Forget flowers downtown, how does planting tomatoes sound?

It’s a trend sweeping Southern Ontario and it’s coming to Timmins.

The new group Twig is growing vegetables in the downtown core. Twig founder, Katrina Pelchat says the goal is to make food accessible to everyone.

“Instead of just sitting back and complaining people are hungry and giving to the food bank, I decided why not learn how to grow food and make it accessible to the people.”

The test project is using 6 existing flower pots previously used by the city to plant flowers but Pelchat says the city was one board from doing this from day one.

“I spoke with parks and rec and they were on board fast, then we talked about suitable locations and it took off from there.”

She says some of your old favorites, like green peppers and tomatoes are being planted but Pelchat’s hoping a few of you are curious and try something new, like lemon grass.

“I have sweet and hot pepper, leak, garlic, kale, a variety of herbs from the Timmins Flower Shop. We’ll also be building some raised planters at the Timmins Museum with purple tomatoes and egg plant. My attempt is not only to feed people but to build a sense of community. I want to start discussions on food and hopefully people will ask me how to use the food. One day soon we might have workshops on how to use these vegetables.”

Pelchat will be walking around downtown pruning the plants through her lunch break but is welcoming any help.

“If you’re on your lunch break or just walking downtown, don’t be shy to get your hands dirty and pull out a couple weeds.”