SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Now in its second year, the Yellowknife Landshare Program pairs landowners with vegetable growers in need of new digs.

The program is a project of the Yellowknife Farmers' Market and started last year with two people who dubbed themselves "The Roving Gardeners" tending five gardens throughout the city's downtown, and selling their yield at the weekly market. Two other gardeners also took on land under the program, upping the locally grown produce at the weekly market.

"It was totally successful," said Rosanna Nicol, program co-ordinator and Roving Gardener, along with Claire Singer.

"We sold-out often and found that people really loved the greens."

From the five plots, Nicol said The Roving Gardeners' market table offered up vegetables including spinach, peas, kale and tomatoes, as well as rhubarb earlier in the season. Any seed starters that didn't get planted were also sold at the market.

"By July we had a lot of greens, also potatoes."

The program was born out of an interest in seeing urban agriculture take root in the city, said France Benoit, a vendor and chairperson on the Yellowknife Farmers' Market board of directors.

"There is this big myth that we can't grow food here because of access to land or the temperature and so on, that is not true," said Benoit.

"There's plenty of sunshine to grow food here. What people need is a little bit of creativity in seeing land around them and using that land."

Nicol said the landshare program offers an opportunity for both landowner and gardener.

"I arrived in town as an avid gardener and farmer without land, so I enquired with some of the gardeners I knew, if they knew of people not using their land," Nicol said.

She was then introduced to the farmers' market organization, where the landshare program was underway, soon stepping into the role of co-ordinator.

"What we found is that this partnering of folks who were going to be away or had too much garden space, or didn't feel like gardening, that has been going on informally for a long time, all over the city," said Nicol.

People who are new to town, like Nicol once was, may not be a part of that network and looking for a way in.

"And a step that's new and really great is linking that into the farmers' market," Nicol said.

Growers will be able to sell their goods at the market, sharing in The Roving Gardeners' table - Nicol said they also have the option of having an individual table if there is a significant yield.

Money raised at the market goes back to the gardener, though different agreements can be reached between the grower and landowner.

"It can be arranged however it's mutually beneficial," said Nicol.

"Often landowners, from my experience, want their land to be used and are pretty happy with the labour going into that, but we're totally leaving it open."

This year, funding from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment will help purchase supplies for the growers in the program.

"It can be hard to justify putting a lot of your own money into someone else's yard, if you don't know if you'll be able to use it again," said Nicol.

For Benoit, the program is a way of encouraging and enabling local food production.

"The farmers' market is more than just a farmers' market," she said.

"Part of our mandate as well is to try to encourage food-based businesses and economic development around food, and also to start a discussion on food security in Yellowknife."

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