Gardening season is underway..

We have had some very productive work days. Thanks to all of our garden guides that have helped out. We are making great progress.  Please join us at one of our upcoming events:

Spring Garden Workshops

May 29th-Growing Tomatoes
June 5th-Home Container Gardens
Co-led by NWIC students and staff
1-4 pm NWIC campus
Free plants, garden supplies, snacks!   RSVP to jgigot@nwic.edu, CEU’s available

End of the Year lunch and garden tour, June 12 from 12-1 pm

Come and celebrate our graduates, the end of the school year and the beginning if the garden!

 

Workparty and spring workshops

Work party: May 9th 10- 2 pm!

Spring workshops:

May 22^{nd  :}  Seed Starting & Home Gardens

May 29^{th  :} Growing Tomatoes with Nadine

June 5^{th :} Garden Soil Management

Every workshop is 1-4 pm. Food provided. All Classes at NWIC Swinomish. Contact jgigot@nwic.edu to register. 

CEU’s available!

Mosaic Garden Art with Youth Center

BSNES student Linda Willup recently finished mosaic stepping stones with the Swinomish Youth Center students.  These will be added to the garden this summer..stay tuned for more art in the garden!

 

National Food Sovereignty Summit

Food sovereignty can be defined as:

“The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”

- International Planning Committee For Food Sovereignty

I was honored to participate in the first national food sovereignty summit in Green Bay, WI.  The keynote was given by activist and farmer Winona LaDuke (pictured above). I was invited there to speak on soil biology and was amazed by all of the great work being done in native communities related to food access, re-cultivating traditional food practices and sustainable farming.

During my time there I was able to tour the Oneida tribe’s integrated farm system that consists of a buffalo ranch, apple orchard and organic farm the features their variety of white corn. While the mid-west still felt like it was in the heart of winter, the farms were busy with activity preparing for spring! They are doing great work to provide food locally and create economic development opportunities around a sustainable food system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring!

Spring has started in the garden.  We are getting soil into the beds and will be transplanting soon.  In the next few weeks we will have a series of garden classes set up for the community to participate in and materials for home gardens will be available.

Thanks to all of our garden guides that successfully completed the sustainable gardening class–Yoli, Maureen, Greg, Nadine, Linda and Enedina!  Look for more garden activities soon!

This quarter, THURSDAYS will be garden work party days.  Lunch will be available at 12 pm and you can work from 1-4 pm!  Stop on by and get involved and work with one of our new garden guides! See what is growing!!

Also, here are some links to some great food related events happening soon:

The First Annual Food Sovereignty Summit

“The Living Breath of Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ”
Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Cultural Food Practices and Ecological Knowledge

 

Welcome the first wave of garden guides!

We had are first group of students complete the garden class at Swinomish. Luckily most of our class days were sunny so we were able to plant trees and veggie starts and set up more raised beds.  On our last day of classes we also had some great presentations by our garden guides on artichokes, raspberries. composting and huckleberries! We will keep you posted on spring garden workshops and work parties, led in part by our team of garden guides!

hello 2013 garden!

Thanks to the sustainable gardening class and the NWIC’s HMDV service learning project for their help awakening the garden! We have some seedlings started in the greenhouse.  The beds are being turned and the garden is getting ready for spring!

Check the blog more information on spring work days and garden seminar opportunities starting in spring quarter!