Newsbites Archive

Fall Farm Fest

Fall Farm Fest – EVERYONE WELCOME !

Bring your family and friends – Free to attend

At the Just Food Community Farm
This Sunday, October 2 2022
11am – 3pm
2391 Pepin Court, Ottawa (in Blackburn Hamlet, just East of Vanier)

Admission: FREE

FREE Activities:

  • Live Music for the full 4 hours
  • Wagon Ride Farm Tours – or walk around the farm and see what’s happening
  • Bring Your Own Picnic and enjoy
  • Garden Tool Sharpening Workshop – Courtesy of the Ottawa Tool Library – Bring your tools and learn to sharpen them!
  • Open House for Women Warriors Healing Garden (with donkeys, chickens, and support for women and 2SLBGTQ+ veterans)
  • Apples from COG-OSO (while supplies last)
  • Take a Fall Photo Selfie on the hay bales
  • Artery Coffee Roasters Coffee – with donations requested to GEFC
  • Walking tours at Red Barn Community Food Forest by Forêt Capitale Forest

Activities with a charge:

  • Dominion City Brewery Beer Garden (with beer and non-alcoholic seltzers)
  • Axe Throwing by BATL Axe Throwing Ottawa !!
  • Just Food Farmers’ Farm Stand – fresh and preserved local food
  • Food Vendors including:
    • The Sheepdog Grill – serving local lamb kebab and lamb sausages (on a stick or in a bun)
    • Yasmin Syrian Catering seasoned rice with veggies harvested from the Just Food Community Farm
    • Almanac Bakery
  • Raffle Proceeds going to the Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard
    • $2 per ticket or $5 for 3 tickets
    • Raffle Prizes:
      • Two tickets to an Ottawa Senators Game, courtesy of our sponsor, Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. Two 100-level club seats and a lot one parking pass to the Ottawa Senators v. Winnipeg, Saturday, January 21, 2023, @ 7:00 p.m!
      • 1,000 AIR MILES Reward Miles, courtesy of our sponsor, ROCK Networks!
      • One of Two golf passes, courtesy of our sponsor, Pineview Golf Club!
      • One of Two family memberships, courtesy of our sponsor, Gloucester Horticultural Society!

How to get there:

  • Bus 25 will drop you off right outside of the farm – runs from Blair Station every 30 minutes
  • Free Parking on-site or if full, in adjacent neighbourhood (careful – no parking allowed on Tauvette).
  • Accessed by bike with on-site bike racks
  • Accessible on-foot from most of Blackburn Hamlet
  • Please Note: Highway 417 will be closed from Metcalfe St to Carling/Kirkwood Avenues from September 30th-October 4th. Please plan your route accordingly

Brought to you by:

Just Food

Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard

Canadian Organic Growers-Ottawa/St.Lawrence/Outaouais Chapter

Ottawa Tool Library

Women Warriors Healing Garden

Forêt Capitale Forest

Just Food at the Ottawa Garden Festival

25th anniversary of the Ottawa Community Gardening Network!

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa Community Gardening Network, Just Food—as part of the Ottawa Garden Festival—is celebrating all residents who grow food on balconies, in back and front yards, on school grounds, in community gardens, in food forests, in parks, on rooftops, within businesses, in greenhouses, and on farms. 

Thousands more people would like to grow food locally in Ottawa right now.  

Just food will be hosting two free, virtual workshops during this festival to support making this happen together:

WORKSHOP: YardShare! 

What do you need to know to share your yard and support a neighbour to grow food? 

An introduction of yarsharing and what both the yardowner and the gardener need to keep in mind  

Launching new Yardshare Ottawa website!  

Sign up your yard to support neighbours growing food.

August 16th 7-8PM

WORKSHOP: Residents need more access to land in order to produce more food locally in Ottawa!

What can be done to increase options for residents to access their own local food in Ottawa?   Front Yard growing, residential poultry, edible landscaping, cul de sacs, opening up more community gardens… 

What are some of the opportunities to access more land?  

What are some of the barriers?  How can we get through the barriers?  

August 18th 1-2PM

Register Here!

If you have any questions or would like to register, please contact Shannon at cgnstudent@justfood.ca

In person: Vermicomposting for All Growers

The Box Of Life is an Ottawa social enterprise that teaches people how to build healthy soil from their food scraps efficiently in small spaces. Creating good quality compost is both an art and a science, and good system and process design go a long way in making composting a seamless part of every garden. They provide the expertise and help in creating beautiful composting systems.  

In this workshop Akil, from The Box of Life will talk about building soil using vermi-composting (composting with works). This workshop is for both home composters and community garden composters. At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to understand how to compost properly, how to size and design the composting systems, and how to efficiently manage the composting process so that you can build good quality compost every gardening season!

Meet the facilitator

Akil is the founder of The Box Of Life and a climate warrior. Anxious, frustrated, and saddened by the lack of action of our communities towards fighting climate change, Akil decided to do something about it!

He created The Box of Life because he believe that the humble composting earthworm can reshape our relationship with food waste and rekindle our love for nature in the urban world.

What started out as an at-home vermi-composting experiment a few years ago has now turned into a full time profession that Akil is really passionate about!

Akil hopes that your composting journey, whatever the reason might be, can bring about some positivity and joy in your life.

When

Sept 9, 4:30-6:00pm

Where

15 Larch Street in Little Italy

Parking is very limited parking on the street so participants are requested to park on Preston and make their way to Larch Street.

Public transit: It is a 14 minute walk from Pimisi station 

Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible 

COVID precautions: Please come prepared with a mask, although the workshop will be outside and use is optional in that setting. The Box of Life team is hopeful participants attending are vaccinated.

Cost

$5 per person 

If payment is an issue, request to waive fee by emailing growingcommunity@justfood.ca to attend for free.

Cash on-site or e-transfer are accepted. See Registration below.

Registration

Please register for this in-person event by following the link below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmhuqMVzfm-W4L9FB9b_amjKHh9uTOiZr1G1RxANrBpZGh-w/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please make payment by e-transfer to financials@justfood.ca using CGNWorkshop as your password. Please indicate the name of the workshop in the notes section. After you transfer funds, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

In person: Hot and Cold Composting for All Growers

The Box Of Life is an Ottawa social enterprise that teaches people how to build healthy soil from their food scraps efficiently in small spaces. Creating good quality compost is both an art and a science, and good system and process design go a long way in making composting a seamless part of every garden. They provide the expertise and help in creating beautiful composting systems.  

In this workshop Akil, from The Box of Life will talk about building soil using hot and cold composting. This workshop is for both home composters and community garden composters. At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to understand how to compost properly, how to size and design the composting systems, and how to efficiently manage the composting process so that you can build good quality compost every gardening season!

Meet the facilitator

Akil is the founder of The Box Of Life and a climate warrior. Anxious, frustrated, and saddened by the lack of action of our communities towards fighting climate change, Akil decided to do something about it!

He created The Box of Life because he believe that the humble composting earthworm can reshape our relationship with food waste and rekindle our love for nature in the urban world.

What started out as an at-home vermi-composting experiment a few years ago has now turned into a full time profession that Akil is really passionate about!

Akil hopes that your composting journey, whatever the reason might be, can bring about some positivity and joy in your life.

When

Aug 19, 4:30-6:00pm

Where

15 Larch Street in Little Italy

Parking is very limited parking on the street so participants are requested to park on Preston and make their way to Larch Street.

Public transit: It is a 14 minute walk from Pimisi station 

Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible 

COVID precautions: Please come prepared with a mask, although the workshop will be outside and use is optional in that setting. The Box of Life team is hopeful participants attending are vaccinated.

Cost

$5 per person 

If payment is an issue, request to waive fee by emailing growingcommunity@justfood.ca to attend for free.

Cash on-site or e-transfer are accepted. See Registration below.

Registration

Please register for this in-person event by following the link below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmhuqMVzfm-W4L9FB9b_amjKHh9uTOiZr1G1RxANrBpZGh-w/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please make payment by e-transfer to financials@justfood.ca using CGNWorkshop as your password. Please indicate the name of the workshop in the notes section. After you transfer funds, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We’re Hiring! Education Program Coordinator!

Just Food is hiring a 7-week contract position. See below for job description and position information. If interested in applying, please contact info@justfood.ca ASAP with your resume and cover letter all in one document, and the subject line specifying which position you are applying for. 

Interviews will be held on an on-going basis as applications are received with hiring ASAP. 

Type: Full-time, 7 week contract, 35 hours per week

Anticipated Start Date:  Immediate 

Compensation: $16/hour

Location: 2391 Pepin Court, Ottawa, Ontario 

Note that these positions are funded by Canada Summer Jobs, and individuals must be:

  • Between 18–30 at the start of employment
  • Be a citizen, have permanent residency or refugee status
  • Be legally entitled to work in the province.

Education Program Coordinator (Community Gardening Network – CGN)

Support Just Food’s Community Gardening Network initiative, which supports 100+ gardens city-wide in Ottawa.  With the guidance of a supervisor, you will be responsible for the following tasks:

  • Coordinate educational opportunities for and/or at gardens
  • Outreach to community gardens to research current status, needs, successes, innovations, resources and create lessons learned blogs to share with other garden coordinators  
  • Strengthen the Ottawa Seed Library 
  • Conduct contact data management for all gardens, becoming familiar with Nationbuilder software.
  • Coordinate outdoor events at specific gardens, including bike tour
  • Assist day-to-day administration at CGN.
  • New projects related to communications that arise during the position.

Newsbites

Start-up Farm Program

Just Food established the Start-Up Farm Program to support new farmers in the Ottawa region. By offering access to land, shared infrastructure/equipment, and training, the program aims to enable more people in this region to start their own successful farm business.

> Read More about Just Food’s Start-up Farm program