Cumberland House’s award-winning market garden is expanding into the poultry business.
The northern community is bringing 300 chickens into a free range farm space on the same grounds as the market garden, which was started about three years ago. Four people have been hired to work on the pilot project, and the chickens will be processed and marketed with help from the University of Saskatchewan.
Recently, the garden won a sustainability award from the Regional Centre of Expertise.
Mayor Valerie Deschambeault said the pilot project has a training component so workers learn about every aspect of food production.
“Now we’re training the community in how to garden and farm and look after the maintenance right from ordering seed right to the end of harvest,” she said.
The market garden sells food, but profit isn’t the motive.
“It’s more promoting self-sustaining communities and healthy choices for food and stuff like that,” she said.
Gardening and farming provide a solution to issues like the diabetes, poverty, lack of healthy foods, and high food costs, Deschambeault added. That’s why they’re promoting the idea to other northern communities, with Fond du Lac and Ile a la Crosse already doing similar projects.
Down the road it’s possible they’ll expand into beef. The community’s put its full support behind the market garden after a hesitant start years ago, and “the sky’s the limit,” she said.
The current projects have been made possible with help from CanSask and Neil Squire.