Moose Jaw community harvest helping those in need

Harvest season is well underway in southern Saskatchewan, but there’s a different type of harvest happening in Moose Jaw.

On Thursday, local students and members of the Moose Jaw Multicultural Council were on hand to help with the harvest at the Mosaic Community Food Farm. All the produce benefits the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank, Hunger in Moose Jaw and Riverside Mission.

“It’s all about them, it’s all about their clients,” Mosaic Senior Community Investment Specialist Celeste Geisbauer said. “So we meet with them in the spring and they tell us, ‘we need potatoes, we need zucchini we need tomatoes, beets’… And that’s what we plant.”

So far this year, about 2,100 lbs. of produce has been harvested from the community garden. Last year, the garden had about 10,000 lbs. of produce after harvest was complete, but dry conditions have created a few challenges this year.

“It did provide challenges. Luckily, Wakamow Valley has water sources for us here right at the food farm, so we were able to water. We had a great influx of volunteers this summer to help weed and water,” Geisbauer said.

“We were able to keep it under control as much as possible, I know we planted eggplant and that didn’t turn out because of the dry conditions.”

The drought also attracted some local deer as unexpected dinner guests.

“The valley is very dry, we were terribly dry and it’s not lush for them. The only thing that’s lush for them is in the garden,” Food Farm Coordinator Michele LeCuyer said. “Even the weeds, because we water them. So everything had to be covered.”

The community garden also provides a hands-on learning experience for both children and members of the Multicultural Council.

“A lot of people learn how to grow their own food at the garden,” Geisbauer said. “The Multicultural Council has been with us from the beginning, and even more so this year. And they not only have come and learned what grows here in Canada, in Saskatchewan, and have tried that in their own gardens but they have taught us about what grows in their own country, so it has been a really nice exchange that way.”