Fair weather is back, and with it, the Sawyerville Community Garden springs into action. The public market will be in full swing at the garden beginning in July, and several training workshops will be offered in June. The inauguration of the new season will take place near the end of the month under a new canopy.
Chantal Bolduc, one of the Garden’s coordinators, confirmed that the gardeners are ready, and even spring feverish. Almost all of the available 26 garden plots are reserved. At the Garden site, the big news this year will be a permanent shelter for the participants in the public market. The structure will have a number of uses: «It can be used as a rest area, for workshops, or for community meals. It will be a plus for everyone,» Bolduc said enthusiastically. Up until now, the team had to put up tents on market mornings, and take them down at the end of the day. The new permanent shelter will not cover the whole Village Market, however; its dimensions will be 32 by 12 feet.
Workshops and training
The first of the Community Garden’s workshops will be one by Yvan Perreault on June 8 and 9. Perreault describes himself as a «creator of forest farms and food-producing forests.» He will lead discovery excursions looking for mushrooms and wild nuts growing on farms in the area. On Friday the 8th, Perreault will visit the land of the Jardinier déchainé and the Maraichers de l’or vert in Cookshire-Eaton. The day after, the excersions will be at the Randboro and Korzina farms. Chantal Bolduc concluded by saying that Perreault could «design any kind of land in a multi-layered permacultural mosaic.»
On the morning of Saturday, June 16, herbal therapist Chantal Parent will show interested persons the secrets of creating a bed of medicinal plants, with their identification and characteristics. The next day, it will be the turn of Charles Bureau to demystify the cultivation of mushrooms in a garden, in boxes or in the forest.
Village Market
The public market in the Community Garden will be open July 7 to September 22 this year, on Saturday mornings. Besides the new shelter, visitors will have access to the outdoor bread oven, where they can bake a lunch. The traditional oven will also be used during two training sessions on how to bake sourdough bread, provided by Thérèse Ménard during the market hours. The exact dates are to be determined, depending on the weather.
The season is to end on September 22, with a Harvest Festival. On September 20 and 21, Stefan Sobkoviak is to offer workshops on permaculture.
A few kiosks are still available for producers interested in selling their products at the public market. For information, contact Chantal Bolduc at 819-889-3196, by email at chantalbolduc99@bell.net, or via the Facebook page of the Jardin Communautaire de Sawyerville.