Cultivate Cochrane is thrilled to partner with OnGrowing Works of Cochrane. OnGrowing Works is a leader in landscape and construction design with an eye towards sustainable and resilient solutions for their clients and the community. OnGrowing Works is an active community advocate and provides educational and monetary support for a wide range of green and social initiatives with Cultivate Cochrane as one of their beneficiaries. For example, OnGrowing Works is a sponsor of our upcoming Greenhouse Bus Tour and provides monetary support through its amazing Spring Workshop Series where profits from their fantastic educational workshops come back to Cultivate Cochrane to help us build a passive solar greenhouse community hub in Cochrane. See the poster below for amazing workshops coming up - we would love to see you there!
Cultivate Cochrane Coffee Chats
This is your chance to learn more about building a passive solar, community greenhouse in town! Buy a cup of coffee or sweet snack to stimulate your creativity, but come prepared with your questions and your creative input on how and where we can build a community-oriented, food growin' facility. These information sessions are open to the public so bring a friend or neighbour who might wish to learn more about this new and exciting initiative. Here are the local coffee shops we’ll be at in Cochrane:
March 5, 7-8pm The Hub
March 19, 2-3pm The Noble Fox
April 11, 2-3pm Guy's Cafe
April 23, 11-noon Coffee Traders
April 6, 10am and May 1, 2-3pm The Gentry
May 15, 3-4pm Good Earth
Growing Solutions by Jackie Skrypnek
Perhaps by now you’ve heard that we’re likely to pay 4-6% more for vegetables in Canada this year. And Alberta is one of the provinces expected to see the high end of that increase.
©Anna Pelzer - Unsplash.com
In part, the predicted rise is due to our increased veggie consumption, but climate is also to blame. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded in their latest report that climate change will play a significant yet unpredictable role in 2019 food prices, with North America likely to suffer from lack of moisture. The report emphasizes that agriculture needs to play a part in reducing world carbon emissions to reach the goal of an almost 50% reduction from 2017 levels by 2030. And clearly, if recent droughts in California are any indication, fresh water needs to be treated like the precious resource it is.
©Darwin Wiggett - oopoomoo.com
So, our reliance on produce from the US, Mexico, and even further abroad leaves us vulnerable to weather-related supply shortages and the high prices that come with that. Plus, the way we grow and consume food needs to become far more sustainable.
©Darwin Wiggett - oopoomoo.com
What seems to be the most intelligent response to all of this? Build our capacity to feed ourselves locally in the most water- and energy-responsible way we can! That’s exactly what Cultivate Cochrane aims to do with a greenhouse that greatly extends our growing season using passive solar design and rainwater capture. Growing food is one of Cultivate Cochrane’s pillars, or perhaps more aptly, its umbrella. How a people feeds itself is a huge part of resilience - the ability to adapt, bounce back, and thrive in the face of change. It’s around food that people come together and get to know each other and the land that supports them.
©Elaine Casap - Unsplash.com
We don’t see our greenhouse as a production facility or a mere collection of rented plots. Rather, we want to leverage it as a place to learn, experiment, share, and connect so that, as a community, we build our knowledge, skills, and relationships. Then food growing can go beyond the greenhouse hub and permeate our homes and neighbourhoods, becoming a way of life and weaving a strong fabric of resiliency.
These are challenging but exciting times - let’s get started!
©Adobe Stock
Memberships and Workshops are now Live!
We are thrilled to announce that we have memberships open to Cultivate Cochrane Society and our first Skill Build Potluck Workshops are open for registration. All monies from memberships and workshops goes back into the society to help us build a community greenhouse hub in Cochrane. Come and join us and be part of movement towards growing local food, community and resiliency skills in Cochrane and beyond!
Christmas Morning Mom Saver by Catherine Byram
Christmas in my house was always a very busy, noisy, exciting, sometimes nerve wracking time and full of memory making moments. Being a single mom of three boys and the person who had to prepare all treats and food for eight people didn’t allow me the pleasure of sitting in a comfy chair, wrapped up in a new fluffy housecoat, cozy slippers, coffee in hand, watching family unwrap presents. One year I decided that I wanted to sit and enjoy family around the tree so I prepared as many food items for Christmas Day in advance. Christmas morning started with ‘Christmas Morning Mom Saver’.
16+ slices of bread crusts cut off
8-10 slices of ham
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (add more if you like)
6 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2tsp pepper
1/2-1tsp dry mustard
1/4cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
1-2tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 cups whole milk
1/4 lb butter
1 Cup Special K Cereal or crushed Cornflakes for topping
Put one layer (8 pieces) of bread in a buttered 9x13 pan. Add pieces to cover entire bottom of pan. Cover bread with slices of ham and shredded cheese. Cover with another layer of bread. Add pieces of bread if needed to cover entire top.
In a bowl beat eggs, salt, pepper. Add mustard, green pepper, onion, Worcestershire sauce and milk. Mix well and pour evenly over the top layer of bread. Make sure to get all bread moist.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.
Next morning turn oven to 350F. Melt butter in a pan and pour evenly over bread. Put cereal on top of bread making sure to cover entire top.
Bake at 350F for 1 hour and let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Now relax and enjoy Christmas!
Passive Solar Design by Jackie Skrypnek
Passive solar is a way of designing a building so that its heat regulation is largely done using the immense free and perpetual energy of the sun. No "active" systems (eg. photovoltaics) that require energy in manufacture and maintenance are generally used - just smart design and smart choice of materials. No matter what happens with the price or availability of conventional energy sources, the passive solar system will carry on functioning. At its most basic passive solar consists of:
ORIENTATION - Lining the building up so that the long side faces as close to true south as possible.
GLAZING RATIOS - Installing the correct amount of window glass on each side of the building.
OVERHANGS - Calculating roof overhangs on the south side so hot summer sun is blocked, but winter sun can fully enter.
THERMAL MASS - Incorporating sufficient high-thermal mass materials to absorb and slowly release solar heat.
INSULATION - Insulating the building envelope to a high standard in order to retain as much of that solar heat gain as possible (and to keep extra heat in the summer from entering).
When it comes to a passive solar greenhouse, however, the design varies a bit from that of a home since you’re catering to plants as well as human occupants. In addition to heat, plants require a great deal of the sun’s actual light. This means you go full out on glazing the south side of the building and apply insulation and thermal mass elsewhere. Some windows on the east side are also helpful to let the morning sun gently warm things. Roof overhangs are less applicable since the plants will need full access to the sunlight in all seasons.
Passive solar greenhouse design makes a whole lot of sense in Alberta’s climate where we get plenty of sunshine to “harvest” heat, yet cool nights and a long season of cold where that heat would otherwise be quickly lost if not stored. Classic “glasshouse” designs have the disadvantage of overheating easily in the summer while losing all that heat rapidly once the sun goes down. In the shoulder and winter seasons these greenhouses need expensive and energy-intensive supplemental heat to maintain growing temperatures, and that heat passes quickly through their low R-value glass or plastic shells.
Groundswell Network’s Passive Solar Greenhouse in Invermere, BC
Welcome to Cultivate Cochrane!
Cultivate Cochrane is a non-profit society dedicated to growing a resilient and connected community through food, innovation and lifestyle empowerment centered around a community greenhouse hub. We want you to know more about us and what we have planned for the Cochrane community. Thank you for dropping by and checking out our plans for an innovative solutions-based community greenhouse hub!
