Building Roots in the Ashbridge Estate

Building Roots exists to bring healthy food to all neighbourhoods. We work with builders and community partners to create urban agriculture, kitchens, markets, retail and food hubs in housing developments and renewals. We establish successful and lasting food projects that engage communities and bring people together. Building Roots envisions all neighbourhoods having places to grow, cook, share and buy healthy food.

Launched successful discussion on food and development in 2013, with Daniels Corporation, Heart & Stroke Foundation Food expert consulting team has established food projects with Lanterra Developments, ERA Architects, Toronto Community Housing, City of Toronto Founded out of Food Forward, five year old Toronto food non-profit organizing on new solutions for food access, street food, urban ag Centre for Social Innovation 2015 City Builder, Agents of Change

Building Roots

Proud to be working on the #11WellesleyMarket with such a great organization!- Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam

Lisa Kates and Darcy Higgins, Partners

Tare Egbedi, Urban agriculture and education consultant

Marcela Crowe Greenhouse and environmental management consultant

Thompson Nguyen, Designer and heritage consultant

Jen Broadbent, Project manager

Advisors:

Michael McLelland, Partner, ERA

Bronwyn Underhill, Director, Parkdale Community Health Centre

Partners include:

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, Heart & Stroke Foundation, Native Womens Resource Centre, Friends of Allan Gardens, TD Bank, Bay Cloverhill Residents Association, Ryerson University, caterToronto, Centre for Social Innovation, Whole Foods

Team

Ashbridge EstateThe Ashbridge Estate is a beautiful historical property kept by the Ontario Heritage Trust. The grounds are well valued by neighbours and visitors/shoppers in Leslieville as a place to enjoy, relax and walk. The space has been used informally for walks and community/school groups, with recent events drawing greater interest and with very favourable outcomes by all stakeholders.

It has a great potential to balance uses that include residents in innovative programming that is community-led and in partnership with local groups and schools. Projects and programming on site would restore natural and cultural heritage that replicates historical uses of the site, which would have included agriculture, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, as well as pre-European settlement food and medicine growing.

Our proposal will make use of nearly all possible site uses suggested by the OHT, including arts and culture, educational, heritage and festivals, through a theme of good food, which is the bestingredient in bringing people together.

Building Roots proposes to lead a kind of community engagement that will bring successful partnerships to create value for the Ontario Heritage Trust along with Leslieville residents and visitors. The estate could benefit greatly by this kind of animation. Our work will support meeting the following goals:

Develop community interest, stewardship and volunteering, and event opportunities; Create new, more formalized partners and friends of the estate including schools, local groups

and small businesses; Create beneficial social and educational programming; Restore food-based cultural heritage to the Ashbridge Estate and provide community education

on this topic; Significantly increase awareness of the Ontario Heritage Trust in the community.

Community vegetable garden would be great for a section of the grounds, in keeping with the fact that the house would originally have had such a garden

- Ontario Heritage Trust survey commenter

Engaging community through food

This project also supports current objectives of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, as outlined by the Premier, and may gain further support from government:

Supporting Community Partnerships and Engagement

Continuing to build partnerships and engage communities across the province, including Aboriginal communities. You will continue to support the conservation of built heritage and archaeological resources, strong public libraries, a vibrant arts sector, sport, para-sport and recreation, Aboriginal community recreation, and economic opportunities including Aboriginal tourism (Ontario.ca)

Engaging community through food

Building Roots will facilitate the most appropriate area partners to grow and maintain community gardens at Ashbridge Estate.

The process of establishing herb, vegetable and pollinator gardens will involve research, outreach, project development, programming, implementation and facilitation with ongoing maintenance, harvesting and use of herbs and vegetables (with community use of food grown).

We would like to start with the quadrant garden currently unused, followed by the grassy area on the west side near Queen Street. They may be programmed differently, perhaps the first as a more public-facing garden, and the west-side garden with a focus on one or two community and school partners. The first garden should be planted mid-summer, with the second set of beds being prepared this fall.

The gardens could incorporate vegetables and herbs previously grown at the site, as well as First Nations herbs and crops, with educational interpretation. Awareness of pre-European settlement appears from survey results to be an important potential growth area.

Engaging through food: Gardens

Building Roots will create on-site programming that engages the community in some type of monthly activity that connects food with heritage, ecology and recreation.

We will take advantage of Building Roots, Ontario Heritage Trust and other experts to facilitate events that include workshops, festivals, demonstrations and tours that provide educational value. Topics may include uses of traditional herbs, heritage gardening, seed saving, edible plants in nature and other childrens activities or simple social events like neighbourhood picnics or afternoon tea.

Building Roots will be the primary manager of events planned on site, including publicity and logistics, with support from OHT. During winter, we will work with nearby partners to plan programming indoors and perhaps an outdoor event. We can also support coordination of others to program the space.

There should be a public event at least once a month from spring to fall at this location, this location is not used enough and if public taxes are paying for it then it should be used in the

public benefit.- Ontario Heritage Trust survey commenter

Engaging through food: Events

Included in programming, we propose the organization of a Fall Harvest festival for the community.

The event will include entertainment, food vendors, and urban agriculture/harvest education, and work with OHT to educate the public about Ashbridge Estate and its history.

We will also the use the opportunity to explore past and future uses of the site (orchards, apple cider, fresh apple pies!) and gain interest from possible volunteers to do urban agriculture and adopt more supportive gardening and horticulture on the grounds.

Engaging through food: Events

Urban Harvest Festival in Allan Gardens, Fall 2014, by Building roots and partners

Building Roots sees incredible potential for Ashbridge Estate to be a model site in animated heritage space that engages and creates community. By creating new community agricultural infrastructure, we can perform cultural heritage restoration, and create more active elements on the estate as it was previously used.

Many survey commenters desired a museum on site, and while that may not be feasible, interpretive elements could make use of the grounds - not a sitting museum building, but a dynamic location that actively involves people of different ages in its uses and education of history, food and more.

Engaging through food: Longer-term

We wish to facilitate the transformation of the greenhouse into an exciting space for community use. Our team which includes both heritage building and greenhouse developers can create a vision, assessment and plan to take to funders, and create partnerships and programming to use this space long-term. It is too valuable an asset, and this was noted by many commenters who would like to see it used for food growing and community benefit.

Building Roots would also like to create a community orchard with heritage apple trees on site. A community orchard, rather than a commercial one, is used and stewarded by the neighbourhood, perhaps families or school classes who may adopt the care of trees. This has been successful in Toronto including Ben Nobleman Park, Lotherton and Malvern/Rouge Valley. The project would include educational workshops and facilitation of site selection, planting and maintenance.

Engaging through food: Longer-term

Building Roots will take advantage of diverse existing partnerships, while finding and creating new ones to accomplish more together at Ashbridge Estate. We will work with OHT to confirm and desired partners in the community, make connections and gain approvals.

Potential partners could include: Applegrove Community Complex, area schools, nearby seniors residences, clubs and co-operative housing, FlightCafe, Leslieville Farmers Market, Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, Toronto Seed Library, Leslieville Historical Society, ERA Architects, Live Green Toronto, Orchard People, caterToronto, George Brown College, Canadian Women in Food, Transition Toronto.

Engaging through food: Partners

Engaging through food: TimelineTimeline Deliverable Expenses Fees

Summer-Fall(July 15-November 15)

- Research/develop and implement of two community gardens- Develop community partners and volunteers and associated programming- Host Fall Harvest Festival

- Program management- Festival promotion and supplies, garden bed prep, tools, soils, plants

$11,200$4,000

Winter(November 15-March 15)

- Spring garden planning, urban agriculture education- Monthly event/workshop open to community

- Program management- Educational materials and workshop supplies

$11,200$1000

Spring-Summer(March 1-July 15)

- Support partners and volunteers in developing/maintaining spring gardens with ongoing sustainability- Monthly event/workshop open to community, including partner-led events for sustainability

- Program management- Garden soils and plants

$11,200$1,000

Option for phase 2Summer-Fall(July 15-November 15)

- Planning and planting of community orchard- Create vision and plan for greenhouse, develop programming, community consultation

- Program management - Trees, supplies workshop

$11,200$3,000

Program management paid @ $2,800/month. Expect to bring in-kind value from project partners and volunteers of $5-8,000