June 25, 2009: Volume 36 #13, Page A2

McDowell Lake Chief Eli James helps Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s Verlin James and Bryan Walmark load a truck with gardening supplies for delivery to North Spirit Lake, Keewaywin and McDowell Lake for use in a KO Health small-scale container gardening project. -Rick Garrick - Wawatay News

KO is partnering with the United Nations on the summer gardening initiative.

“My idea is to introduce container agriculture, specifically small-scale container gardening in the north,” said Verlin James, a McDowell Lake band member who is the project lead with KO Health.

“There are issues of food security in some communities; for instance, in Fort Severn they ran out of food supplies during 9/11.”

James said 20 self-contained EarthBox containers will be sent through the KO Health-financed project to North Spirit Lake for the summer youth program, 10 will be sent to Keewaywin for the community nursing station and 10 will be sent to McDowell Lake for the summer youth program.

Robert G. Patterson, senior liaison officer with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization Liaison Office for North America, helped plant the Thunder Bay EarthBox, which is situated near the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute office and is currently showing some sprouts nine days after the June 9 planting.

“It is self-contained,” James said. “It is low maintenance, you’re looking at about a cup of water every day.”

While the plan is to grow vegetables currently not suitable for growing in the northern communities, such as tomatoes, corn, cabbage and pumpkins, James said the project will remain a local one for the first two years until enough experience is gained to participate in the international Growing Connection project.

“The EarthBox is designed to cut the growing season by a third,” James said. “If you’re talking about a seed with a growing season of 50 to 60 days, it will be 35 to 40 days.”

James said although one person has been growing vegetables in Keewaywin up to now, there are currently no other people growing vegetables in the two other communities.

“They did grow vegetables up there,” James said. “You will often hear about people who have cellars dug into the side of a clay embankment, to keep potatoes through the winter and into the spring.”