The Food Systems Lab at Trinity College won first prize in August at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)’s Best in GrowTO 2024 People’s Choice Award in the “Funniest Fruit or Vegetable” category.
This summer, we grew tomatoes, peppers and eggplants on Trinity’s Munk Building rooftops. The prize-winning eggplants were grown from seed and tended to over the summer by members of the Food Systems Lab (Sustainability Program Coordinator and work-study students) and Professor Béatrice Lego’s students in the Urban Agriculture Practices course (ENV381).
We came across a blog dedicated to Urban Agriculture Week in Toronto by chance, which included the entry form to the Best in GrowTO contest. On the last day of ENV381, Prof. Lego noticed the funny eggplants while we were harvesting on the rooftop and suggested we submit them.
The prize included a first-place blue ribbon and medallion from the CNE, and a $300 gift certificate to a garden centre of our choosing—which will be put to good use!
By Madeleine Lavin, Program Coordinator for the Trinity Integrated Sustainability Initiative