Ian Smith Talks GetOutside! NB

Claire May Talks Fredericton’s New Urban Teaching Farm

The NB Community Harvest Gardens is a non-profit organization based in the Fredericton area that strives to “provide inclusive space for all citizens to garden together within the City of Fredericton.”

Most recently, the organization has decided to expand its reach beyond its two community gardens and build an urban teaching farm in Devon on the North Side. An interesting new concept that has no equivalent within the Maritimes, we reached out to project coordinator Claire Mays to find out more.

Q: So Claire, where did NB Community Harvest Gardens get the idea for an urban teaching farm?

The folks who run [NB Community Harvest Gardens] are really starting to notice that people want more than their 4x15 garden plot. They have a real interest in being more self-sufficient on a bigger scale- learning about farming as opposed to gardening. But there's really no option in terms of formal education in the Maritimes. There is the agriculture college in Truro. But their focus is much more scientific and it's large-scale. We're focusing on more of a small-scale, eventually we’ll have two acres in production, and we’ll be focusing on regenerative organic practices.

The people that are getting into agriculture now- the highest percentage are women coming from urban or suburban upbringing with some post-secondary education. So it's not people who are growing up on a farm who might be inheriting the knowledge, the equipment, the land or the capital, all of those things. People are coming to it with a totally blank slate with only the option to go and work on a farm, which is great, but sometimes those experiences are less structured and you don't learn the business side of things. You may learn bits and pieces here, but there's no real layout if you really want to learn the business.

Q: What is an urban teaching farm and why could Fredericton use one?

It's a working farm but in an urban setting. Our property is just on the North Side of Fredericton, right inside city limits. The reason that's so important is like I mentioned, the people that are getting into agriculture now are already in cities, and a lot of our newcomer populations too are coming with agrarian backgrounds and they're settling in cities because that's where the services are and that's where the jobs are. But if we can first train people in the city and give them the skills and the confidence, then we can assist with the transition into buying or leasing land out in the rural communities.

The hope for this program is that it's replicable. We're starting here because we are here, essentially, but like I said there's no other comparable program in the Maritimes. There's some like Ontario and west, and New England as well, but once we establish this and it's successful for a few years, the hope is that it's replicable around the province so that more people can get the training and you don't have to totally transport yourself.

 

Q: What skills will students gain at the urban teaching farm?

It's going to be about 60% hands-on, so actually in the fields working with a farm manager or instructor. Our instructors will be farmers who are coming in to speak on a specific thing or teach a certain skill. But we also want to complement that with the business side of things—skills like marketing, budgeting—because that's what we found lacking in internships or some of those less-formal programs.

We're going to be pretty limited in what we can do on-site, we won't have any livestock so it'll be mostly focused on vegetable production—some perennial crops hopefully. Probably once every couple of weeks we'll be taking the students to other farms nearby so they can see the blueberry production or beef, pork or chicken, those other things that we just can't do here. So hopefully we'll give a really well-rounded idea of what you can pursue and what is possible, while having that base of annual vegetable crops.

Q: Who will be able to access the urban teaching farm?


Everybody, anybody who wants to apply will obviously be able to. We want to keep the student to teacher ratio really low. On 2 acres there's still a lot to do but if you get like 40 or 50 people on there, things are going to get pretty chaotic and the less experience you'll have. We're not going to start by focusing on fresh out of high school population, but we're really hoping that gradually that starts to become recognized as a viable career again. Because in high schools it's really not—guidance counselors aren't saying check out agriculture, check out farming, it's just not presented as an option. And I think that will probably come gradually, but there's a lot of people coming looking for a second career. Obviously we don't want to turn people away, but hopefully we get lots of people applying who are excited about it. 

Q: Why is local food production important to sustainability?

The amount of transport and shuffling that is happening with food in New Brunswick and also across the country—we import pretty much the same things that we're exporting. We're growing quite a lot of food but we're also sending it away, which doesn't make sense right? According to the local food and beverage strategy, only 8% of what New Brunswickers consume is locally produced here.

There's a lot of people doing a lot of good things in agriculture and food production, both as primary producers and value add, but it's a really tough climate for farmers in the marketplace. They're expected to produce really high-quality food, but then they're also responsible for finding a market, storing it and getting it to market—all of those other pieces. Farmers are expected to take on 110% of the risk, making it really hard for them as primary producers.

So there's environmental sustainability of shipping things shorter distances but of course there's the economic side of it too, if you have your local producers growing things that are using local shipping companies to get it to local retailers and you've got your locals buying it, that money is staying in the province and it's circulating within the provincial economy.


Our farm in Devon is small-scale, it's diverse. It's mostly human powered, and having that focus on regenerative and organic means that depending on where you're starting from, you can be reclaiming and improving the land that you're on and the soil that you're working with.



We want people to succeed, to be able to make a living, and to stay in New Brunswick—not feel like they have to leave to find work, but also to have a rewarding career and lifestyle and to be contributing to the economy and their communities.



NB Community Harvest Gardens is hoping to have a pilot of the urban teaching farm up and running by Spring 2018. If you’re interested in finding out more information, or possibly lending a helping hand, please reach out to Claire at hayesteachingfarm@gmail.com or visit http://www.nbchg.org/urban-teaching-farm-project/.