TORONTO- Cultural foods from around the world are making their way to the Toronto Botanical Garden.
The Toronto Botanical Garden connects people with plants through education, inspiration and leadership.
Not only does it serve a purpose in the community but the Toronto Botanical Garden is one of 20 ethno-cultural learning gardens to be selected this season by the Friends of The Green Belt Foundation.
These ethno-cultural gardens house a wide range of crops from around the world. They are planted in test crops and fields in the green belt and harvested by The Friends of the Green Belt Foundation before being transferred to the Toronto Botanical Garden. It’s intended to expose multicultural people to multicultural range of crops.
“Ontario’s Green Belt is a world leading legislation protecting 1.8 million acres of prime agriculture lands and wetlands,” said Megan Hunter, Program Manager of Friends of The Green Belt Foundation.
The donated crops from Greenbelt to the Toronto Botanical Garden have been planted in three separate gardens on the 4-acre property on 777 Lawrence Avenue East.
“It’s a magical partnership. They want to inspire and connect people and that’s our mission as well, ” said Paul Zammit, Nancy Eaton Director of Horticulture from the Toronto Botanical Garden.
Crops donated are popular vegetables such as Thai Chilli’s, Chinese Chilli’s, Okra, Bottle Gourds, Indian Round Eggplant and Chinese Eggplant.
The Toronto Botanical Garden has educated over 6,000 students and 10,000 adults about the roots system, proper planting, watering and the amount of sun a plant should need.
“What we’ll do is bring the school children in, they will plant these crops in our teaching garden. We will then harvest these crops and it will be donated to the local food bank at the end of the season,” Zammit said.
The Toronto Botanical Garden also holds tours for adults in ten different languages.
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