Urban Farming

A few generations ago growing your own food was a part of life.  Today it seems like it is a lost art.  It is an art form that definitely intrigues me.  Our family travels have not been good for the honing of my green thumb but I keep trying to grow a variety of different veggies and berries on our little piece of downtown Longmont.  One day this spring I was out in our garden that sits between the sidewalk and the street working when a lady came by and said, “your farm is looking good!”  Wow, she called my little plot of veggies a farm!  Which means I am a farmer.  An urban farmer!

So, when Steph said she found an urban farm in Kelowna British Columbia that was also an RV park, I was super excited to check the place out.  We arrived at the park in the heat of the day but pulled right in to site #9 as instructed by Tyler, the owner, who called us earlier in the day.  He just opened the RV part of the farm in May so the sites are freshly landscaped and look really nice and clean.  Spots are a little on the tight side but not impossible.  I noticed about  half of the sites had rigs as big as ours and all our trucks were sticking out beyond our official spot.  All the spots are full hook up and the WiFi is super strong and snappy!

Tyler dropped by a little later to welcome us and tell us everything we needed to know including how to get to the creek at the edge of the property and to be sure to take any of our vegetable scraps to the chickens.   Later when we took some veggies to the chickens we noticed a sign that said “Kewlona water boil advisory is in effect”.  Hmmm….Tyler forgot to mention that…which is a bummer because several of us had chugged some water due to the extreme heat!!  Hopefully we’ll be ok.  But now we have potentially tainted water in our water lines!!  Oh well, we’ll flush it out later.

We decided to redeem our rain check for the pizza we were unable to sink our teeth into a few days earlier.  The clear winner (per Tyler and TripAdvisor) was Bordello’s Pizza.  And it was within walking distance to City Park which is right on the shore of the lake.  Guess what?  It’s closed on Mondays!!!  Second highest rated was Antico Pizza which was just as close to the park so we set out for there.  The pizzas are traditional thin crust style, made to order and baked in an Italian microwave.  Only 90 seconds in the intense heat of the wood fired brick oven is all it takes to get a fresh hot pizza.  We shared a big salad and three pizzas while we listened to Paul Rogers and Fine Young Cannibals playing on a record player…very retro!!

After dinner we took a stroll in City Park.  We found a piano, a dragon, bears, a playground (with a zip line) and huge crashing waves from a combination of high water from recent flooding and the crazy wind storm that blew in.  Back at the park we enjoyed the nice evening temperature before turning in for a nice quiet night of sleep.

The next day Caden’s stomach hurt all morning so we just doddled around on the urban farm.  By mid afternoon he was much better so we took the dog to PetSmart to try to get her claws trimmed.  The things are getting to be like tiger claws!!!  The nice folks at PetSmart tried really hard to get them clipped but could only do 4 of her nails before they gave up.  She was just too stressed out.  I was embarrassed.  When they called us over the loud speaker I felt like I was going to talk to the principal about my trouble maker kid.

We finished our time in Kelowna exploring another section of the lake and Knox Mountain Park which has lots of trails and some very nice views over the city and the lake.  I think we all were a little disappointed in Kelowna.  Not because it is a bad place to visit.  It is actually a very pleasant place with great public spaces, very bike friendly, every convenience you could want and a great urban farm to camp on.  It actually felt a lot like home so maybe that was part of it….it just didn’t feel unique or special.  I don’t know….can’t quite put my finger on it.