I’m delighted to introduce the brilliant team of people who are helping design, deliver and improve projects with me around the GTA and beyond.
Anèl Dannhauser
Anèl is an experienced professional with over a decade in environmental assessment and sustainability consulting. She has a strong foundation in environmental impact analysis, with expertise in both environmental management as well as project management. Anèl is passionate about environmental improvement and stewardship, ecological restoration and resilience, as well as in bridging the gap between digital innovation and practical solutions to enhance environmental quality. Towards this end, she is working towards becoming a permaculture designer and data scientist. She is also currently pursuing her Masters of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan. Anèl is working with Garden Jane to support the development of a new soils resource and a citizen science program about growing in urban rooftop environments.
Adrian Hodgson
Design Jam Permaculture
Adrian is a Permaculture Designer, working primarily on projects in Hamilton, ON. He recently founded Design Jam Permaculture offering Collaborative Design and Decision Support services to help people with urban and suburban projects. He has a wide range of talents, including technical research, project implementation, and providing practical advice for the long term success of systems and projects. Adrian is skilled at site assessment, natural pattern observation, and considering diverse options for implementing and maintaining productive, ecologically sound solutions. He is knowledgeable on a range of issues, including: gardening; soil remediation; building raised beds and retaining walls; water flow and capture; green building and hand worked earthworks. Adrian likes to help clients visualize and phase in ideas by installing simple 3-D mock-ups of elements while developing site enhancements. Adrian is resourceful and mindful in all that he does. He has joined Garden Jane to collaborate on a 1 acre rural homestead in Caledon and to explore co-designing a leadership program. Contact Adrian at designjampermaculture@gmail.
Daniel Hoffmann
The Cutting Veg
Daniel and The Cutting Veg have joined forces with the Garden Jane team as Hoffmann Hayes to envision and deliver innovative condo garden and urban agriculture community programming. Daniel is an organic farmer and social worker. He manages The Cutting Veg Organic Farm, an eco-social enterprise working in southern Ontario to cultivate personal, social, environmental, and economic health through organic agriculture. Daniel aims to encourage lifestyles that are healthy for families and the planet by providing local, organic produce through Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) programs in the GTA, in which people become members of the farm for the season, and receive a weekly share of the harvest. Daniel also runs the Global Garlic project, growing ~20 varieties of garlic, including Israeli, Tibetan, Persian, Korean, Italian and more. Daniel oversees The Cutting Veg Food Coaching program, which offers educational opportunities to the community, and includes a Farming Internship, Garden Coaching, “Veg Ed” workshops, and Agri-Biz coaching. Daniel welcomes people to visit the farm and participate in the veggie growing process, so that folks can enjoy the therapeutic and educational benefits of working with the earth and with fellow community members.
Jillian Hovey
Facilitator of Sustainable Community Planning & Design
Jillian is an international permaculture teacher who has been teaching since she received her Permaculture Design Certification in 1996. Her teaching and other projects range from urban lots, to off-gird green houses, to entire eco communities. Jillian holds a B.Sc.(Agr.), and has completed all but her final exam for a Masters in Environmental Studies. Jillian was invited to be the Executive Director of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas in 1997, where she helped to manage the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee. Jillian subsequently founded The Sustainable Living Network in Toronto, and has served as its Executive Director since 1999. The gardens and offices of the Sustainable Living Network, and the Sustainable Living Books community service bookstore, have inspired and supported thousands of people on their path towards sustainable and healthy living. Jillian has a grounded and clear teaching style, which facilitates deep connection for people in the events she leads. Jillian is deeply committed to her personal growth, and has been mentoring and coaching people on their personal paths for many years.
Ana Huertas
Global Network Facilitator
Ana has a background in International Relations, Cooperation and Rural Development, with an MSc. in Sustainable Agriculture. Ever since she discovered Permaculture and the Transition Towns Movement in 2007, she has been on a path of exploration of new world paradigms and ways of being, helping to implement projects worldwide to make human-paced societies a reality. Originally from Madrid, Spain, she is the president of the Spanish Transition Hub and one of the international representatives of the movement, currently working with several municipalities towards a more sustainable way of managing territorial and social resources. She is a Council Member of ECOLISE (Bottom-Up European Initiatives to tackle Climate Change) and national representative for YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development), helping the voices of the rural youth of the Mediterranean basin be heard and taken into consideration by policy-makers. Ana is a trained Permaculture teacher and course facilitator for the Transition Movement, and has designed and delivered high-quality courses related to Sustainability and Community Building through her career in International Cooperation and Development.
Pam Jackson
Forester, Jackson Stewardship
Pam is a Registered Professional Forester with 10+ years of experience sustainably managing public and privately-owned forests. Pam also farms organically, starting with Daniel Hoffmann and The Cutting Veg, and then co-founding the Elmgrove Organic Collective in 2013. Pam blended her forestry and farming skills to form Jackson Stewardship, an all inclusive rural land management consulting company. Jackson Stewardship has the mandate of helping rural landowners meet their objectives while sustainably managing their resources for future generations. As a professional forester, Pam advises landowners on how to best manage their forested lands to meet their long term goals. She brings a range of skills and services to the Garden Jane team, including: land planning and design; forest inventories; tree planting; riparian area restoration; native plant ecosystem establishment; and urban street tree planting. Together with the Garden Jane team, Pam is excited to expand into the world of permaculture and hopes to create Food Forests for many years to come. Connect with Pam here.
Ruth Knight
MSc. P.Ag., Organic Consultant Inc.
Ruth is passionate about soil health and its potential to re-introduce us to our landscape connections and improve our resiliency to climate change. Ruth brings a well of knowledge about soil regeneration on farms and a unique citizen scientist approach for engaging and empowering communities to address climate change. Ruth is an agronomist with degrees in Agriculture, and Rural Planning and Development. She consults and teaches too, and we’re excited to be working together for the first time at the Intro to Permaulture, Soils and Climate Change workshop. You can reach Ruth at organicconsultantinc@gmail.com and see her work at www.soilregenerationfarming.ca as well as at Soil Health Coalition.
Victoria Muir-Burcea
Certified Life Coach, Nutrition & Wellness Specialist & Community Health Trainer
Victoria is a passionate and driven wellness advocate with 20 years of experience as a community programmer. She graduated from Queen’s, is an award winning rowing coxwain, and has won several prestigious awards for her work in the wellness field including the Award for Innovation from the Ministry of Health Promotion for her work as a health coach on ground breaking project The Prescription for Physical Activity Project. Victoria’s role with the Garden Jane team is co-designing and helping launch Healthy Food & Fitness programs for communities. Our first pilots and early work together include corporate wellness programs, with dynamic gardening (combining gardening with brain building and healthy body mechanics) at sites across the City of Toronto. We also deliver vertical community building programs. See Victoria’s awesome business, also based in permaculture, here. Follow Victoria on Instagram & Facebook.
Lindsay Purchase
Lindsay Purchase has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor and strategic content specialist. She creates compelling communications that centre audience needs and client voice. Lindsay is a skilled researcher, adept at synthesizing complex information into digestible material and dogged in uncovering key details to help drive work forward. In her work with Hoffmann Hayes and Garden Jane, Lindsay has contributed to projects including the City of Mississauga’s Urban Agriculture Strategy, a Community Gardens Handbook for the City of Charlottetown and a research brief on municipal green development standards. Lindsay has a certificate in Food Security from Toronto Metropolitan University and a BA in Global Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University. Learn more about Lindsay.
Emma Rooney
Blooming Caravan
Emma is a creativity facilitator who specializes in therapeutic gardening, local food literacy, and storytelling for health. Her experience as a horticultural therapy intern at Providence Farm was instrumental in shaping her philosophy of care, which weaves together caring for both the land and people. As a former Garden Jane intern, Emma developed a series of health promotion garden tours and a gardening program for kids with cancer. Emma has worked at many innovative organizations, from the High Park Children’s Garden to Greenest City and Ecosource. As a community programmer, she enjoys using her design skills to engage people of diverse backgrounds in addressing environmental and social justice issues. Emma is also a passionate educator who loves sharing her knowledge by delivering presentations on a variety of subjects, including gardening for mental health, managing diversity in environmental programs, adult–youth partnerships, and community mapping. As the founder of Blooming Caravan, Emma offers in-home creative companionship visits for seniors. She looks forward to continuing to work with Jane and the team on all-ages programs that build multigenerational community connections.
Stephen Torrence
Nomadic Technomancer
Stephen grew up loving technology, but separated from his heart. Then he left tech aside and went traveling to find his heart. Now he’s back home in Austin, Texas, integrating the two so he can serve those who are consciously bringing Love into the world. On the tech side, he worked with Apple for 2+ years, built the technology backbone for Austin startup No. 4 St. James, and has been nurturing the digital lifeforms around his friends and family for over 15 years. On the heart side, he has a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) from the Austin Permaculture Guild and recently spent 2 years visiting Ecovillages in Europe, Canada, and the United States. He now offers tech consulting, Website design, and business coaching services to clients all over the globe. And when he’s not doing that, he’s probably doing meditation, yoga, bicycling, ecstatic dance, or Authentic Relating somewhere in Austin. Read more at Stephen’s website.
Windpath Media
The Windpath Media and Garden Jane teams both have a strong interest in permaculture and have been exploring opportunities to work together. Windpath Media produces innovative documentaries, dramatic feature films, and visual art works that investigate the human condition, draw attention to alternate perspectives, and search for common sense. Windpath Media is excited to work with organizations like Garden Jane whose goals have a foundation in a commitment to principals of permaculture as a way to deal with a changing world. Check out the videos Windpath videos made for Garden Jane on YouTube.
Interns, Volunteers and Supporters
Interns, volunteers and supporters are an integral part of Garden Jane’s team and ability to reach so many at times and work deeply at others. Each person brings energy, a variety of skills and resources. They help garden, research, develop and deliver high quality resources and programs. They help promote and they grow infrastructure so we can generate more economy around the work. In turn they learn, share, build networks and strategies to contribute their own unique piece to the world. For current opportunities, please email us.
Thanks to past volunteers and interns Stephanie Bahn, Deanna Berry, Gregory Alan Elliott, Caitlin Langlois Greenham, Tamara Green, Joanna Jack, Jessica Lemieux, Kevin Ong, Holly McLellan, Indra Noyes, Candice O’Grady, Nathan Payne, Emma Rooney, Emily Sharp, Micheila Storr, Blythe Weber Growing Spaces, Kate Willison (see her legacy cheese & goat blog), Lana Winter, Jingwei Zhang for all they’ve contributed. Thank you to Robin Salt for her help on the website and course logistics, for our logo and signage artwork and to Karoush Javidi for photos we’re using in handouts. Thanks to Courtney Raponi for her help with guilds and medicinal plants research. Thanks to all the many gardeners who have helped make the gardens wonderful. Thanks also to Harriet Friedmann, Frank Iacobucci, Linda Hayes and so many others for their contributions to promoting and supporting the good work.
Advisors, Influences and Community Collaborators
Garden Jane draws inspiration and advice from nature, along with these wonderful people, some of whom are current clients or collaborators: Lee Overton, Farmers’ Market Management Consultant at the Erin Mills Market; Janaki Hadida; Lauren Baker and the Toronto Food Policy Council; Deb Barndt; Solomon Boye; the Evergreen team; Debbie Field and FoodShare friends; Heather Jo Flores and Food Not Lawns; Harriet Friedmann; Masanobu Fukuoka and Larry Korn; Jesse Hayes; Linda Hayes; Richard Hayes; Toby Hemenway; Jude Hobbs; Elaine Ingham and Soilfoodweb; Monika Kastelic, Beth Knox; Collette Murphy and Urban Harvest; Munju Ravindra; Susan Richardson; Wayne Roberts; Yafit Rokach; Carolyn Scotchmer, Paul Stamets; Seeds of Diversity and Bob Wildfong; Alvero, Rodrigo and Plan B Organic Farm, Ted Thorpe and the many other farmers and farms feeding people in the Toronto area. The list is not complete and I acknowledge that there are so many people and groups who inspire, working for food access, public seed sources, the right for children to be outside, and social-environmental and social justice issues of all kinds.