THUNDER BAY — Lakehead University, the Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station (LUARS) and the Roots Community Food Centre teamed up to hold a ‘Seeds of Change’ discussion and tour on Friday and Saturday.
The farm tour on the second day was part of a project led by the organizations to examine watermelon growing locally around the community, with stops at the Roots Community Food Centre’s Lillie Street Garden, LUARS and Root Cellar Gardens.
These watermelons were also being grown for the project by many community residents and some First Nations in the area, who are expected to select the best watermelon and return the seed so that the organizations can redistribute it next year.
“We’ve been growing a landrace watermelon, which basically means we’ve been planting lots of different watermelons, having them interbreed and intermix and we are tasting them,” said Charles Levkoe, a Lakehead University professor and Canada Research Chair in equitable and sustainable food systems.
“And we’re going to be selecting the sweetest and the tastiest and the most colourful watermelons that we can keep growing here in the community.”
The goal, Levkoe explained, is to develop a watermelon that they can grow in the area, which is also delicious and beautiful to look at.
“This project is really focused on seed and in many ways, seed is the essence of life, not just for fruits and vegetables, but for all of us. I mean, we all need to eat and we all want good, tasty food that makes us happy and is culturally appropriate and connects us to other people,” Levkoe said.
However, with a lot of the seed currently controlled by big corporations, he said, people have a very limited opportunity to save, share and buy it.
“Part of the idea here is to be able to save local seed that again grows well here in this climate, in this soil and make sure that everyone has access to it. So, some of it is being sold by local groups, but a lot of it is just being given and shared with each other,” Levkoe said.
With more sharing of the seeds, Levkoe said, locals can all grow more and have more access to food that doesn’t have to be shipped from far away with lots of chemicals by big companies.
For the project, the organizations planted about 500 plants at the LUARS, Levkoe said, and they were “shocked at the success.”
Without adding chemicals or a lot of supplements to the soil during the growing season, he said they probably had one to three melons per plant, so they’re looking at between 500 and 1500 watermelons just at the LUARS.
With other sites and people in the community having also grown them, Levkoe said, they hope to have access to 1,000 or more watermelons, which they will share, taste and give away to many people before collecting all those seeds to keep growing the better crop of watermelon next year.
Rudy Waboose has worked as a farmer in Eabametoong First Nation, also known as Fort Hope, for around twelve years, primarily farming potatoes, as well as strawberries, tomatoes and other vegetables. He was one of many growers who came to check out the watermelons to gain more knowledge and learn about planting.
It was important for him to come and absorb the knowledge about these seeds to take back to Fort Hope, Waboose said, because they do not have “knowledge for how to do that.”
Waboose said they started a family community garden where people come to grow their own fruits and vegetables, so they’ll likely try it with the watermelons as well.
“I’m going to try it for sure. We tried it before… The growing season is not as long as here... but we managed to get some watermelons done up there. So that’s why we need to get a greenhouse and stuff like that so we can start earlier in the season,” Waboose said.
For those interested in participating in the project, watermelons will be available for tasting and pick up at the Hymers Fall Fair on Sunday.
