The funky offspring of the Galiano Club, the Food Program began in 2008.
The Galiano Community Food Program strives to ensure that Galiano Island is a thriving, livable, food-secure community, where every resident feels included, welcome and empowered to build a deeper connection with their food system. In so doing, the Program improves Galiano’s ecological sustainability and community resilience in the face of climate change and uncertainty. The program seeks to set an example that reaches beyond our local community and spreads across the country.
Food Program Blog
Saving Seed by Emma Luna Davis
Happy New Year, everyone! It’s the perfect time of year to start thinking about rebirth and renewal, and seeds!
Bill C-18 is currently before the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee. According to the National Farmers Union, “If passed, it will give multi-national agri-business much more money and control while increasing farmers’ costs and reducing farmers’ autonomy and Canadian sovereignty.”
Exercise your right to save seed. Join us at this year’s Seedy Saturday on February 14th from 10:00am-3:00pm at the Farmers’ Institute on Salt Spring. This is a non-profit grassroots event that provides an opportunity for gardeners, seed companies and nurseries to exchange seeds and ideas.
The main hall will be full of tables from seed suppliers, nurseries, local farms, community organizations and other garden-related product vendors. There will also be local food vendors offering their wares. The main attraction is the seed exchange, where you can swap and share regionally-adapted seeds and help ensure genetic diversity. There will also be a roster of presentations from gardening experts. This year’s program includes many workshops. There are other events throughout the weekend.
This year, the food program is again organizing a group of local residents to travel to Salt Spring together to take part in the event. We will boat over from Retreat Cove and then take a taxi to the venue. Total cost for roundtrip transportation and event admission will be about $25. […]
Adventure Preparedness by Alison Colwell
By the time you read this the Stock Up! Market will have passed, the Saturday Market will be finished and our gardens will be winding down. Hopefully you were able to put away some of the season’s bounty to keep you through the winter. Canned tomatoes, dried tomato slices and frozen pesto are bursting out in our house.
We at the Food Program work hard to encourage an increase in the amount of food grown on Galiano each year, but the reality is most of our food arrives on island via the ferry. We all have to cope with winter weather, and sudden and possibly extended power outages can affect our food supply. But if you have a well-stocked pantry and have ample firewood, it’s not an emergency, just an adventure.
If you know a storm is coming, there are some simple things to do to get ready. Fill the bathtub with water, wash the dishes (beginning a power outage with a clean kitchen makes it easier to cope!) Start a soup or stew you can keep warm on your woodstove after the power goes out. Keep a supply of simple-to-prepare foods in your pantry, things such as: pasta, baked beans, canned or dried soup, granola bars. Boil water and fill a large thermos so you don’t have to heat the water every time you want a […]
Using What’s in Your Pantry by Alison Colwell
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve got a pot of tomatoes bubbling away on the stove. Doug picked more than 20lbs this morning, his tomatoes are producing well this year – producing far more than we can possibly eat, but I don’t want to compost any of them! Instead, I’m cooking them down and will can them into a thick tomato sauce later this evening. Making a homemade tomato sauce that we’ll use on pizza, pasta and curries all year long.
On average Canadians throw away a quarter of the vegetables that we buy – it’s expensive and wasteful, even worse if you’ve grown the food yourself.
To prevent food waste, we need to get smarter about what we eat. Before you start planning dinner do a quick inventory of what’s on the counter, or in the fridge, and eat the most perishable things first.
But sometimes planning alone isn’t enough and you find yourself overwhelmed, then it becomes time to either share the bounty with others, or put up food for the freezer or pantry. The tomato sauce I’m making doesn’t require a lot of attention – I just need to give it a stir once in a while. After about six hours it will be perfect for us, and I’ll can it in the pressure canner – 15 minutes at 10lbs pressure, then its good in the pantry […]
Seventh Annual Solstice Potluck by Alison Colwell
On Sunday December 21st we will gather together to celebrate the Winter Solstice, the night of the longest darkness. On Galiano we celebrate the solstice by gathering together as a community. This is the Seventh Annual Solstice Potluck Celebration. It’s all about gathering with your friends and neighbours, sharing some wonderful food, watching the kids arriving at the hall in a lantern procession, chatting around the fire, and enjoying the music and entertainment of some amazingly-talented locals.
One of the ways the dictionary defines community is: “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing…” That’s sounds perfect to me. We share this small island. Perhaps we all have different ideas on the best way to live here—but we all choose to be here, together. We all choose to create community together.
We are blessed to live in a community that cares about each of us, that supports us when we are sick or hungry, and need an extra meal, a community where hundreds of volunteers work at everything from making food, to running a library, fighting fires, tending a garden, recycling our garbage, or helping at the school. It’s a community where you can always find someone to stop at the bank for you, or bring something home from town, or lend a hand when you need your kids looked after for a couple of […]
The Gleaning Project by Emma Luna Davis
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.
Solstice Potluck Celebration – Sunday Dec 21st
Be sure to save December 21st for the Annual Winter Solstice Pot Luck Dinner.
The doors will open at 5:00 with the Children’s Lantern Parade leaving GIRR at 5:30. Dinner will start at 6:00 with entertainment after.
The bonfire will be started at 5:00, and there will also be soup available outside, for those that want to enjoy the fire (and not face the crowds!)
This is a wonderful winter season event you won’t want to miss. If you would like to volunteer (there are lots of opportunities for this) contact us at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
(Photo by henny.ca)
Upcoming Food Program Events
