'We can be self-sufficient'
Communities feast on local harvest
Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 21, 2013
DEH CHO
Three of the Deh Cho region's communities celebrated the harvests of community gardens with feasts, jams and dried fruits and vegetables.
Residents in Jean Marie River, Trout Lake and Wrigley ate community feasts that featured vegetable soup made from the locally-harvested produce, jam, and dried fruits and vegetables.
Many children discovered new vegetables, such as eggplant and kohlrabi, said Caroline Lafontaine, an agriculturalist with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
"For carrots, I had purple carrots. I had white carrots. I had orange carrots of different sizes. I had a variety within the same species," she said.
"It was really an exploration and discovery with taste and smell."
Lafontaine was in Jean Marie River on Sept. 25 and 26, Wrigley on Oct. 1 and 2 and Trout Lake on Oct. 8 and 9 to facilitate the feasts and teach residents about food preparation, preservation and canning. Lafontaine said she taught the importance of growing your own food.
"Let's say you have a root cellar and you have problems with your root cellar," she said.
"It's nice to have dehydrated potatoes that you can use if all of your potatoes are frozen."
The three communities, along with Fort Simpson, have a community garden. Fort Liard has a promotional garden, but none exist in Nahanni Butte. Some of the gardens are about 15 by 30 metres, others in raised boxes. Jean Marie River tried a new site this year, while the garden in Trout Lake has existed for 20 years, explained Lafontaine.
"I wasn't surprised (by the yield) because we can grow a lot in the territories. We can be self-sufficient in terms of veggies during the summer, if we want," she said.
"Our soils have to be worked a little bit, but they're rich and they can grow.
"It's just a matter of committing and growing food."
Ruby Jumbo in Trout Lake planted potatoes, celery, zucchini, turnips, onions, sage, Stevia and flowers with her daughters, but started late in the season.
"The potatoes are small, but other than that, it was just all experiments.
"It's all new to us," she said.
"Every weekend, (my daughters) looked forward to going into the garden and watering it and stuff."
