What Urban Green Farm means:
Urban - My family lives in a city
Green - We are trying our best to take care of this planet, it is dying, it is our responsibility to heal it, to make sure the next generation (our children) have a clean, safe planet to live on.
Farm - I wish we had space to farm, but alas we are in a city. So I plan on having a small modest garden in the backyard, but even with that we will still need food! So our family is committed to eating seasonally and eating locally, which helps our local farmers make money and keeps our family safer as the things we eat are pesticide free and the animals we consume have lived free, happy lives.
What Urban Green Farm looks like:
Urban:
umm, ya it looks like a city!
Green:
For us living green consists of some basics like recycling everything (which fortunately our city FINALLY started a recycling program so they now pick up our recyclables each week), using only environmentally friendly cleaning products, or ones that I have made myself. Shopping primarily in second hand shops or using services like Kijiji for our clothing and household goods, or my weakness shopping at Ikea (which is powered by wind, they use sustainable foresting to create all products and they use recycled materials whenever possible). Some more intense, harder actions are our family has taken include composting all our scraps, only buying organic food products, eating seasonally and locally which eliminates the enormous fossil fuels that are burned shipping produce from across the world, buying all our coffees and teas fair trade, being conscience what hygiene/beauty products have been tested on animals and eliminating those from our homes. The list goes on, but we try to think of our planet and the quality of the life of its creatures before purchasing or using most things.
Farm:
The "farm" lifestyle has a lot of meaning to me. I wish we could grow all our own produce right here in our yard, but that is impossible with the space we have. So the next best thing is visiting the farmers market every week and buying seasonally what is available from local farms. Eating seasonally is not easy, especially in late winter and early spring when produce is at its minimum. We have embarked upon this challenge in early winter, so if we can make it to May then we can do this forever. It has made me expand my cooking abilities to find new and creative ways to cook squash, potatoes and root veggies like carrots, beets and turnips. Check often for my recipes and pics of the creations I make.
Another aspect I picture to be farm lifestyle (but who knows as I have never lived on a real farm!) is one of more simplicity. To our family this means slowing down, and using our time in better ways. So for example we don't have cable, we have media time so that we only spend a certain amount of time each week watching movies, playing video games and being on the web. We also only have natural toys for Ivy, so things made of wood or fibres. We make time for creative pursuits as they are good for the soul.
This is not the easiest way to live, but it is the only way in our minds. We care too much about our planet and we believe as small of a family as we may be that we are making a difference!
