Our experience working on Organic farm at UBC South Campus Farm
By Joseph Lin (President & CEO); Su Leung (Project organizer), Chin-Yi Huang (Instructor), Julia Hsieh, Green Club

We were so excited back in March when first learned about an opportunity to work on the UBC*s farmland and to grow our own vegetables.  We heard about this from Mr. Joseph Lin, the president of the Green Club of which all of us are members.  We join the membership of the Green Club because we love and enjoy nature. 

For us, enjoying nature includes not only appreciating the wildlife, plants and the diverse ecological communities that are so abundant in British Columbia, but also embracing a life style that creates minimal impacts and is in harmony with the ongoing and dynamic processes of our natural environments.  We were all very eager to find out the details about working on the UBC farm.

On June 22, 2000, we finally stood in front of the parcel of land designated to us, filled with excitement and anticipation.  Every one had a plan of what he or she wanted to grow; everybody brought tools for the work and could hardly wait to get started.  We tilled the soil, got rid of weeds, and added compose etc. in preparing the land for the seeds we had brought with us.  The fierce sunlight did not deter us; it only heightened our excitement and expectations.  We planted seedlings or seeds, tended our crops and spent a lot of time in the farm in the first couple of months of the season.  On average, each person invested approximately 10 hours per week in the field to take care of our crops.

As most of us were inexperienced in gardening or farming, the advice of the few experienced ones and the support and encouragement of one another had been crucial in keeping us going and in making this a success.  The monthly Growing Organic Vegetable workshops held at UBC campus farm throughout the season had been enormously helpful.  We appreciated very much Mr. Heather Pritchard and others who generously shared with us their insights and experiences in farming.  Discussing our ideas and sharing experiences with one another whenever people ran into each other in the field and watching the plants that we spent so much energy and time tending grow strong and healthy had been a gratifying and enriching experience for us all.

As early as late July and early August, some of us began to harvest the vegetables they grew.  People came to the field to witness the harvesting and, more importantly, to taste the vegetables hand-grown by friends.  Our excitement mounted as more and more crops of vegetables ripened between August and September.  We were all busy in harvesting and tasting the organic produce that we grew ourselves.  People shared with one another the vegetables they grew and commented on the tastes of different variety of vegetables.  It had been great fun and a joy.  Attached is a summary of the variety of vegetables the Green Club members have grown at UBC farm this past season.

Comments and Suggestions

While all of us enjoyed this experience and appreciate the opportunity to grow organic vegetables at the UBC campus farm, we also have some comments and suggestions regarding the operation and the logistics of working at the farm.  We already voiced our concerns at a meeting with Ms. Francine Julian in November.  We included them here again for your references.

We should negotiate a good way to use the two combination locks at the farm entrance among all participants, UBC security, staffs and students.

We would appreciate having a larger piece of land next year.  There were many people who wished to participate and were put on the waiting list this past year.  Due to the limited size of the land available to us, however, we were unfortunately unable to accommodate them all.

We experienced some problem regarding irrigating our plants.  More often than not, we were unable to turn on the water switch and this had been a hassle when we wanted to water our plants.  We eventually purchased our own set to be used by our members.  However, due to the different working schedules among us, this was inconvenient and had been an ongoing problem for us all. Mr. Thomas Chang would like to change the other well available and more effective in the near future.

We would like to have a greenhouse to experiment with growing different varieties of oriental vegetables.  Mr. Thomas Chang, the Vice President of TCIGC, is willing to donate some recyclable materials from his own green house for the construction of a green house.  Additional materials necessary to a functional greenhouse will cost approximately $500.

Acknowledgments

We thank the following people and organizations for their assistance and contributions that made this initiative a reality.  Ms. Heather Pritchard and Ms. Francine Julian at Farm Folk/City Folk, Mr. Derek Masselink at UBC South Campus Farm, Mr. Su Leung, Mr. Thomas Chang and Mr. Laurence Ho at Green Club.  They spent a lot of time and efforts in helping us get the project started, including advising us on the practicality of growing vegetables and coordinating and negotiating with related groups and organizations to ensure a smooth running of this project.

Taiwanese Canadian Green Club, a non-profit, self-founded community-acting organization, organized by a group of environment concerned Taiwanese and Asian Canadian families in January, 1994.  Our mission and goals are to promote cross-cultural understanding of the unique eco-systems and cultures among Taiwan, Asia, and Canada, to educate the public about the importance of conservation and bio-diversity by advancing a healthy way of living, to providing guidance to learn and appreciate the natural history, to seek and offer opportunities to learn to minimize human disturbances and impacts, to encourage active participation in community environmental protection initiatives.  This is the most active and popular Asian environmental organization in the Greater Vancouver area.  The club organizes 1~2 eco-tours, 4~8 healthy lifestyle seminars, 3~4 guided nature walks, and 20 adopt-a-park health walk every month.

The Roots and Shoots Project: Farm Folk/City Folk advocates eating nutritious, locally produced food.  Some of the goals of this project are to promote local food sufficiency, grow organic food in urban areas, celebrate ethnic food and cultural identity, preserve and promote heritage seed and plant varieties, and ensure the continuance and adaptation of traditional agricultural knowledge in immigrant communities.  The project will document how to grow and use select ethnic plants, from the procurement of seeds to the cooking and use of the plants. This information will be public knowledge that an individual or group anywhere could avail itself of.