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Organic Gardening at the Earth Walk Eco Education Center

Why Choose Organic Foods?

Had any yummy pesticides lately? Don’t you imagine future generations might someday look back on our civilization and wonder why we sprayed poison on our food and then ate it?

Demand for organic, pesticide-free food is increasing rapidly – and for good reason! Pesticides are designed to kill living organisms and are therefore a threat to human health. The National Cancer Institute states that 30% of insecticides, 60% of herbicides and 90% of fungicides are known to cause cancer. And that’s just one negative side effect. These chemicals can also lead to damage of both the nervous and hormonal systems. They upset the delicate balance our bodies needs to thrive.

Children are even more vulnerable than adults to the dangers of agricultural toxins. After all, kids consume a higher percentage in relation to their size. According to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, children fed conventional supermarket produce had six to nine times higher levels of pesticides in their blood than those fed organic foods.

Organic fruits and vegetables are grown without the use of artificial fertilizers, chemical toxins and genetically modified organisms. They’re not only safer, but they’re also more nutritious because of higher vitamin and mineral concentrations. That means you get more for your money. And, (this is the part you and your family will especially appreciate), organic fruits and vegetables usually taste better than commercially grown varieties.

Some commercially raised fruits and vegetables have been found by the Environmental Working Group to contain particularly high levels of chemical residues. So, at the very least, do your best to buy pesticide-free apples, apricots, cherries, grapes, peaches and strawberries, as well as bell peppers, celery, cucumbers, green beans and spinach.

It makes both good health and good financial sense to buy organic, pesticide-free whenever possible. This not only includes produce, but also meat, fish, poultry and dairy products. All animal foods are best raised free-ranging, organically fed and free from hormones.

Because of consumer demand, many supermarkets now carry a few organic foods. You can also often find pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, and sometimes even organically raised meat, poultry or dairy, at good prices from local farmers or through community food co-ops. Ask around. And, if you can’t find a co-op, consider starting one.

Who knows, in years to come, future generations may look back with respect and appreciation to those who choose consume and advocate for poison-free food.

Earthwalk has several organic gardens, as well as an orchard and vineyard. Our vegtable and herb gardens are designed to meet the needs of our kitchen and provide some organic produce to the local community.

In the vineyard we have 6 varieties of grapes vines growing.

At Earthwalk we are developing a permaculture edible forest demonstration garden where we integrate fruiting trees with raspberry and blackberry canes, blue berries, elderberries, goose berries, black currents, service berries, high bush cranberries. along with a wide variety of symbiotic vegetable and herb plantings.

In the orchard we have several varieties of apples as well as pears, plumbs and choke cherries.

In terms of nuts we currently are establishing butter nut, and ginkgo and are considering adding pine nuts, almonds and hazel nuts to the mix.

In our experimental garden we are exploring crops that are not commonly grown in zone 5 climates like Paw Paw (papaya) and Kiwi, and we are also experimenting with techniques for growing high anti oxidant fruits like Gogi Berries and Sea Buck Thorn Berries , and Rugosa Rosa.

At Earthwalk we are practicing sustainable growing methods with a wide variety of crops both in our demonstration and community gardens. We welcome volunteers to come and work and learn about our eco gardening techniques as part of our Organic Intern Program.

We also run workshops in organic gardening, permaculture, composting, vermaculture and silvaculture.

We are currently designing our solar heated green house which will open up many new possibilities.

So stay tuned... and bookmark this web site. As the project develops, the latest NEWS about the Earthwalk network will appear on this web site. If you have something to contribute to the development of this site feel free to email us at info@ecoearthwalk.ca

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