Food Program
The Galiano Community Food Program works to build community and food security on our small island. We hold community potlucks, weekly Soup and Bread lunches and monthly Games Nights, plus organize Gleaning, Frozen Meals for Seniors, a Garlic Coop, Cheese Club, Workshops, School Garden Programs and much more.
Club Parks & Programs
The Galiano Club owns and maintains the South Community Hall, as well as over 830 acres of parkland on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada including Bluffs Park, Mount Galiano and the Community Forest. The Club runs the Community Food Program, is the home of the Galiano Players Theatre, hosts the Annual Blackberry Festival and Christmas Market. The Galiano Club was founded in 1924.
Community Hall
The Hall is a hub of the Galiano community and many of our local events are held there on an ongoing basis. It is also a favourite place for concerts, dances, weddings, plays, exhibitions, lectures, etc. The kitchen has convection ovens, industrial sinks, counters and cupboards and all manner of conveniences, and we’re quite proud of it.
Community Hall
The Hall is a hub of the Galiano community and many of our local events are held there on an ongoing basis. It is also a favourite place for concerts, dances, weddings, plays, exhibitions, lectures, etc. The kitchen has convection ovens, industrial sinks, counters and cupboards and all manner of conveniences, and we’re quite proud of it.
Club Parks & Programs
The Galiano Club owns and maintains the South Community Hall, as well as over 830 acres of parkland on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada including Bluffs Park, Mount Galiano and the Community Forest. The Club runs the Community Food Program, is the home of the Galiano Players Theatre, hosts the Annual Blackberry Festival and Christmas Market. The Galiano Club was founded in 1924.
Food Program
The Galiano Community Food Program works to build community and food security on our small island. We hold community potlucks, weekly Soup and Bread lunches and monthly Games Nights, plus organize Gleaning, Frozen Meals for Seniors, a Garlic Coop, Cheese Club, Workshops, School Garden Programs and much more.
Latest Blog Posts
Kathy Benger’s Nettle Beer Recipe
This is a typed version of the hand written recipe:
Nettle Beer
Ruth
Into a pan holding one and half gallons, pack as many young fresh nettle tops as you can, with three young dandelion plants, leaves and roots alike, but with no flower-buds. Now wash nettles and dandelions thoroughly in salted water and scrub the dandelion roots free of fibres. Then rinse them all free of salt and put them back into the pan with the rind and juice of two lemons, half a pound of rhubarb sliced and bruised and three or four […]
Wetland Use, Water Use & Drainage
Here’s what the Environment & Agriculture Table Discussion group came up with regarding water use in the Gulf Islands.
- Buy water in bulk – a group in Saltspring is doing it
- If you take too much rainwater the groundwater is affected (plants do use the water and release into atmosphere (skipping the groundwater collection phase)
- Grow native plants – they don’t need as much water
- Or search out plants that require even less water (Mediterranean plants – person doing so on Galiano)
- Plan your operation to grow over time to support use of less water; grow shade plants
- Germinate plants […]
Agricultural Land is Important – That’s Easy – But What About Other Types?
The Environment & Agriculture table discussion welcomed the second group and the first topic or burning issue to arise was the problem of unequal perceived value of different classes of land.
The core issues:
- It’s easy to understand that agricultural land is important for all of us but it’s harder to understand why other types of land are important – what can we do about this?
- We are living in an environment that is just a fraction of what it was: oceans were once teaming with life, now we cannot derive sustenance from them – how can we fix this?
Other types […]
Community Networking as a Region
Resource Person: John Wilcox, of Duck Creek Farm on Salt Spring Island… my favourite quote of his from this session: “I’m not an activist, goddammit, I’m a citizen.”
Sharing information can bring us together, and information can dissipate our energies. This session had 24 participants who for the most part expressed dismay at the enormous information overload that can happen with the broad set of issues in the food sector, and yearn for a better sense of unity.
The discussion kept coming back to these central themes.
We need a simple, effective, quick way for current regional and broader global food system issues […]
What Can We Do About the Effect of Pesticides & GMOs?
The Environment & Agriculture table also discussed the effects of pesticides and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) our ecosystem (incl. human health). Here’s what the participants had to say:
- Saltspring does not support GMOs, but does not have legislation for it (myth that they actually do)
- Communities can agree to be GMO free, but legislating it is difficult
- Lobby the government
- Set up a system that doesn’t require chemicals (plan staff time); nurture a “resilient” system
- It takes awhile for the system to build resilience to pests (Derek Masselink, the table Resource Person and expert, saw bugs that weren’t even supposed […]
I’m Starting a Farm, Where do I Begin?
The first round of discussion at the “Environment & Agriculture” table began with each participant listing their “burning question or issue” then once all issues were recorded the group began going through them with suggestions and further comments. The first issue to come up was “I just moved to Galiano Island to start an eco-friendly farm – where should I start?”
Here are the suggestions that came up (in order of the round):
- Start with potatoes
- Roger Pettit has some seed potatoes
- Consult the book “Edible Forest Gardens” on growing without disturbing / abusing the native ecoystem
- Consult with folks who […]