Kavanah Garden Update

Hi everyone!

I’m Beth, one of the summer interns, and I’m so excited to be spending this growing season at the Kavanah Garden! I think it’s important to be aware of where our food comes from and how it was grown. I love how the Kavanah Garden brings the community together to grow food sustainably and engage in Tikkun Olam.

In the past few weeks we’ve been hard at work weeding, planting, preparing and running programs.  So far we've planted:
-strawberries in one of the raised beds
-beans in recycling bins with families from the Hillel Children’s Workshop
-barley and wheat in the first 2 Shemitah beds with students from Darchei Noam Supplementary School

-2 varieties of kale in one of the farm beds

-our Garden of Sages, featuring 7 kinds of sage planted alongside sagely words of wisdom

We have lots of programs and workshops coming up, and the first CSA pickup day/open garden time is this Thursday June 3rd from 3-7pm. Check out our Calendar of Events for details.

Looking forward to growing with all of you this season!
 

Beth with our first harvest of the season!  Rhubarb!

Five of the seven plots in our Shmitah bed....numbered and ready to be planted! 

Saying a bracha (blessing) on wild lilac growing in the ravine.

Serving raw chocolate banana coconut almond smoothie in Chocolate Making 101,

part of the Jewish Urban Homesteading Workshop Series, in partnership with Makom!

Seedlings!  10 different kinds of tomato, 6 different kinds of peppers,

2 different kinds of basil, ground cherries, tomatillos, wildflowers, and more! 

All ready to be planted by school, congregational, and volunteer groups

in the next couple of weeks!

Looking forward to an epic few weeks at the Kavanah Garden!!!

Lag Ba'Omer Volunteer Day!

Kavanh Garden is officially open and our first Volunteer day was a huge success!

About 25 new and returning community members came out to the garden on Sunday May 2nd and laboured through the morning's ominous rainclouds into the afternoon's sunny skies. We tackled a number of big projects and are ready for the educational and growing season. A HUGE thanks to everyone who came out and made this possible! Here's the recap of what went down:

1. We installed a roof on our pergola, which acts as class-room and picnic area, so that we have shade and/or rain protection other than our greenhouse-oven!

2. We turned over all the beds so they are officially ready to receive our seedlings;

3. We dug two brand new farm beds which increase our planting area in a big way;

4. We built 3 raised beds for the native pollinator garden;

5. With some extreme muscle power we levelled an area for our new and improved shed which will house gardening tools and program supplies;

6. We transplanted our prickly berry bushes to a larger, more detached area where they can thrive (yet be avoided when necessary);

7. We painted signage for our Shemitah bed, which has been divided into 7 sections with one lying fallow each year;

8. We lugged many buckets of water up from the river to keep our current plants happy and to prepare for all the transplanting in the weeks to come!

The excitement about the upcoming season was palpable, and we are so looking forward to getting our tomatoes, tomatillos, kale, kholrabi, cauliflower, ground-cherries, beans, and more into the soil!

Check out our Calendar page for upcoming volunteer opportunities, workshops, etc., or sign up for our newsletter by clicking the link on the right side of the page.

Looking forward to growing with all of you this season!

Tamara Wise
Kavanah Garden Assistant Director

Turning the soil in our Pe'ah bed.

Removing the straw mulch from our garden beds.

Weeding the pathways.

Building raised beds for our native pollinator garden.

Digging out the footprint for our new storage shed.

Painting numbered rocks for our Shemitah bed. Can you guess how many?

Checking out some of the creatures and critters that call the Kavanah Garden home.

Even the Rogers TV News Crew came to help out! Well...at least they filmed and interviewed the people who came to help out....

Kavanah Garden is open for the 2010 growing season!

Jewish Urban Homesteading Workshop Series

Kavanah Garden, in partnership with Makom: Creative Downtown Judaism, is proud to present:

Jewish Urban Homesteading Workshop Series!

Urban homesteading is a movement that promotes sustainable, self-reliant, urban living. This workshop series will introduce participants to some of the skills that can help us live more sustainably in an urban context, honouring the Jewish values of caring for our earth and community. We're going back to our roots!

All workshops will take place at the Kiever Synagogue in Kensington Market at 25 Bellevue Avenue, unless otherwise indicated.

All workshops are $25/person. Register for 4 workshops for $90 or all 8 for $175.

For more information, please contact Risa at 416-805-8382 or risa@torathateva.org.

Pre-registration and payment are required to confirm your place.

__________________________________________________

Organic Gardening 101: Planning & Planting
Wednesday, April 28, 7-9pm
Discover how to grow your very own Garden of Eden! This workshop will address the basics of planning and planting your own urban food garden.
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/ylrlg8t

Chocolate Making 101
Wednesday, May 26, 7-9pm
Wouldn’t Chanukah gelt taste so much better if it was made from raw, vegan, fair-trade ingredients? Make chocolate that nourishes your body and spirit!
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/ygez2rd

Composting 101
Wednesday, June 23, 7-9pm
According to our rabbis, a righteous person does not waste even a mustard seed! Discover how to turn your vegetables scraps into nutrient-rich soil!
*Special Location – Bathurst and Dundas Area
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/yzurfr5

Jam Making and Canning 101
Wednesday, July 28, 7-9pm
Who doesn’t love strawberry hamentashen!?! Learn how to make and can your own jam so you can enjoy a little taste of summer goodness next Purim.
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/yzlvput

Herbal Salve Making 101
Wednesday, August 25, 7-9pm
In addition to Bubbie’s chick soup, local herbs can be used to encourage health and healing! Learn how to make your own herbal salves to nourish your skin.
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/yj9jx29


Pickling 101
Wednesday, September 15, 7-9pm
No deli sandwich is complete without a kosher dill pickle! Learn how to make your own pickled products such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickled beans.
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/yhgak2p

Seed Saving 101
Wednesday, October 20, 7-9pm
In Bereshit/Genesis it is written, “To your seed I will give this land” (12:7). Learn how to save seed from this year’s harvest for next year’s vegetable garden!
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/ykcn6o5

Beer and Kombucha Brewing 101
Wednesday, November 17, 7-9pm
Hebrew? Webrew! Or at least we will brew….beer and komucha that is! Learn how to make your own deliciously fermented beverages! L’Chayim!
Click here to register for this workshop: http://tinyurl.com/yler43l



Click here to register for 4 workshops: http://tinyurl.com/yjyvq94
*Please note that you will be contacted to indicate which 4 workshops.



Click here to register for all 8 workshops: http://tinyurl.com/yzlggul
*Yeah for you!

Kavanah Garden Employment and Volunteer Opportunities

Looking to join the Kavanah Garden Growing Team for the 2010 season?

Click here for more information on the different employment and volunteer opportunities currently available.

2009 Kavanah Garden End of Year Report

With winter finally here, now is the time to reflect on our incredibly successful first season at the Kavanah Garden and to vision plans, projects, and programs for next year!

Click here to see our End of Season Report for 2009!

2009 Kavanah Garden End of Year Report Blog

View more presentations from torathateva.

Fall Photo Update

What a fall season it has been so far!

Here is a look at what has been happening at the Kavanah Garden in the last few weeks...

Our sunflowers grew to be almost ten feet tall!

We harvested over 300 pounds of fresh, local, organic produce for local charities such as United Chesed (http://www.unitedchesed.com/) and Ve'Ahavta (http://www.veahavta.org/).

We grew many different varieties of tomatoes!

From left to right: Black Cherry, Matt's Red Cherry, Yellow Pear, and Green Zebra

We had young adults from D.A.N.I. (http://www.dani-canada.com/)

help us harvest produce for tzedakah.

We celebrated a Bat Mitzvah at the garden! As part of her Bat Mitzvah project, Iris spent the summer volunteering at the Kavanah Garden, most notably by bringing her artistic and creative vision to the space. Here is the lid of our composter that she painted - "This is the way of the righteous, that nothing, not even a mustard seed should be wasted." Mazel Tov Iris!

With the help of some incredibly talented volunteers, we built a pergola that will serve as the frame for our sukkah during the holiday of Sukkot. During other times of the year, the structure will be converted into an outdoor kitchen area with rain barrels to catch rain water and hanging mesh for drying onions and garlic in the fall

And here is our sukkah! The walls are bed sheets that we dyed using Goldenrod flowers and black walnuts from our field.

SK students from Leo Baeck (North Campus) visited the garden to help us harvest the Atomic Red Carrots that they planted as JK students in the spring! Harvesting turnips!

We hosted our first ever Sukkot Celebration! Over 50 community members joined us to sing, study and enjoy a candle-lit vegetarian potluck dinner together in our sukkah.

Thank you everyone for helping make our first season at the Kavanah Garden an extraordinary one! A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed their time, energy, and vision to this project.

With radical gratitude,

Risa Alyson Strauss (Kavanah Garden Program Director)