2 Student Positions Available:
•    Community Gardens Coordinator – 12 week contract, starting June 4th
Application deadline: May 23, 2012
The Community Gardens Coordinator will contribute to both a positive and productive growing season by supporting volunteers in Greenest City’s three gardens, including the HOPE Community Garden, the Youth Learning Garden, and the Milky Way ESL garden. The position involves both regular garden maintenance activities and organic gardening education for community gardeners of all ages and levels of experience.

•    Youth Green Squad Coordinator – 9 week contract, starting June 18th
Application deadline: May 25, 2012
The Youth Green Squad Coordinator will work with program staff to plan and lead this year’s team of students during their seven-week paid employment. The Youth Green Squad is a summer employment program for high school students, offered by Greenest City and focused on local food projects, including community gardening, food preparation for community kitchens, delivering food/garden-related workshops and community art.

Review full postings for details:

Community Gardens Coordinator_Greenest City Job Posting 2012

Youth Green Squad Coordinator_Greenest City Job Posting 2012

This is the first time Growing the Future fell on the same day as Halloween so it was only appropriate that we had a pumpkin themed evening.

Frank, our fabulous and dedicated adult volunteer, started off the session by teaching the youth some knife skills and how to safely use them.

We’ve been quite lucky that there isn’t any snow on the ground yet, even though it has been on and off with chilly, cloudy and rainy weather. So a bunch of our youth, along with Robyn, hit up the youth garden, to clean it up and put it to bed for the winter.

Everyone there was already excited about going trick-or-treating so our pumpkin carving activity added to the enthusiasm of the evening. It turns out most of Toronto was sold out of pumpkins, so it was quite the mission to find carving-worthy pumpkins on the day of Halloween but our super heroes Robyn and Frank came through with some nice big ones to carve!

Though our dinner lacked candies, we did make some yummy sweet deliciousness which also reflected the fall season– which is nothing without thinking about Halloween– pumpkin curry with basmati rice and apple beet salad.

If you have any pumpkin leftover and you’re looking for something to warm you up this evening, try our pumpkin curry recipe and do let us know how you liked it!

Pumpkin Curry
Adapted from Inspired

 

 

 

 

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
6 cups peeled, diced pumpkin
4 teaspoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 cup chick peas
¼ cup raisins
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
Using a food processor, purée the onion and garlic into a paste.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion-garlic paste and ginger. Cook until most of the moisture evaporates.
Stir in the pumpkin, curry powder, salt and pepper and cook for 1 min.
Mix in the tomato paste and cook another 2 to 3 min.
Add the broth, cover loosely and keep to a low simmer. Cook until the pumpkin is tender and the sauce has thickened slightly, 10 to 12 min.
Stir in the chick peas and cook until heated through, 2 to 3 min.
Garnish with raisins and cilantro and serve with Basmati Rice.

If you saw our menu yesterday you would think we were trying to keep people away from us. It was  quite the opposite. It was only our second session of Growing the Future and we were at full capacity with 35 students cooking, planting and learning about GARLIC!

We are planting garlic and daffodils (planted last week) this fall since they need a period of cold temperature in order to grow properly. In case you are thinking of planting your own garlic, here are some quick steps:

Break apart the head into individual cloves, and plant the individual cloves separately, about 7-12 cm apart.  Each garlic clove will become an entire bulb by the time you harvest it next summer.  Make sure to plant the cloves the right way up and make sure each clove has four inches of soil cover.

Did you know there are two types of garlic grown in Ontario? hardneck and softneck.

Enough about planting, you must be wondering what did we end up making with all that garlic? We made Garlic bread, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Greens. We also harvested a lot of greens from the youth garden for the garlic greens dish. By the way I wrote the word garlic 15 times in this post!

If you also harvested some garlic from your own garden or bought some from the farmers’ market, here’s one of the recipes for you to try:

Garlic Greens
Adapted from www.reneesgarden.com

Note: You can use any dark green leafy vegetable for this recipe. Some greens you can use are: spinach, kale, beet greens, mizuna, collards, mustard, turnip greens, and bok choy.

Ingredients (Serves 6)
1 pound greens, cut into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup water
Juice of one lime or lemon

Directions
Heat oil at a medium temperature in a large pan.
Add onion and garlic and fry until onion is softened.
Add greens and stir to combine.
Add salt and water.
Cover and reduce heat. Cook over low heat until greens are just tender.
Sprinkle with lime or lemon juice and toss.

So what is the garlic diet? Well, you don’t lose much weight, but from a distance your friends will think you look thinner

It’s harvest time in the garden, and everyone at Greenest City knows what that means!

This year’s Earth, Food and Culture Festival will be taking place on Saturday, September 24th from noon until 4pm. Come join us in Masaryk park for a fun afternoon of food, entertainment and family-friendly activities. This year, we’re being joined by Bicycle Commons and Mountain Equipment Co-op for a free minor repair and bike tune up clinic in adjacent Dunn Parkette.

Hope to see you there!

Greenest City Earth, Food and Culture Festival

Tony and Abby Sabherwal started Magic Oven in 1997. They started this restaurant because they wanted to offer Torontonians healthy pizza with fresh, local and organic ingredients, without additives and preservative, and to make pizza available to those with dietary needs. Their belief is that “nothing artificial” should be added to our lives.

I visited the Magic Oven located at Liberty Village (127 Jefferson Ave, Toronto, ON M6K 3E4). It was around 8:30pm and the restaurant had no customers, it’s probably because they also offer take out. The restaurant was clean and very pretty. It was well decorated and comfortable. There was only one person working. He was the waiter, cashier and the cook. He gave us menu when we were seated and also showed us the special for the day. The day’s special was a big slice of pizza for $4.43, a big slice of pizza and drink for $5.31 and a slice of pizza and salad for $6.95. Magic Oven offers Soups, Salads, Express Yourself Pizza (Pizza that is good for you), Sandwiches, Pastas and Desserts.

When I looked at the menu, I was sure that I would try the Tandoori Chicken Magic pizza from the day’s special. I’m from India so I wanted to try something that would touch a part of my past. This pizza consists of Tandoori chicken, tomato sauce, ginger, green chillies, red onions, cilantro, light organic mozzarella. The pizza was made as soon as I ordered and it was hot when it reached the table. I really liked the chicken and the red onions added a slight crunch to it. The crust was thin and crispy just the way I liked it. Maybe it is because of where I come from, because I didn’t find the pizza spicy at all although there were green chillies in it. Overall, it was pretty good.

I also ordered Pepperoni pizza which consisted of pepperoni, tomato sauce, and organic mozzarella. I ordered this just to see the difference between magic oven and other pizza places like 241 and old man’s pizza in my neighbourhood. To be honest, I could taste the difference in the cheese itself. It was melted to perfection and when I took a bite of it, the cheese stretched just the way I love it! The mozzarella cheese is also organic so it adds on to the pros. The down side to the pizza dishes was that the pizza came on a paper plate, I was hoping for an actual plate. There were two slices for each of the pizzas that I ordered so thankfully my cousin came along.

For dessert I ordered the hazelnut cappuccino cheesecake ($6) which was to die for. The cake cut smoothly and melted in my mouth like butter. Best cheesecake ever! But again, the cake was given to us in a take away container. However, whoever made the cake, Bravo to you!

I would not recommend Magic Oven at Liberty Village for birthdays or other celebration because it is a small restaurant but it’s definitely a good place to hang out with a small group. I would definitely go back for more of their pizzas.

Be sure to check out their website: http://www.magicoven.com/

HI!!

I’ve enjoyed reading the blog posts so much that I wanted to post one of my own. So this is my first and last addition to the GC blog. I don’t think I’ve ever had a summer as engaging and exciting and as fun as this one. My work at Greenest City has been the most rewarding of all of my jobs, not only because Emma, Shariya, Carolyn, and Lipi,  are such wonderful co-workers (and Monica), but also because of my super awesome seven YGS members.  I’m sure Emma and Shariya will agree that interviewing the candidates and choosing our final seven was not at all an easy process, but I couldn’t be happier with the group we put together. You guys have been attentive and involved. You each have an impeccable attendance record and you’ve been such a pleasure to work with. We’ve had some hilarious and interesting and educational experiences. I’ve really loved coming into work each day and seeing all of your faces and hearing the things you’ve had to say. As much as I hope this has been an encouraging and unforgettable learning experience for you guys, you should know that I’m humbled by how much I’ve learned and gained from all of you.  Each and every one of you are truly talented, you all have amazing personalities and I hope that you find an unwavering confidence in your capabilities and in the young adults you are growing into. I miss you already and I’m really going to miss our check-out questions. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope to see you again soon .

This is it guys! My days with the YGS (Youth Green Squad) are over. It has been seven weeks since I started working but it feels like I have worked here for years. I’m really going to miss all my new friends, co workers and my three bosses. It has been very fun and I learned a lot but my journey ends here. I hope that one day I will get to share my knowledge to others. Last but not least I would like to thank all my teammates and my bosses for assisting me when I needed help the most, so thank you and goodbye.

I had aot of fun working with the youth green squad, from the farmers market to the canning at the pnc. I’m gonna miss alot of the workshops and activities we did like the food safety and handling and resume workshops. I’ll miss the friends that I’ve made over the past three weeks and our bosses. It was fun working with such wonderful people, its been a fun experience and i hope that one day we all see each other again. See ya around peace!

Although this is the end of my adventure as a Youth Green Squad member, it is definitely one of those experiences that I will never ever forget in my life. I loved it so much these seven weeks, so much that I still can’t believe that this journey is over so soon. I’ve also learnt so much in this program. And NOW, I will give you a brief overview of the things that I’ve learnt these seven weeks as a part of the YGS :

• Gardening, Canning, Blogging and Video Blogging
• Leading children’s activities
• Cooking for more than 150 people at P.A.R.C
• Cooking for Youth garden drop ins and Potlucks
• Working on a farm when it rained (Bob’s farm to be specific)
• Touching worms while cleaning its home
• Face painting and flower button making at local Farmers market

I’m going to miss all the Youth Green Squad members, each and every one of you and the greenest city staff members. Emma, Shariya and Baasima, thanks again for this opportunity that you’ve given me.

 

This is how I see us, even 30 years later, but older.

 

To bee honest,  it does not feel like  seven weeks had passed by! I’d bee lying if I didn’t say that this job is a really fun way to spend your summer. It was really cool to meet a lot of new people whom I’d seen around the community but never got the chance to know them. I’m really going to miss being a part of the Youth Green Squad but I’ll still be in Parkdale so I can still bee apart of Greenest City. Bzzzzzzzzzzz! Anyway, I guess until I get another opportunity to write on this blog I’ll see you later alligator.