Saskatooners Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen have taken the concept of urban farming to new heights. They are the social entrepreneurial forces behind Wally’s Market Garden and SPIN (S-mall P-lot IN-tensive) Farming.
SPIN Farming is a unique system designed to generate $50,000 or more per year by farming organically on a half acre of land. SPIN is the basis for Wally and Gail’s family farm, which manages to challenge practically all our assumptions about Saskatchewan agriculture: Wally’s Market Garden is located on several residential garden plots right inside the city of Saskatoon and in the small town of Pleasantdale (just south of Melfort).
Wally and Gail take full advantage of the urban microclimate and a relatively small area of land (vastly smaller than any large-scale agri-business or even a typical independent family farm) to transform farming into a profitable and sustainable small business that practically anyone can get into. They even make available a series of digital manuals and an online forum to encourage potential SPIN farmers to try their hands at sustainable small-scale farming as a sustainable small business model.
Farming in the city is a different kettle of fish than rural growing, and the SPIN system optimizes uniquely urban conditions to make up for smaller areas of land. For example, cities offer a longer growing season, in part because the urban environment retains more heat than open rural land in the same geographic area. This means that food can be planted earlier and harvested later inside the city. Not only that, but the confines of the city can offer built-in protection from wind and many of the pests that can be a rural farmer’s bane.
SPIN focuses on making farming affordable enough for anyone to participate on a professional level. Rather than relying on the immense capital investments that we often associate with farming, such as large tracks of purchased land and major machinery, the carefully conceived SPIN system requires only minimal investment. Urban farmers without their own land can rent or trade space from their neighbours or their municipality. Cheap and easy access to land combined with a rototiller, a few hand tools and an intensive relay growing process that can generate up to three crops per bed per season can bring in enough revenue to support a family.
Canadians skeptical of the promise of urban agriculture can take inspiration not just from homegrown urban farmers like Wally and Gail, but from farmers around the world. While city farming might still seem radical in Saskatchewan, many cities around the world rely on small-scale urban production for much of their food supply. Take Hanoi, Vietnam, which generates 80 per cent of its fresh produce from farms within or adjacent to the city. The list of benefits to both eater and environment goes on and on, and includes less distance required to transport food, fresher produce, reduced need for preservatives and processing and a more vibrant local food economy.
‘Tooners can find Wally and Gail at the Saskatoon Farmers Market or at marketgardening.com/wallysmarketgarden. For more information on SPIN
Farming, visit spinfarming.com.
Gardening without ‘cides
Growing food without adding herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, rodenticides makes sense for the health of your plants, your soil, your water, your pets, your family and YOU!
Here are a few tricks to make the summer naturally easy!
1. MULTCH! Spreading compost, leaves, even shredded news paper between rows and around the base of plants not only adds natural fertilizer and helps keep soil moist, but helps keeps weeds and soil pests at bay.
2. Get Your Hoe-Down! Hoeing weeds throughout the season, especially in the spring, helps prevent weeds from establishing. Getting weeds before they go to seed helps reduce the amount of weeds for next season.
3. Pick it. Pick it good. Many unwanted visitors can be controlled by simply removing them! This works best with things like potato beetles, caterpillars, slugs, thistles, etc. Also, removing leaves with obvious leaf miners helps get rid of the offenders.
4. Keep it covered up. Fine Netting can be used to exclude fluttering fiends like cabbage butterflies, birds and pesky rodents that may wish to munch on your lettuce
5. Eat it! Many of the weeds we hate we can also eat. Dandelions make for a great salad, wine, jam, and coffee substitute! Nettles make tea and lambs-quarters substitutes for lettuce or spinach. You may be cursing salad for excluding salad!
6. Rotate! Don’t plant the same thing in the same place year after year, as this causes a build up of soil pests and can deplete the soil.
7. Make friends! Companion planting, such as marigolds with tomatoes keeps bugs away, attracts pollinators and adds a tasty dash of colour. Many charts for companion planting are available online.
Home on my range Burgers:
1lb local orgaic free range ground Bison, Beef, Chicken or Turkey, 2cups cooked oats and barley for the veg-o-philes
1 egg
1 finely chopped medium onion
1-5 cloves of garlic crushed, depending on your local vampire density
1 grated medium carrot
1/2tsp salt
Mix together and cook on the grill. Top with your favourite veggies from the garden or farmers market and home-made relish from the pantry or market! Yum!
With Fresh Dandelion and chive salad
Time to weed for your supper. Pick young, unsprayed dandelions and use as you would lettuce or spinach. For dressing, any simple vinaigrette will do but here is a creamy one that I remember having out on my aunty’s farm as a kid.
3tbsp mayo
a couple Tbsp vinegar
milk to thin to desired consistency
salt and pepper to taste
finely chopped chives
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