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Tapping into roots of knowledge

As I start to swing into the rhythm that is the growing season (like a slowly waking bear coming out of hibernation), I can't help but think of those who have repeated this experiment known as agriculture here in the Prince George region for several
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As I start to swing into the rhythm that is the growing season (like a slowly waking bear coming out of hibernation), I can't help but think of those who have repeated this experiment known as agriculture here in the Prince George region for several moons.

I recently came across the annual reports from the agricultural experiment station that used to exist in Prince George from way back from a friend who now must slow way down due to health. Barbara, whom I met when I first moved to the region, had wrote the book on northern gardening, literally.

If you haven't read her book The Northern Gardener, you probably should go to Books & Company and find it.

Barbara, like myself, gleaned much from the research done in the past years in the region. She literally has a library of horticultural and agricultural experimentation and data. Barbara has since bestowed a portion of this library to myself to carry the torch and for that I am truly honoured and humbled. Though my wife wasn't too thrilled about my quick decision that a couch needed to be replaced by a couple of bookshelves, I think her love of fresh produce overrides the quick couch removal.

Reading each year of experimentation dating back to the early 1940s, and seeing crop failure after crop failure noting cold wet soils and frost for the reason of failure, one can't dismiss how climate has changed since this time. The meteorological data also confirms this. You also must note the persistence of those running the experiments.

It is very easy to see why the majority of agriculture in the region is livestock, requiring only hay or the importation of feed. Importing grain and developing a business on this importation however, seems just as risky due to relying on a fragile transportation corridor for the survival of many animals.

In many years in the reports I kept seeing sentences such as "not suitable for our climate and soil" and yet each following year the team at the research station tried the crop again and tried new varieties and different soil amendment practices as well as different tillage practices.

A quote by Thomas Edison comes to mind. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

At presentations that I do for local events each year in the region I have been told, "I thought you would be much older" and "wow you really know a lot about gardening." My response is often started with a chuckle as being a young farmer/market gardener is almost an oxy-moron in the region. I reply "yes, I am young, but I have learned quick as I have failed more times than I like to admit and I am just really stubborn and optimistic."

When you are trying to pay your bills from your horticultural endeavour and living on a shoestring budget, you learn quickly as you have no choice if you plan on farming for more than a hobby to which your disposable income can flow into without much consequence.

I must admit, gleaning off the success and failures in the past days that I have been reading over the research station reports is going to further our production capabilities several times over in the coming years. I am thankful for the many sore backs that have produced this knowledge.

The early experimenters deserve praise for there was less expertise in what they mastered during their trials, and despite failure after failure, they kept going.

Recently, I met a lady who had been growing tomatoes and rare potatoes in the region. She had developed dwarf varieties of tomatoes for the urban balcony gardeners and has her seed now being sold in seed catalogues.

Willa told me that as she ages and her back lets her know each of the years of devotion, that she must slow down now. I told Willa how pleased I was to meet a fellow plant breeder and thanked her for her work. I told her I will carry forward her progress and accepted some of her seeds.

A quote I heard several years ago while watching a farming documentary goes as follows (not verbatim): A concert pianist will practice a song two hundred times before playing the song before an audience, while the farmer may have only fifty chances at growing potatoes if they are lucky.

The take home message of the day is to know how to do something correct, you must do it wrong first.

I recall as a youth hearing if something is not worth doing right, it is not worth doing. I disagree with that one. If you do something that works out the first time then you have no idea why that is and have not gained your education on that particular endeavour.