Most office buildings are cloistered away from nature, let alone agriculture. One exception is Toronto’s 124 Merton St, which is a boutique office building whose bounteous crops reap benefits for the tenants, both local and international. Owner, artist, designer, and chef Vivian Reiss has been in the avant-garde of urban farming, having practiced it for…
Learn how to plant and grow cotton, and what you get after it has blossomed. Please also join Vivian Reiss Landscapes Facebook page: facebook.com/VReissLandscapes.
Step into the vibrant world of Vivian Reiss—an artist, designer, urban farmer, and culinary creator. In this exclusive video interview by her son Joel Garten, filmed in her extraordinary Toronto garden, she shares insights into her gardening inspirations and the unique recipes she’s crafted using over 100 edible plants. From towering 16-foot broom corn to…
“Maypole” Columnar Apple Tree in Bloom on the Rooftop Garden 124 Merton Street in May 2011 The song, “It’s a long, long time from May to December”, chronicles the stages of love, womanhood and relationships. In retrospect the “Malus Maypole’s” journey to my rooftop garden started before May, but in considering the purchase of this particular tree, who could have imagined just…
I planted several varieties of beets in my garden including, “Golden, Early Wonder, Flat of Egypt and Chioggio.” They range from the lovely pale anemic beet, “Albino”, to the “Bull’s Blood” beet that bleeds a healthy iron red from the moment I cut the stems in the garden. Thinly sliced “Bull’s Blood” beet in my garden The first preparation I tried,…
It was announced that for the first time in years the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks were to displayed in the Hudson River. The last time I had seen them over the Hudson, was in the year of my sixth grade graduation. I had to go. We arrived in New York to one of those glorious Summer dog days of…
The world price of cotton in October of 2009 was 66 cents per pound. By October of this year, the price of cotton had risen to $1.26 per pound.The price of cotton had risen dramatically in the past year and that was the price of your average cotton. Who knows what price, organically grown, extremely rare Canadian cotton…
My chard grows to great height and girth. I never harvest the plants until I have warning of imminent frost, since it is part of my decorative garden and people enjoy observing the plant’s beauty. Harvesting a few leaves every now and again encourages new growth and as the plants are so lush, no one misses them. [Note…
Who would have thought that me and my rooftop garden would become the Poster Garden and Girl for Canadian’s evironmental satisfaction?http://www.canada.com/health/Local+environments+viewed+favourably+Canadians+despite+broader+concerns+Survey/3687326/story.html Congratulation to the lucky tenants at www.124merton.com
Several years ago I put on an event at my gallery www.vreissgallery.com called ” The Neuroscience of Molecular Gastronomy” http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=%22neuroscience+of+Molecular%22&hl=en&sitesearch=# http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=%22neuroscience+of+Molecular%22&hl=en&sitesearch=# It was a collaboration with my daughter, Ariel Garten ,who lectured about how we perceive taste and art through our senses and the history of molecular gastronomy. Surrounded by “Still life in motion, Portraits of food,” an exhibit of…