In 2019, Earth Connections provided 6 Yorkton Area First Nations with Raised beds, Garden Towers, Seed Starting Kits, and seed packs. (Kahkewistahaw First Nation, Key First Nation, Zagime Anishinabek, Keeseekoose First Nation, Cote First Nation, and Ocean Man First Nation). These same communities received 130 raised beds for community growing in 2020. The Yorkton Tribal Health Centre set up 3 Cold Frames.
We attended a Garden Meeting to answer food security and gardening questions, and provided seeds for community members. (April 2019)
In 2018 three garden towers were set up in the community school. The community established a community garden in the spring of 2020, including 6 cold frames provided by Earth Connections.
In July 2018, Earth Connections was happy to be called upon by the Prince Albert Grand Council to discuss challenges and strategies of gardening in the north at a two day workshop. The Hatchet Lake Health Centre received 6 Cold Frames.
Organic Food Distributors
We enjoyed showing our products and making connections at the street stall on Saturdays at the Saskatoon Farmers Market. We were there with our award-winning (
Green Thumb Award, 2016) GardenTower and sometimes with certified organic produce from the Flying Dust First Nation! (May-Oct, 2016)
The Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in association with Canadian Feed the children has 2 Garden towers, 1 for the daycare program and one for the school. In January and February 2018, Earth Connections facilitated a 5 day Gardening and Greenhouse course for members of Beardy’s & Okemasis, Ahtahkakoop, and Muskeg Lake Cree Nations, funded through Canadian Feed The Children. Each community received a Cold Frame for community growing. Muskeg Lake Cree Nation went on to establish a 3 acre food forest. (Add Link to video featuring the food forest, posted to EC Facebook page October 2018). Earth Connections was honoured to be invited by Willow Creek Health Services to facilitate two, one-day gardening workshops to assist with their Community Garden Project in May of 2018. Ahtahkakoop School added 9 Garden Towers to their Library Resource Centre in the fall of 2019.
230+ Garden Towers
Thanks to the Nutrition North Funding, Earth Connections has distributed 230 Garden Towers to Stony Rapids, Black Lake, and Uranium City between September 2017 and the spring of 2020. At the outset of this project, The National Aboriginal Diabetes Association printed an article on Northern Gardens in their September 2017 newsletter.
Click here to read the newsletter. An article was also published in the
fall 2017 edition of NOSH, a newsletter published by the Food & Culinary network of Dietitians of Canada. In the spring of 2019, we provided Stony Rapids with 6 Raised Beds and 8 Cold Frames for use at their newly built Women and Children’s Crisis Centre. We also facilitated the creation of a therapy garden, which included a barrel oven rocket stove cob workshop at Stony Rapids School. This was capped off with a pizza party for students and teachers! Several articles were published about the Therapy Garden, including one in
Eagle Feather News. Earth Connections ran a January 2020 Microgreen Workshop in Stony Rapids and another in Uranium City, providing the communities with microgreen growing kits. In February, we piloted a School Snack Program at Uranium City School. (This program was paused due to Covid-19, but will hopefully be re-started in the near future). Over the course of the spring of 2020 Stony Rapids, Black Lake, and Uranium City purchased over 110 individual-sized raised beds and cold frames along with over 170 seed packs for families in these communities, funded through Nutrition North.
