Richard Walker leads a group under a canopy of filbert trees in the South Okanagan.
Image Credit: Contributed
March 11, 2016 - 11:30 AM
PENTICTON - A Penticton man is working on a unique farming project in Penticton with a local elementary school.
Ryan Foster has founded an organization known as the Food Foresters of Canada Society, working to develop local food forest projects in Penticton and area.
A food forest project is currently underway by Parkway Elementary School after teacher Jandi Doyle learned of a Farm to School grant, which eventually led to her introduction to Foster, according to a media release.
Doyle's original intent of developing an outdoor learning environment expanded with the idea of a food forest, she says in the release.
She hopes the project will not only enrich the students and the community, but will eventually save the school district money in maintenance.
Food forests, by design become self-fertilizing, self-regulating and self- perpetuating, Foster says in the release. He’s joined up with Incredible Edibles of Penticton to work on the project, along with fellow Food Foresters Society Director Richard Walker, who is helping design the food forest.
Walker has also written a book called Food Forestry North of the 49th and will be launching it at Parkway Elementary on Saturday, March 12 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The book launch will also offer residents an opportunity to view the Kinney Community Food Forest, located across the street from the school.
Walker is calling on community members to join the Penticton Chapter of Food Foresters of Canada as a way to learn how to grow food forests.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016