We have also begun to harvest to donate the food to various advocacy and solidarity groups in town. We have given to AVI, VIRCS, and PEERS so far, with more donations to come.

In the spirit of feminist author bell hooks, I like to think of this project as redirecting flows of resources and foods from the centre of society to the margins. hooks wrote a very influential text called Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre. In it, she cautions against reproducing oppression in our struggle against oppression. To do so, we must shift our thought, attention, and care towards the margins of society, for this is where places and bodies deeply need our solidarity. These bodies can be both ecological and social – and often the suffering at the margins is purposefully rendered invisible through practices or ideas that also justify the suffering.

An example of this rampant bullshit, off the top of my head, is the stigma attached to sex workers, which leads to attitudes of dismissal with regards to their wellbeing, health and safety. Rae-Lynn Dicks, testifying at Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, ”said she was repeatedly told by her sergeants they weren’t going to spend “valuable time and money” looking for prostitutes when she worked for the Vancouver Police Department’s call centre.”
Wherever we are, perhaps a decent goal could be to focus some of our energy to generating abundance and sharing, directing it away from the magnetic pull of centres of power and towards the margins - and turn this ethic into a life practice, which is flexible and capable of operating in any locale! A unwavering critique/mistrust of the police would be good as well…

On another note (and slightly lighter), our pea trellis fell down because we had too much growth! We gave peas a chance, and they destroyed themselves! Maybe there is a lesson in there somewhere…

Please contact us if you’d like to help harvest for donations!

The strawberries are bright red and almost ready for harvest. The peas have pods on them, but are not big enough to harvest yet. The broad beans are almost finished flowering and should have fruit on them soon. One of the beds is now home to 11 purple peacock pole beans. Some trellises will be constructed fairly soon.  There are also several new purple sprouting broccoli seeds that were put into the ground on Sunday, as well as some dill, and salad greens.

Here are some photos I took at the garden on Monday.

Thanks to all who came out and helped!

Pix:

Our peas, beans, potatos, spinach, chard and kale are all doing really well!

Putting in the trellis for the peas.
Snow pea row.

Putting in some seeds!

Hard at work in one of the UVSP plots!

Broad beans pushing up towards the sky. Look at that delicious chocolate cake soil!

At the Free Meal Program we could always use some help with watering the gardens and taking care of the seedlings. Please send an email to everybody.eats.victoria [at] gmail [dot] com if you’d like to come on out and help! No experience necessary!

We’d also love it if you have a thought-provoking resource to share on our resources page!

May this garden city bloom,

until everybody eats.

Hands in the soil, and sunshine! We planted broad beans, transplanted kale, arugula, spinach, peas, swiss chard and even some early experimental potatoes!

The plot thickens.

A finished bed. For now… more planting will be had as the soil warms!

Food Revolution: Everybody Eats has a total of six 2m by 3m plots that were graciously donated by wonderful plot renters at the campus community gardens. If you (yes, you!) have any interest in helping to plant at our next work party, water, weed, and care for these gardens over the summer, please send an email to everybody.eats.victoria [at] gmail [dot] com

Stay tuned! There is much more planting and planning fun to come!