At the bustling Jane Street and Steeles Avenue West intersection, dotted with plazas, residential high rises, the nearby York University and a large UPS building, a tree-lined fence along the sidewalk conceals an eight-acre certified organic urban farm surrounded by forest and a creek that connects to the Black Creek Pioneer Village attraction. Vidula Monga, a substitute teacher who lives with her husband in the nearby neighbourhood of Islington and Finch, comes to the Black Creek Community Farm three times a week to work on their garden plot. The farm itself sells the produce it grows every week on site and through subscription boxes, and supplies restaurants in the city, but part of the land is reserved for locals grow their own produce.
Monga has grown tomatoes, chilies, cucumbers and flowers in her plot about the size of two parking spaces. As temperatures cool, she’ll switch to heartier greens like collards and kale. Market garden coordinator Nuradin Mohamed harvests leeks at Black Creek Community Farm.
“Our backyard doesn’t get enough sunlight,” she says. “This small plot has given me more than my own backyard.” She says her love of cooking led her to helping the farm figure out how to use up its excess produce and teach food preservation techniques (she was also dietitian before moving to Toronto).
However, the farm’s cramped kitchen that, at best fits two or three people, makes her job difficult. Compared to the rest of the city, the dense residential ne.