Food & The
Boundaries of the Home
Andrea’s Workshop
October 4, 2019
West End, Toronto, ON
Andrea’s workshop explored the delicate balance between a resilient local food system and a sustainable home economy.
We began a fruit pick with Not Far From the Tree in two tiny urban backyards; after two hours, we were stunned that we had picked over 170 pounds of grapes for homeowners and food banks that would have otherwise gone to waste.
We then walked to the home of BUFCO (Backyard Urban Farm Company) CEO Arlene Hazzan Green. She showed us her backyard urban farm, her ‘guerrilla garden’ in the laneway, and a number of interconnected neighboring gardens. Arlene reinforced our morning experience, demonstrating how porous property boundaries can expand the amount of food produced within a neighborhood, a win-win for everyone.
Over a lunch sourced from local Toronto-based farms, Andrea shared her personal history from the early days of “radical homemaking” described by Shannon Hayes. While positive developments have laid the groundwork for a more locally-based and environmentally-friendly food system, she noted that there has been less focus on who is doing the labor to bring this sustainable food system home. With most of us working full-time outside the home, who is feeding the sourdough starter or canning the tomatoes or washing, chopping, cooking and serving the vegetable-forward yet labor-intensive meals we know will save us and the planet? When the answer is one very tired person, as was the case for Andrea, the result can be a personal energy crisis.
An exploration of the gendered labour of homemaking led us to re-examine our investment in private property and self-reliance and to consider the strategies suggested by Katy Bowman in her permaculture-influenced “stack-your-life” movement. At the same time, we were acutely aware of the barriers – access to land, capital, time -- that keep so many from being able to even imagine shifting into this vision of dynamic and communal homemaking. We left the workshop charged with possibility, determined to continue exploring possibilities (and picking fruit!).
What is the real labour of making a home?
What are the boundaries of our home?
What is the commons within our cities? And how might these spaces be reclaimed for all?
"It was a sensory day: the feel of the sun, the scent and taste of the grapes, the sounds of the chickens and the traffic. And a thought provoking one as well."
–Alexandra
“[Persephone]… put into [her] hand the berry of the pomegranate, that honey-sweet food…”
Hymn to Demeter, lines 411-412