My parents emigrated from Taiwan to a suburb of Toronto in the 1970s. I grew up eating very little Asian produce – bean sprouts were the only Asian vegetable to be found the local A & P. Chinese broccoli and the like would only be had on occasional visits to Chinatown. In response to changing demographics and tastes, our local grocery store gradually began to stock some ethnic produce and products. Then local Asian grocery stores appeared, and my mother finally had access to her foods from her former home. The Tong’s produce is grown from seeds purchased in Chinatown. Since they grow for themselves, they decide what they want to eat based on what they like – one grandchild stops by on his way home from school to pick tiny tomatoes as a snack. We, despite our Asian heritage, were unable to identify very much in this garden. There are mysterious melons and beans and herbs – many would be difficult to find even at a Chinese grocery store. The Tongs fertilise everything once a week and do not use pesticides. Over the spring, summer and fall their garden yields huge crops.
I must admit to a lack of interest in gardening. It reminds me of my father making me weed the front lawn. My opinion, however, is changing. My roommate and I joked about negotiating a deal with the Tongs. Maybe they could farm my front lawn in exchange for 10% of the yield. But, it would have to include basil for my pasta, arugula for my salad and mint for my lemonade. While chatting with May, one of the Tong daughters, she motioned towards my own front yard and said that I could easily grow food in it. She led me towards my lawn and picked a fistful of weeds and explained that they were edible. I had very good soil, she said, I could easily grow tomatoes and lettuce. She then offered to help grow food for us. The Tongs are a model – an answer for pressing issues like food security, healthy eating, carbon footprints, land development, scarcity of fertile land, and activities for the elderly. In a time when designers are creating solutions that require huge infrastructural outlays and a suspension of disbelief, the Tongs’ life is remarkable for its simplicity. Whereas my Portuguese neighbours – many originally from farming communities – have dropped their farming ways, the Tongs are unabashedly living as farmers in Canada’s largest city. /
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