Opportunities on Gabriola
As appeared in the Gabriola Sounder on 03 April, 2024
Spring, what a wonderful feeling it brings. As temperatures rise, nature comes alive with sounds, sights, and smells. This urge to grow and blossom is all part of the natural cycle. You can feel the changes in the air and watch as bulbs start blooming and trees in the forest regain their leafy canopy.
But perhaps the advent of spring is most anticipated by farmers and gardeners who are already buying seed or pruning fruit trees in anticipation of summer and fall harvests—months from now.
Research reported in the Sounder last year revealed the shocking statistic that only 10 percent of the Vancouver Coastal region’s food was produced locally. While Gabriola and Regional District Nanaimo are a little better, at 19 percent, we are still importing most of our food.
This is a precarious situation. With the climate changing and our dependency on shipping and ferries and other conditions outside of our control, food security on Gabriola is at risk. Not to mention that the price of food continues to escalate. In typical fashion, Gabriola has people working on this issue.
The island boasts many productive farms and the Agricultural Co-op (established in 1932) sponsors numerous food initiatives. Betty Kehler, a local gardening guru who promotes food preserving and home gardening, believes that there is more that we can do to raise awareness and learn skills to make us more food secure.
As a member of Climate-12 Action, Betty leads the “Food Security Team,” one of the initiatives to come out of the 2023 Climate 12-12-12 cafes. The team is a kind of information clearinghouse and Betty has plenty to share. Opportunities abound on Gabriola, from seed saving and growing food, to juicing and preserving it after harvest. Betty put together this update for would-be gardeners and anyone wanting to share their knowledge and time to help make our island more food secure.
Last year, there was a big ask for a gardening mentorship program rooted in Gabriola’s geographical neighbourhoods. So, it is being piloted this spring. If you or someone you know on Gabriola wants to learn about or share gardening tips, please sign up. The library has mentor/mentee forms or email suzanswift AT gmail.com for a fillable form. We already have 15 folks signed up to help mentor new gardeners.
For those who haven’t gardened much before and don’t have a garden at home, Betty is going to provide coaching at the Commons where she will be running a “Learners Garden” pilot project. To reach Betty, write to plumridgefarm AT gmail.com.
If you need a garden plot that has soil and water provided, there are some allotments available at the Gabriola Commons North Garden and Namaste Allotment Garden. There are also Gabriolans who have gardened for years but now find that they cannot keep up physically. Get in touch with Susan or Betty if you are inclined to work in exchange for produce, or if you would like that kind of support and are happy to share what is produced.
Michelle and Doug Smith have launched the new Gabriola Community Seed Bank, together with the Agi-coop’s support. They started this year by offering over 140 kinds of vegetable and medicinal plant seeds. The deal is you choose what you’re interested in growing, you are given seeds, and when harvest time comes along, you get to keep the produce you grew but are asked to give back some of the seeds. For more information contact hesmes AT shaw.ca.
In springtime, Betty and Lynn Bowerman offer pruning and grafting workshops. Toward the end of the growing season, be sure to keep an eye out for workshops on food preserving and juicing as well as winter pruning.
Food security is not one thing, but a patchwork of solutions that includes bulk food discounts offered by SLO Foods, the People for a Healthy Community’s food programs, Agi Co-op’s Farmers Market and CSA boxes, and local food processors and purveyors including ranchers, butchers, bakers, restaurants, groceries, and not-for-profit organizations.
We are in this together—everybody has to eat!