Could This Be Canada’s Most Innovative Food City?
Creative new forms of urban agriculture are turning Montreal into a produce powerhouse year-round.
By Taras Grescoe
Food and Wine
March 13, 2025
Excerpt:
In a city with deep ties to the Old World, vines and fruit trees still thrive in kitchen gardens planted by Italian, Greek, and Portuguese immigrants; Montreal’s first community garden was founded in 1936. More recently, Montreal took the 100-Mile-Diet to heart, and the city’s 57 farming companies have cemented its reputation as a world capital of urban agriculture. The Laboratoire sur l’agriculture urbaine, a nonprofit research lab, has turned the Palais des congrès, a conference center on the edge of historic Old Montreal, into a huge experiment in biodiversity. Its vast rooftop now supports honey-producing beehives, a vineyard with 80 grape vines, a saffron farm, and a vegetable garden tended by migrants and refugees who are invited to share in the harvest.
I gained new respect for urban farmers this summer when the eggplants and fennel in my own plot in a community garden, one of many maintained by the city, were raided by squirrels and groundhogs. Now, to the rescue of amateurs like myself comes Agriculture du Coin, a retail storefront that recently opened in the Mile-End neighborhood. Founder Daniel Feinglos wants to bring hydroponics to indoor gardeners, and local chefs have snapped up his kits for growing lettuce, sprouts, and basil year-round with LED lights.
Source: https://cityfarmer.info/could-this-be-canadas-most-innovative-food-city/
