SIBLINGS DELIVER TASTES OF SPRING
Here’s how Floating Gardens — and you — make 2020 the year of a food-secure future
SASKATOON Welcome back, spring. Oh, how we’ve missed you in Saskatchewan.
May equals gardening season and 2020 marks the year when more of us learn how to garden. While the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed numerous food security issues in the global supply chain, it also has helped us re-evaluate where we want to spend our money and how we want to spend our time.
Getting back to basics — that is, growing our own food, baking our own bread, prioritizing family relationships and getting to know our local farmers — are all high on the agenda.
Food security concerns were a big factor behind starting Floating Gardens, located near Osler, back in 2008.
Siblings Chris and Rachel Buhler, along with help from their family, grow produce in hydroponic greenhouses and sell it throughout the province.
When the siblings began researching, they found statistics about Saskatchewan’s dismal locally-focused production rates for fruit and vegetables.
“Both Rachel and I were really interested in the problem of food security,” Chris said.
They grow a variety of crops ranging from herbs and microgreens to lettuce, salad mixes and even sweet bell peppers. There’s nothing bland or watery from Floating Gardens. Their tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers burst with so much flavour you’ll be hard-pressed to eat anything else again (unless it’s out of your own garden).
Rather than being shipped thousands of kilometres, the produce is sent relatively short distances to Saskatchewan homes and retailers. That means it can be picked when it’s ripe, which equals peak flavour and nutrient levels.
Floating Gardens is named for its hydroponic system, which uses a combination of water and mineral nutrient solutions to grow plants. The family uses either peat moss or coconut fibre because those materials hold an ideal ratio of water and air for the plants.
Plants grow about six times faster than in soil outdoors — and some up to 15 times faster.
As an example, the tomato vines will grow more than 12 metres in a year’s growing cycle, due to an ideal balance of nutrients and water.
However, as Chris explained, the system isn’t foolproof.
“We control when it rains, when it’s windy and when it’s sunny, so that’s a blessing right? That’s also the curse of it, because if you make a mistake it’s a really serious mistake.”
More rapid growth is key to making a living by operating a year-round greenhouse in a cold climate.
“Per square foot, to grow in a greenhouse is much more expensive than growing outside — it’s ridiculous,” he says.
That’s part of the reason why typical grocery store prices for produce are lower than for locally-grown food.
“To ship stuff in from other places costs around five per cent of the cost of your final product. Our heating, and even our staff time, is a lot more expensive than it is in Mexico or in the United States. The system is not aimed at helping the environment. The system is aimed at big corporations making money.”
There are two ways to help build a sustainable, secure food system in your community — and this is true for anywhere in the world, not just Saskatchewan.
First, allocate a portion of your food budget to produce from local growers, like Floating Gardens. You don’t need to buy everything locally. Regularly purchasing just one product from your favourite farmer goes a long way. CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscriptions are another excellent way to reap the delicious benefits of seasonal, local produce.
The second way is to learn how to grow your own food. You can start with just a few pots on your balcony, with a plot in a community garden, or your own backyard or front lawn garden.
If you live in Regina or Moose Jaw, urban gardening pro and soil health expert Keri Fox offers consultations to help you get started. Visit her website for more information at greensistergardens.com.
Order Floating Gardens’ produce through their online store: floatinggardens.ca (the greenhouse is near Osler and offers pickup and delivery).
Their produce is also available through online ordering at both the Saskatoon and Regina farmers’ markets, Saskmade Marketplace and Steep Hill Food Co-op in Saskatoon, along with Local & Fresh in Regina. Great news: Local & Fresh will start Saskatoon deliveries soon, so if there are products from southern Saskatchewan you’d like to try, now you can.
Jenn Sharp is a freelance writer in Saskatoon. Her first book, Flat Out Delicious: Your Definitive Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans, is available now at independent bookstores and at local food retailers and farmgate online stores throughout Saskatchewan, along with Chapters and Amazon. Follow her on Twitter @Jennksharp, Instagram @flatoutfoodsk, and Facebook.