Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)

4th annual on Sat Oct 15, 10:00am-1:00pm at the South Hall

Shop for winter storage crops directly from LOCAL farmers IN BULK to fill your pantry for the winter. Load up on local root veggies, greens, cabbage, squash, apples, tomatoes, peppers, meats, fish, preserves and pickles. Last market of the season! Volunteers needed to help with set up and clean up.

CABLE BAY FARM, Retreat Cove

Galiano organically grown produce: Green‎ and Red Peppers; bunches of Hakurei White Salad Turnips, Merlin & Cylindra Beets and Beet Greens

CLEARSKY FARMS

Garlic, winter squash, tomatillos, kale, bulk tomatoes, pole beans, black beans, and apples.

COUNTRY WOOLS, SIDNEY

Olde country sheep with pasture perfect lamb, including sausages. Eggs, squash, cascade berry vinaigrette.

DAISY HILL FARM, Galiano Island

Preserves, salsa, tomatoes.

DONNA MARBEN

Preserves, dried fruit, and fresh fruit and vegetables.

GALIANO COMMUNITY FOOD PROGRAM

Organic applesauce.

LAURIE MACCALLUM, Therah valley, Galiano Island

IOPA certified garlic.

SCHNARE, HYNICK, CROUSE & SONS {OCEANWISE SEAFOOD} – Captain Thomas Schnare

Fresh frozen Sockeye fillets; cold-smoked Albacore Tuna loins; Smoked Sockeye half-fillets; pre-sliced goldboard cold-smoked sockeye; thick-sliced ‘pounder’ smoked salmon bellies.

GALIANO SUNSHINE FARMS

Squash, potatoes, storage onions, hot peppers, broccoli, kale, apples, garlic and chard.

HOPE HILL FARM, Salt Spring Island

Whole frozen chicken, beef, winter squash, garlic, and sweet onions.

BECKY’S HOT FOOD available while you shop.

Spicy Jamaican patties (beef and veg.) samosas (beef, chicken, veg., and spinach), chicken wraps (with coconut milk base and spices), homemade Jamaican ginger beer, and ginger cookies. These products are available at wholesale, on order.

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Another fruitful season of the Gleaning Project is drawing to a close. Every year I’m amazed at the generosity of this island, and the incredible bounty that we share. I feel so lucky to have this job since picking fruit outside with friends and neighbours is one of my all-time favourite activities. There really is nothing more beautiful than the sunlight coming through the leaves of an apple tree, and there is a special kind of zen to picking ripe fruit. And always the promise that the next one will be the biggest or the most perfect or the sweetest.

This year so far, the Gleaning Project has brought 65 volunteers together to pick over 8,500 lbs of produce, including assorted varieties of plums, figs, hazelnuts, crabapples, apples, pears, quinces, corn and kale. The volunteers who come out find all kinds of creative ways to use the harvest for their families: drying, pickling, canning, and of course just fresh eating. This year, one picker is using an upcycled washing machine to make cider! The Food Program’s share was distributed to families in need, as well as used for workshops and community kitchens and events.

This year it seems the word about this project really got around, as we had double the number of landowners and farmers who reached out and invited us to come pick. We are very grateful for their generosity – without it there would be no Gleaning Project. Thank you everyone, and see you next year!

Are you a landowner with trees that are dripping with fruit, but you don’t have time to pick them? Is climbing a ladder getting to be too much? Did that one tree have a bumper crop this year? Do you have more than your family can use? Is your garden overflowing? Would you like to share the bounty with other members of the community? Would you benefit from access to healthy produce, but have no trees or garden of your own? Do you enjoy the simple pleasure of harvesting in a group?

If you answered yes, then Gleaning Project may be for you. The Food Program organizes volunteers to gather to pick surplus crops that are shared between the pickers, the landowners, families in need and the Food Program’s kitchen events. We bring orchard ladders and picking bags and try to gather as much as possible so there’s no waste. A staff member from the Food Program is always present to supervise the pickers and liaise with the landowners, and the Food Program carries insurance that covers our activities on your land.

If you’re interested in harvesting or having us come pick, contact us for more information. Any produce or fruit is appropriate–we love unusual offers!

Similar to gleaning, but with a twist, is the Berry Co-op, which is returning this year at the same south-end site. Thanks to a special arrangement with the landowner, the Food Program organizes community members who will pick either organically-grown tayberries (a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry) or thornless blackberries throughout the summer, with two-thirds of the harvests going to the Galiano Club and the other third going to the pickers. (Last year, Club share berries were sold as a fundraiser, were used in jam-making classes, or were baked in pies for the annual Blackberry Tea.)

Depending on weather and the pace of ripening, co-op members will likely be picking every Tuesday evening (6:30-8pm) and Friday (9-10:30am). We are looking for a commitment of at least three sessions over the course of the summer. At our trial pick we found that a person averaged 6lbs of tayberries in two hours (blackberries may yield more). Based on that rate, a co-op member could expect to take home 2lbs of berries per session.

If you are interested in participating in the berry co-op, please email Colleen as soon as possible at galianofoodprograms@gmail.ca or phone #2737 and she will send interested parties a sign-up sheet for dates, with more details to follow.

We have begun the Spring Program in the community greenhouse. We meet weekly, Tuesdays at 11 am, and Thursdays at 5 pm. We will start each session with a brief Seed Swap and then start our potting mixes. The group will still need to decide what they would like to grow for their own gardens and for the beds in the Greenhouse. Contact Barry anytime at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com

Everyone welcome!

We have begun the Spring Program in the community greenhouse. We meet weekly, Tuesdays at 11 am, and Thursdays at 5 pm. We will start each session with a brief Seed Swap and then start our potting mixes. The group will still need to decide what they would like to grow for their own gardens and for the beds in the Greenhouse. Contact Barry anytime at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com

Everyone welcome!

We had 10 people last year for Spring Starts and for the year-round crops and we hope to continue with the same plan. You can learn and share your knowledge about potting mixes and seeds. The group meets informally once or twice a week through the spring and summer. There is a watering schedule so there are daily visits by the participants to keep the plants well-watered. It is a teaching and learning environment so we have some teaching aids and good links to help further the skills of the Gardeners.

Inside, we grew tomatoes, eggplant, basil, peppers, melons and other seasonal vegetables. The planters outside the greenhouse are for runner beans and cucumbers. There are also ‘Seniors’ Beds’ which are used by a seniors group.

We charge $20 for participants in the greenhouse group. This includes all soil amendments, seeds pots, and tools, but people are still encouraged to bring their own. We will provide some handouts related to our activities.

For more information, contact Barry at 539-2364 or galianofoodprograms@gmail.com.

Join us at the Seed Swap at our first meeting on Tuesday March 15th at 1:00pm.

We will plan our growing space with seed catalogues and your own seeds to swap and share.

Jump-start your 2016 gardening year!

The Seed Library of Galiano is having its final lending session of the season this Saturday, April 16th from 12-2pm at the Galiano Community Library. Lifetime memberships are available to all residents of Galiano for $10. Come “check out” our seed inventory. We’ll have a “check-in” party at the end of the growing season for people to “return” seeds back to the library. We welcome all levels of growers and encourage everyone to save seeds!

View the attached PDF document to see what seeds are available from the Seed Library Inventory.

Beyond SLOG’s inventory, also available Sat. April 16th, are various wildflowers, some herbs, and a few vegetable seeds, part of a give-away thanks to Eleanor Coulthard and Marilyn Lane.

If you cannot attend SLOG’s library hours please contact Colleen at galianofoodprogram@gmail.com and special arrangements may be made.

In February, Program Coordinator Emma Luna Davis gave a presentation at Salt Spring Island’s Seedy Saturday about the Galiano Community Food Program’s Gleaning Project. Here are the notes from that presentation.

Galiano Island Community Food Program Gleaning Project

Started in 2009, with support from the YMCA and the federal government.

WHY

Galiano has many productive gardens and hundreds of fruit trees, many of which are heritage varieties that aren’t commercially available. And while many of our landowners do make amazing use of what they produce, there is waste. Sometimes it is because the landowners may have gotten older and find climbing a ladder difficult. In other cases, the property is owned by weekenders and it can be challenging for them to make use of everything when they are only onsite for a short time, and the window of time when things are ready for picking is not very big. Sometimes, we just have a bumper season, and all of a sudden people find themselves with more than they can use. At the same time, we have many low-income households without great access to fresh produce, which can be very expensive to bring in from off-island.

We wanted to find a way to get this excess into the hands of people who need and want it, and cut down on food waste. This would be a way to reduce our dependency on produce grown off-island, and replace it with free, mostly-organic, local fruit.

The project has been a great success. The impact has been a unique opportunity to bring the community together, get to know one another, and build a sense of shared bounty and appreciation for what our island has to offer.

HOW IT WORKS

During the harvest season, we invite landowners who have a surplus to contact us. We then organize a group of volunteer pickers to meet at the property and pick. We then divide the produce into shares: 1 for the pickers, divided amongst the number of pickers we have, 1 for the landowner, and 1 that goes to the Food Program to be used in workshops or distributed to families in need. Often the landowner will decline their share or will only want a very small amount.

In 2014, we picked an incredible volume and variety of apples, pears, figs, plums, quince, corn, grapes, crabapples, and hazelnuts. We held 18 picking sessions at 10 properties, and 45 volunteers came out to pick, ranging in age from 3 months to over 70 years.

Our volunteers range from families who appreciate having access to free produce and the fun activity to do with their kids, to professional canners who access rare varieties to include in their products, to folks who use the produce to put up a big batch of preserves for the winter months, to people who just enjoy getting outside and picking as a group.

We maintain a mailing list of interested volunteers, and we send them all an invitation to pick each time there is an opportunity. Typically when we send a callout, we indicate the maximum number of people we can accommodate based on the size of the harvest and the specific situation of the site, and then we confirm with a shortlist of people who have gotten back to us. We usually don’t have to turn anyone away, but if we do they get first dibs the next time they respond.

We promote the program at our community events such as Canada Day and our annual Fiesta, with posters that we put up around the island, and through our email list.

PROFILES OF SOME OF OUR PICKING SITES

The Bellhouse, an old inn and farm, with a very well-established orchard of a variety of apples and pears. The current owner is mostly only a weekend visitor and enjoys the orchard but can’t begin to use all that comes out of it. We picked there 6 times last year.

Cable Bay Farm, which grows the best corn in the Gulf Islands. The farmers, Thomas and Henny, are very picky about what they bring to market, so once the corn is past it’s prime, or if it’s a bit too small, they invite us to pick what’s left, which is still of fantastic quality.

Page Drive, our senior living community, has one resident with an amazing huge prolific fig tree. She is no longer able to climb a ladder, so we pick her tree clean and it’s a win-win for everyone.

DISTRIBUTION

The shares of our bounty that are earmarked for households in need are distributed in several ways.

Food Program Events

The Food Program operates a number of events in the harvest season, and some of what we pick goes to these events. For example:

School Applefest

Community Kitchens

Canning and preserving workshops

Food Bank

Galiano has a small food bank operated through our church, and we bring them a portion of what we pick to give out to their users. However, our food bank is closed for July, August and September, which is the height of our program, so we usually need to use other avenues.

Health Clinic

A new idea we’ve just begun is just keeping a bowl of whatever we have fresh on the counter at the clinic for people to help themselves from, along with some information about the program and how people can get involved.

CHALLENGES

Nothing major but a few minor hiccups:

It’s challenging when we end up with unwanted excess beyond what we have the means to distribute. We’ve found it’s important to clarify how much our pickers are interested in taking home before we pick, so that we don’t pick too much.

Sometimes we have a large volume we are saving for an event and so pest-proof storage is also an issue. This year we upcycled a broken refrigerator into temporary outdoor storage by installing a few air vents.

We have to be careful stewards of the relationships with our landowners. We work hard to respect the property, only pick what we’ve been invited to pick, clean up any damaged produce, try not to leave any shares where it might attract pests, etc. and we always have one of our staff present for all picking sessions. This year we distributed seasonal gifts to our landowners of preserves that had been made by our volunteers. In the past we have had incidents where people have approached landowners to ask permission to pick before our harvesting sessions, so we no longer share the exact location of each picking very widely, only to the shortlist of volunteers who are confirmed to come out.

OVERHEAD

We have one paid staff person who coordinates and attends the pickings. We have a small list of equipment we bring:

an orchard ladder,

boxes

picking bags

picking tools

a hanging scale so we can track how much we pick

a tarp to gather the picked produce on, with taped markings to divide up into shares

Going forward

Right now things are working well. If we had more resources we might consider bringing our volunteers together to tackle two other considerations: thinning and pruning in the off season, in order to improve our harvests and the health of the trees we pick.

The Garlic Co-op is a group of garlic enthusiasts who collectively grow a few varieties of organic premium garlic, with scapes, in a large, shared, sunny plot at the end of Morgan Road, at the south end of the island. Together we learn about this easy-to-grow, hardy crop, share the load of bed-preparation, seeding, weeding, mulching and harvesting, and enjoy some delicious garlic. We also explore various soil-building and composting techniques. Everyone is welcome, and no previous experience is required to join. If you’re interested, come on out to a work party. Email galianofoodprograms@gmail.com for more info.

At this time of year it can seem as if there is bounty everywhere you turn. Gardens are bursting with fresh vegetables, neighbours are hiding zucchini in your car, and there are ripe blackberries around every corner.

Galiano is also lucky to have some orchards, including some with heirloom varieties that are hard to find in commercial cultivation. In addition, many of our residential plots have a well- established fruit tree or two.

In this busy season, it can be challenging to eat or preserve every apple on your tree or squash in your garden. Did you know that one-third of the food produced worldwide is wasted (according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization)?

One way the Food Program works to ensure that this abundance reaches people who might benefit from it is The Gleaning Program. We organize people to gather together to pick surplus crops that are shared between the pickers, the landowners, the Food Bank and the Food Program’s kitchen events. We bring orchard ladders and picking bags and try to gather as much as possible. In 2013, we harvested apples, pears, quinces, plums, crab apples, figs, and grapes.

This a free event for this years’ participants and for those people who would like to use the Greenhouse for the 2015 growing season.

Come and see what we have planted and harvested and to find out what you could be growing next year.

Sunday, September 21st from 10am til 12noon.