Image by Adam Blasberg
Andrew Fleming, one of the founding members of Inner City Farms.
Image by Adam Blasberg
ICF partners with homeowners throughout the city to make urban agriculture a reality.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Will Valley, a founding member of Inner City Farms, works with volunteer and friend Genny Mills to transform backyards into urban farms.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Fresh, organically grown (though non-certified) Vancouver vegetables are distributed via the community-supported agriculture (CSA) model, providing a local sustainable food option to the community. The CSA model consists of an agreement between food producers and consumers to share the risks and rewards of food production. This model protects and values the farmer while connecting the consumer with the very people who grow their food.
Image by Adam Blasberg
In Vancouver many lawns are infested with chafer beetle. Skunks, crows and raccoons have taken to ripping up sod to feed on chafer grubs. As a result, countless hours and resources are spent caring for grass each summer.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Camil Dumont, farmer and another founding member of Inner City Farms, builds a greenhouse with his father, Laval Dumont, in a concrete backyard flower bed in East Vancouver. Greenhouses like this one will produce hundreds of pounds of tomatoes this summer.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Inner City Farms provides an alternative by converting lawns into productive farms. When they’re done homeowners are able to grow more than food; they grow relationships and community.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Camil Dumont harvests bok choy in Mount Pleasant. Inner City Farms grows a diverse selection of vegetables with a focus on heirloom and open-pollinated varieties. Its signature crop is garlic, of which it produces several varieties.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Food is harvested, packed and ready for pickup all on the same day.
Image by Adam Blasberg
Members of ICF’s community-supported agriculture collective pick up their allotted share at Le Marché St. George at 28th Avenue and St. George Street, just east of Main Street. As the owners of ICF, Vancouver’s urban farmers are a part of the community they serve and rely on to succeed.
Inner City Farms is an agriculture collective that aims to turn the backyards of Vancouver into productive farmland. It’s a social enterprise whose goal is not only to put food on tables, but to put people in touch with the food they eat. As manicured lawns give way to rows of turnips, lettuce and radishes, and as urban farmhands spread out across the city, we’re reminded that tomatoes aren’t born in plastic six-packs. The next time you sit down to tuck into a meal, ask yourself, Where was this grown? How did it get here?
The answer could be right around the corner.
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