What a week it has been for getting outdoors!

Predictably, with the sun has come more football games at Somba K’e and bikes locked to parking meters outside the Gallery building. But for Industry, Tourism and Investment’s (ITI) North Slave Agriculture team, the sun means it’s time for a growing season chock full of agriculture programming.

Lone Sorensen, the Department of ITI’s lead Agriculture Mentor, spearheads training and development initiatives for the North Slave region. She has over 25 years in local food production  and has brought her skill and enthusiasm for the field to the public service for over four years, now.

As Sorensen explains, the focus of agriculture programming for the North Slave lies in mentorship. “We want to provide hands-on training and outreach to help develop the necessary skills to enhance local food production,” she says.

Programming begins Monday with the first in the Grow Together Garden Series, which will run monthly throughout the growing season. The first workshop is called Food, Gardening, Growing – Tricks for Growing Fantastic Vegetables and will focus on soil health, crop selection, and North of 60 growing techniques. This is done in partnership with the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective and the workshops are free and open to the public.

In one of the season’s most exciting initiatives, ITI’s agricultural team will also visit Gameti, where over 21,000 square feet of growing space and a 1500 square foot greenhouse have been developed, to provide training and mentorship to members of the community. The agriculture team hopes to help the community inch closer to their goal of food self-sufficiency by providing hands-on training in the fundamentals of farming. All North Slave communities will have access to receiving the mentorship support throughout the growing season.

The team will also hold a Youth Gardening Camp in August to help ignite a lasting passion for agriculture with fun, hands-on workshops.

On top of the obvious socioeconomic benefits agriculture brings to the North Slave region, Sorensen also likes to remind people of the lesser-known benefits of growing in the North. “With the near-constant sunlight we receive over the growing season, our plants are constantly in photosynthesis, which produces more natural nutrients than most places in the world,” says Sorensen. “The NWT has the potential to grow some of the most flavourful, nutritious vegetables in the world with the right training and development for farming and gardening North of 60.”

What more reason do you need to get out, enjoy the sun, and get involved with the North Slave region’s agriculture programming this growing season?