Green thumbs up for Revelstoke gardening scene

This story first appeared in print in the Summer 2020 Revelstoke Recovers issue of Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine. Read the e-edition here:

There’s an old saying about lemons and  lemonade. You know the one. It’s such a tired cliché that I’ll spare you from having to hear  it yet again. But the simple lesson behind it  — making the best out of a bad situation —  seemed to be occurring as Revelstoke, like the  rest of the world, had a gardening renaissance during the coronavirus lockdown this past spring. It isn’t a huge surprise since gardening can be productive and therapeutic in many ways while still meeting guidelines for social distancing. But what is a surprise, is how much gardening and growing was motivated by people’s concern over access to fresh healthy food. The campaign to produce more food locally has long been spearheaded by the Local Food Initiative, and it seems that the seeds they’ve sown have sprouted this year in a variety of ways.

“When the pandemic first became serious, initially my biggest concern was food supply. Not that there would be a lack of food, but potentially fewer options,” says Huw Saunders, citing just how many of our fruits and vegetables come from countries to our south that have struggled to manage the spread of the coronavirus.

Huw’s way of tackling this was to use his newfound free time to build the garden that he’d always had in mind, and build it well. But as with any new project, there are myriad details to consider and skills to hone.

“The Revelstoke Growing Community (RCG) page has definitely been helpful,” continues Huw. “It’s a great group of people who all want to help each other out in some fashion.”

Greg Hill’s way of contributing to food security was to create the Facebook page, which now boasts 1,362 members, with the encouragement of like-minded friends and family. Greg recognized that increasing our food production, especially in residential plots, would require a support network through which gardeners and growers could exchange ideas, solutions, and even supplies. As new gardeners emerged from their shells, the page became a hotbed of good advice and community cohesion.

“COVID flipped my life upside down and I began to worry about the food security, yet there is so much to growing well that I lacked,” says Greg who expanded his own garden this year. “By harnessing the strength of our community I figured we could all grow more food and learn from those that know.”

But some gardeners found additional hurdles when trying to get new and existing gardens going in April. Gardening supplies sell like hotcakes every spring, even when there isn’t a sudden spike in demand, and the closure of one of our few garden centres only intensified local shortages. Seeds, soil, sprinklers, and spades barely touched shelves before being cleared out, and it wasn’t uncommon to overhear gardeners compare notes on where they were able to find critical supplies. In particular, seedlings, or starts, were in very high demand this year.

“We sold more starts then we ever have, as a direct result of COVID unfolding and creating greater interest in local food production,” confirms Stu Smith who runs Track Street Growers with his partner Sarah Harper. Other local growers like Terra Firma and Bird Tree Farms have echoed a similar uptick in demand.

“Our priorities changed to providing more staple crops and starts for others,” continues Stu. “We had actually planned to scale back on the starts and focus more on the value added products that we do — our hot sauce, garlic syrup, and powders — but we realized that was not the responsible thing to do.”

Jesse Johnston-Hill tends to the crops at First Light Farms Photo: Contributed

Of course, not everyone who supports more local food production has the time, interest, ability, or space to grow their own vegetables. Those people will be happy to hear that a new source of local veggies has emerged in the form of First Light Farm. A project brought to light by partners Jesse Johnston-Hill and Chris Rubens, First Light has been a whirlwind endeavour. In mere months the duo sourced, tilled, fertilized, and planted a plot of land just on the outskirts of town, and even added a greenhouse.

“We’ve been talking about farming for a long time. Revelstoke is very food insecure,” explains Chris as we chat about the accelerated timeline for their new project. “This started with the pandemic, pulling the pin and doing it. It‘s been beyond full-time.”

First Light Farm is already offering fresh greens on a bi-weekly basis and will expand into zucchini, squash, onions, sweet corn, potatoes, radishes, carrots, beets and more as the crops grow and ripen.

When you really think about that old saying about lemons, it isn’t true at all. Life doesn’t just simply give you lemons — they take a lot of hard work to grow. And if we don’t actively support local production of nutritious food, one day we may find ourselves missing a lot more than just lemonade.