugula, peppers, edible flowers and eggplants, to mention a few. In a joint effort with Transition Guelph, Backyard Bounty is attempting to get apples as well.

What makes organizations like Backyard Bounty successful is the strong community support.

“This is a community-based project,” said Van Adrichem. “This makes it a fun and nice experience for the people picking up their shares. It makes a variety of people come together. This is a great community effort behind us and we are very thankful to Guelph for being so supportive.”

Other alternatives to growing fresh vegetables can be starting your own small pots of herbs and little vegetables at home. You may find you have enough space in your yard to start your own garden, saving money on purchasing vegetables from the grocery store and treating yourself to fresher food.

Your anonymous comment may be printed in The Ontarion's print publication.