Stories of Gift Giving in our Community

Looking for inspiration? Read below for the first of our stories of gifts passed on in our community. Got a story to share? Let us know – we want to hear from you!

Tim Lyon, Main Street Market

Who are you?

Tim Lyon, urban farmer of Main Street Market, a company making the connection between eaters and the land. Main Street Market grows and sources local produce for weekly vegetable baskets, also supplying local stores and markets and catering small events. Our biggest thrill is being out in the sun or rain, breathing fresh air, and working hard to supply Kingstonians with the best local food we can grow or source.

How are you connected to the farming & food community?

I eat local food. My wife and daughter do too. Main Street Market loves to connect eaters with the earth. Previously, I worked at Desert Lake Gardens for six seasons over the past decade and a half. When Food Down the Road hit town I got much more involved on the practical and political levels. I started attending NFU 316 events, and loving every conversation experienced and tidbit learned.

My work caring for a piece of land myself began last summer at the Oak Street Community Garden. I continue to work there, running the Market Training Garden and delivering educational workshops and training, all the while learning from others too. Main Street Market sells local CSA baskets, and supplies local food items to some stores and markets in Kingston. The Wally Elmer Market is a growing new project which Main Street Market supports and supplies. All proceeds from produce grown at Oak Street go back to the gardens.

What gifts did you receive?

A tiller, two hoes, a seeder, remay, chinese scissors, shears, a shovel, a landscape rake, soil blockers, and lots of encouragement. The tiller, soil blockers and shovel in particular have been shared very widely.

How did this help?

Agricultural endeavours do not allow me to make a living yet. And, before I have enough income to provide meaningful employ and experience to others, I wanted to be able to share agricultural skills with others–particularly in an urban setting–in order to increase the probability of more young(ish) folk getting into vocational farming. Having solid tools on hand to use and train others to use has been essential.

What gifts did you pass on?

In partnership with Oak Street Garden, Main Street Market had interns from KEYS Summer Jobs for Youth program working at Oak Street Community garden in the Market Training Garden 2009. A video of one of the youth can be seen at www.mainstreetmarket.ca. Several youth, and others, learned how to care for a market garden using tools given by the NFU New Farm Project. In addition, I’ve trained several people to use the tiller and train others to do so. The tiller has also been used to help prepare personal gardens and school gardens in Kingston to increase urban agriculture.

Most recently, Main Street Market offered a Season Extension workshop, teaching the basics of seed choice and planting, potting-up and transplanting out and seed-saving at Kingston Sustainability Centre. Similar workshops are being given Spring-Autumn 2010 for the Ontario Early Years Centre and L.C.V.I.s Cook’s Internship focus program. The tiller also serves Lovingspoonful by preparing the Acorn Garden plot in Kingston.

What difference did this make? How has this helped the community?

• More than a 1/5th of an acre of urban previously farmed land, slated to be turned into a road, has been converted back to productive food supplying soil for Kingston area residents. In 2010 the tiller will prepare even more urban soil for agricultural use.

• Work at Oak Street Garden and around the City of Kingston has helped us raise awareness about food security, community building, cooperating, prison farm closures and more

• I have entered a second year of urban farming, and will be taking on college/university interns as well as more high-school interns this year

• Our Tuesday night potluck meals at Oak Street have been a well-attended event for eating fresh local food and enjoying one another’s company (we use the tools to care for and harvest the food, then eat it within minutes!)

-Written on April 22, 2010

Christine Bliss, Owner of Uptown Dairy

How are you connected to the farming/food community?

We produce fluid goat milk and registered breeding stock Saanen dairy goats, sell handmade goat milk soaps, and  make artisan cheese (currently for home use).

What gift did you receive:

Our gift was training, on the  subject was artificial insemination of dairy goats by Glenn Millar from Gencor.

How did this help you:

This training enables us to expand our genetic base by using imported semen, the end result being improved breeding stock for our dairy and for sale.

What gift(s) did you pass on?

The gift passed on was a dairy buck, named Saint Anthony. He was the first buck that we had born here and he is from my favorite doe. He is a proven breeder and all of the offspring that we have from him are doelings.  His name is given from a verse that my sister Lori sent to me the morning that we were bringing the herd home. I’ve included that verse, just for reference:

‘May these animals, O Lord, receive Thy blessing; may they be sound in body and, by the intercession of Saint Anthony the hermit, may they be preserved from all evil. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.’

Saint Anthony The Hermit: From the earliest times was regarded as the patron of farmers and animal breeders.

What difference did this make? How has this helped the community?

The buck was passed to a family in our community. This family is starting up their own dairy milking herd. The purchase of a good buck is a large investment during your start-up phase. I feel that this buck will help the family to be successful in establishing a healthy herd of good quality, high production, and excellent temperament milking goats.

The community benefit is that the establishment of a consistent source of high quality goat milk in the area will enhance attracting an artisan milk processor which would create skills development, employment/income, agrotourism and recognition.