Dale Kropf calls it Independence Day: On July 3, his five grocery stores in southwestern Ontario ceased to be Sobeys franchises.

Corporate policies prevented him from buying local products, he says, so he joined forces with four other former Sobeys franchisees and formed the independent Hometown Grocers Co-Op.

“We feel that local food, local presence is huge in our market and we wanted to take advantage of that,” Kropf says.
Canadians are increasingly subscribing to the “buy local” and “100 mile diet” philosophies due to concerns over imported food, Kropf adds. “The pressure was always mounting — the more recalls, the more bad press from China or wherever the product was coming from. I know that in our case, our private label pickles are made in Indonesia. I couldn’t believe that.”

As a franchisee for a large grocery chain, Kropf says, corporate policies stipulating that he only buy federally inspected meat prevented him from stocking local products. Most federally inspected meat in Canada comes from large corporations such as Maple Leaf, Cargill and Tyson.

Read more on CBC

Canadians who look in the mirror and see green may be environmentally colour blind, according to a new study.

Researchers compared how Canadians perceive their commitment to the environment and what they actually do about it in a study commissioned by marketing firm Cossette Communication and Summerhill, an environmental consultancy.

On average, people believed they were 20 per cent greener than their reported behaviour showed, the study found.

For example, close to 80 per cent of respondents said they use reusable drinking containers regularly, Cossette’s Nick Cowling said. “Yet if you are standing in the lineup at Starbucks or Tim Hortons or Second Cup and you look around, of course 80 per cent of people in the lineup are not doing that. They’re going to use the paper cup they’re given.”

Read the rest on CBC

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUGLIYMVOaw

More on illegal signs in Toronto.

Anyway, here’s what the pass will look like:

Bah! Same crappy design, but with more flare and shine. Has the photographer ever heard of white balance and exposure metering? I am not even going to bother this time.

But wait! There is hope! An interesting excerpt from the article:

Later this year the TTC will outline a plan to use art on its passes. Currently, the TTC uses a combination of art and photography when designing passes. The new art will be part of the overall pass design. The TTC will be issuing a request for expressions of interest in August. TTC customers can expect to see new art on Metropasses starting in April 2010.

Adam Giambrone, have you been reading my rants about the Metropass design? Hmmm? Please don’t screw this up – there are a lot of talented designers in the city who would love an opportunity to redesign this abdomination. Give me a shout, Adam.

University of Toronto made a pretty poor design decision by fading out St. Michael’s lower extremities in the hospital logo. To me it looks like he’s taking a leak. To others it might look like something else, not so uncommon amongst sexual deviants in Toronto downtown parks. Here is my artistic rendition of what I see every time I pass by the hospital:

There is also a massive billboard adoring the wall of the hospital – in this one steamy clouds are rising as St. Michael is taking a satisfying urban leak on our great city of Toronto. “$5 if you can hit the CN Tower!”

Below is what the original statue in the lobby of St. Michael’s looks like. This photo was taken by a Flickr user jp1958. If you have the time, you can  read a brief touching story about the statue and it’s importance to the hospital on St. Michael’s website.

Now, traditionally, St. Michael is portrayed treading on Satan or a serpent, carrying a banner, scales, and sword. A good example is a painting by Guido Reni.

Why did the University of Toronto and the hospital make this poor choice? Who knows, but it makes me wonder how many sets of eyes have seen what I see. And how many hospital admins thought this was a great rendition of the logo and rubber-stamped it all the way to the billboard.

Disclaimer: I have no doubt that St. Michael’s Hospital is a fantastic teaching hospital that does a lot of great work. I would not hesitate to be treated there in case of a medical mishap. Unfortunately, it does not reflect in their logo. It does not do their symbol great justice. Instead it opens up it’s interpretation to various wondering, perverted minds, like mine.

Greenwood  Maintenance Shop

Greenwood Shop is one of two heavy repair and overhaul facilities for the TTC. It is part of the 31 acre Greenwood Complex which opened in March 1960.The shop covers approx. 190,000 square feet and is the workplace of almost 200 employees. Major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds to support the fleet of subway vehicles is done here. The Shop also maintains the TTC fleet of workcars that are used by other TTC Departments in the maintenance of subway track, tunnels and wayside equipment.

Visitors will have a behind-the-scenes tour featuring machinery and equipment used in the overhaul and repair of big subway cars and the various work cars used by the TTC.

Eglinton Garage

Eglinton Garage/Division opened on March 31, 2002 and consists of 121,000 square feet situated on a 15.7 acre site. The garage services a fleet of 250 buses. The facility also features two bus wash racks, 12 indoor repair spaces and an outdoor bus storage area with a unique heating system which allows parked buses to be connected so that their engines are warm and ready to drive during the winter season.

A behind the scenes tour of the garage including a ride on a bus through the bus wash.

A ride through a bus wash!

More information on Doors Open Toronto and more places to visit.

P.S. Here’s a tip, City of Toronto – why not use a free open map API (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc) to place all of the locations on one map and give users an opportunity to print out customized lists instead of putting them all in one loooooong list. Even your downloadable PDF seems to be maintained by an accountant in Excel.

“The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.”

– Aldous Huxley

Toronto Before
A great Toronto-specific blog with historical visual comparisons.

Toronto Then and Now (Part 1, Part 2) by CityNews
A special prepared by CityNews to commemorate Toronto’s 170th anniversary.

Then and Now Flickr Pool
Probably the best place online for Then and Now shots. Especially for North American cities. When I visited, there were close to 1200 photos in the pool.

Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Siege: Now and Then (Part 1, Part 2)
A  great series comparing modern photos to photos from the siege of Leningrad during WWII.

Auschwitz Then and Now
A look back at Auchwitz that is a little less sentimental than the rest of the comparison sets. In this feature, the drawings from WWII are compared to new photos.

Sydney Then and Now
Some historical and modern shots of Sydney, Australia.

New York Then and Now
A collection of great shots of New York.

Then/Now Series by The New York Times
An interactive then and now feature by The New York Times. It features interactive photos that you can scrub to compare the two states.

London Then and Now Flickr Group
A Flickr group dedicated to recreating historical photos of London.

Thames Then and Now
A look at river Thames and how it’s banks have changed over the years.

Paris Then and Now
Ah, of course. How can a list like this be made without Paris?

Moscow Then and Now
To break the monotony of Western cities, I had to include beautiful Moscow.

Please feel free to share your own Then and Now finds in the comments below.

It might seem strange that, despite living in the city your entire life, you can still be a tourist in your own home. Yet, this is the sort of thinking that Heritage Toronto is looking to change, with the introduction of a new series of iTours.

Announced today by Heritage Toronto corporate secretary Alexandria Pike, in partnership with the RBC, the first Spadina Avenue iTour is already available on the organization’s website.

Heritage Toronto iTours

Via BlogTO

As you can tell from the second photo, I’ve allowed for some extra space on the right for various herbs and vegetables (this is the half-sun/half-shade plot). The garden is already populated by some herbs, two apple trees and a sour cherry tree that I introduced last summer. Aside from edible plants, I am introducing a few native plant species to add some variety in the garden.

I know a thing or two about gardening and sustainable farming having learned to grow herbs, flowers and vegetables from my grandparents. They built, moved to and lived in a self-sustainable cabin in the forest in Ukraine (out of necessity and passion). I spent my summers with them and performed various chores on our little family farm.

All those years of grandma yelling at me to get my ass moving watering are finally paying off! Ah, grandma.

Now I can put these skills to good use in my immediate grown-up urban surroundings in Toronto. I hope to make the food on our table more healthy and delicious, and do my part to make Toronto and the planet a greener place to live.

Over the winter, I worked on two planters made from a set of drawers we picked up on St. Clair sidewalk. Complete with rope handles, treated with a coat paint (recycled from older mixed paints), pimpin’ wheels (picked up at Active Surplus) and filled with a mix of last year’s compost (we compost any food that can be recycled in the garden – last year we’ve collected and processed close to 100kg) and home-made potting mix. As you can probably tell, they will need one more coat of paint.

After the planters were built, I’ve ordered some untreated seeds from Stokes Seeds from St. Catherines and set up a light table for germination and seedling development. I also bought  250 organic peat pellets on eBay that will surely last me a few years. I planted the seeds in the basement under timed fluorescent lights (making sure the temperature of the light is suitable). I wish my house was designed in a way that lets the sunlight do the job, but because of harsh Canadian climate and limited light, I had to resort to these lights.

I have been watering and taking care of the seedlings according to their appropriate temperature and light setting. The fluorescent light-bulbs were timed, so that the seeds are getting the right amount of light at all times. I ran the whole rig through Kill-a-Watt, which lets me monitor the electricity consumption. So far, in the past two months that I’ve had it running 12 hours daily, I’ve clocked 50 kWh, which is about $5 at about 10¢/kWh. Talk about efficiency. And even though it looks like a little grow-op, unfortunately I am not growing pot. To avoid moisture problems (although the seeds are encased), our basement dehumidifier (which helps us keep our heating costs and gas usage down) is usually run in the room if the humidity rises above a certain level – it also allows me to recycle the water collected from the air to water the plants.

Sounds pretty OCD, doesn’t it? That’s not it, just yet.

Here is what my germination and transplanting schedule looks like. I have  a few other tables that I’ve gathered from various e-books that help me fill in the gaps on seeds that did not have any information on the packets. I never cease to be amazed at information and tools that are at our disposal in this interconnected technology-enabled world. If you can come up with an idea, you can gather all the related information and tools within minutes.

I know what you are saying. What a nerd!

But you know what – I am just hoping to have a pretty good yield of tasty vegetables and herbs throughout the summer. Some of the plant seeding (mostly herbs and salads) will occur outdoors and will be staggered so that there’s a consistent yield throughout the year. Eventually, I plan to water these with rainwater run-off collected in one of the RiverSides rain barrels. I would strongly recommend getting one – I have had the pleasure to work with them on Thirsty City walks and they are really passionate and knowledgeable about their cause. Instead of overloading our Toronto sewage system, you can water your garden with water that is collected by your roof during every rainfall. I am also planning on renovating one of the storage rooms in the basement to be a perfect root-cellar in the winter.

Overall, the whole project takes some research, work and dedication, but I think it’s completely worth it. Everyone should have an opportunity to experience food through home-grown plants. I truly believe it’s one of the most important skills to have – renew and foster what nature gives you, aside from just consuming limited resources. Of course, not everyone has a backyard to experiment, but there are always ways to engage yourself with nature and do something you really like doing, and they can be very productive and not at all costly. At the very least you can plant an oak somewhere or sit around making cross-bows out of pop cans.

Of course, all of this this is nothing new. Most of my neighbors have decent lots and most of them garden. I know a few people who compost and grow vegetables on their balconies.  I think that it is really important to fulfill your OCD-fuelled interests – and it does not take a lot of money, time or initial knowledge to do it. Here are some good resources to get you started on urban gardening or whatever obsession is your favourite.

• Instructables – lots of gardening tutorials.
• Freecycle and Craigslist – can help you get some free gardening supplies.
• Green Enterprise Toronto – get in touch with some local Toronto businesses for supplies and advice.
• Scribd – has a lot of gardening e-books.

Happy gardening!

Update:

Since my original Urban organic gardening in Toronto post has been getting a lot of attention, I felt that I needed to follow up on my progress. It has been a particularly rainy summer here in Toronto, so fruiting has been delayed. My tomatoes have only begun to turn red a few days ago once our days became more sunny (whereas last year we were enjoying cherry tomatoes all summer). But take a look! These cherry tomatoes we picked today.

They taste great – really sweet and meaty in texture. A few of the Beef Heart tomatoes ripened as well, and we ate them right away. I get a feeling I’ll be picking these every day for the next few days. I barely had to water them this summer – and spent about 15 minutes once a week plucking the plants to stunt the plant growth and add more weight to the tomatoes.

The bamboo supports did a great job, but I am not sure if I am going to use the string next year. The tomatoes are turning out to be a little too heavy for it. For tomatoes and taller plants I am going to reinforce the existing supports with more bamboo to form more of a cage. Otherwise, bamboo ended up being the perfect material for this – a better alternative to PVC or metal.

I also didn’t make the best choices when it came to sun positioning and planning. By oversight I planted artichokes and jalapeño peppers in a semi-shady spot and due to to a really wet, dark summer they haven’t grown as fast as expected. Based on this year’s results I’m going to move things around next year and move more planters into the driveway – we have lots of unused space because we don’t drive and it tends to be one of the sunniest spots in the summer.

The salad grew pretty wild and I’ve gone through several seeding rounds. We haven’t bought fresh greens all summer – I was particularly happy with green salad and parsley. Fresh parsley made all the difference in salad and cooking – awesome flavour. Salad is really crispy and juicy thanks to all the rain. The planters worked great, but I feel that I need to paint them for next season with some crazy designs.

So yeah, overall, we’ve manage to enjoy homegrown veggies, spices and salad despite having a fairly cold summer with fairly minimal effort.

P.S. One weekend, Studio Restaurant on Church St. was kind enough to put out a whole jar of crushed eggshells (about 1kg) outside for anyone who was interested. Thanks to them, my garden is happier than ever. Every diner should do this – there would be enough gardeners to collect the crushed shells. They are a great organic source of calcium. I collect my own, but nothing beats a kilo of them.

I recommend watching this video on Vimeo in HD.

Via Bruce Mau