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
5th Annual Galiano Community Picnic
There will be Zucchini races again this year (start planning now!), and a pie baking competition. This year the Garden Club is organizing 11 different competitions, and the annual Adults vs. Kids Soccer game will be on.
The Picnic is a collaborative celebration, and last year over 20 different organizations participated to make it a fun event for everyone. If you’d like to get involved contact us to see where you can help.
Cooking with kids -Alison Colwell
I thought I’d use this article to talk about some of the ways to get kids cooking. Kids that learn how to cook, are much more likely to try new foods and be less picky eaters when they’ve made the food themselves. I’m lucky enough to get to cook with the kids at the school on a regular basis – and I have two kids of my own, who also have lots of friends, that like to play in the kitchen – so whether you’ve got your own kids home for the summer, or grand kids visiting – here are some ideas.
I have a few basic kitchen rules – wash your hands (can’t repeat this one enough) and when you are cooking with younger kids it also means no wearing bowls on heads and no licking measuring spoons (I’ve seen it all!) – while you are cooking – once you are done bowl helmets are just fine. I also try to keep long hair up – off the shoulders – use a hair band, or bandana.
Get the kids involved in planning? Ask them what they’d like to make. When I’ve done this with small groups at the school, the answers have ranged from crepes to burgers, pizza to apple pie. I have yet to meet a kid with nothing they wanted to learn how to cook. […]
2015 Garlic Co-op Kickoff Lunch Potluck
Want to learn to grow garlic? The Garlic Co-op is a great way to get started. We’re a friendly group who grow organic hard neck, with scapes, at a sunny southend site. Monthly work parties are approximately 1.5 hours. Membership is $30, to cover seed and amendment costs.
Join us on Sunday, June 8th, at 11:30am at the end of Morgan Road, as we get started on our upcoming season. We’ll break bread and then break ground on our new bed!
Getting Ready for Winter by Emma Luna Davis
No doubt about it, this past winter was a tough one for many Canadians. And even our mild west coast climate had a few surprises for us. This wet spring has seemed later than usual to arrive, so it may be hard to believe it’s time to start thinking about preparing for next winter. But when it comes to food security, living on an island makes us even more vulnerable than most North Americans. Not only does most of our food come from our centralized food production system, we’re dependent on the ferry service to access it.
Filling your pantry, especially for the winter with its unpredictable weather, is a way to make sure you will have enough nutritious food if the power goes out and ferry service is down. It can be very reassuring to know that you have enough on hand to feed your family for a few days, or longer, if need be.
Here are some tips to help you make sure you’re in good shape by the time the cold weather returns:
- Stock up on extra fresh local produce all summer long. Fresh ripe local food is at its peak nutrition, and buying it in season and preserving it yourself is more affordable than buying canned or frozen mid-winter. Many producers have ways you can buy direct from the grower or fisher, including farm […]
Two Islands United – Community Celebration
On Sunday, May 25th from 3pm till 5pm, Come join us for a celebration of the Two Islands United project.
This project has been a joint effort between the Galiano Community Food Program, and AMES (Access to Media Education)
Over the past two years we’ve been organizing gatherings between the elders of Galiano and Penelakut to discuss Wild Food Foraging and food sustainability on both our islands.
The AMES production team, led by Richard Wilson, Deblekha Guin and a number of local youth (Arthur Georgeson, Tina Basarab, Rowan Oakley and Sophia Kontu) have been recording the wisdom of the elders and creating a series of short films for “SalishHarvest.com”, an interactive website that will be ‘going public’ on the 25th.
We are holding a community gathering to screen some of these shorts and to launch this site.
Please join us.
Family Food Foraging by Dora Fitzgerald
It is wonderful to think about the foods that are growing all by themselves which will make a great snack as we are out for a walk. Sheep sorrel and miner’s lettuce come to mind often found close to a path. Their tender leaves and lively taste are fun to discover and nibble. Not to rain on this feast, but a word for attentiveness: many of us, me included, walk with our beloved dogs along these paths. Dogs are such great companions, and, as you’ve noticed, they do have a habit of lifting their legs or having a quick squat now and then. Keep that in mind when you pick your snack.
Your garden will also give you tasty food at this time of year, not necessarily from the stuff that you planted but from the weeds that come up all by themselves. Chickweed, dandelion greens and pepper grass are often ripped out to make way for our own plantings, but they are delicious and nutritious greens to enjoy by themselves or added to whatever salad we might be preparing.
A picnic idea, for totally biodegradable plates to eat from, (no dishes to wash when you are finished), use skunk cabbage leaves. Don’t get carried away and try to eat your plate. The only part that is good medicine is part of the root, but that takes a […]
Upcoming Food Program Events
