Rye's Homegrown Harvest Party
Event Information
Description
CELEBRATE LOCAL FOOD
Join us to celebrate local food and sustainable agriculture in downtown Toronto! Come visit Ryerson University on September 18th, where food lovers and green thumbs can learn new skills, take tours of our edible garden sites, browse tables set up by local farmers, chefs, and ecological groups, and chow down on free grub cooked from fresh produce grown on campus. This year we will be partnering with TRCA, Urban Harvest, Ontario Urban Gardeners, and Whole Foods Market Yorkville to create our biggest event yet! Our Harvest Party will also be in conjunction with AppleTree's third Ryerson Farmer's Market of the season.
RHG Edible Garden Cook-Off: 12 - 2
Teams made up of students, staff, and surrounding community members will team up with local chefs and compete to create the most delicious dish using fresh, organic vegetables grown and harvested right here at Ryerson. Additional food will be provided by Whole Foods Market Yorkville, Pfennings Organics, and Fresh City Farms. Come enjoy a plate of 6 dishes crafted from our homegrown produce and vote for your favourite!
Garden tours: 2:30 - 3:30
Take a tour of our on-campus edible gardens and see upcycling, self watering container gardening, permaculture strategies, and roof-top farming in action.
Workshops: 3:30 - 5:00
Learn new skills and strategies for growing your own food and helping build biodiversity in urban environments!
Seed Bomb Workshop with Cass Stabler from Toronto & Region Conservation Authority's Healthy Yards Program (3:30 pm)
Native wildflowers, grasses, and other plants play an important role in restoring habitats for pollinators that can become threatened by urban and agricultural environments. Learn more about the fantastic native plant species of Southern Ontario and take concrete action to promote their growth by building clay-ball wildflower "seed bombs" to throw around your neighbourhood.
Cass Stabler is the Healthy Yards Program Coordinator for Toronto and Region Conservation. As part of the Community Stewardship team, she provides watershed residents with inspiration and information required to create beautiful native plant gardens and pollinator habitat. Visit trca.on.ca/yards to find useful resources and information about upcoming Healthy Yards workshops and events.
Grow Your Own Mushrooms with Arlene Throness from RHG (4:30 pm)
Gourmet mushrooms have long been seen as mysterious and elusive to home gardeners and cooks. Innovation in techniques for home and commercial production along with research into the health benefits of fungi has sparked a rise in popularity for cultivation and culinary use of both gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. In this hands-on workshop, we will practice one of these low-tech methods by preparing bags of straw and oyster mycelium for you to take home and enjoy. Come and learn about the incredible role that fungi plays in forests and soil, the surprising revelations in the health benefits of fungi, and the various methods of cultivation that you can use to grow a variety of mushrooms at home.
Worshop fee = FREE
Mushroom bags = suggested donation of 5$
To reserve a mushroom bag, email ryeshomegrown@ryerson.ca
Organizer Rye's Homegrown Community Gardens
Organizer of Rye's Homegrown Harvest Party
Rye’s Homegrown (RHG) is made up of Ryerson students, faculty, and staff who prioritize food sovereignty and responsible ecology. We employ a GROW to THROW (closed-loop food cycle) model and aim to create communities by building innovative environments where traditionally isolated disciplines can intersect and interact.
RHG operates 8 edible gardens on campus using a variety of growing methods and techniques. We provide a source of accessible healthy food for our community and act as a focal point for on-going discussion, experimentation, and development of a more sustainable campus, and ultimately a more sustainable city.
