Vancouver home to largest urban orchard in North America

North America's largest urban orchard opened right in the heart of Vancouver today, on a site once occupied by a gas station.

The land was leased to SOLEfoodStreet Farms from the City of Vancouver for $1 a year.

"These trees at their peak will be ...15, 20, 25 feet high. They createan incredible habitat once they've been developed." Michael Ableman

The partnership has turned the city-owned lotnearthe Pacific Central train station into an urban green space where nearly 500 trees have been planted in raised boxes.

The orchard will feature apple, pear, cherry, plum, fig, persimmon, and lemon trees, and as many as 60 different culinary herbs.

"This is essentially taking agricultural instincts and applying it to the city," said SOLEfood co-founder Michael Ableman.

"This is a production model, and it's designed to produce production quantities of food and jobs, two of our primary goals."

The orchard, located on the southeastcorner of Main Street andTerminal Avenue,is now one of four sitesSOLEfoodoperates in the city.

Ableman and his team spent a couple months cleaning up the site, which has remained empty for more than a decade because of soil contamination.

Ableman, who is a farmer and advocate for sustainable agriculture, says the orchard is very different from SOLEfood's other sites that largely focus on vegetables.

"A perennial tree crop system for an urban environment is inmany ways more sensible than vegetable production," he said.

"Ittakes advantage of vertical space. These trees at their peak will be, some of them, 15, 20, 25 feet high, if we let them go that high. And as you know, lateral space is veryvaluable here. They create anincredible habitat once they've been developed."

The trees have also been planted in specially designed boxes that can be removed quickly and easily by forklifts and relocated to another site, if necessary.

SOLEfood Street Farms, a Vancouver-based social enterprise, currently employs 25 people mostly from the Downtown Eastside and many of whom struggle with mental illness, addiction and poverty.

SOLEfood produced over 30 tonnes of food last year and is projecting to double that amount this year.