My favourite urban farmer

I went to TEDx Victoria on the weekend and though many of the talks were interesting, funny, musical and inspiring, the last talk of the day was a bit of a downer. Garth Lenz talked about Alberta's Tar Sands and showed photos of the destructive impact that our demand for oil has on the land and people in our country. If you don't know much about what is going on up there, listen to this talk to get up to speed. It's insane.

Here's the good news. My friend Carolynn. Actually I don't think that what she does is motivated in any way by the Tar Sands. She just loves gardening, mothering chickens and eating good food.

I visited Carolynn in Vancouver recently and she gave me a tour of her backyard farm. After being the recipient of many text messages that were simply photos of eggs (it's amazing how that proud mother feeling doesn't wear off), I finally got to meet Carolynn's flock. She has been raising chickens for eggs since the spring of 2010 - minutes after Vancouver passed a by-law allowing chickens in the city. At the moment, she has a Wyandotte (the speckled hen) and a Silkie (the white lady) and they live in the most luxurious coop a chicken could dream of. Seriously, it's made of cedar. Since there isn't much daylight at this time of year, her egg harvest is at its lowest (7-10 a week), but that's a pretty good haul for one person.

Carolynn's little farm also consists of a strawberry patch and four raised beds where she grew vegetables this summer. In fact, there were still beets and chard in the ground when I visited. Unfortunately I was too excited about the chickens to take photos of anything else.