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
What Perogies Mean To Us by Brahmi Benner
Join us on Sunday, January 27th for an immersive experience in Ukrainian culture and cuisine. We will pinch, cook and eat together as our workshop presenters share stories and songs from this rich traditional culture. Bring a rolling pin and a tray!
“While pyrohy were a regular part of meals in our household, they were especially important during festive events like weddings, church functions or Christmas. On Ukrainian Christmas Eve (Svyata Vechera) pyrohy were made with homemade cottage cheese, sauerkraut, potato and prune fillings as part of the twelve traditional meatless dishes. The prune filling was especially memorable to me as a child as it was made only during Christmas and it was like having a dessert during the main part of the meal. Sour cream and a sauce made from high bush cranberries (kalyna) were used as a dressing.” -Ed Andrusiak, Galiano resident, Ukrainian- Canadian
“To me, pyrohy are the ultimate comfort food from my childhood. They evoke memories of my grandmother, mother and all my female relatives in somebody’s big kitchen, laughing, singing, talking and arguing while peeling potatoes, grating cheese, chopping onions, mushrooms and sauerkraut, and making and rolling out paper-thin dough. Then we would put potato and cottage cheese or sauerkraut and mushroom filling, my two favourites, gently into each circle and finally fold and lovingly pinch it closed before plopping them—one by […]
Solstice in the Dark by Alison Colwell
I was working in the kitchen at the South Hall, with a small group of volunteers, baking the bread for the Solstice dinner when the storm started on Dec 20th. The power went out, and after 30 minutes, we decided to start the generators. A grant to upgrade the Hall’s electrical system had allowed us to get the generators wired in properly, but I’d never used them before. It took a little while. We had to call for help, but we got them going, and (hallelujiah) kitchen lights, stoves and freezers were all working. We’d discovered the gas cans next to the gennies were empty, so one volunteer left to fill them, but the tree that came down at Murchison Cove stopped her getting back to the hall that night.
A few hours later, more trees had come down between the hall and the pub, but the bread was all baked, I abandoned my van and walked home.
By the next morning it was clear the whole island was out of power, and we weren’t getting it back soon. But I also had 5 huge free-range turkeys in my fridge that needed to be cooked. That was the tipping point. Solstice was on. We’d just make it up as we went along. When we set the tables we didn’t know if twenty people would come, or a hundred. […]
Community Magic by Alison Cowell
It’s traditional on the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, to stay awake all night, keeping a bonfire burning, in an effort to call the sun back. We have a bonfire on Solstice too, but our celebration is all about gathering with your friends and neighbours, sharing some wonderful food, watching the kids arriving at the hall in a torchlit parade, chatting around the fire, and enjoying the entertainment of talented locals. The Solstice is all about creating the magic of community.
For me the Community Solstice Dinner begins with a visit to Ireland Farms to pick up the four large organic turkeys that we roast for supper. (I’m always grateful the dinner is potluck, as four turkeys are all I can fit in the ovens at the hall, but those aren’t nearly enough to feed the hundred plus people that arrive for dinner!) I work with groups of volunteers in the kitchen the day before and the day of the dinner, preparing dozens of loaves of bread, gallons of soup and pounds of roast potatoes. (We make gravy in a soup pot!)
It’s the community that creates the wonderful dinner, the magical setting, the awesome bonfire. It’s the magic of a community of people who go beyond all the time. We have chosen to make our homes here on this island in the Salish Sea. […]
Gingerbread House Competition 2018
It’s official!
This year will mark our first Solstice Gingerbread house competition….
There are only two rules:
Firstly, the whole construction has to be edible. (Go ahead and use carrots if you want!) Second rule, the wooden base can be no larger than 8″x 16″ (I can provide bases if needed.)
Winner will be determined by everyone at the dinner.
Gleaning Report by Emma Luna Davis
All over the island this season, people have been remarking about the incredible bounty of fruit we had this year. What a bumper crop! It’s meant a seriously fruitful season of the Gleaning Project. Once again, I’ve been amazed at the generosity of this community, and at how lucky we are to share this fertile place that has been so well stewarded. Many of the trees we pick are over 100 years old!
Here’s some of what our volunteer pickers have had to say about the Gleaning Project:
“I really was amazed are how much I enjoyed gleaning alongside members of my community that either I had not yet met or had not seen for a while. Gleaning is a group activity and builds connection and community. I also learned a lot about the antique fruit I was gleaning.” “It really helps me save food for the winter when it becomes very expensive.” “I felt that I was able to connect with more elders in my community, and hear about how they were going to use and enjoy their gleaned fruit. I really like hearing different peoples’ recipes and ideas as it feeds inspiration.” “As a single mom with limited access to growing space, my family is grateful for the access to fresh, local produce.”
This year, the Gleaning Project brought 67 volunteers together to pick 5,500 lbs of produce, including […]
Putting Food By – Alison Colwell
It is one of the sweetest sounds of late summer. The soft, ping, ping as the jars on the counter seal. It is one of the most satisfying sites – rows of translucent, jewel toned jars, filled and ready to be stored. It’s rewarding to see shelves filled with sparkling jars of homemade preserves, made from the freshest fruit, put by for the winter.
As the harvest starts to come in I am always seized by an inescapable urge to save the food, to put it up for the cold months ahead. Perhaps it comes from my grandmother, from a generation that lived through the London blitz and the food shortages that followed the war, or perhaps it’s simply a part or our biological heritage, similar to the squirrels urge to stockpile nuts or geese need to fly south.
I do know that there are few things more satisfying than looking at pantry shelves laden with home canned goods, or knowing that your freezer is full of food to feed you over the winter.
When I first moved to Galiano I lived at the north end of the island, off the grid, and “putting food by” meant canning jams and tomatoes, and drying strings of onions and braids of garlic to hang from the rafters through the winter. Now that I live with power, I also fill my freezers […]
Upcoming Food Program Events
