The Cariboo Growers Farmer Co-Op Store opened its doors in April, 2010 with one goal in mind: to provide the community of Williams Lake with delicious locally sourced and organically grown produce. Our store is a not-for-profit co-operative owned by the very same local ranchers and farmers who sell their produce there. We are driven to connect members of the community and beyond to the local food that can be grown here in the Cariboo. As a community co-op, the purpose is to link local consumers with local producers to provide broader access to local foods on a year-round basis.…
Author: thegreengazette
By Trevor Melanson – As Canadian clean energy companies look to sell their solutions abroad, it’s clear who’s buying. New analysis from Clean Energy Canada shows the world’s three largest electricity markets – China, the US, and India – were collectively responsible for half of global clean energy investment in 2016, which totalled C$348 billion. China alone has invested over half-a-trillion dollars in clean energy in the last five years, with no plans to slow down—even as US President Donald Trump takes aim at Obama-era climate policies. India is also emerging as a major destination for clean energy investment,…
By Lisa Bland, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief – This summer marks the fifth year since I started running TheGreenGazette, and looking back to the summer of 2012, and 32 issues later, I can’t believe how much has happened and how quickly time has passed. It’s been a fast-paced and rewarding journey of being immersed in community, collaboration, stories, and the evolving narratives of the people, places, and issues in our region, and the larger world. I often joke about each issue being a birth process—painful, transforming, exciting, and filled with unknowns. Somehow each issue makes it to press in time, and despite the…
By Guy Dauncey – We are amid celebrating our 150th anniversary since the Articles of Confederation were signed on Prince Edward Island in 1867. We look back and consider our recent history—but by looking backwards, we turn away from the future. Maybe that’s a useful, unconscious act because by almost any reckoning, the future looks pretty darned scary. If we carry on the way we are, by Canada’s 300th birthday in 150 years’ time, the climate crisis will have ensured that Prince Edward Island will become a bunch of islands, and large areas of Quebec and Montreal will be under…
By Bill Irwin – This issue finds us looking at the summer months, although recent weather has not precipitated summer thinking, yet. June is the month of solstice where the sun reaches its highest northern declination for the year in the foot of Gemini the twins, fairly close to the showcase open cluster M35. Solstice is a time when the sun’s northern drift comes to a stop and the inexorable fall to the winter solstice position in western Sagittarius begins. The full moon, being opposite the sun in the sky, will take up this low position in the sky around…
By Jasmin Schellenberg – HEALTHY SNACKS AND WHY Kombucha Fruit Pudding This tasty treat packs a nutritious punch, first from the kombucha and then from the chia seeds, a virtual superfood. The more chia used the more pudding-like it is. 2 cups fresh or frozen fruits 1/2 cup kombucha 3 tablespoons chia seeds 2 tablespoons honey (optional) 1/4 teaspoon sea salt Combine all ingredients in a blender along with any other seasoning you like, such as mint, ginger, or cinnamon. Refrigerate 1/2 hour and serve topped with fresh fruits. Keeps in fridge for two weeks. Enjoy! NUTRIENT DENSE MEAL Beef…
By Julie Fowler, Executive & Artistic Director of Island Mountain Arts – Island Mountain Arts is excited to kick off its 40th anniversary season in Wells. The organization, which began with a Summer School of the Arts in 1977, always had a big vision, looking to places like the Banff School (now Banff Centre) and Emma Lake and thinking: “Why can’t we do this this right here in the Cariboo?” Wells, with its wealth of facilities from when it was a much larger gold mining town in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, had quieted down considerably by the 70s, thus…
By LeRae Haynes – Miss White Spider Arts is a new, fluid, creative, and versatile business that offers an incredible range of products and experiences for customers. Artist owner Al-Lisa provides an educational focus that is global, positive, unique, and inspirational. One of the things offered through Miss Spider Arts is dance facilitation. In spring of this year, Al-Lisa facilitated ‘Dance Beyond Words: An Ecstatic Dance.’“It’s an experience with the practice of communicating through our bodies and letting them tell their own stories beyond using words, with an introductory five rhythms opening,” Al-Lisa said. “I also offered Raise Them Up:…
By Sage Birchwater – For the past 30 years, Naghtaneqed School in remote Nemiah Valley has held a culture week in mid-May that involves all the children in the school and many elders and volunteers in the community. This unique program initiated by Marty Solomon and June Williams in 1987 was created to preserve the traditions and cultural knowledge of XeniGwet’in and Tsilhqot’in First Nation in a public school setting. Over the years, other schools from across the Cariboo-Chilcotin and other parts of British Columbia have joined Naghtaneqed for these four days of cultural immersion. This year children from neighbouring…
By Margaret-Anne Enders – I have had some challenging experiences in the last little while and my mind, which thankfully has been quite calm for a number of months, was spinning, ruminating, and endlessly strategizing—basically, going in circles. And so it was that on May 6, I found myself literally walking in circles. However, instead of contributing to a downward spiral, the action offered me a clarity and peace of mind that was unexpected and welcome. Just to be clear, I was not aimlessly wandering, disheveled and broken. I had joined with others in the parking lot of St. Andrew’s…
Thousands (if not millions) of emails and phone calls later, we are finally ready to announce the lineup of Arts on the Fly’s 2017 summer festival. Not one to shy away from diversity (or exaggeration), this may be the widest assortment of musical styles for an Arts on the Fly to date. Without further ado: Bluegrass: Two of Vancouver’s premiere bluegrass bands will be holding it down at this year’s festival. You may have caught the banjo-guitar-bass virtuosity of the Devon Wells Trio at the Medieval Market this past winter. They happened to be in the neighborhood touring a brand…
By Sharon Taylor – “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” I am always sceptical about quote attributions: John Wesley, the revolutionary Methodist preacher, probably did not write the quote above, despite the Facebook meme. It is still a good way to think about how I live my life. “Do all the good you can” but think carefully about that “good”. Does it advance your…
By Mary Forbes, Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society – While attempting to recycle have you ever thought… “Why should I recycle when my neighbour doesn’t even bother?” “What’s the point? My impact is tiny compared to a giant corporation.” “It’s too late to recycle – the problems facing our species are greater than where I put my waste.” Whoa! Let’s get back on track, Calamity Train! In many Canadian jurisdictions, recycling is now the law, where noncompliance is punishable by fine. Here, we still have the benefit of choice, but that doesn’t make it any easier. So how do we seamlessly…
By Jennifer Clark – I’ve been living in Calgary since the beginning of December because my tiny house trailer project still needs a bathroom. Now that I’m here, I’ve found some great reasons to stay for a few years. I have family here, and there is inspiring work for me to do helping people grow food. In my five months so far in Calgary, I’ve already noticed that living in a city poses a number of challenges to simple living. The pressure to consume is absolutely everywhere, and like-minded minimalists or downsizers are a rarer breed, or just harder to…
By David Zirnhelt – The context for this, the third of three articles for TheGreenGazette, is, how do we try to feed the world that, through industrialization and urbanization, is challenged to distribute our abundance? I would say the solutions to a world that produces enough food, but doesn’t get the distribution correct, lie in a complex realigning of the culture of modern farming. To do this we must delve deep into “traditional practices” and ask the reductionist (breaking things down into simple and controllable with few variables being examined) science to become more holistic (looking at the many variables…
By Veronica Meldrum – The Yunesit’in Government recently began training community members in the operation of a portable saw mill as part of the Forest to Frame project. This project strives to provide employment opportunities within the community by actively involving Yunesit’in people from the “Forest” stage of harvesting to the “Frame” stage of constructing community buildings using beetle-attacked Douglas-fir from the Tsilhqot’in territory. “We believe that the local forest should benefit our community,” said Chief Russell Myers-Ross. When first elected, Myers-Ross knew that action needed to be taken to address the lack of housing and related housing issues in…
By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette – Summer is a great time to be in the chemical business. Statistics aren’t kept on the amount by which total dollars spent on common ailments increases this time of year, but I can tell you this: the sun care industry alone earns around $135 million in Canada and $5.6 billion in the US, according to a recent Global Industry Analysts report. And the money is only the beginning. Study after study points to the full picture of commercially prepared products like sunscreens, lip balm, insect repellant, and pharmaceutical travel sickness remedies, which…
By Oliver Berger – We see them everywhere. Utensils, stir sticks, disposable cups, plates, plastic bags, and even six-pack rings labelled compostable, biodegradable, earth-friendly, photo-degradable… what does all of this mean? From a scientific stand point, I have discovered it is important to be aware that the terms “biodegradable,” “compostable,” and “disintegration” are not the same. The key differences between these terms are time and end result. For biodegradation and disintegration, there is no time reference needed for decomposition or the type of physical and chemical qualities of the end product produced through decomposition. Biodegradation requires the action of naturally…
By Tera Grady – Residents who receive curbside recycling collection have the convenience of mixing their fibre and container packaging and printed paper items together. However, did you know that foam packaging (Styrofoam), plastic bags, and glass are not allowed in curbside collection? These items need to be collected separately and taken to a Recycle BC depot. In Williams Lake, the Recycle BC depot is located at the Frizzi Road transfer station; in 100 Mile House, residents can use Gold Trail Recycling. Recycle BC is the organization that provides depot and curbside recycling in the Cariboo. They are a non-profit…