At the Skookum AGM in April, our crack team of Event Organizers came up with some great ideas to coax out some of our members own thoughts on worthy projects for the cooperative. Each person attending was given a card with the image of a vegetable on it. Then, when the time came, we split up according to the vegetable image. And, with the tables draped with ‘scraps’ of kraft paper and pens, we got to work. Below is a transcription of those ideas collected that evening.
We welcome even more ideas (and the energy to back it up) from those who attended and from the general membership. Just leave a comment below even if you support one or a few of the projects listed here; we’d like to know.
Annual General Meeting Members’ Table Notes (April 27, 2012)
- Food processing for value-added projects (eg. Sundried tomatoes, blackberry chipotle sauce)
- Stanley Darland: Sausage-maker
- Workshop: Kitchen Aid (3hour workshop)
- Employment for people with disabilities (NACL)
- Nut-cracking Machine
- Maple Syrup making
- Pollination and Cross-pollination workshop
- What you can do with blackberries
- Hydraulic ram pump demo
- Slug-killing by frogs/workshop by Colleen (donation by laughter )
- Wood-chipper, chainsaw, gas-fired cement mixer
- Making fruit vinegars (workshop)
- Specific fruit and vegetable selection for PR region (workshop; prepared seed collection for this)
- Develop a “Skookum Almanac” with variety of tips, anecdotes, etc. on growing exotic or unusual products
- Elder stories about farming, food-saving, growing in the area; invite them and others to record—maybe a lunch event; maybe salmon lunch
- Bulk-buying of plants/trees;
- Meat-grinder
- Organic pest-control workshop
- Apple Cider and Vinegar-making workshop
- Wild-crafting workshop
- Active involvement in edible garden Tour
- Skookum Marketing board: package food, prepare food, clean food and prep for market
- Market stall for co-op members at the Open Air market(s), where people can drop off produce, a few people will clean and prep and one person will sell it
- Small-scale member-driven produce sales (via Abundant Pantry or via short-term announcements via email or facebook; i.e. “I have a box of chard” + cost or barter possibilities.
- Relationship building with PRREDS; project where they pay for soil analysis in the area to find out what would grow well where; make this info public.
- Relationship with job creation entities (Career Link/ Community Futures, etc.) to develop Food Hub (including long-term cold storage facilities for year-round storage needs)
- Community cold-freeze; people can buy meat in quantity and rent a small part of a large freezer to keep this
- Community smoke-house
- Couple with private company (Reliable Rentals) to ensure they get a certain number of requests for a certain garden-related machine, maybe a renters’ club; benefits include that they would buy and maintain the equipment
- Tool share- Nola has rototiller for proposed tool library; share use for other equipment;
- Repair/Repurpose classes
- Carpentry workshop—how to build stuff (for gals)
- Explore possibility to partner with VIU for their asset-based community development: contact Alison Taplay
- Turn the cards (our business cards) into stickers or magnets
- Silke’s or another retail outlet (? Not sure what this means—buy Silke’s?- Ed.)
- Mapping commercial kitchens
- Blackberry products