While you were busy pressing a button to hear a rooster, your partner rolled a three and now you have poor drainage. Welcome to farming.
At least, welcome to farming at the Territorial Agrifood Association’s discovery centre, which opens in Yellowknife on Monday across the hall from its existing Tastes of the North store.
“We’re opening this place for people to just know more, starting from farming, producing, labelling, until you get retailing,” said Jonathan Interial, who works for the association and took Cabin Radio on a tour late last week. “We take you by the hand, basically.”
The room is bathed in green, mostly from the colour of its walls but also from the plants growing in a corner. Displays discuss the likes of beekeeping, harvesting salt and Fort Simpson’s Old Barn.
One table in the middle is devoted to the boardgame featuring the rooster button and the poor drainage. It’s a little like Monopoly or the Game of Life – you guide your piece around the board, earning (fake) money as you go and learning how your northern food business might survive, and what challenges it will face.
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“It’s the journey of our food system,” said Interial.
A second table, nearer the window, is dedicated to explaining regenerative agriculture, which Interial described as “all about improving the land, growing food, building soil, storing carbon and supporting the ecosystem.”
Head to the back of the room and a small cubby is given over to the likes of berries, morel mushrooms and caribou, plus a TV on which you can watch videos about NWT agriculture. A table lamp just outside it has a stand that gives the appearance of having been made from neatly stacked eggs.
Wander over to the hydroponic installation under which cucumbers are fighting to grow and you can learn about what it takes to get tomatoes to northerners – the emissions can weigh more than the actual tomatoes, apparently.
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A guest book sits next to buttons that let you make the noises of six other farm animals, if roosters were not enough.
“People believe that in the North you cannot grow food. All of the things that you’re going to see here are proof that we can grow things,” said Interial.
“It’s not just about tomatoes. We’re really far north and it’s really expensive to get food up here.
“We want people to think more, be more conscious about it, and maybe approach us so we can help you.”
The discovery centre opens for the first time at 11:30am on Monday, April 27. After that, its hours will be 9am-5pm each weekday and Saturdays by appointment.
