For the past several years, Granskou Greens has been growing produce year-round, on a small farm in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. Through the winter, inside grow tunnels swaddled in blankets, leafy greens and purples poke up from the soil in defiance of the cold. This unexpected sight underscores the potential–and the challenges–for small-scale producers to contribute to strong, year-round local food systems in Canada.
Urban Farming: Small Spaces, Big Impact
Granskou Greens operates on just under one-tenth of an acre in the heart of Kitchener. That’s about the size of a basketball court. But in that small space, Sarah Granskou grows enough leafy greens and herbs to feed 25 households weekly, including her family of 5, from October to June. Using innovative intensive planting techniques, the farm maximizes its small space and demonstrates how even small urban farms can make a big impact in feeding a community. Delivering on foot or bike to her local customers, Sarah also provides something that you can’t buy at the grocery store: the connection that results from knowing exactly where your food comes from.
Bridging Seasonal Gaps
One of the biggest challenges of achieving food sovereignty in Canada is the relatively short growing season. Accessing fresh produce in the Winter depends on using creative farming methods to extend the season. At Granskou Greens, these methods include hoop tunnels, cold frames, a polytunnel, outdoor LED grow lights, and yes, wool blankets. Beneath these protective layers, Sarah continues to grow fresh, healthy greens from Fall to Spring, when most local farms are in the off-season. Indoors, 80 feet of grow lights and shelves hug the walls in all common living areas. Additionally Sarah volunteers at a nearby highschool greenhouse where she overwinters some of her larger tropical plants and collaborates on vermicomposting.
As Sarah explains, “While there are several local suppliers offering storage vegetables, in terms of fresh greens, I am not aware of others doing winter growing as producers in the Waterloo Region. My colleagues are Green Industries students and highschool teachers.The reason that urban farms make a small contribution to the food supply is because we are few. Just think if we were many!”
In addition to season-extension growing strategies, Sarah’s farm is able to bridge the seasonal gap by expanding beyond common grocery store greens to cultivate a large diversity of crops. Remarkably, she grows over 300 varieties of greens and herbs, including culturally significant crops, with a focus on both cold tolerant and heat tolerant plants.
Sarah uses hoop tunnels, cold frames, a polytunnel, outdoor LED grow lights, and even wool blankets to grow leafy grows and herbs right through the Winter.
Unseen Challenges
While Granskou Greens highlights the possibilities of small-scale solutions, it also underscores the significant challenges involved–which the public may not always see. Agricultural businesses in general come with a lot of risk and high costs for land and equipment. For this reason, farms often need access to grants, loans and other types of funding in order to get started, expand, innovate and operate. Small-scale urban farms have a great need for such financing, but no government funding opportunities available to them. At the same time, micro operations like Granskou Greens have unique requirements in terms of investments, from grow lights, raised beds, root barriers and soil building to infrastructure protecting from critters and weather.
Farming is unpredictable, specialized, expensive, constant and highly underpaid considering current costs of living. I was surprised to find that my acreage is far too small to qualify for farm funding or property tax cuts, despite the intensified nature of my production year-round. I am currently at capacity in terms of what I can provide, with a recent surge of requests to be put on ‘the list’ by those seeking an alternative to Californian greens. I grow as much as I possibly can and seek to offer accessible healthy food, always giving more than market value in exchange for flexibility. In addition, I donate to the community because in order to have enough, I need to grow extra. Damaged leaves and scraps from the microgreen trays go to the chickens around the corner. I feel successful not by my income, but by my ability to provide and survive and by my rewarding relationship with clients, neighbours, schools, nature and even our compostable waste. I’m working on my relationship with the local groundhog!”
~ Sarah Granskou, Granskou Greens
Building a Resilient Food System
In the face of increasing food costs and global trade issues, initiatives like Granskou Greens highlight the important role of local food production. By growing food in diverse spaces and unexpected ways, small-scale and urban farmers help to keep communities nourished and reduce reliance on imported food.
To support the livelihood of these farmers, purchasing locally is essential but moving forward, there is more that needs to be done to ensure their survival and future.
There are a number of other steps you can take.
- Be flexible in terms of the variety and quality of produce you purchase.
- Pay more if you can, whether by purchasing on a sliding scale, sponsoring another family, or adding a tip.
- Access other services or goods that farms may provide – Granskou Greens offers informational tours!
- Advocate for the government at all levels to invest in small-scale agriculture.
- Open up discussion to learn from farmers about the processes, discoveries and challenges involved in growing your food.
To cultivate a truly resilient food system, we must not only support such businesses individually, but also push for systemic changes that help farmers like Sarah thrive in a sustainable, year-round food economy.