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LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
Whether it's to combat high food prices, diversify available foods, or just to get your hands dirty, community gardens around the NWT have taken root and are starting to produce some impressive yields.

Doug Whiteman, left, harvests potatoes with the help of his granddaughter, Aurora Randell. - photo courtesy of Dolly Whiteman

"We're establishing records across the board every year now because our capacity seems to be growing everywhere you look," said John Colford, director of investment and economic analysis for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Doug Whiteman, the man behind almost 88 per cent of Norman Wells' potato production, said it's been an extremely rewarding project.

"When it started out a few years ago ... you could have fit everything we harvested into a suitcase basically and now I've got 30 to 35 thousand pounds of potatoes this year," Whiteman said.

When Whiteman started developing what is now a three-acre potato patch, the soil was so devoid of nutrients, potatoes only grew to the size of grapes. Four years after his first attempt, Whiteman had the soil tested and then ordered commercial soil, specifically designed to introduce nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and a little bit of sulphur back into the area. After seven years of work, Whiteman, now produces enough potatoes to sell to Tulita, Fort Good Hope, and most establishments in Norman Wells.

"We've never reached a ceiling on it yet," he said. "It's still 10,000 pounds or 12,000 pounds an acre. I'm still only half of what you can get in Alberta. I'm interested to see just how far it's going to go."

Success has been had by many other communities a part from Norman Wells.

The Lutsel K'e Community Garden emerged as the top producing community garden in the North Slave region this year.

"It started off literally as a gravel patch so it's really, just every year, we've been lucky enough to have ... community members who have been involved," said Tracey Williams, a co-founder of the community garden.

She said the community has really embraced learning about gardens and how to make them work in the North. Over the past five years between eight and 15 different kinds of herbs and vegetables have been grown, she said. The most successful of the crops being kale, carrots and potatoes, among many others.

Williams said it has been exciting to see a community with strong traditional skills in such areas as hunting and fishing, include green thumbs into their realm of expertise

Currently the garden operates as a collective effort, but a big enough soil base and community knowledge means next year participants will have their own plots to manage, though it's likely the greenhouse and potato patch will remain collection, said Williams.

"It's a prime example of what a small community can do," Colford said of the Lutsel K'e garden.

"We're brining together people with skills and talents or (helping them develop) those skills and talents to do that kind of stuff. It's the same drive in Lutsel K'e that we're finding across the North.

"I can sit here and talk about government and government strategies ... but without people on the ground being committed to the initiative, it's not going to work.

"Small-scale foods requires commitment, dedication and the desire to do it."

A press release from the GNWT on this year's harvest states small-livestock production, such as chicken and hogs, is also on the rise and Colford said tentative plans for more supports to that sector are under consideration.

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