City Farm School

🍋 Lemon Camp: September 17 and 24Grow a healthy, productive lemon tree in a pot. In these two live online sessions, Steven Biggs covers watering, feeding, pruning, repotting, pests, flowers and fruit—and how to get a lemon tree through the winter.Recordings are included, so you can watch afterwards if you can’t attend live.Learn more and register for Lemon Camp- - - Today on the podcast we head to Montreal to hear about City Farm School, an urban-agriculture apprenticeship program.Jackie Martin, a co-ordinator with City Farm School, explains that this not-for-profit program uses space provided by Concordia University. In addition to greenhouse space on the 13th floor of a downtown building, the “farm” is located at the Loyola Campus, in a residential neighbourhood. She says that the market garden is roughly the size of a soccer field — and there’s a medicinal-plant garden too.Apprenticeship ProgramThe program, which is open to anyone in the community, has two streams: a market-gardener apprenticeship and a medicinal-plants apprenticeship.The program begins in the greenhouse in March, with seed-sowing for transplants the farm and for a plant sale. In May there is transplanting and seeding at the market garden.The community market opens in June. Students take part in harvesting for the market, preparing the harvest for sale, and staffing the market. Later in summer they save seeds for the following year.Before graduating students are expected to teach a free workshop that is open to the public. Martin says that past topics have included seeding, fermentation, and pest control — with some of the more memorable topics being herbal medicine for pets and edible weeds.Community OutreachThe weekly market has been an important way to connect with the community. “Our neighbours are our biggest supporters, and always have been,” says Martin. She explains that many of their neighbours now grow their own kale, after she sent them home from market with their own kale seed. It’s not a move that increases kale sales — but it’s in keeping with their mandate to encourage gardening in the city.Martin says former students have gone on to become farmers, teachers, and community organizers. Many of the organizations they now partner with were created by former students.