NIAGARA REGIONAL NATIVE CENTRE HOSTS COMMUNITY GARDEN DAYS

WEEKLY PROGRAM TAKES PLACE THURSDAYS

Learning the ins and outs of gardening is at the heart of a weekly community program just launched at the Niagara Regional Native Centre.

The Niagara-on-theLake property is surrounded by fruit-bearing trees, flowers, and a large community garden in the back full of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

"It's such a wonderful opportunity that we have the space to grow many foods and to have many families be able to come and be part of the gardening. And then be able to benefit from the harvest," explained Chayan Dehghan, who is managing the garden this summer.

The community garden has been at the Airport Road centre since around 2006. It was created with the idea of helping to provide the community with produce and get families and kids involved with the preparation of the food they help grow.

"I taught them cooking different meals and incorporating these vegetables. Trying to get the children to want to eat vegetables right from when they're little," explained Wendy Jones, who used to manage the community garden. "Because if you get them when they're little, they don't realize, right? You've got to make them excited about the vegetables."

Individuals and families can come once a week, on Thursdays, throughout the summer and participate in the community garden days, helping to water, weed, and plant as needed.

They then get to enjoy fresh produce as it matures. In the fall, excess fruits and vegetables will be collected and canned, turning some into jams and pickling others.

"It's also an opportunity for families to learn. How do you can something? How do you make tomato sauce? How do you make jams? How do you do these preservative things so then you can actually have food for the year?" added Dehghan.

While the fresh food provided by the garden is incredibly helpful to many amid soaring prices, he said having a community garden like this isn't just a way to help create food security; it's also a way to establish food sovereignty.

"Part of the sovereignty of the nations of this land is that they have a right to be able to hunt the food that they need, grow the food that they need, gather food that they need, harvest the food that they need," he explained. "By gardening here, not only do we get to combat food insecurity, we're actually able to exert food sovereignty and exert the rights to food sovereignty."

The garden is divided into 13 pieces shaped like a turtle, paying homage to the traditional calendar based on the moon cycles within a year.

"It represents the back of the turtle's shell, which for many cultures is also the calendar of the year.

The year has 13 moons, so the turtle's back is the 13 sections," Dehghan explained.

Eventually the hope is

to add an additional outer section to the shell that includes 28 smaller plots of land, marking the 28 days in each moon cycle.

A second garden at the site currently features corn. As the growing season continues, members at the centre will add squash and beans, making it a Three Sisters garden.

The community garden initiative kicked off June 16 and will take place each Thursday throughout the summer from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. People are welcome to drop in for part of the time or stay for the whole session.