Jun 6 2016
Seed Saving — A Quiet Act of Defiance
A Little Simple Seed Saving
Wiebke Tinney, Bernadette Goguen and Francine Theriault are members of a seed savers group under the umbrella of Groupe du développement durable du Pays de Cocagne (GDDPC). How this tiny community of the Cocagne River Watershed has enough vitality and environmental awareness to even have a such a group is yet to be determined, but it’s exciting and gives me hope.
All three women are full of enthusiasm, stories and information, although Wiebke hangs back a bit in deference to the two veteran seed savers. Francine has been saving for over 15 years, Bernadette seven.
The themes of self sufficiency and independence surface again and again throughout our discussion. They are farmers and are saving seeds to preserve biodiversity, to find varieties that are adapted to climate change, to make seeds available to all — counteracting the Monsanto mentality of patenting seeds and even genes for profit. The seeds savers are generous of spirit.
Francine started with saving seeds for wheat and barley but has also experimented more recently with vegetable seeds. Bernadette grows peppers for their seeds under a subcontract, and Wiebke is just beginning and learning.
It’s a process
Francine holds her cupped hand out and says, “We start out with just a few — and then we multiply our planting every year.” She speaks of the seeds like they are precious gems and of the great patience that is required in observing and choosing the best plants year after year. She just wants people to know that, although it’s not easy, “it’s do-able. It’s a process.”
Seeds cannot be saved from hybrid plants. Instead open pollinated varieties are required. These are seeds that will “breed true” or produce plants that are roughly identical to the parent plants. Seeds from plants that are a result of a recent cross or hybridization will grow into plants with widely different characteristics, or they may be sterile. So they are not suitable.
Seeds from most plants can be saved including grains, peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, squash, pumpkins and broccoli. Some plants like carrots and beets take two years to produce seed.
Great care must be taken when growing plants for seed to keep them away from other, similar varieties so they don’t cross-pollinate and inadvertently produce a hybrid. Francine and Bernadette told of a recent failure of a pumpkin seed that grew into a plant that produced fruit that was a cross between a pumpkin and a zucchini —useless as food or a source of seed.
Growing group
The group estimates there are about 30 people in the area saving a variety of seeds. They hope to get more information about this soon from an online survey.
Bernadette, who is also starting a vineyard says, “We have to own this” meaning the right to save seeds. They shun any government help because in their view government favours big agribusiness. And these people don’t want to be “beholden.” Francine says the best way that government can help is to “not get in our way.”
And as for making money from their saving: “No!” is their emphatic answer. That would ruin it, they say. Seed saving is not about making a buck. It’s more about protecting a way of life and safeguarding for the future.
That theme of protecting the future is likely why Bernadette and Francine smiled a lot at Wiebke during the interview. They were clearly delighted that this young person was taking seed saving seriously and wants to learn from them. It adds richness to their activities and purpose. It adds hope.
It all feels a little bit like they are getting ready to load up the ark for a difficult journey. These women see what’s coming ahead, but there is no panic. Instead there is quiet, methodical determination…and faith.
A gallery of seed savers
Jun 6 2016
Shannon Gallant — A Foodie’s Dream Job
Shannon Gallant has been the culinary magician at Belliveau Orchard’s Café du Verger since October 2015. She is one of those savvy food people you find everywhere in Vancouver, Seattle or San Francisco. She loves to talk about food because she’s always thinking about food.
In April, we had been interviewing at Abbey Landry School in Memramcook and thought it would be fun to stop for a snack at the Belliveau’s and discovered this exuberant woman behind the counter. In the time it took her to get our order, we learned that she had learned a lot of what she knew in Vancouver and at nutrition school and then farmers markets across Canada and that everything she cooked was local. So we had to interview her.
“Everything I cook here is my own recipe from scratch,” she says. “My recipe or my mother-in-law’s who is Acadian.”
Winning people over lunch by lunch
“The clientele here is used to a lot of traditional comfort food so I’m trying to put a modern spin on it. Some things I will not touch like chicken fricot, those are tried and true recipes,” she says, but she will experiment with dishes like quiche and introduce things she thinks people haven’t tried. She believes she is winning people over lunch by lunch. “Someone will say ‘I never had a quesadilla’ and say, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.’” She says, “It’s fun seeing people try new flavours, new textures.”
The right person for the job
Robert Bourgeois, owner of Belliveau’s Orchard, said he had a gut feeling she was the one to take the restaurant to the next level. “When someone has a passion, it shows,” he says. They knew each other from Chamber of Commerce meetings and the farmers market and then she approached him with the idea that she could cook for them. “The timing was right,” he says, because they had just finished all the requirements for a license.
They will be renovating this summer with one wall being knocked out and and the restaurant expanded into the yard. “This fall it’s going to be crazy here. Finally, we have something to eat,” Robert says. “Some days on the weekend there are three or four thousand people for the U-Pick.”
Developed menu over winter
Now that the busy season is close at hand the lunch menu is pretty well set, but it took some time to develop. “We used the winter to play with recipes, see what people in our neighbourhood liked. The menu would change every couple of days. Once my lasagna ran out I would try a quiche, once the quiche ran out I would work on a different kind of soup, or a chili or a shepherd’s pie, any kind of comfort food that I could make a little bit healthier.”
Shannon is also having a great time with the community events they’re putting on. “We’re running a program now called The Mini-chef Series so we’re getting kids into the kitchen.” They had one where they had 18 kids in the kitchen and taught them how to make pizza.
More to come
Shannon has “a million ideas” for the restaurant. “Lunch is it right now but I would love to see more tapis, more finger foods, more munchies that you can come and have a coffee or glass of wine and sit with your friends and have a snack to share.”
Is this her dream job? “Absolutely,” she says. “This is my dream job. I’m cooking what I want. I’m using the ingredients I want.” And of course everything is local if possible, some of it from the property itself since Belliveau’s grows a lot of produce. They also source from the butcher shops and bakery in Memramcook. And with all her farmers market experience — including starting one — that makes her really happy.
Shannon seems to have nearly limitless enthusiasm for what she is doing at the restaurant and Robert Bourgeois is giving her all the creative input she wants. It sure sounds like a dream job.
By Elaine Mandrona • cooking, First Issue, food movement, food security, Uncategorized