Profitable Market Gardening Workshop

Kirk and I had the chance last week to attend Green City Acres “profitable market gardening workshop” in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Kirk and I have had dreams and plans for the farm/homestead, and while we are making headway with that, we needed help to achieve it all. How do you take your goals/wishes/wants and make it happen? Sometimes it feels so overwhelming, to go from gardening to farming.

So we drove 6+ hours to Canada to take Curtis Stone’s first class on urban farming and how to be profitable. Green City Acres is his farm, which is a collection of lots (land) that they farm on, doing high density/rotation of higher value crops. The class was split between inside and outside, in the field.

The flagship plot is easy to spot, and it’s a beauty. There is no house on the lot, meaning the entire lot is used.

We got put to work, even on day 1. Here we were getting instructed in a Greens Cutter.

If you have watched Curtis’s videos…this is the German 😉

I walked out with a lot of knowledge and how to put it to use.

5 burner flamer. For when a 1 burner isn’t enough 😉

Just remember kids…keep the blade away from your legs…..

One highlight during the week was talking tomatoes. I grow a lot of them. But I have always grown mine as “field tomatoes” so had wanted to learn in person on this subject, which was led by Roger:

A lot to take in, but again, it puts me where we want me to be. (Does that sound odd? I am sure it does)

Some of the days we worked at the ‘home base’ at Curtis’s home. This is where they grow micro-greens.

Learning to do flats of micro-greens.

Peas!

Pea sprouts.

Sunflower shoots.

Second type of pea shoots.

Washing produce.

From growing to bagging.

This is an incredibly pretty salad mix.

Curtis talking front yard growing.

Salad blends (which we harvested).

A lot of tool talk, and hands on use.

Curtis with his BCS – we have one coming which will help us bust our glacial till soil up….finally. It has been the hugest issue for our dreams.

Hands on time helps a lot to shorten the learning curve.

Plots….and more plots. A lot of visiting.

Setting up a cat tunnel.

And as well, tearing it down.

Kelowna is a flat city and easy to walk. So much to see, and a lot of urban gardening going on.

One of the plots, having its front yard being removed and getting ready to be worked.

The back yard of the plot.

Another plot, which was one I recognized instantly from his videos.

And to that……it was a great (and educational) week.