The founders...
Reclaim Urban Farm was founded in early 2014 by Alumni Innovation Award winning team Ryan Mason and Cathryn Sprague. The duo began growing micro greens and shoots indoors and hunting for plots of urban land to farm on come spring. Their first and largest land partner, the St. John's Institute provided just the spot, with some compost, a lot of sweat equity, and a few seeds, a farm was born in the heart of Edmonton's Garneau neighbourhood. From there, the farm expanded throughout the Whyte Ave area, eventually providing sustainably produced food to more than 40 restaurants per week, select retailers, to a members of their community supported agriculture (CSA) program, and to shoppers at City Market Downtown. Cathryn has since moved on to other projects and the farm continues to grow and thrive under Ryan's leadership and the work of our growing team.
The farmers...
Ryan Mason - Farm Manager
Food lover, gardener, husband and pensively absent. Ryan has grown roots to gardening and Alberta that stretch way down. His great grandfather began it all when he immigrated to Edmonton and tried to make a living off of 5 acres in current day Bonnie Doon. Ryan was raised on a small farm at Pigeon Lake, where he competed with his brother to see who could fill the most yogurt containers with raspberries (and won)! Through the Augustana Campus, UofA he traveled to Mexico and Cuba where he renewed his passion for food justice and learned from the best campesinas around. Recently, he returned from Tanzania where his food security research enabled him to work alongside wakulimu (farmers) harvesting, thrashing and winnowing an assortment of grains. Bringing us back full circle, he is now growing great veg at his home farm at Pigeon Lake.
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Photo Credit: Lone Acacia Photography
The Team
