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
Greenhouse Annual Summary 2013 by Barry New
For the spring of 2014 we will begin on Saturday, March 1st, which isn’t all that far away. Everything grew really well last year and we harvested many varieties of tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers and more. Cantaloupes worked very well too. Last year we tried early carrots, pakchoi and peas before the main summer crops; something we should try again. We also grew artichokes at the greenhouse for planting at the Garlic Co-op site.
The Greenhouse Group had good participation with new members joining throughout the season.
Last year we started with a get-together to share seeds and discuss what we would want to grow which is something we will do again. After that we could start our first seed trays. No-one has to commit for the full year because our aim is about participation at any level of experience.
The cleared beds in the Greenhouse have been planted in rye and clover cover crop for the winter. Last year’s harvest went really well and we should be very proud how 2013 turned out.
Taste the Wild – Nettle Foraging Retreat – April 12th & 13th
Are you interested in eating more local food and cooking with wild ingredients? Come spring, stinging nettles are among the first edible plants to burst from the ground in the Pacific Northwest. In an intimate setting just an hour’s ferry ride from the mainland, join us for a fun celebration of local wild abundance on beautiful Galiano Island April 12th and 13th, 2014, and learn all about nettles—their health and nutritional properties, how to harvest them, and how to cook and preserve them.
Introduction to Nettle Foraging – April 12th 10am-2pm
Wild Kitchen – Nettle Cooking with Alison – April 12th 4:00-8pm
Nettle Crafting Workshop with Cedana Bourne – April 13th – 10am-2:30pm
All events will take place at the South Galiano Community Hall, 141 Sturdies Bay Rd, Galiano Island.
To watch a great local nettle film – The Nettle Solution, check out:
Register at Eventbrite
$75 per workshop*.
Early bird special!! Register before April 1 and get 20% off.
Join us for the whole weekend and attend all three workshops for only $180*.
*Plus $10 supply fee for Nettle Crafting.
Registrants are responsible for their own accommodations. Discounts available at Driftwood Village.
Nettle Crafting Workshop with Cedana Bourne
Foraging for food has never been more popular, and come spring, stinging nettles are among the first edible plants to burst from the ground in the Pacific Northwest. Join Cedana in learning how to create nettle products so you can enjoy the benefits of this healthy-giving wild plant all year round.
This one day course will give you experience in foraging, preserving and using nettles. You will practice your nettle gathering and harvesting skills in a walk in Galiano’s wild places, then we will return for some nettle tea. Cedana will discuss the different methods of preserving nettles for use later in the year, the use of nettle seeds, as well as how we can transform nettles into a variety of products to use. She will teach you how to blend a nettle tea and nettle gomasio, and bottle nettle vinegar.
We will enjoy a delicious lunch together, based around wild local ingredients including nettles. Each workshop participant will also get to take home their own bag of nettle tea, nettle gomasio, and a bottle of nettle vinegar. Please bring: gloves, kitchen scissors, and a collecting bag (a cloth grocery bag works fine). All other supplies are included in the price.
$75 per workshop*.
Early bird special!! Register before April 1 and get 20% off.
Join us for the whole weekend and attend all three workshops for only $180*.
*Plus $10 supply […]
Introduction to Nettle Foraging with Dora Fitzgerald
“One of the first real signs of spring, and one of my favourite wild foods, are the new nettle shoots that start poking out of the ground early in the spring. At a time when we’ve been living on frozen veggies, or cabbage and root vegetables, fresh greens are a welcome sight. Plus nettles are actually good for us! Nettles are extremely rich in vital nutrients, including vitamin D, which is rare in plants; vitamins C and A; and minerals, including iron, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium.” -Dora Fitzgerald
This foraging workshop will give you a fascinating insight into one of the best wild foods of the season. You will go on a woodland foraging walk with Dora and learn about when and how to pick nettles for a sustainable harvest and the highest nutritional value. You will also learn about other edible greens. We will then go to the South Hall and Dora will share some of her incredible “Green Bull” nettle drink, and you will learn how to make Dora’s Nettle Salt.
We will enjoy a delicious lunch together, based around wild Galiano-foraged ingredients. Participants will also get to take home a nettle plant start, whether to start your own nettle patch in your backyard, or engage in some guerrilla gardening by planting your start in a clean wild place where it can grow unattended. Each workshop […]
Taste the Wild Instructor – Dora Fitzgerald
Ever since childhood, the concept of plants as healers has captivated Dora Fitzgerald. Dora has been a Galiano resident for 24 years and has focused her energies on learning about our native plants, and healing plants used in other cultures and locales as well. A self-taught herbalist, she has facilitated the Food Program’s monthly herbal collective for the last three years. Her goal is to deepen the connection we feel towards the natural world and understanding the role of plants in helping us to maintain our own well being.
Taste the Wild Instructor – Cedana Bourne
Cedana Bourne is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and has completed the Wild Seed School of Herbal Studies intermediate program. She is a wild food medicine forager, a gardener, a baker, a brewer and a fermenter who has spent the last few years immersed in learning rural rhythms on Galiano Island. She has been working with the Galiano Food Program developing community food sustainability, and has had the delicious pleasure of growing and preserving much of her own food. Since completing her studies she has had the opportunity to study online with herbal teachers such as Sean Donaghue, and 7song. Cedana has trained and worked as a baker at Wild Fire Bread and Pastry in Victoria, True Grain Bread in Cowichan Bay, and Radha Yoga and Eatery in Vancouver. She has been teaching workshops on food and plant medicine for five years.