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 neighbourhoods in Toronto’s northwest such as the Jane-Finch area has disproportionately fewer green spaces and grocers for fresh and affordable food. The Black Creek Community Farm aims to fill that gap by giving residents access to green space and the ability to grow and buy organic produce that reflects the diverse community.
The farm’s next step is to build a commercial community kitchen where members can make the most of the farm’s produce. It would address the neighbourhood’s shortage of fresh produce and offer cooking and food preservation classes, as well as more programming at the farm for locals to participate in. The Stop Community Food Centre has a similar model where are a space for people to learn how to cook and share recipes using seasonal and local produce.
Inside this greenhouse, crops like bitter melon, eggplants, tomatoes, okra, celery and chili peppers are grown. “Having a certified commercial kitchen gives us the potential to have the farm-to-table experience. We can preserve food and sell it, bringing in revenue to reinvest in the farm,” says Black Creek Community Farm’s executive director Oheema Boateng.
These kitchens can also support local entrepreneurs by supplying commercial-grade kitchen space to prepare and sell food. “A lot of community and commercial kitchens in the area have shut down or were closed off to the public in recent years. This will give (people) the opportunity to test out food before they sell it.
” To meet these needs, Boateng has plans to fundraise for a dedicated 3,700-square foot commercial kitchen on the farm property. This new space will include a large open kitchen, walk-in fridge and freezer, a pantry, storage space and washrooms and accommodate around 70 people. The initial cost is estimated to be about $5 million, not including operational costs like electricity, heating and staffing.
She plans to announce the vision for the kitchen at Black Creek’s annual fundraising dinner this week, but says a fundraising campaign will be announced later, and she also plans on applying for federal grants in the next year. Volunteers head out to the fields at Black Creek Community Farm. A community kitchen and farm also offer the neighbourhood a space for gatherings.
Boateng anticipates an influx of residents with the that will need fresh produce and community-based activities. “Over the last years, demand for programming has gone up,” says the farm’s longtime programs manager Anna Mancuso. “It’s important that we can accommodate a bus full of students [and] seniors’ programs where they have a dedicated raised garden.
We have folks in these programs that teach each other how to cook the different vegetables.” “Garlic scapes were a new thing for me (when I arrived), and now it’s my passion to make garlic scape pesto,” says Monga. “I learned everything at the farm, like succession planting.
It’s my Zen place.” A mural painted by volunteers at Black Creek Community Farm stands at the entrance to the farm off Jane Street. For chef Bashir Munye, a longtime farm volunteer who now works as a coordinator to develop recipes and products using its produce, the purpose of Black Creek is to be a space that reflects the culinary traditions of its diverse surroundings.
“Members of this community can grow foods from their cultures here: bitter melon, callaloo, okra, eggplants used in Ghanaian cuisine. The farm redefines what local food can be,” he says. “If the farm is able to receive the funds (for the kitchen) it would be a beautiful space for engagement.
I can do chef’s table products and dinners at a larger volume, but Jane-Finch is such a diverse community, the most exciting part is the influence the community will have on more diverse recipes and culinary techniques.”.
