Homegrown is best

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During World War II, so much agricultural produce was required by troops overseas that governments in Canada and the U.S. encouraged citizens to grow their own food in so-called "Victory Gardens." And to symbolize the community solidarity shown in those times, Victory Gardens is the name chosen by the NDG NGO Eco-initiatives for its network of 12 organic community gardens.

"We found that with people working together we produced about twice as much food as we needed ourselves," says Martha Steigman, the project's coordinator.

The group expects to produce four tonnes of produce this year and will donate half to the NDG Food Depot and the low-cost community resto Chez Mes Amis. To publicize the gardens, Eco-initiatives has organized a bike tour of all 12 sites this Saturday, joined by four students from Vancouver Island who are biking across Canada to promote the organic food movement.

The tour will start at 1:45 p.m. on August 5, at the Cantaloupe Garden behind the YMCA (4335 Hampton) in NDG. For more information, call 484-4129. :

--Wayne Hiltz and John Edmonds

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