 |
Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture. |
1932 Interior of Victoria Produce Co. VPL #7921 Photo by Leonard Frank. Victoria Produce Company, 1743 Commercial – Chinese market – Interior of market.
"Vancouver, like all cities, was at one time almost food-self-sufficient. The new urban farming trend is really reclaiming some of that past-- bringing food production back into the city and into view." Peter Ladner
Vancouver Heritage Foundation's annual Heritage House Tour is only a month away on Sunday, June 2nd, and since one of the houses on the tour features urban farming, we are presenting a pre-tour lecture “Past Forward: How Today’s Urban Food Revolution is Reinventing its Historical Roots” with Peter Ladner, Author of Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities. In this illustrated talk, he'll show how new approaches to growing food in the city are reinventing old urban traditions. It all takes place Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm, in the modernist Unitarian Church, 949 West 49th Ave at Oak St. Sign up here. And don't forget to get your tickets to the Heritage House Tour to see a working urban farm for yourself! Peter will also be available during the Heritage House Tour to talk urban farming one on one.
Urban farming in Vancouver is nothing new. Places That Matter has been honouring the history of many sites where Chinese market gardens existed: Douglas Park, China Creek (Cycle Track), Gibby's Field (Kensington Cedar-Cottage). "Most of the Chinese who came to Canada in the 1800s and early 1900s left small farming villages in southern China, and many knew how to grow food and crops for sale. In many small towns in British Columbia— including big cities like Victoria and Vancouver— Chinese Canadian farms grew much of the fresh produce that fed the people who lived there. They also used hand baskets and trucks to deliver the vegetables and produce to customers and to the grocery stores and restaurants that they opened in every neighbourhood."(CCS) Watch the video Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver's Chinese Farms (produced by UBC's Chinese Canadian Stories)
Image from article : http://rabble.ca/news/2012/04/vancouvers-urban-farming-movement-growing
