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INUVIK
These students have gone to seed – literally.

Sarah Reaburn, left, the chair of the Inuvik Community Greenhouse board, with students Rena Squirrel and Marie-Christine Auger at the Inuvik Community Greenhouse. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Rena Squirrel and Marie-Christine Auger are growing wild this summer as they work with GNWT agronomist Gene Hachey and the small-scale food production program in communities around the NWT.

"I think for a developed country we're doing very poorly in terms of supporting our Northern communities," Auger said. "Everybody should have access to affordable food, and we're doing a very poor job."

"When you go into these communities it's pop and chips all the time," Squirrel said.

Inuvik's Squirrel will be spending the summer in the Mackenzie Delta area, working out of the Inuvik Community Greenhouse, while Auger, a Yellowknife resident studying agriculture, will be heading to the North Slave district to promote community growing projects.

Both students were spending a fair bit of time last week with the board members and volunteers at the Inuvik greenhouse such as Sarah Reaburn.

Squirrel grew up in the Inuvik region before her family moved south to the Hay River area.

"I was born in Inuvik and then we moved to Fort McPherson. From there we moved to Hay River," she explained."

"I actually had no gardening experience prior to this job," Squirrel added. "I'm in my third year now and just learning as I go. And whatever I learn I teach to the communities and try to encourage them. We travel to all the communities and work with them to establish community gardens and become more self-sufficient and rely on flown-in foods. We have a short growing season, but it's a very, very good growing season."

The program originally took the two young women to 30 of the 33 communities around the NWT, but the strategy was changed this year. Auger said they've been assigned territories to concentrate on.

"I think a lot of people from the south are surprised to find how big gardening is up here," she said. "Not many people know about the greenhouse in Inuvik."

Growing in the Arctic

"Whenever I try to explain to people about what my job is they say 'you can't grow anything in the Arctic'," Squirrel added. "But you can."

Auger said most people don't factor in the Midnight Sun and how it allows for an expanded growing season.

"And back in the day gardening was huge," Squirrel chipped in. "What we're trying to do now is to bring it back."

Auger speculated there was a cultural shift away from self-sufficiency and personal gardening once the highway system allowed easier shipping of food items.

"We're trying to reinstate that culture, and I'm using this job to apply the knowledge that I gain through the school year."

"Community involvement is one of our roadblocks," Auger said. "Just trying to educate people and get them involved. It's a big part of the project. We're trying to build the skill set within the community. And it's OK to fail so long as you learn from it."

"It's so easy," Squirrel said. "You just put the seeds in the ground and they grow."

That's not to say there aren't some quirks and challenges to growing food stocks in the North.

Auger said in many places the soil is quite acidic and sparse, making outdoor growing challenging.

It's different here in Inuvik, where the greenhouse provides a consistent artificial environment.

"It's amazing there are so many volunteers and people who feel passionately about it."

The greenhouse is celebrating its 15th year as a society. It has 74 working plots and approximately 125 members, including community organizations.

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