Growing forward

Photo Heather Jeal

For Salish Soils entrepreneur Aaron Joe, turning waste into a viable resource – rich composted loam – speaks to creating a sus- tainable enterprise for his own shíshálh Na- tion community. More importantly, it also provides a model for First Nations across the country interested in creating new, sustainable jobs that will put food on the table. Discovering that making soil combined art with science, Joe installed an employee garden as a testing area to see how the soil performed. “When we planted seeds, we didn’t know much about growing – then when we saw the plants coming up, we got really excited,” Joe said. He approached Lehigh Hanson’s former mine manager, Mike Latermer, pitching the idea for a small demonstration garden as part of the reclamation of a former tailings pond on the site. Latermer “bought into it imme- diately,” Joe reports, and his enthusiasm was instrumental in moving the project forward. This year, the demonstration garden comes of age, as a full-fledged urban farm that takes Joe’s vision for community food security and sustainability one step further in the road to a growing economy.