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We’ve reached that lovely time of the year when it’s starting to look more & more like a garden again 🌱

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The 'Plant A Row, Share A Row' initiative is back for another year of locals growing food locally and then sharing some of that locally grown food with other locals — with the main goal being to increase the quantity (and quality) of food that our local food recovery depots and food banks are able to offer members of our shared communities… and here's how you can get involved:

🌱 - Plant your seeds and nurture your garden (for example, you can plant a row specifically for donating, or you can see how your overall harvest does and donate a bit of your bounty).

🥕- At harvest time, remove as much dirt as you are able.

👩‍🌾 👨🏻‍🌾 - Take your produce to your local food bank or food recovery.

🗣️ - Be sure to let them know that your donation is designated for the 'Plant A Row, Share A Row' program so it can be weighed accordingly.

🙌 - Pat yourself on the back for making a wonderful contribution to your community and for taking an active role in the fight against local food insecurity!

And here are the Kimberley/Cranbrook donation locations:

Cranbrook Food Bank: 1624 Industrial Rd. 2; contact for hours

Cranbrook Food Recovery: 209A 16th Ave N, Mon-Thurs 9am-4pm, Fri 9am-12pm

Kimberley Food Bank; 255 Knighton Rd.: contact for hours

Kimberley Food Recovery: 260 4 Ave.; 10 am - 12 pm

And here is some extra information via Qs and As:

Q: What crops are best for donation?

A: Root vegetables or produce that can easily be stored is best, but all produce is happily received!

Q: Do you accept crab apples?

A: Unfortunately, we don’t accept crab apples. Contact Wildsight’s Apple Capture Program or share them with your neighbors.

Q: I’ve made jam out of my berries, can I donate that?

A: Due to Food Safety regulations, unfortunately, homemade preserves (jam, chutney, sauce, etc.) cannot be accepted.

Q: Do I need to clean or prepare my garden vegetables before donating?

A: We ask that you remove most of the dirt from your crops, but you don't need to wash them. In fact, if you wash them, they won't last as long. In the case of vegetables with tops (like carrots), you can also remove the tops, which helps the vegetables last longer.

For participants looking for hands-on gardening experience, come connect at one of our lovely local community gardens!

Cranbrook - Public Produce Garden - cranbrookfood@gmail.com (Marley)

Kimberley - Kimberley Community Garden - chad@wildsight.ca (Chad)

Kimberley - Kimberley Edible Gardens and Greenhouse - 1248granola@gmail.com

Finally, here is a link to visit a Google Doc with even more information (or you can scan the QR code on the image to visit) — and happy planting/growing/sharing!

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🗣 'Live for Local' wants to help you kick off the growing season with a seed and starter giveaway! Here are the simple steps to get yourself growing:

👩‍🌾 1. Fill out this Google form.

🌽 2. Pick up your seeds at your location of choice on May 16th.

🍎 3. Watch 'Live for Local' social pages for local growing tips (that's @ liveforlocal on Instagram and here's their Facebook page).

🌱 4. Plant your seeds and watch them grow!

🥦 5. Like, Follow, Share AND Tag a friend (or two!)

🌶️ 6. Share your failures and successes on your socials and —> you'll be entered to win a $50 Top Crop gift certificate for next year’s growing season (tag LiveForLocal on Instagram or share on their Facebook page).

🥕 7. Have a surplus? Bring excess produce to your local Food Bank or Food Recovery Depot (or share with a neighbour or friend)!

When it comes to the seeds that you can get, there are three kits to choose from (which you will select when filling out that Google form that was linked above):

• Balcony Growing Kit (please choose this option if you only have a balcony for growing) - contains the basics needed to start a balcony garden including pots, seeds, and starts that may include herbs, cherry tomato, nasturtium, and lettuce.

• Single Garden Plot - Small quantity of seeds and seedlings that may include carrots, beans, peas, radishes, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, basil, sunflowers, nasturtiums, parsley.

• Backyard Garden - Larger quantity of seeds and seedlings that may include carrots, beans, peas, radishes, beets, nasturtiums, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, sorrel, cherry tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, basil, sunflowers, nasturtiums, parsley.

FYI - there's a limited number of kits available… not to mention there's a limited number of growing days when living in Canada, so don't procrastinate on this great local food initiative and let's get growing 🙌

🚨 And a special THANKS to United Way for making this project possible! 📢

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The first work bee of the 2024 season was a success last Saturday — new faces + old faces + a whole bunch of collaborative prep work done as we get the garden ready for another year of productive local food production!

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Another year of composting up at the KEGG.CA community garden is “mostly” finished… and what a fruitful year of decomposing fruit & veg & other organic materials it was!

The reason I say “mostly” is because:

a) Compost never stops (the science just realllllllly slows down), so our Curing bin (pic 2) and our Finished Compost bin (pic 3) will still be doing its thang over what’s left of Autumn and into next Spring/melt, when 🎶Jeremy the Compost Man🎶 will be able to stick a pitchfork in things once again

b) Like last year, our Active Compost bin will still be accessible (pic 1), we just ask that you please cover your compost with an equal amount of browns (aka: leaves), of which we have a bunch already collected (pics 4+5+6) and will try to keep accessible next to the active compost bin.

So shoutout to everyone who helped contribute to all the black gold we were able to produce this year at KEGG… and we look forward to putting it all back into the earth to help grow even more local food next year!

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We had another great season … but the garden is now ready for winter! Thanks to all the devoted volunteers (and don't forget our AGM will be 7pm on November 1st at Kimberley Elks Club)!

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SURPRISE! We have artists among our gardeners — and our KEGG mural (with the amazing artwork conceived and painted by the amazing Elaine Rudser) is now hanging up at the community garden and we couldn't LOVE it more! Even the hover flies & bees were fooled by it's beauty and have been checking out the new flowers on the wall 🌻

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This upcoming Wednesday (September 27th, to be more precise) at the Royal Alexandra Hall in Cranbrook (from 6:30pm to 8:30 pm, to be even more precise) Live For Local—a homegrown manifestation born from the cross-community-collaboration that is the Kimberley Cranbrook Food Hub (of which KEGG.CA is a proud member)—has partnered with the Cranbrook History Centre to co-host their Ed Fest Ed Talk on Local Food Sustainability & Accessibility + Farm Feast Social (CLICK HERE for FREE registration)!

So consider yourself neighbourly invited to come learn from some local area people working on local food sustainability & accessibility whilst also socializing with other local area people who are also interested in local food sustainability & accessibility… all while enjoying delicious appetizers made with local ingredients and freshly pressed juice (which sounds like a reason in itself to leave the house on a Wednesday night, eh)!

So, once again -> CLICK HERE for FREE registration <- and then don't forget to bring some cash/coin, as there will be a mini “market” table set up to help support some of our local area farmers/growers as well 👍

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Ooooh… so that’s why the 4th letter in “KEGG” stands for “Greenhouse”!!! 🙃 (ie. up until the side panels finished going on at today’s workbee (Saturday, September 2nd), Kimberley Edible Gardens & Greenhouse had kinda been greenhouse-less since setting up the community garden up in townsite 2-ish years ago — thankfully nobody noticed that we had actually been 'KEG' the last couple years because now our other ‘G’ is up & looking g-g-g-great!)

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Amongst a whole bunch of produce harvested at this Saturday's work bee up at the KEGG.CA community garden in Townsite (so much lettuce, sooooo many beans), with 1/3 picked being delivered to Healthy Kimberley Food Recovery Depot to be redistributed in the community (over 40kg this week!), we also got some sky blue paint up (thanks Cloverdale Paint in Cranbrook for the donation of paint!) that will serve as the backdrop for a lovely mural that one of our talented gardeners will be creating (talk about 'the art of gardening' eh?) — we can't wait to see the final result!

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You know that familiar wedding party photo where everybody jumps in the air at the same time? Ok… but now imagine you replaced the ‘wedding party people’ with eccentric carrots from the kegg.ca community garden.

Can you see it now too?

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Wednesday night (August 3rd) was 'garlic night' up at the KEGG #communitygarden… and by the end of our work bee we had pulled and hung up over 300!!!

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THIS Sunday (July 9th), the KEGG Community Garden will be one of the 6 gardens being toured on the 6th Annual 'The Art of Gardening Tour' (which includes refreshments afterwards at Centre 64)!

This lovely event is not just a wonderful display of community gardens and gardeners (although it is definitely that), BUT, as the name implies, there is also subjective & interpretive (and alive) "art" on display in each garden, which varies by each artist/gardener (with the one always-involved collaborator being Mother Nature).

For example, up in Townsite, our KEGG community garden metaphorically paints with a focus on 'food production' over 'pretty flowers' (as our mandate is to donate 1/3 of our produce to Healthy Kimberley Food Depot, to be used in their community meal preps and/or given out to the community as picked), which means some of our prettiest colours are often hidden underground in our beets, carrots and radishes until pulled from the brown earth (although, if you're a fan of the colour green, our visible canvas is always filled with that hue).

But that's also a main part of the art of gardening — it's not just something that you can see, it's something you can smell and touch and taste and talk about with your friends & family & community… and like all good art, it's something that can inspire you to go try out for yourself or to go collaborate with others (or a bit of both).

In other words: we look forward to being apart of this celebration of local gardens & gardeners… and we're honoured to be a piece of this year's 'The Art of Gardening' community garden masterpiece!

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Another busy & bountiful day up at the KEGG.CA community garden this Saturday (with 1/3 of the produce harvested getting dropped of at the Healthy Kimberley Food Recovery Depot)!

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How It Started vs How It's Going (KEGG herb garden edition - April vs June pics)

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Plant sales on Saturdays at KEGG community garden are still happening EVERY Saturday from 9am - 12pm that we’re up at the garden doing our usual work bee! Plants currently on offer: lemon balm, green onions, sunflowers, Hens and Chick’s succulents, baskets, marigolds, lambs ears!