[Akroncooperative-news] Harvesting Edible Chestnuts in Vancouver

[Lawrence Parker]

Lawrence A. Parker
Program Administrator
The Akron Cooperative
234-525-0543
http://www.akroncooperative.com/

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Michael Levenston <cityfarm at interchange.ubc.ca>
Sent: Mon, October 12, 2009 9:45:40 PM
Subject: Harvesting Edible Chestnuts in Vancouver



 
 
Harvesting Edible Chestnuts in Vancouver

Most people find Horse Chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) lying on the ground in the Fall. They are a beautiful, shiny brown nut but inedible. However, there are in Vancouver a few Spanish Chestnut or Sweet Chestnut trees (Castanea saliva), the nuts of which are edible, and elderly Asian and European residents are quick to harvest them as they fall to the ground. They often use long poles to hit them out of the trees.

Backyard wine makers in Norway at 60 degrees North

There's nothing wrong with red or black currants, but grapevines are both more fun and inspire more cooperation. Just ask Olav and Betsy Heen, who make wine from self-grown grapes in Rodeløkka, Oslo.

Olav and Betsy Heen managed to convince their neighbors in Oslo, Norway, to join them in growing grapes on the south facing walls of their houses. The result is a very local wine called "Côte de Rodeløkka". They've had record crops of 75 kilos of grapes between them, but normally end up with 30 - 40 kilos, enough for 25 to 30 litres of wine.  At 60 degrees North, comparable to Labrador or Anchorage, cultivating grapes is pretty impressive. 

Boxer - Evander Holyfield to create one acre teaching garden

Holyfield said, 'I will give you 40 acres for the solar farm and another acre for the children's garden' - continues,

"In addition to this milestone solar project, an additional acre of my land will be used to create a working organic garden to teach neighborhood youth the importance of going green. The organic garden will be installed in cooperation with local community groups and administered by the Evander Holyfield Foundation."

Bear-Proof Compost Bin

Bears are a part of city life in many municipalities in and around Vancouver. Our Hotline receives calls from residents about bears strolling into yards and knocking over compost bins in North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Whistler, Squamish and parts of Vancouver Island.

Laurie Chambers of Lund, BC, designed and built this beautiful bear-proof composter and we are lucky to have one at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden.

Aquaponics Projects - growing fish and vegetables

Prototype aquaponic (combination of hydroponics and aquaculture) system using 700 gallon elevated ferro-cement flood tank technology developed by Travis W. Hughey which uses no float switches, electronic timers or microprocessors to control the flood and drain parameters of the system. It is a large version of the flood tank in the "Barrel-Ponics" manual found on this site as a free download. The system uses approximately 400 gallons of water per flood cycle. There are 37 barrel half growbeds also of Travis's design incorporated. In the shallow pond water hyacinth and water lettuce are grown for fish feed.




  
All stories here:

City Farmer News
 

Michael Levenston
City Farmer - Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture   
  
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